What a soul lantern is
A soul lantern is a light source that burns with a pale cyan flame instead of the warm yellow of a regular lantern. It was added in version 1.16, the Nether Update, alongside soul torches, soul soil, and the other soul-fire blocks. You craft it with iron nuggets and a soul torch, hang it from a block or stand it on the floor, and use it for decoration or to keep piglins at a distance.
The soul lantern looks like a small iron cage holding a glowing blue flame. It’s the soul-fire version of the standard lantern, and it shares most of the same placement rules. The differences come down to light level and how nearby mobs react to it.
How to craft a soul lantern
You need 8 iron nuggets and 1 soul torch. Open a crafting table, put the soul torch in the center slot, and fill the 8 surrounding slots with iron nuggets. You get one soul lantern per craft.
Soul torches are the input that takes the most setup, since iron nuggets are easy to come by. To make soul torches, drop a regular torch onto soul sand or soul soil in your crafting grid. Each soul sand or soul soil block yields 4 soul torches when paired with a torch. Soul soil is the cleaner choice because it doesn’t slow you down when you step on the leftover block.
If you’re short on iron nuggets, smelt rusty zombie or drowned drops in a furnace. Each piece returns one nugget. Breaking down a single iron ingot in a crafting grid gives you 9 nuggets, so a stack of ingots covers many lanterns.
On a long-running world or a server, a basic iron farm pays for itself fast. Each iron golem drops 3 to 5 iron ingots when killed, and that’s 27 to 45 nuggets per golem. A small one-village iron farm will supply more lanterns than any nether base could ever need.
Recipe at a glance
- Center slot: 1 soul torch
- Outer slots: 8 iron nuggets
- Output: 1 soul lantern
Where soul lanterns generate naturally
Soul lanterns don’t appear in overworld biomes or in random nether structures. The place you’ll find them naturally is in ancient cities, the deepslate-level structures introduced in 1.19. They light the long corridors and the central palace area with a cold cyan glow.
If you want soul lanterns without crafting them, ancient cities are the source. Bring a pickaxe (or just your fist, since lanterns mine by hand), sneak past the sculk sensors, and break each lantern as you go. Each one drops itself. The warden is the real threat down there, not the lighting.
How to place a soul lantern
Place a soul lantern on top of any solid block and it sits flat on the surface. Place one against the underside of a block and it hangs down like a lamp on a short chain. There’s no chain item required for the hanging look; that’s part of the block itself. If you want a longer chain, stack chain blocks above the lantern and the visual extends down.
Soul lanterns can be waterlogged. Place a water source block into the lantern’s space and the flame keeps burning underwater. This is useful for cold underwater builds where you want cyan light without bubble columns or fire blocks.
You cannot place a soul lantern on glass, leaves, or any non-solid block from the side, and you can’t attach one to a wall horizontally.
Light level and behavior
A soul lantern emits light level 10. A regular lantern emits light level 15. That gap matters in two ways.
First, soul lanterns don’t light up the same radius regular lanterns do, so hostile mobs can still spawn in the dim ring at the edge of the light. If you’re using lanterns for mob-proofing, space soul lanterns closer together, or mix in regular lanterns or torches for the brighter zones.
Second, soul lanterns set a mood. The cyan flame and lower brightness make them a strong fit for nether bases, ancient city builds, soul sand valleys, and ruined portals. They look less inviting than warm lanterns, which is exactly the point in those settings.
Soul lanterns don’t block redstone signals and don’t conduct redstone power. They behave as a transparent block for light propagation purposes.
One practical use of the dimmer level: you can place soul lanterns inside a builder’s workspace without flooding the area in bright yellow light. The cyan tint also reads better against pale stone palettes, so it’s a common pick for builders working with calcite, diorite, or quartz.
Piglins and soul lanterns
Piglins are afraid of soul fire. That fear extends to every block tied to soul flame: soul fire itself, soul campfires, soul torches, and soul lanterns. A piglin within roughly 8 blocks of one of these will run away.
