Streamline Your Smelting with the Compressed Smelting Datapack
Minecraft’s Caves & Cliffs update introduced a game-changing mechanic: raw metal blocks. Instead of dropping ore blocks that you’d then smelt into ingots, iron, copper, and gold now drop raw ore items. While this added a new layer of realism, it also created a bottleneck at the furnace. Smelting a full stack of raw iron into ingots, then crafting those ingots into a block for storage, took ages. The Compressed Smelting datapack elegantly solves this frustration by letting you skip the ingot step entirely. Now, you can toss an entire block of raw metal into a furnace and receive a shiny metal block in return.
What Exactly Does Compressed Smelting Do?
At its core, this datapack adds a simple but powerful recipe: smelting a block of raw metal directly into its corresponding storage block. Normally, you’d need to break down nine raw materials, smelt each one into an ingot, and then combine them back into a block. Compressed Smelting condenses that entire process into a single furnace operation. The datapack supports both standard furnaces and blast furnaces, with the latter offering the expected speed boost. This means your industrial-scale smelting setups can finally keep pace with your mining hauls.
What makes this datapack particularly clever is how it respects vanilla balance. The smelting time for a raw block is proportionally longer than smelting a single raw item, so you aren’t cheating the system—you’re just reducing the tedious micromanagement. The blast furnace support is a welcome touch, letting you cut that time in half if you’ve invested in the upgrade. It feels like a feature that should have been in the game from the moment raw ore blocks were introduced.
How the Smelting Mechanics Work
Once the datapack is installed, the recipes integrate seamlessly into the existing smelting system. Place a block of raw iron, raw copper, or raw gold into the top slot of a furnace or blast furnace, add fuel, and watch the progress arrow fill. When it completes, you’ll collect a block of iron, copper, or gold. The experience reward is also scaled appropriately, so you’ll still earn a fair amount of XP for your efforts.
The datapack uses a straightforward recipe format, meaning it’s compatible with any mod or plugin that doesn’t override vanilla smelting inputs. Because it’s a datapack, it doesn’t require any mod loaders like Forge or Fabric. You can drop it into a fresh vanilla world and it just works. For players running a server, this is a lightweight way to improve quality of life without forcing everyone to install client-side modifications.
Supported Metals and Recipe List
The datapack covers all three raw metal types currently available in Minecraft. Here’s exactly what you can smelt:
- Block of Raw Iron smelts into a Block of Iron
- Block of Raw Copper smelts into a Block of Copper
- Block of Raw Gold smelts into a Block of Gold
Each recipe functions identically in both furnace and blast furnace variants. The datapack doesn’t add any custom blocks or items; it simply creates new smelting pathways for existing ones. This keeps your world file clean and avoids any risk of corruption when updating Minecraft versions.
Why You Should Add This to Your World
The primary benefit is time savings. Instead of babysitting a row of furnaces, you can process an entire inventory of raw ore blocks in a fraction of the time. This is especially valuable in multiplayer settings where resources are shared and smelting queues can become a bottleneck. Builders who need massive quantities of copper blocks for their projects will appreciate how quickly they can convert raw copper from a drowned farm or a lush cave expedition.
Another advantage is inventory management. Raw ore blocks stack to 64, just like their smelted counterparts. By smelting directly from block to block, you avoid the intermediate ingot stage that clutters your storage system. Your sorting setups become simpler, and you spend less time crafting and recrafting materials. For technical players, this datapack integrates beautifully with hopper-fed furnace arrays, allowing for fully automated block compression.
Installation and Setup Guide
Installing a datapack is straightforward, but there are a few methods. The traditional way involves downloading the datapack ZIP file and placing it into the datapacks folder inside your world save directory. You’ll then need to reload the world or run the /reload command if you’re already in-game. This works perfectly fine for single-player worlds and most server configurations.
For players who want a more modern and flexible approach to managing their Minecraft content, the foxygame.net launcher provides a convenient solution. This launcher lets you browse and install datapacks like Compressed Smelting directly from its built-in menu, eliminating the need to dig through file directories or worry about version mismatches. It’s a clean, intuitive way to keep your mods and datapacks organized, especially if you frequently switch between different worlds or modded setups.
After installation, the recipes will be active immediately. You can test it by placing a block of raw iron in a furnace with some coal. If the arrow starts filling, you’re all set. There are no configuration files to tweak, so it’s truly plug-and-play.
Compatibility and Performance Considerations
Compressed Smelting is designed for Minecraft Java Edition 1.17 and above, as raw metal blocks were introduced in that version. It has been tested up to the latest releases and typically requires no updates because the recipe format is stable. Since it’s a datapack, it places almost zero strain on server performance. It simply adds a few JSON recipe files that the game loads at startup.
The datapack is fully compatible with vanilla gameplay and most other datapacks that don’t alter the same smelting recipes. If you’re using a mod that overhauls ore processing, you might encounter conflicts, but for the vast majority of players, it will coexist peacefully with other quality-of-life additions. Server owners can add it without requiring any client-side changes, making it an easy win for community servers.
Final Thoughts
The Compressed Smelting datapack is one of those small tweaks that, once you try it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. It respects the game’s balance while cutting out repetitive busywork, letting you focus on the creative and exploratory aspects of Minecraft. Whether you’re a builder amassing copper for a grand roof, a redstoner automating a furnace array, or just a miner tired of waiting for ingots to cook, this datapack delivers a satisfying upgrade. Pair it with a modern launcher like foxygame.net for effortless installation, and you’ll be smelting smarter in no time.