Beacon pyramids: blocks needed per level, real range, and tinting the beam
A level 4 beacon costs 164 blocks and reaches 50 blocks, not 64. Here are the exact counts per tier, what each level unlocks, and how stained glass mixes the beam colour.
Beacon numbers get repeated wrong constantly. Here they are from the game's own behaviour.
Blocks per level
Each tier is a square pyramid layer, and the counts are cumulative:
| Level | This layer | Total blocks | Effect range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3×3 = 9 | 9 | 20 blocks |
| 2 | 5×5 = 25 | 34 | 30 blocks |
| 3 | 7×7 = 49 | 83 | 40 blocks |
| 4 | 9×9 = 81 | 164 | 50 blocks |
164 is the number for a full beacon — iron, gold, diamond, emerald or netherite, and you can mix them freely. Iron is by far the cheapest at 164 blocks = 1,476 ingots.
Range is 50, not 64. The 64 figure comes from an older version and still circulates.
What each level unlocks
- 1 — Speed I or Haste I
- 2 — adds Resistance I or Jump Boost I
- 3 — adds Strength I
- 4 — unlocks the secondary slot: either a second effect at level I, or upgrade
the primary to level II
Level II on the primary and a secondary effect are mutually exclusive. Regeneration is only ever available as the secondary on a level 4.
The range is a box, not a sphere
The effect area is a cuboid centred on the beacon: range blocks horizontally in each direction, and vertically from the pyramid base up 256 and down to the bottom of the world in modern versions. Standing directly above a beacon 100 blocks up still works.
Tinting the beam
Place stained glass — or stained glass panes, they behave the same — above the beacon block. The beam takes that colour from that point upward.
Stacking several colours mixes them the way dyes mix, it does not layer them:
blue glass, then yellow glass → green beam above the yellowThe mixing is an average of the RGB values, so red + blue gives a muddy purple rather than a clean magenta. Getting a specific shade usually needs three or four panes chosen deliberately rather than the two you would expect.
Tinted glass does not work — it blocks the beam entirely, which is occasionally useful for hiding a beacon while keeping the effect.
Obstruction rules
The beam needs a clear column, but "clear" is generous: it passes through glass, water, lava, and any non-solid block. It is stopped by anything solid, including a single slab placed by accident during construction.
The pyramid itself must be directly under the beacon with no gaps, and the layers must be full squares — a missing corner drops you a whole tier.
Work out the block count for a target level, and preview the mixed beam colour from a glass stack, in the Reference & Calculators — Set 2.