Making and Using Explosive Bolts
Craft the Explosive Bolt
Explosive Bolt is one of the six registry items in the mod and is made with a crafting_shaped recipe. Open a crafting table and arrange the ingredients in the required pattern to produce them. Because it is shaped, the layout matters — you cannot toss the ingredients in randomly.
Load and Fire
Explosive Bolt is ammunition. Load it into a crossbow the same way you load any bolt, then fire at your target. On impact it delivers an explosive effect rather than a plain projectile hit. This makes it suited to groups of enemies, blocked passages, or any situation where a single-target bolt would be inefficient.
Ammo Management
Explosive Bolt is consumable, so each shot costs one bolt. Craft a stack before you head out rather than making them mid-fight. Keep a separate supply from your Iron Bolt or Diamond Bolt so you do not accidentally burn your expensive explosives on trivial targets. If you are using a Netherite Crossbow, it can fire Explosive Bolt along with every other bolt type, so you do not need a dedicated launcher. Pair Explosive Bolt with a standard bolt in your inventory: use the plain bolt for single enemies and switch to Explosive Bolt when several targets are clustered together.