Redstone Dust

Redstone is used for brewing and crafting, 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 crafting blocks of redstone, as drops from witches, by mining or smelting redstone ore, by looting jungle temples, or by trading with villagers.

Crafting
Redstone can be crafted from blocks of redstone.

Drops
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.

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.

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

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.

Trading
Villager Priests will offer to trade redstone for emeralds as one of their second-tier trades.

Usage
Redstone is used for brewing, crafting, 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 is not available in the Pocket Edition, but redstone can still be used for brewing and crafting.

Placement
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 (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.

Behavior
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
 * 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.

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.

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 produces "reddust" particles of the same color (if the user's Particles setting is not set to Minimal).

Removal
Redstone dust will be removed and drop redstone as an item:
 * if its attachment block is moved, removed, or destroyed
 * if water flows into its space
 * if a piston tries to push it or moves a block into its space

If lava flows into redstone dust's space, the redstone dust will be destroyed without dropping redstone as an item.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * 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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