Minecraft is an excellent medium for unleashing creativity and logical thinking. And for building great things! So imagine what you could achieve using all available resources – including Redstone.

While exploring the world of Minecraft, players encounter all kinds of valuable goods like diamonds, stones, dirt, and coal. But there is one more available only in this extraordinary game – Redstone. By mining it, we can obtain a unique red powder necessary for designing complex mechanisms, making the game less complicated and more satisfying. Not so fast – you’ll need at least an iron pickaxe to make it yours! But you can learn this and more handy tips in our extensive Minecraft Redstone guide.

Redstone Ore Basics

How to get Red Stone in Minecraft? Redstone is an exceptionally beneficial material available by digging in the ground or completing other activities in the Minecraft world. It naturally appears about 16 blocks underground, yielding about four red powders each – more if you have a fortune-enchanted pickaxe. They are very easy to recognize, looking like an ordinary stone but with bright red spots everywhere.

But sometimes, they drop in other places like jungle temples, abandoned mines, and village chests. Also, killing a witch can result in up to 15 pieces of Redstone, and if you are into trading – sell the emerald to a villager with a cleric profession to receive up to 4 pieces of the raw material in exchange.

But why all this effort? Well, Redstone Minecraft is necessary for creating more complex mechanisms and power circuits. It is essential in crafting simple items like a redstone torch, clock, compass, or lamp. But using it, you can also try to build impressive pistons, dispensers, powered rails, and note blocks. In a word – redstone is crucial to making your Minecraft life easier and more rewarding.

Understanding Redstone Circuits

Redstone blocks and powder serve perfectly as a power source for various mechanisms. Combining nine pieces of powder, you can create a block emitting a redstone signal. But let’s start with the basics – first, you need red powder. Placed in a line on a solid block (except glass and glowstone), it forms the wire you will need to build various circuits. Lay the powder in any direction, even on a vertical wall, provided it is no more than one meter high.

The conduit needs some energy source – like a Redstone torch. Such a power line can run for a distance of fifteen blocks, and to make it longer, you will need to insert a repeater at the end of your circuit. Verify this theory by creating a wire and examining the colors. Closer to the torch, it is light red and becomes dark red with each further block.

Redstone torches are the most versatile energy source, especially when you want to construct a line upwards. But overall, all circuit components fall into three groups:

  • Source (emission) – red torch, red block, button, pressure plate;
  • Transmission (communication) – red powder, repeater, comparator;
  • Receiving (responsive) – lamp, piston, dispenser, door, or dropper.

How can you use this extensive knowledge? By building innovative stuff! Here are some classic examples of fun circuits. Start by constructing a lamp – great for melting snow and enjoying a pleasant glow at night. You can build it out of glowstone and four pieces of red powder, but how do you make it work? The easiest way is to place it next to a neighboring power block like a red torch, a red block, or any non-transparent block with a torch underneath it.

You can also place a powered comparator or relay towards your future lamp and enjoy it right away. Or use the Redstone powder mentioned earlier. The crucial thing to remember is that any non-transparent block can be powered. It will not light up on its own – but if you place a lamp on it and it connects a wire with an active source component, it will become its last element to provide power to the lamp.

But what if you want to place your source of illumination higher? There are two creative solutions to this idea! Make steps from non-transparent blocks and run a line of red powder across them to power the last block under the lamp. The powder transfers power on single height differences, so it’s a simple method. Let’s assume, however, that you do not fancy building steps to power the lamp and want to construct something more sophisticated and vertical.

In that case, build a column of blocks and red torches arranged vertically. In this arrangement, the torches are an essential circuit component, with the last one powering the block on which your lamp stands. But always remember to set an even number of torches because an odd figure provides a positive signal when the switch (transmitting component) is off.

Extending Circuitry with Redstone Repeaters

Repeaters are an essential component of a longer cable. You can find them in a jungle temple, obtain them by destroying an existing repeater, or craft them from stones, red powder, and red torches. Its job is to amplify, delay, and maintain the signal.

Each repeater has an input and an output – the latter should be located next to the object you want to power. As you already know, the signal transmitted over the red powder wire weakens with each block until it reaches a maximum length of fifteen blocks. But by using a relay, you can amplify it as much as you want and make it flow in only one direction.

Crafting with Redstone

Now that we know everything about basic Redstone circuits, let’s proceed to more handy stuff. Get inspired to create recipes of your own!

  • Clock – this is one of the simplest crafts. You only need four gold ingots and one piece of red powder. It can prove particularly worthwhile when traveling long distances and exploring underground levels!
  • Powered rails – it’s a blessing when you want to go up a hill. They work like regular tracks, but the cart gains greater speed and can overcome various uneven terrains. Equipped with a sensor or activator, they can activate traps and other mechanisms.
  • Dispenser – a powered dispenser ejects whatever you put inside it. Positioned higher, it can fire shots dealing damage, an excellent base for a trap. Plus, it works underwater if you place a red torch on it!
  • Piston – can push neighboring blocks up to 12 pieces. It is perfect for crafting boats, carts, or automatic traps. You can even use it to build a functional vehicle!

Redstone Gates and Their Functions

While playing Minecraft, you have probably heard about Redstone or logic gates at least once. Such gates perform specific functions in the existing power circuit and require a powder/torch configuration. They are particularly convenient when you want to build a mechanism that only works when two or more switches are triggered instead of one – like a door (and this is an example of an AND gate).

Their definition comes down to one uncomplicated principle – they are an object that has one or more inputs and one or more outputs. The simplest type of gate is a block with a switch powering the red powder wire. There are only two options to complete – turn it on or off. However, this simple scheme, used in larger circuits, creates unlimited combinations of possible effects.

Imagine you want your mechanism to always be active, except when not. In that case, you need to construct a NOT gate – equipped with a switch that turns it off instead of turning it on. There are many other examples of gates out there, and they all serve different functions, like triggering a specific action at intervals or controlling something outside while you are inside.

Beyond Basics: Advanced Redstone Mechanics

Brewing – this may come as a surprise, but Redstone is necessary for experimenting with alchemy. Yes, you can use it to make potions! It is, however, quite a complicated art and requires a bit of engagement to understand. The red powder extends the duration of specific potions, so it is quite a desirable raw material among enthusiasts of this craftwork.

Computer – the most complicated invention available through Redstone is the computer. And as you’ve probably already guessed, it requires a ton of logic gates to function!

Vehicles – may not be the most complicated thing you can achieve with Redstone, but it definitely makes a difference. Using pistons and slime blocks, players can build functioning cars. Slow but exciting!

Automatic farms – optimization and automation mean success and time to focus on other things. But how exactly can electricity help us become better farmers? By combining some dispensers, repeaters, and blocks – that’s how! But in reality, it is much more complicated than that.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Crafting even simple redstone circuits is the first step in the grand journey to building advanced mechanisms. At first glance, this process may look quite challenging, but mastering it is really a matter of testing different circuits and combinations.

Sure, understanding what logic gates are is advanced knowledge. But most players use them without even knowing that they are doing it! And we all have to agree – the results are impressive, whether your new invention is a simple lamp or a computer.

So, do not shy away from mining Redstone and design your first circuits, as you’ll probably soon naturally learn how to use it to create effective traps and many convenient machines.