Vanilla Minecraft gives you a wooden sword and eventually a netherite one. Five tiers of the same weapon. That's fine, but what if you want a scythe that steals health? A hammer that creates shockwaves? A dagger that turns you invisible on kill?
Custom weapons are one of the most popular types of Bedrock mods, and for good reason — they directly change how you interact with every fight in the game. This guide covers everything you need to know about designing custom weapons, plus 5 ready-to-use weapon concepts.
Understanding Weapon Stats in Bedrock
Before designing weapons, you need to understand the numbers. Every weapon in Minecraft Bedrock has these core stats:
Damage
How many hit points (half-hearts) the weapon removes per hit. For reference, here's what vanilla weapons do:
- Wooden Sword: 5 damage
- Stone Sword: 6 damage
- Iron Sword: 7 damage
- Diamond Sword: 8 damage
- Netherite Sword: 9 damage
A player has 20 HP (10 hearts). So a netherite sword kills an unarmored player in 3 hits. When designing custom weapons, use these numbers as your baseline. A weapon dealing 10-12 damage is strong but fair. Above 15 starts feeling overpowered unless there's a drawback.
Durability
How many uses before the weapon breaks. Vanilla ranges from 60 (wood) to 2031 (netherite). Custom weapons can have any durability. Low durability with high damage creates interesting risk/reward — the weapon is powerful but you're constantly worried about it breaking.
Attack Speed
Bedrock doesn't have the cooldown mechanic that Java has — you can swing as fast as you click. But through scripts, you can simulate attack speed by adding cooldowns to custom weapons. A slow but heavy weapon might have a 1-second cooldown between swings. A fast dagger might have no cooldown but lower damage.
Knockback
How far the target gets pushed back on hit. Default is a small push. Custom weapons can have extreme knockback (launching enemies) or zero knockback (keeping enemies close for combo attacks).
Adding Special Effects
Plain damage is boring. What makes custom weapons exciting is their effects. Here are the most popular effect types and how they work in Bedrock:
Status Effects on Hit
The weapon applies a potion effect to the target when you hit them. The Script API can detect the hit event and apply any effect: poison, wither, slowness, weakness, blindness, levitation, or even positive effects like regeneration (for a "cursed weapon" that heals enemies).
Area of Effect (AOE)
The weapon damages everything in a radius around the impact point, not just the target you hit. This is done through scripts — on hit, find all entities within X blocks and apply damage to each one. Great for crowd-control weapons.
Projectile on Use
Right-clicking the weapon shoots a projectile. This can be a fireball, arrow, snowball, or a custom entity. Projectile weapons have a cooldown between shots and consume durability per use.
Self-Buff on Kill
When you kill a mob with this weapon, you gain a temporary buff — speed, strength, regeneration, absorption hearts. This creates a "momentum" mechanic where the weapon gets stronger the more you use it in a fight.
Life Steal
A percentage of the damage dealt is returned to you as health. A 25% life steal weapon dealing 10 damage would heal you for 2.5 HP per hit. This makes the weapon feel powerful without being overpowered — you still take damage, you just recover some of it.
Summon on Hit
Hitting a target spawns a temporary ally entity that fights alongside you. A "Spirit Blade" might summon a ghost warrior for 10 seconds every time you land a critical hit.
Designing Crafting Recipes
A weapon's recipe tells a story about its power level and origin. Here are some guidelines:
- Early-game weapons should use iron ingots, common materials, and simple shapes. The recipes feel familiar and approachable.
- Mid-game weapons incorporate diamonds, blaze rods, or nether materials. These signal that the player needs to have progressed in the game.
- End-game weapons use nether stars, dragon breath, echo shards, or custom drops from other mods. These are prestigious and hard-earned.
- Boss drops don't need crafting recipes at all — they drop directly from the boss. This makes them feel unique and valuable.
