Redstone Torch

The Redstone Torch is an item crafted from one Redstone dust and one wooden stick. When placed on its own, it appears as a glowing red torch, noticably fainter than a coal torch and without the fire animation.

It can provide a power source for wires. Wires in turn are used to operate doors or switches from a distance. The torch can power the wire for a length of 15 blocks.

The Redstone Torch will constantly power a set of wires while placed, and is used as a "block-based" switch sometimes. It acts as an inverter, or NOT-gate (and is labeled as such in the game's source code), in Redstone circuits, and turns off when any adjacent switch, lever, wire or pressure plate is turned on. See Redstone circuits for more information on using Redstone torches in circuits and logic gates.

Redstone torches can be used to sabotage/activate traps and mechanisms as well as opening locked iron doors making it useful for raiding parties in multiplayer. A door circuit designed to be closed when constantly powered prevents this vulnerability.

Redstone torches will not melt ice or snow due to their low light level. Using it as a source of light is not recommended because it has just half the light output of a regular (coal) torch, and this will not prevent mobs from spawning (though it WILL decrease the probability of spawning). Also, redstone is much harder to find than coal, and is made into torches at a 1:1 ratio (rather than 1:4). One redstone ore block will produce 4 redstone dust and thus 4 torches.

Redstone torches will burn out for around ~8 seconds when switched between on and off state too often, specifically every 1/3-1/4 seconds. When burning out it will produce a "hissing" sound like fire extinguished by water.

Related pages

 * Redstone
 * Redstone (Wire)
 * Redstone (Ore)
 * Redstone (Dust)
 * Redstone circuits
 * Mechanisms
 * Traps

Redstone-Fackel