Dirt

Dirt is one of the first blocks introduced in the game. It utilizes the same texture on all six sides of the block. Dirt is very common on normally generated maps, making up the majority of the top layers of blocks, between Grass or Snow and Stone. It is also found underground in clumps in all altitudes and can also be found in the bottom of deep waters. It is a very weak type of block and is easily destroyed in explosions from TNT or Creepers, making dirt shelters a fallback option at best. Oftentimes, better resources to make shelters are available from the very moment the game is started. Dirt is generally used for terraforming. When a Dirt block is adjacent to a Grass-covered block and is exposed to a light level of at least 4 (usually from torches or sunlight), it will eventually be converted into a Grass block; the exact time this happens is random and unpredictable.

Dirt is simple to mine and is often acquired in large amounts when unmonitored during its excavation. It will always drop a resource block, regardless of how it was mined. It may be mined by hand fairly quickly, but using a shovel will significantly speed up the process.

Using a hoe on a placed block of dirt will prepare the block for use in farming. After using a hoe on a block of dirt, the top of the dirt's appearance changes, becoming ridged and bumpy like tilled soil. When a block of tilled dirt is introduced to a block of water, it becomes darker to replicate the appearance of wet soil.

Dirt is not used in any crafting recipes whatsoever; the only functionality offered by this block is as a necessity for growing certain plants, and as a cheap material for when a minecrafter wishes to block off branches of a cavern, build walls or scaffolds, or any similar task that requires a medium to large number of blocks that are not affected by gravity.

As of Minecraft Beta 1.8 pre-release, dirt is a renewable resource. As dirt is created at the base of a grown huge mushroom, this allows for an infinite supply of dirt. A video of this can be found here. This was later removed in the second version of the pre-release, where huge mushrooms can only grow on dirt or grass.

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