The Soul Campfire is a new addition to Minecraft 1.16. Coming in with the rest of the Nether Update, folks get to enjoy new biomes, new tools and gear, and so much more while exploring the hellish dimension.
The Minecraft Nether Update added a bunch of new content and other stuff to explore, primarily in the Nether of course. With the patch came a bunch of new stuff, including the Soul Campfire. The best uses for the soul campfires in Minecraft is to keep away Piglins from your area. Also, they are really good at converting Soul Sand to Soul Soil. You just throw Soul Sand into the fire to make it into Soul Soil. The primary use for this is to create Withers, which are great for farming certain resources.
It’s not a great lightsource though, generating much less light compared to the basic campfire in the game. The soul version produces about 10 light units compared to the 15 from the base campfire.
You will need Soul Sand to get the full impact though, so head to a Soul Valley biome in the Nether. Once there, you better have brought some supplies. Namely you need a Crafting Table, three sticks and three pieces of wood. Place your Soul Sand or Soil in the middle of a Crafting Table, place three sticks, and three pieces of wood at the bottom.
Here’s a visual representation of the layout:
There are many other things you can craft in Minecraft. There’s the Smithing Table used to smith the new Netherite tools. You will need to gather Ancient Debris to assemble that though, so best get going on hunting it. And while you’re out looking for Ancient Debris, you can also hunt down a variety of other treasures, like Crying Obsidian to make the Respawn Anchor.