Redstone Wire

Redstone Wire is a material used to transfer charge between objects. Charged objects can be used to open doors or activate certain items. It is the placed form of Redstone Dust. Unpowered wire will appear dark red; powered wire will appear bright red with animated sparkling.

Redstone Wire is placed by right clicking on the surface of a Block with Redstone (Dust) selected in the action bar. It is available since Alpha. To obtain Redstone Wire, Redstone Dust is needed, which can be found by mining Redstone Ore with an iron pickaxe or better.

Redstone Wires will not carry their charge farther than 15 blocks. However, it is possible to extend their range by making gates or Repeaters. The creation and use of gates are explained in Redstone circuits.

As of Beta 1.3, powered Redstone Wire will be dimmer the further it is from the source of power. Beyond 15 blocks it will not be powered and will stop sparkling entirely.



How wires connect and provide power
Redstone Wire will connect to adjacent blocks that can provide power. These blocks are the Redstone Torch, Switches, and other wires. It does not try to form connections with things that "receive" power, like Doors. These connections need a straight run to or onto the receiving block. You can tell if a wire is connected because its appearance will change: By default a wire looks like a "+" (connected in all four directions), but if it has at least one connection it will look like a straight line. (It also looks like a straight line when it's connected at both ends.) Bends and T-junctions are also possible by connecting on the appropriate sides.

Redstone Wire will connect using the sides of blocks when changing levels, but there are some restrictions. The connection will be broken if an opaque block is over the lower wire. (Visually, the block is cutting off the connection with its lower edge.)



Historical notes
Redstone Wire used to be "destroyed" when stepped on in-game, but this was changed due to an update, making the idea of "tripwires" no longer plausible.

Map areas generated before the Redstone update (pre-Alpha) will not contain Redstone.

Related pages

 * Redstone
 * Redstone (Ore)
 * Redstone (Dust)
 * Redstone (Torch)
 * Redstone circuits
 * Switches
 * Mechanisms
 * Traps

Redstone (Kabel)