This makes soul lanterns useful in nether builds where you want to keep piglins out of a specific room or path. Ring the entrance with soul lanterns or scatter them along the floor, and piglins will stay clear. They won’t break the lanterns; they just won’t come close.
Piglin brutes and zombified piglins ignore this fear. Soul lanterns won’t help against them, so plan your builds accordingly if brutes are in play.
Mining a soul lantern
Soul lanterns drop themselves when broken with any tool, including your bare hand. There’s no need for silk touch or a specific pickaxe. The block mines in less than a second.
If you’re harvesting soul lanterns from an ancient city for use elsewhere, sneak through the warden’s spawn radius, mine the lanterns quickly, and back out. The sculk sensors and shriekers are the real risk in those builds, not the lanterns themselves.
Building with soul lanterns
A few patterns that work well in survival builds:
- Hang soul lanterns at the corners of a soul sand valley fortress to give the build a ghostly, lit-from-within look.
- Pair soul lanterns with crying obsidian for a respawn-anchor chamber. The cyan and purple glow contrast in a way that feels intentional.
- Use them as exterior path lights along nether brick walkways. The dim glow keeps the path readable without flooding the area in light.
- Hang them under jungle or mangrove canopies if you want a cold, swampy mood without going full nether.
- In an underwater ruin build, waterlog soul lanterns to keep the flame visible below the surface.
- Use them as ceiling lights inside a stronghold or end portal room. The portal frames are already gray and stark, and the cyan light reinforces that ancient, abandoned mood.
Avoid using soul lanterns alone for mob-proofing. The light level 10 leaves enough dim space at the edge for mobs to spawn. Combine them with brighter sources, or accept the lower mob safety in exchange for the look.
Java versus Bedrock differences
Soul lanterns behave the same on Java and Bedrock in most respects: the recipe, the light level, the placement rules, and the effect on piglins all line up. The visual flame animation is slightly different between the two editions, but the gameplay impact is identical. If you’ve used one on Java and switched to Bedrock or the other direction, you won’t have to relearn anything.
Frequently asked questions
Can you put a soul lantern on a chain?
You don’t need to. Soul lanterns already include a short chain in the texture when hung from a block. If you want a longer hanging chain, stack chain blocks above the lantern and the chain visually extends.
Do soul lanterns melt ice or snow?
No. Lanterns of either type don’t have the heat property that would melt ice or snow. Only fire, lava, and similar heat sources cause melting. Lanterns aren’t on that list.
How is a soul lantern different from a soul torch?
Both emit light level 10 and both scare piglins. The lantern is a fully formed block you can stand on, hang from, or waterlog. The torch is a smaller item with limited placement options and less visual weight in finished builds. The lantern also tends to look more deliberate when you’re decorating a room.
Can you waterlog a soul lantern?
Yes. Place a water source block into the same space as the soul lantern and the lantern stays lit underwater. This is one of the simplest ways to add cyan light to an aquatic build.
Will soul lanterns repel zombified piglins?
No. Soul fire only frightens regular piglins. Zombified piglins and piglin brutes are immune to that fear and will path through soul-lit areas without reacting.
What’s the best way to farm iron nuggets for lanterns?
Smelt the iron-tier junk gear that drops from zombies, drowned, and husks. Each rusty tool or armor piece smelts into one iron nugget. A mob farm feeding a smelter setup will produce far more nuggets than you’ll ever need for lanterns.
Do soul lanterns stack in your inventory?
Yes. Soul lanterns stack to 64 like most blocks. If you’re hauling a few dozen out of an ancient city, they’ll take up a single inventory slot instead of filling your hotbar.
Can soul lanterns be pushed by pistons?
Yes. Both regular and soul lanterns can be pushed by pistons and pulled back by sticky pistons. That makes them useful in hidden lighting builds where you want to reveal or conceal a light source on demand.
Final thought
If you’re building anywhere near soul sand, soul soil, ancient city sculk, or piglin territory, soul lanterns earn their slot in the hotbar. The dim cyan glow is one of the few cold light sources in the game, and the piglin-repellent property gives them a real gameplay use beyond decoration.