Building But Better: 250 Blocks and Six Items

guide

Building But Better is a mod built around a large library of decorative blocks and a small set of tools that unlock them. Its Crafting table holds 255 recipes, its Stonecutting holds 92, and its Smelting holds 1, giving builders hundreds of new shapes to work with.

The Six Items

Six crafted items sit at the center of the mod, and each one is made from simple, familiar materials.

Brazier: shaped recipe using a Campfire plus three Iron Ingot.
Soul Brazier: shaped recipe using a Soul Campfire plus three Iron Ingot.
Chisel: shaped recipe using two Copper Ingot and a Stick.
Hammer: shaped recipe using four Copper Ingot, a Block of Copper, and two Stick.
Rope: shaped recipe using three String.
Acacia Beam: shaped recipe using three Stripped Acacia Log.

The Acacia Beam doubles as both a building block and a crafting ingredient, which makes it a good first craft if you plan to work with acacia.

Crafting Recipes

Most of the 255 Crafting recipes follow a family pattern. A stripped log turns into a beam or a balustrade, the beam turns into slabs and stairs, and slabs combine with Sticks or planks to make frames, ladders, lanterns, lattices, layers, pallets, supports, trims, and walls.

Acacia is a good example of how one wood type spreads across the whole recipe list:

Three Stripped Acacia Log make six Acacia Balustrade or six Acacia Beam.
Three Acacia Beam make six Acacia Beam Slab, and six Acacia Beam make four Acacia Beam Stairs.
Six Acacia Slab plus two Stick make twelve Acacia Frame.
Six Stick plus one Acacia Planks make four Acacia Ladder.
Two Acacia Slab plus one Torch make one Acacia Lantern.
Five Stick plus four Acacia Planks make six Acacia Lattice.
Three Acacia Slab make six Acacia Layer.
Three Stick plus three Acacia Planks make eight Acacia Pallet.
One Acacia Beam converts back into two Acacia Planks, and one Acacia Beam Slab converts back into one Acacia Planks.
Three Acacia Planks plus one Stick make four Acacia Support.
Three Acacia Planks make three Acacia Trim.
Six Stripped Acacia Log make six Acacia Wall.

Bamboo follows the same shape. Three Block of Stripped Bamboo make six Bamboo Balustrade or six Bamboo Beam. Three Bamboo Beam make six Bamboo Beam Slab, and six Bamboo Beam make four Bamboo Beam Stairs. Six Bamboo Slab plus two Stick make twelve Bamboo Frame. Six Stick plus one Bamboo Planks make four Bamboo Ladder. Two Bamboo Slab plus one Torch make one Bamboo Lantern. Five Stick plus four Bamboo Planks make six Bamboo Lattice.

Stone gets a smaller but similar treatment in the crafting table. Three Andesite Slab make six Andesite Layer.

Stonecutting Recipes

The Stonecutting table covers 92 recipes and is the fastest route to many of the mod's stone shapes. A single input block can often be cut into several different results.

Blackstone is the most flexible example, cutting into Blackstone Block, Blackstone Column, Blackstone Fence, Blackstone Layer, Blackstone Moulding, and Blackstone Urn.

Deepslate family blocks behave the same way. Cobbled Deepslate cuts into Deepslate Column, Deepslate Fence, Deepslate Urn, Deepslate Brick Layer, and Deepslate Tile Layer. Deepslate itself cuts into Deepslate Block and Deepslate Moulding. Deepslate Bricks cut into Deepslate Brick Layer, and Deepslate Tiles cut into Deepslate Tile Layer.

Other stone inputs each produce a matching layer: Andesite into Andesite Layer, Bricks into Brick Layer, Cobblestone into Cobblestone Layer, Cut Copper into Cut Copper Layer, Dark Prismarine into Dark Prismarine Layer, Diorite into Diorite Layer, End Stone Bricks into End Stone Brick Layer, and Exposed Cut Copper into Exposed Cut Copper Layer.