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Minecraft: Java Edition
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Details

The bucket progression vanilla never finished.
A vanilla-first tier ladder for buckets: a cheap wooden one, a tougher bamboo one, a permanent copper one, a versatile gold one that handles lava, a premium enchantable diamond one — and a quietly revised iron recipe.
⚠️ Targets Minecraft 26.2. Won't load on earlier versions.
Why this mod
Vanilla has exactly one bucket. You either have iron, or you have nothing — there's no early-game bucket and no reason to ever craft a second kind. Bucketry fills that one missing piece with a small, readable tier ladder that looks like it could have shipped with the base game: wood early, bamboo as a sturdier alternative, copper as a permanent mid-tier, gold as a versatile option that handles lava, diamond as a premium enchantable tool, and iron unchanged except for a recipe tweak.
No HUD spam, no menus, no new ores. Just buckets that behave the way you'd expect.
The Tiers
Here is a summary of the bucket progression:
| Tier | Icon | Material | Durability | Empty stacks to | Lava | Powder snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden | 5 Planks | ~16 uses | 1 | — | — | |
| Bamboo | 5 Bamboo Planks | ~32 uses | 1 | — | — | |
| Copper | 5 Copper Ingots | permanent | 16 | — | ✅ | |
| Gold | 5 Gold Ingots | ~32 uses | 1 | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Diamond | 5 Diamonds | permanent | 16 | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Iron | 5 Iron Ingots | permanent | 16 | ✅ | ✅ |
Tier Showcase
🪣 Wooden Tier
The cheapest way to carry water. Light, disposable, and easy to craft in the early game.
- Durability: ~16 uses (breaks when exhausted).
- Stacking: Does not stack (1 per slot).
- Lava: Cannot hold lava (will not scoop).
| Variant | Icon | How to Obtain / Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden Bucket | Crafted with 5 planks in a V-shape. | |
| Wooden Water Bucket | Filled by right-clicking a water source. | |
| Wooden Milk Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a cow. Drink to clear status effects. |
🎋 Bamboo Tier
Twice as tough as standard wood, presenting a sturdier early-game choice.
- Durability: ~32 uses (twice the durability of wood).
- Stacking: Does not stack (1 per slot).
- Lava: Cannot hold lava.
| Variant | Icon | How to Obtain / Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Bamboo Bucket | Crafted with 5 bamboo planks in a V-shape. | |
| Bamboo Water Bucket | Filled by right-clicking a water source. | |
| Bamboo Milk Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a cow. Drink to clear status effects. |
🟠 Copper Tier
The perfect mid-tier sweet spot. Highly durable, stackable, and capable of scooping powder snow.
- Durability: Permanent (never breaks).
- Stacking: Empty buckets stack up to 16.
- Lava: Cannot hold lava.
- Powder Snow: Can scoop, carry, and place powder snow.
| Variant | Icon | How to Obtain / Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Copper Bucket | Crafted with 5 copper ingots in a V-shape. | |
| Copper Water Bucket | Filled by right-clicking a water source. | |
| Copper Milk Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a cow. | |
| Copper Powder Snow Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking powder snow. |
🥇 Gold Tier
The specialist. It's the only added bucket tough and thermally insulated enough to transport lava.
- Durability: ~32 uses (wear is applied by filling, emptying, and milking).
- Stacking: Does not stack (1 per slot).
- Lava: Capable of holding and placing lava.
- Powder Snow: Can scoop, carry, and place powder snow.
| Variant | Icon | How to Obtain / Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Gold Bucket | Crafted with 5 gold ingots in a V-shape. | |
| Gold Water Bucket | Filled by right-clicking a water source. | |
| Gold Lava Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a lava source. | |
| Gold Milk Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a cow. | |
| Gold Powder Snow Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking powder snow. |
💎 Diamond Tier
The ultimate bucket. Extremely durable, highly stackable, and capable of being enchanted to achieve supernatural utility.
- Durability: Permanent (never breaks).
- Stacking: Empty buckets stack up to 16.
- Lava: Capable of holding and placing lava.
- Powder Snow: Can scoop, carry, and place powder snow.
- Enchantable (10): Supports unique custom enchantments (Fluid Infinity, Conservation, and Thermal Shield).
| Variant | Icon | How to Obtain / Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Diamond Bucket | Crafted with 5 diamonds (V-shape). | |
| Diamond Water Bucket | Filled by right-clicking a water source. | |
| Diamond Lava Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a lava source. | |
| Diamond Milk Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a cow. | |
| Diamond Powder Snow Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking powder snow. |
Custom Enchantments
Only the Diamond Bucket is enchantable (Enchantability = 10). It supports three custom enchantments designed to extend fluid mechanics, available both via the Enchanting Table and Enchanted Books in the Anvil.
| Enchantment | Max Level | Effect | XP Cost / Activation | Conflict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fluid Infinity (Infinité de fluide) |
III | Allows infinite placement of fluids without emptying the bucket. | Water: Level I: 5 XP, Level II: 3 XP, Level III: 1 XP Lava: Level I: 20 XP, Level II: 10 XP, Level III: 5 XP |
Conservation |
| Conservation (Conservation) |
III | Chance to duplicate a source block when scooping (leaving the original intact). • Level I: 15% • Level II: 30% • Level III: 45% |
— | Fluid Infinity |
| Thermal Shield (Bouclier Thermique) |
I | Grants fire resistance and blocks lava damage while the bucket is held in either hand. | — | — |
🪟 Fluid Infinity (Infinité de fluide)
This premium enchantment allows the Diamond Bucket to place fluids infinitely. Instead of emptying the bucket, the source block is placed in the world, and a small amount of XP is consumed from the player's experience bar.
