A common issue for players looking to make their way through Minecraft is tracking down paper. This surprisingly useful item in the game plays an important part in crafting books, maps, and enchanting items. Mining ore, gathering wood, and getting food are usually tackled first in Minecraft but, once the player settles into the later stages of the game, paper becomes crucial.
Paper can either be crafted or gathered from various locations around the world in Minecraft. For those looking to craft paper, the recipe is three sugar canes across the middle boxes in the crafting area. This produces three pieces of paper but players will need to go to the crafting table in order to make this work.
How to Make Paper in Minecraft
Sugar cane is a block that grows near water in the overworld of Minecraft and these plant blocks range from 1-4 blocks in height. These can be mined with anything, gathered, and replanted next to water. Because of paper's importance, players will likely want to start a sugar cane farm by planting the item at their base and mining it as it grows.
For those not looking to farm sugar cane, paper can spawn in a handful of locations around the infinite world of Minecraft. Paper has a chance to spawn within shipwrecks, strongholds, and in villages with cartographer buildings. When a player stumbles upon a shipwreck, paper can be found in the map chest in the lower portion of the wreck but also spawns in the supply chest in the bow. For strongholds, paper can be found in the chests in libraries within the structure. And lastly, villages that have a cartographer house will likely have paper within a chest inside.
Paper is surprisingly useful in Minecraft and, once gathered, it can run out quickly when players dedicate the resources to enchanting. Each book requires three pieces of paper, each bookshelf requires three books, and an enchanting table requires a book as well. Therefore, to create an enchanting table that grants the highest level of enchantments, players need 45 books in bookcases and an additional book for the table. This works out to almost 140 pieces of paper before any enchantment is even given.
On top of its part in the crafting of books and making of enchantments in Minecraft, paper is also used for the making of cartography tables, maps, as well as banners, and fireworks. Though none of these items are crucial when it comes to completing the game, they help players personalize their worlds and better understand where points of interest are.
Minecraft is available now for PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, and various other platforms.