Block



Blocks are the basic units of structure in Minecraft that make up the game's world. Many blocks can be collected and placed anywhere in the game's world, as well as be used as helpful resources.

Behavior
Blocks are arranged in a 3-dimensional grid of 1-cubic-meter cells, although some blocks appear to occupy a partial cell; these include slabs, snow layers, ladders, vines, stairs, turtle eggs, sea pickles, and others.

Together, blocks and fluids build up the in-game environment, and most can be harvested and utilized in various fashions. Some blocks, such as dirt and sandstone, are opaque and occupy their entire cubic meter, while other blocks, such as glass and flowers, are transparent or non-solid. Explosions destroy some blocks more easily than they destroy others. Some blocks are completely immune to explosions.

Air is a special block. It is an unbreakable transparent block, as a substitute for the absence of blocks. It has two variants: cave air and void air.

Some blocks, such as sea lantern and glowstone, emit light. The amount of light they emit varies widely; see this table of light values for further information. Opaque blocks completely block light, while transparent blocks can have no effect on light, block the light, or merely weaken it.

Almost all blocks ignore gravity, except for sand, red sand, gravel, anvils, dragon eggs, concrete powder, scaffolding, snow and pointed dripstone, all of which turn into entities when their support is removed.

When broken, blocks emit sounds and particles associated with themselves, except in the following cases:


 * When the block is removed by a piston.
 * If the block is affected by gravity and falls into an invalid space (If the block is gravity based and drops from a torch, for example).
 * Anvils that are destroyed by running out of durability or falling. Only particles are missing.
 * If the block can be washed away and is washed away by a flowing fluid.
 * If the block can be replaced by other blocks and is replaced.
 * If the block is one of a few blocks such as rails or redstone wire, supported by another block and its supporting block is removed.
 * If the block is leaves and decays.

Block height
Most solid blocks are 1 meter high (3.28084... feet or $1250/381$ feet), but several blocks have non-standard block heights, such as slabs.

A player can automatically step up from a lower to a higher height if the difference is at most 0.6 ($3/5$) of a block or 1.9685... feet ($250/127$ feet).

Textures
The textures on the faces of blocks are 16×16 pixels. Most blocks are proportionately one cubic meter by default, but their shape can be changed using models.

Most blocks have static textures, but these blocks are animated: water, lava, nether portal, end portal, end gateway, prismarine (slab; stairs; wall), sea lantern, magma block, seagrass, kelp, fire, lantern, lit campfire and their soul variants, lit blast furnace, heat block, stems, hyphae, lit smoker, stonecutter, sculk, sculk shrieker, sculk sensor, calibrated sculk sensor, sculk vein, and command block.

Using resource packs, the player can change the textures and resolution of blocks, including whether their texture is animated. They can also change the shapes of blocks using models and the size of blocks to any size with equal width and height, though sizes that are a power of two tend to work better.

Technical blocks
Technical blocks serve various purposes during events within the game, or use a separate name spaced ID in order to avoid unnecessary combinations of block states. $$ technical blocks do not exist as items, while $$ they may be obtained using inventory editors or add-ons.

Education Edition only
These blocks can be accessed only $$ and $$ when education options are enabled (Elements are not listed here). $$, boards, posters, and slates can be obtained only through inventory editors.

Removed blocks
Removed blocks no longer exist in current versions of the game.

Outright removed blocks
These blocks were removed from the game entirely.

Removed through substitution
These blocks were "reconned" into other blocks through a major simultaneous name and texture change.

Extreme metadata variants
Some blocks and states of blocks were distinguished via numerical metadata in previous versions of the game. Having metadata values outside of the accepted range could produce unintended results for some block IDs.

Joke blocks
These blocks only exist in April Fools versions of the game.

Block additions and removals
''Unique blocks are defined as having unique namespaced IDs in current versions of Java Edition, excluding obvious technical variants such as potted plants and wall attachments of blocks, but including the rose. Unintentional metadata variants are also not included.''

{{History||0.1|Added all blocks from and prior to Java Edition Beta 1.6.6. {{History||0.9487|Added pistons, sticky pistons, stone bricks, cracked stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, infested stone, infested cobblestone, infested stone bricks, brick slabs, stone brick slabs, brick stairs, stone brick stairs, glass panes, iron bars, oak fence gates, vines, mushroom stems, red mushroom blocks, brown mushroom blocks, pumpkin stems, melon stems, and melons.}} {{History||0.97|Added nether bricks, nether brick stairs, nether brick fence, mycelium, lilypads, brewing stands, enchanting tables, end portal frames, end portal blocks, cauldrons, end stone, and dragon eggs.}} {{History||0.982|Added jungle logs, jungle leaves, jungle saplings, redstone lamps, and chiseled stone bricks.}} {{History||0.984|Added oak slabs, spruce slabs, birch slabs, jungle slabs, emerald ore, ender chests, sandstone stairs, tripwire, tripwire hooks, blocks of emerald, spruce stairs, birch stairs, jungle stairs, oak wood, spruce wood, birch wood, jungle wood, birch planks, spruce planks, jungle planks, cut sandstone, and chiseled sandstone.}} {{History||0.985|Added beacons, command blocks, carrots, potatoes, flower pots, oak buttons, cobblestone walls, mossy cobblestone walls, creeper heads, player heads, skeleton skulls, wither skeleton skulls, zombie heads, anvils, chipped anvils, damaged anvils, and nether brick slabs.}} {{History||1.5.1|link=none|snap=Build 1|slink=MinecraftEdu 1.5.1 Build 1}} {{History||1.6.4|link=none|snap=Build 1|slink=MinecraftEdu 1.6.4 Build 1}} {{History||1.7.2|link=MinecraftEdu 1.7.2 Build 1}} {{History||1.8.9|link=none|snap=Build 1|slink=MinecraftEdu 1.8.9 Build 1}}

