How to make fireworks in Minecraft

The plain rocket

One paper plus one to three gunpowder makes a firework rocket. The gunpowder count sets the flight duration:

1 gunpowder = flight 1  (short)
2 gunpowder = flight 2
3 gunpowder = flight 3  (longest)

No star means no explosion. It flies up, and nothing happens at the top. That is exactly what you want for elytra flight, and it is the cheapest recipe in the whole system.

Firework stars

A star is gunpowder plus at least one dye, and it decides the colour. Add one optional shape ingredient in the same craft:

Fire Charge     large ball
Gold Nugget     star shape
Feather         burst
Head            creeper face

Add glowstone dust for the twinkle effect and a diamond for the trail. Multiple dyes in one star give a multicoloured explosion, and adding dye to an already made star adds a fade colour.

Then combine one to seven stars with paper and gunpowder to make the rocket. More stars means more explosions from one launch.

Elytra flight, which is the real use

While gliding with an elytra, using a rocket boosts you forward. This is how anyone covers distance in late game Minecraft, and it is why rockets are worth automating.

Use plain rockets with no star. A star means the rocket explodes at the end of its flight, and while boosting that explosion damages you. Flight duration 3 gives the longest boost per rocket, so it is the efficient choice for travel.

Gunpowder is the bottleneck, so most players who fly a lot build a creeper farm. Paper is trivial by comparison from a sugar cane farm.

Launching and other uses

Place a rocket in a dispenser and power it to launch on a redstone signal, which is how displays are built. Using a rocket on the ground by hand launches it straight up.

A crossbow loaded with a firework rocket fires it as a projectile that explodes on impact, and a star with a shape does real damage. It is one of the more effective ranged options in the game and works differently on servers where PvP rules restrict it.

Check the rules first. Some servers cap or disable rocket crossbows in arenas for exactly that reason. Our PvP list covers those servers, and the creative list is the easier place to build a large display without farming the gunpowder first.