Redstone Dust

Redstone is used for crafting and brewing, and can be placed on the ground as redstone dust – a flat transparent block which can transmit redstone power (the major component of most redstone circuits).

Obtaining
Redstone can be obtained by:


 * Mining


 * A single redstone ore will yield 4-5 redstone when mined with an iron pickaxe or better. It can drop up to 8 redstone with a pickaxe with the Fortune enchantment.


 * Trading


 * There is a chance that a Villager Priest will offer to trade redstone for emeralds.


 * Witches


 * A single witch will drop 0 to 6 redstone when they die, even when not killed by the player. Drops average 0.43 redstone per witch due to the fact that they drop many different types of items.


 * Jungle Temples


 * 15 pieces of redstone dust are naturally generated in each jungle temple during world generation. Redstone dust breaks into 1 redstone each.


 * Crafting


 * Redstone can be crafted from blocks of redstone.


 * Smelting


 * Smelting redstone ore is an inefficient way to obtain redstone. Redstone ore blocks can only be obtained with a Silk Touch pickaxe, but smelting redstone ore only produces a single redstone, while simply placing the block and mining it will yield 4 or more redstone.

Usage
Redstone is used for crafting, brewing, and in redstone circuits by placing it on the ground to create redstone dust.

Redstone Dust
When placed in the Minecraft world, redstone becomes a block of "Redstone Dust". Redstone dust can be an important part of redstone circuits (structures built from redstone components to perform tasks).

Redstone dust can only be placed on opaque blocks (dirt, stone, grass blocks, etc.), as well as glowstone, upside-down slabs and upside-down stairs, and hoppers.

Redstone dust will configure itself to point towards certain kinds of neighbor blocks, and can transmit "redstone power" up to 15 blocks.

Configuration
Redstone dust will configure itself (change its shape) to point towards adjacent redstone power components (redstone torches, levers, buttons, etc.) and transmission component connection points (redstone repeater front and back, or any side of a redstone comparator or other redstone dust). Redstone dust will also configure itself to point towards adjacent redstone dust one block higher or lower – unless there is a solid opaque block above the lower redstone dust (called "cutting" the dust connection), or if the higher redstone dust is on a transparent block such as glowstone, an upside-down slab or stair, or a hopper.

If there is only one such adjacent redstone component, redstone dust will configure itself into a line pointing both at the neighbor and away from it. If there are two or more such adjacent redstone components, redstone dust will point at them only (forming a line, an "elbow", a "T", or a cross). If there are no such adjacent redstone components, redstone dust will configure itself into a directionless "dot" (which unintuitively can provide power in all four directions).

Redstone dust will not automatically configure itself to point towards adjacent blocks or mechanism components (pistons, doors, redstone lamps, etc.). If such a configuration is desired, the other neighbors of the redstone dust must be arranged to create it (commonly by increasing the length of redstone dust to force it to point in one direction).

When redstone dust is reconfigured after placement (for example, by the player placing a redstone component next to it or by a piston pushing blocks around it) it will not update other redstone components around it of the change unless that reconfiguration also includes a change in power level or another component provides an update. This can create situations where a mechanism component remains activated when it shouldn't, or vice versa, until it receives an update from something else – a "feature" of redstone dust that can be exploited to create a kind of block update detector.

Redstone power
Redstone dust can transmit redstone power (or just power, for short), which can be used to operate mechanism components (pistons, doors, redstone lamps, etc.). The opacity (versus transparency) of blocks under and between the dust can be important. Most building blocks are opaque; important transparent blocks (which can support redstone dust) include glowstone, an upside-down slab or stairs, or a hopper. Glass and most other transparent blocks can't support redstone dust, but can still have other roles in a circuit.

Redstone dust can be "powered" by a number of methods:
 * from an adjacent power component (redstone torch, lever, etc.) or strongly-powered block (including above or below),
 * from the output of a redstone repeater or redstone comparator, or

The "power level" of redstone dust can vary from 0 to 15. Most power components power-up adjacent redstone dust to power level 15, but a few (daylight sensors, trapped chests, and weighted pressure plates) may create a lower power level. Redstone repeaters output power level 15 (when turned on), but redstone comparators may output a lower power level.
 * from adjacent redstone dust. The powering dust can be a level higher or lower, but with restrictions:
 * Redstone can be powered by redstone which is one level lower, or on an opaque block one level higher. A transparent block cannot pass power downward.
 * The block "between" (above and next to) the two dust blocks must be air (nothing) or transparent (including glass etc.). A solid block there "cuts" the connection between the higher and lower dust.

Power level drops by 1 for every block of redstone dust it crosses (specifically, for each dust-to-dust step). Thus, redstone dust can transmit power for no more than 15 blocks. To go further, the power level must be re-strengthened – typically with a redstone repeater.

Powered redstone dust will activate adjacent mechanism components (pistons, doors, redstone lamps, etc.) with different results depending on the mechanism – but only if the redstone dust is configured to point at it (or is a directionless dot).

Powered redstone dust on top of, or pointing at, an opaque block (or configured as a directionless dot next to such a block) will "weakly"-power the block (a component such as a switch, redstone torch, or repeater would "strongly" power the block). A weakly-powered block will not power other adjacent redstone dust, but will still power redstone repeaters and comparators and activate adjacent mechanism components. Transparent blocks (other than redstone dust itself) cannot be powered.

When redstone dust is unpowered, it will appear dark red. When powered, it will turn bright red at power level 15, fading to darker shades the lower the power gets (but always brighter than unpowered redstone dust). Powered redstone dust also emits animated sparkles of the same color (if the user's Particles setting is not set to Minimal).

Trivia

 * The shape of redstone is shared by glowstone dust, gunpowder and sugar. Yellow and Cyan Dye are also the same shape, but with extra pieces superimposed over it.
 * The electronic and magnetic qualities of redstone dust may allude to copper, which is reddish-orange in colour and used in generators, electromagnets, motors, coils and wiring; or less likely to two real-life forms of iron ore called hematite and magnetite which are reddish-brown and black in colour, respectively, and both have properties that allow use in magnetic data storage and for primitive magnets.
 * Programmable tiles were originally supposed to be added in an expansion pack called Dungeons and Levers after the release.
 * Mojang was originally going to add gears to Minecraft instead of redstone, but then decided against it.
 * If you were to hack your inventory to give yourself redstone dust, it will look gray in the inventory. This is because it is gray in the texture so it can be colored according to its power level.
 * The redstone texture, when in the farlands, looks stretched and is very glitchy, especially when the redstone is connecting to another redstone line that is higher or lower than this one.
 * Unlike other minerals, redstone is the only mineral which is totally fictional (Nether Quartz still has the name "quartz").
 * On Pocket Edition you cannot place redstone dust on the ground. It is currently only used as a crafting recipe.
 * Redstone's function was revealed before its name, which was a subject of speculation. The former fan nicknames Red Stuff, Electrum and Cuprite now redirect to it on this wiki; however, the only known comment on a possible nickname by an official source was Notch's "I'm not naming it Aspergite, you clever trolls you!"

Gallery
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