{{History|education}} {{History||Early Access|link=Education Edition early access|Added all blocks from and prior to Pocket Edition v0.16.0 alpha.}} {{History||1.0.0|Added ender chest, dragon head, end portal, end stone, end stone brick, end gateway block, end rod, and chorus plant, allow, deny, border block and 3 chalkboards.}} {{History||1.0.1|Added 16 colors of stained glass, 16 colors of stained glass panes, structure block, structure void, all types of command blocks, frosted ice; all 16 colors of concrete, concrete powder and glazed terracotta.}} {{History||1.0.21|Added magma block, bone block, nether wart block, red nether bricks, 16 colors of banner, jukebox and coarse dirt.}} {{History||1.0.27|Added element constructor, compound creator, lab table, material reducer, heat block, underwater tnt, underwater torch, 4 colored torches; 16 colors of hardened glass and hardened glass pane; and elements.}} {{History||1.4|Added slabs and stairs for prismarine and its variants; stripped log and stripped wood for all wood types; buttons, pressure plates, and trapdoors for all wood types; coral block and coral fan with their dead variant; coral, dried kelp block, kelp, seagrass and sea pickles.}} {{History||1.7|Added conduit, bubble column, turtle egg and barrier.}} {{History||1.9|snap=1.8.0|Added bamboo, scaffolding, cornflower, lily of the valley; signs made from spruce, birch, jungle, acacia, and dark oak wood; smooth blocks made from stone, sandstone, red sandstone and quartz; 14 stairs and slabs and 12 walls.}} {{History||1.12.0|Added barrel, bell, blast furnace, cartography table, smoker, fletching table, grindstone,lantern, smithing table, composter, campfire, jigsaw block, lectern, loom, stonecutter, sweet berry bush and illager banner.}} {{History||1.14.31|snap=1.14.30|Added bee nest, beehive, wither rose, honey block and honeycomb block.}} {{History||1.17.30|snap=1.17.30.2|Added ancient debris, basalt, block of netherite; crimson and warped fungus, nylium, planks, roots, stems, slabs, stairs, fences, fence gates, pressure plates, buttons, doors, and trapdoors; nether sprouts, warped wart block, polished basalt, shroomlight, soul fire, soul lantern, soul torch, soul soil, target block, weeping vines, blackstone with its slabs, stairs, and wall variants; chain, chiseled nether bricks, cracked nether bricks, crying obsidian, hyphae, lodestone, nether gold ore; polished blackstone with its button, pressure plate, slab, stairs, and wall variants; polished blackstone bricks with its slab, stairs, and wall variants; quartz brick, respawn anchor, soul campfire, twisting vines, powder snow, pointed dripstone, copper block, cut copper, cut copper slab, cut copper stairs with their weathered and waxed variants; added copper ore, lightning rod, dripstone block, glow item frame, azalea, azalea leaves, cave vines, dripleaf, hanging roots, moss block, moss carpet, rooted dirt, spore blossom, deepslate, cobbled deepslate, polished deepslate, deepslate bricks and deepslate tiles all with their slab, stairs, and wall variants; added chiseled deepslate, deepslate ores, and waxed oxidized copper and its cut, slab and stairs variants; amethyst bud, amethyst cluster, block of amethyst, block of raw metals, budding amethyst, calcite, smooth basalt, tinted glass, tuff, infested deepslate and 17 candle variants.}} {{History|china}} {{History||August 8, 2017|link=China Edition#History|Added all blocks from and prior to Java Edition 1.12.}} {{History||January 28, 2018|link=China Edition#History|Added banners, jukebox, coarse dirt, and structure block.}} {{History|earth}} {{History||Release|Added all blocks from and prior to Bedrock Edition 1.12.0.}} {{History|dungeons}} {{History||1.1.1.0|snap=Dungeons Beta|Added all blocks from and prior to Bedrock Edition 1.14.0.}} {{History||1.2.0.0|Added ancient debris, basalt, block of netherite; crimson and warped fungus, nylium, planks, roots, stems, slabs, stairs, fences, fence gates, pressure plates, buttons, doors, and trapdoors; nether sprouts, warped wart block, polished basalt, shroomlight, soul fire, soul lantern, soul torch, soul soil, target block, weeping vines, blackstone with its slabs, stairs, and wall variants; chain, chiseled nether bricks, cracked nether bricks, crying obsidian, hyphae, lodestone, nether gold ore; polished blackstone with its button, pressure plate, slab, stairs, and wall variants; polished blackstone bricks with its slab, stairs, and wall variants; quartz brick, respawn anchor, soul campfire, and twisting vines.}} {{History|foot}}

Trivia

 * Certain blocks may interpret positions they cannot be placed in by normal means as a valid position. For example, a sign placed in midair via remains in midair even when updated, until either it is broken, or a block is placed below it and broken.