How to Craft the Stab Shot Orbital Strike Weapon

The Stab Shot is a single-use strike weapon built from items you can get in early survival. You need four TNT blocks and one fishing rod, combined on a crafting table.

Gathering the Ingredients

1. Gunpowder and sand for TNT: Each TNT block takes five gunpowder and four sand (or red sand) in vanilla. Four TNT therefore costs 20 gunpowder and 16 sand. Creepers are the most reliable gunpowder source. Ghasts and witches also drop it, and desert temple chests often contain some.

2. Craft the TNT: At a crafting table, alternate gunpowder and sand in a checkerboard with gunpowder in the corners and center. Repeat until you have four blocks.

3. Fishing rod: Place three sticks diagonally and two string down the open side. Spiders and cobwebs are the easiest source of string.

Crafting the Weapon

1. Open a crafting table. A 2x2 inventory grid has too few slots for five items.

2. Place the four TNT blocks and the fishing rod in the grid. The recipe screenshot on this page shows the exact layout.

3. Take the Stab Shot from the output slot.

If nothing appears in the output slot, check that the data pack is enabled in your world. Run /datapack list to see whether it is active. Remember that every Stab Shot is consumed after one strike, so craft spares before a big fight.