- XP Consumption Scaling:
- Water: Level I consumes 5 XP, Level II consumes 3 XP, Level III consumes 1 XP per placement.
- Lava: Level I consumes 20 XP, Level II consumes 10 XP, Level III consumes 5 XP per placement.
- Utility: Ideal for building decorative water or lava features, constructing obsidian walls, or placing fluids in creative-like ways in survival mode.
🌾 Conservation (Conservation)
Designed for resource gathering, this enchantment gives a chance to preserve the fluid source block when scooping it up, effectively duplicating the resource.
- Activation Chance:
- Level I: 15% chance of duplication.
- Level II: 30% chance of duplication.
- Level III: 45% chance of duplication.
- Utility: Essential for multiplying valuable fluids like lava without having to travel back to the Nether or deep underground.
🛡️ Thermal Shield (Bouclier Thermique)
A powerful defensive enchantment that protects the player from extreme heat. While holding a Diamond Bucket enchanted with Thermal Shield in either hand (main-hand or off-hand), the player is granted fire immunity and ignores all fire and lava damage.
- Utility: Crucial for Nether exploration, mining near lava pools, or saving yourself from accidental lava falls.
Rules & Mechanics
- Mutual Exclusion: It is impossible to combine Fluid Infinity and Conservation on the same bucket, creating a choice between infinite placement or resource duplication (similar to Mending and Infinity on bows).
- Enchanted Books: All three enchantments can be obtained as Enchanted Books through enchanting, villager trading, random loot, or directly from the creative inventory, and applied using the Anvil.
⚙️ Iron Tier (Vanilla)
The classic vanilla bucket. Retains all original traits, but uses a revised recipe for visual consistency.
- Durability: Permanent (never breaks).
- Stacking: Empty buckets stack up to 16.
- Lava: Capable of holding and placing lava.
- Powder Snow: Can scoop, carry, and place powder snow.
| Variant | Icon | How to Obtain / Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| Iron Bucket | Crafted with 5 iron ingots (V-shape). | |
| Iron Water Bucket | Filled by right-clicking a water source. | |
| Iron Lava Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a lava source. | |
| Iron Milk Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking a cow. | |
| Iron Powder Snow Bucket | Obtained by right-clicking powder snow. |
Crafting Recipes
Every craftable bucket now shares a consistent recipe layout: five pieces of a single material in a V shape — no chains.
| Tier | Crafted Bucket | Recipe Pattern |
|---|---|---|
| Wooden | ![]() |
|
| Bamboo | ![]() |
|
| Copper | ![]() |
|
| Gold | ![]() |
|
| Diamond | ![]() |
|
| Iron (revised) | ![]() |
Why the iron recipe changes: Vanilla's bucket recipe (▢ ▢ / ▢) is inconsistent with the other tiers. Changing it to require 5 iron ingots in a V-shape creates a cohesive visual and progression logic across all materials.
Mechanics in Detail
- Durability & Repair: Wood, bamboo, and gold buckets are damageable items that display the standard vanilla durability bar. They wear down with use and break when exhausted. You can repair them by combining two damaged buckets of the same type in the crafting grid — exactly like repairing armor or tools. Since they can hold damage values, they do not stack.
- Permanence & Stacking: Copper, diamond, and iron buckets have no durability, never break, and their empty forms stack up to 16 in a single inventory slot.
- Lava Transport: Only gold, diamond, and vanilla iron buckets are capable of holding lava. Right-clicking a lava block with wood, bamboo, or copper will have no effect.
- Powder Snow: Copper, gold, and diamond join iron in their ability to scoop up powder snow blocks and place them back in the world.
- Milk: Any empty bucket can be used to milk a cow. Drinking the milk clears all status effects. For durable tiers, milking and drinking draw from the bucket's durability pool.
- Enchanting: Only diamond buckets are enchantable (enchantability of 10). They support 3 unique custom enchantments (Fluid Infinity, Conservation, and Thermal Shield).
- Creative Tab: The mod includes a custom creative inventory tab called Bucketry that displays all bucket tiers, fluid variants, custom enchanted books (at all levels), and pre-enchanted buckets ready for testing.
Under the Hood
- Two loaders, no Architectury: NeoForge and Fabric, each a self-contained project, logic mirrored rather than shared — a deliberate choice for the bleeding-edge 26.x toolchain.
- Minecraft 26.2 (Mojang official names, post-deobfuscation).
- 30 language translations included;
en_usis canonical and the rest are full translations (French uses « seau »). - Textures are generated from vanilla references by a committed pipeline (
tools/), and a Python resource validator (tests/validate.py) gates every build.
Install & build → see README.md
Part of the Minecraft Revamp collective — small, focused mods that modernise Minecraft without denaturing it.
Made by @JessicaMalle.








