Crafting Recipe
3 glass on top, glass-nether star-glass in the middle, 3 obsidian on the bottom = 1 beacon. The nether star always drops from the Wither; 3 obsidian is trivial with a water-cast obsidian generator.
What It Does
Placed atop a mineral pyramid, the beacon fires a light column and grants area buffs scaling with pyramid layers: Speed / Haste / Resistance / Jump Boost / Strength (all at 4 layers), range up to 50 blocks. A max pyramid needs 164 mineral blocks (9/25/49/81; iron, gold, diamond or emerald — mixable) ≈ 1,476 ingots.
Pro Tips
Haste II is the standard first pick — mining and building transform. Building the pyramid from netherite blocks is pure flexing at terrible value. Beacons need sky access (the column unobstructed) to work; underground bases need a light well above it. An iron farm + furnace array is the fastest route to 164 iron blocks.