Players can go through the entirety of Minecraft and play the game for years without touching a single piece of redstone circuitry, but once players delve into that seemingly mystical field, it can open up a lot of doors (quite literally). The Hopper is one such item, as most players probably won't bother with using them, but they do provide some very cool utility that isn't available from any other type of item or block. Looking at a Hopper probably isn't enough to guess how it is made, however, as the crafting recipe is by no means obvious.
Hoppers are very unique blocks in Minecraft that serve multiple purposes. They can store items like a chest, deposit items into other chests or Hoppers, and pick up items that fall into it automatically. The applications of this are many, but for those wanting to know how to build a Hopper so they can start exploring those applications, look no further.
Hoppers aren't terribly difficult to build, though they are a bit on the expensive side early on. In order to craft this block, players will need one chest and five iron ingots. Place the chest in the center of the crafting table and then put one iron below it and two on either side of the chest in a "V" shape. This recipe must be made in that exact shape or else the player won't be able to craft the Hopper. These ingredients should all be easy to find, but just in case, here's how to get everything.
A chest can be crafted simply by placing eight wooden planks in a circle in a crafting table, but the iron must be mined. After finding some iron ore underground, players should take it back to a furnace and smelt it using some coal or wood. With the iron ingots and chest in hand, head back to the crafting table to create the recipe shown above. It's important to note that players wanting to pick a Hopper up to move it will need to use a pickaxe. If it is mined with any other tool (or with no tool at all), the items stored inside will drop but the Hopper itself will be destroyed.
Of the myriad uses players have found for Hoppers, one of the more common ways of making use of this block is to put it in a Minecart. In this way, players can automate sending back ore that they mine while underground.
Minecraft is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
