How to Get a Creaking Heart in Minecraft (1.21.4)

Guide Java Bedrock

Quick answer: Mine a hidden creaking heart from inside a pale oak trunk in the pale garden with Silk Touch - or craft one from two pale oak logs and a block of resin. Place it between two pale oak logs and it spawns a creaking every night.

What you need

Silk Touch axe (for wild hearts)
Or: pale oak log x2 + block of resin (to craft)
Two pale oak logs to activate it

Step by step

Find a pale garden: the grey, silent biome where pale oaks grow - look for its washed-out trees on your travels.
Search pale oak trunks: about 10% of naturally grown pale oaks hide a creaking heart inside the top trunk, always fully covered by logs.
Listen for it and watch the particles: an active heart at night emits eerie sounds and sends particle trails toward its creaking.
Mine it with Silk Touch: without Silk Touch the heart drops only 1-3 resin clumps (up to 6 with Fortune III) instead of itself.
Grab the experience too: breaking a naturally generated heart drops 20-24 XP in Survival.
Or craft it: place a block of resin between two pale oak logs in a vertical line on a crafting table.
Activate it: place the heart between two aligned pale oak logs - it turns dormant by day and awake at night (roughly 6:40 PM to 4:40 AM in-game).
Farm resin: at night an awake heart spawns a creaking - hit the creaking and resin clumps grow on nearby pale oak logs, with a 5-second cooldown between clumps. Breaking the heart kills its creaking instantly.

Java vs Bedrock

Everything works the same in Java and Bedrock. Bedrock adds the Heart Transplanter achievement for placing a creaking heart correctly between pale oak logs, and early Bedrock previews tuned its sounds, hardness and resin spread range.

Versions: Added in 1.21.4 - The Garden Awakens - first shown behind the Winter Drop experimental pack in 24w40a and fully available from 24w44a, alongside the pale garden, the creaking and resin.

Frequently asked questions

Where do you find creaking hearts in Minecraft?

Hidden inside the top trunks of about 10% of pale oak trees in the pale garden biome - always completely covered by pale oak logs, so you have to strip trunks to find them. Some abandoned camps also generate with one.

How do you pick up a creaking heart without breaking it?

Mine it with a Silk Touch tool. Any other tool drops 1-3 resin clumps instead (Fortune raises the maximum to 6), so Silk Touch is mandatory if you want the block itself.

What does a creaking heart do in Minecraft?

Placed between two aligned pale oak logs, it wakes at night and spawns a creaking that it protects from all damage. Hitting that creaking makes resin clumps grow on nearby pale oak logs; breaking the heart instantly kills its creaking.