How to make a TNT Bow in Minecraft with Explosive Arrows!

Hey everyone, it’s UnMap, and welcome back to another video. Today I’m going to show you how to make an awesome TNT bow. The really cool thing about this bow is that you can customize it to do almost anything: you can make it spawn enemies when the arrow hits the ground, summon lightning, or run other commands.

This tutorial only works on Minecraft Java Edition, unfortunately. I tried to make a Bedrock version, but it didn’t work the same way. With that said, let’s get right into it.

Step 1: Get Command Blocks

First, you’ll need command blocks. To get one, run:

/give @s command_block

Step 2: Place the Command Blocks

Place two command blocks next to each other, preferably so the arrows on the command blocks point toward each other (or at least so it’s easy to tell which one runs first and which one runs second).

Step 3: Create the “Arrow Hit the Ground” Detector

The first command block will detect when an arrow is stuck in the ground and then execute a command at that arrow’s location.

In the first command block, paste this command:

/execute at @e[type=arrow,nbt={inGround:1b}] run summon tnt

Here’s what it does:

@e[type=arrow] targets arrows, and nbt={inGround:1b} checks whether the arrow is in the ground. When that’s true, it runs the command (in this case, summoning TNT) at the arrow’s position.

Set this command block to:

Repeat and Always Active

Step 4: Kill the Arrow So It Only Triggers Once

If you leave it like that, the arrow will keep triggering the command over and over while it’s stuck in the ground. To prevent that, we kill the arrow immediately after the command runs.

In the second command block, paste this command:

/kill @e[type=arrow,nbt={inGround:1b}]

Set this command block to:

Repeat and Always Active

Testing It

Now shoot an arrow. When it lands, it should summon primed TNT where the arrow hits, and then the arrow will be removed so it doesn’t keep spawning TNT repeatedly.

Optional: Hide Command Output in Chat

If you don’t want the command output messages appearing in chat every time it triggers, run:

/gamerule commandBlockOutput false

Customizing the Bow (Lightning Example)

You can replace the TNT summon command with almost anything. For example, if you want lightning instead, change the first command block to:

/execute at @e[type=arrow,nbt={inGround:1b}] run summon lightning_bolt

Now, whenever the arrow lands, it will summon lightning at the impact location. Keep in mind that lightning can start fires.

That’s basically it. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.