A good recipe also makes visual sense in the crafting grid. A sword shape is a stick with materials on top. A hammer is a block of materials on top of two sticks. A scythe curves to one side. Players should be able to look at the recipe and think "yeah, that looks like a [weapon name]."
5 Custom Weapon Ideas (Ready to Build)
Each of these descriptions is designed to be pasted directly into BlockSmith to generate a working mod. They include all the details the AI needs.
1. Frostbite Scythe
Weapon Description:
- Type: Melee weapon (scythe style)
- Damage: 9 (slightly above diamond sword)
- Durability: 800
- Effect: Every hit applies Slowness II for 3 seconds. Every 5th consecutive hit on the same target applies Freeze (mining fatigue + slowness IV + 4 damage burst) for 2 seconds.
- Crafting: 2 packed ice + 1 diamond + 2 sticks in an asymmetric scythe shape
- Lore: "Forged in the heart of an iceberg. Each strike chills the soul."
2. Ember Fists
Weapon Description:
- Type: Dual melee weapon (gauntlet/fist style — attacks twice as fast but lower per-hit damage)
- Damage: 5 per hit (but hits twice per attack via script)
- Durability: 500
- Effect: Sets the target on fire for 3 seconds. If the target is already on fire, damage increases to 8 per hit. Right-click to shoot a small fireball (15-second cooldown, costs 5 durability).
- Crafting: 2 blaze rods + 2 iron ingots + 1 fire charge
- Lore: "Don't bring a sword to a fist fight."
3. Void Reaper
Weapon Description:
- Type: Heavy two-handed sword
- Damage: 14 (very high)
- Durability: 300 (breaks relatively fast)
- Effect: 25% life steal (heals you for 25% of damage dealt). On kill, gain Strength I for 5 seconds. However, when held, you have Slowness I (the weapon is heavy). 1.5-second attack cooldown between swings.
- Crafting: 1 nether star + 3 obsidian + 2 ender pearls
- Lore: "It hungers. Feed it."
4. Stormcaller Spear
Weapon Description:
- Type: Ranged/melee hybrid (spear)
- Melee Damage: 7
- Durability: 600
- Effect: Right-click to throw the spear like a trident. On impact, it summons a lightning bolt at the target location, dealing 10 damage in a 3-block radius. The spear returns to your inventory after 3 seconds. Throw cooldown: 8 seconds.
- Crafting: 1 trident + 2 copper ingots + 1 lightning rod
- Lore: "The storm answers your call."
5. Phantom Dagger
Weapon Description:
- Type: Fast melee weapon (dagger)
- Damage: 6 (low base damage)
- Durability: 400
- Effect: On kill, gain Invisibility for 5 seconds. While invisible, the next attack deals triple damage (18 damage — an assassin strike). Hitting from behind (target facing away from you) always deals double damage. No attack cooldown.
- Crafting: 1 phantom membrane + 1 diamond + 1 stick
- Lore: "You won't see it coming. Neither will they."
Balancing Tips
- High damage = low durability or slow speed. Every strength should have a cost. A weapon that's fast, durable, and hits hard with no drawback is just boring to use — there's no decision-making.
- Effects should be the main appeal, not raw numbers. A weapon with 8 damage + life steal is more interesting than one with 15 damage and no effect. Effects create memorable moments. Big numbers don't.
- Compare to vanilla. If your weapon is just "netherite sword but better in every way," there's no reason to ever use anything else. Custom weapons should be sidegrades — better in some situations, worse in others.
- Test against armored players. A weapon that feels perfect against naked zombies might feel weak against diamond-armored players. Make sure the numbers work in PvP if that's relevant to your mod.
- Consider the crafting cost. Powerful weapons should be expensive to craft. This naturally limits their availability and makes obtaining one feel earned.
Forge Your Arsenal
Pick any weapon above — or design your own using this guide — and describe it to BlockSmith. You'll get a .mcaddon file with the weapon, its effects, its crafting recipe, and everything needed to use it in-game. The more detail you include in your description, the closer the result matches your vision.