Redstone Dust

Redstone dust is a mineral that can transmit redstone power when placed as a block.

Mining
Redstone ore mined using an iron pickaxe or higher drops 4 or 5 redstone dust (or more with Fortune, averaging at 6 redstone dust with Fortune level 3). If mined with Silk Touch, the block drops itself instead of redstone dust.

Natural generation
15 lengths of redstone dust are naturally generated as part of the trap in each jungle pyramid. 5 lengths of redstone dust can be found in one type of jail cell room in a woodland mansion.

Breaking
Redstone dust can be broken instantly using any tool, or without a tool, and drops itself as an item.

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

Mob loot
Witches have a chance of dropping 0–2 redstone dust upon death. This is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0–5 redstone dust.

Crafting
Redstone dust can be crafted from blocks of redstone.

Trading
$$, novice-level cleric villagers sell two redstone dust for one emerald.

Clerics may give redstone dust to a player with the Hero of the Village effect.

$$, novice-level cleric villagers sell four redstone dust for one emerald.

Usage
Redstone dust is used for brewing, crafting, and in redstone circuits by placing it on the ground to create redstone wire. It can also be used to power redstone components.

Redstone component
When placed in the world, redstone dust becomes a block of "redstone wire", which can transmit redstone power.

Placement
Redstone dust can be placed on opaque blocks as well as glowstone, upside-down slabs, glass, upside-down stairs, and hoppers. It can also be placed on some transparent blocks; see Opacity/Placement for more information. It cannot be placed suspended in midair, even with commands, which is not unintentional.

Redstone wire configures itself to point toward adjacent redstone power components and transmission component connection points. Redstone wire also configures itself to point toward adjacent redstone wire one block higher or lower – unless there is a solid opaque block above the lower redstone wire.

If there is only one such adjacent redstone component, redstone wire configures itself into a line pointing both at the neighbor and away from it. If there are two or more such adjacent redstone components, redstone wire connects them in the form of a line, an "elbow", a "T", or a cross as needed. If there are no such adjacent redstone components, redstone wire configures itself into a plus sign, which can provide power in all four directions.

$$, redstone wire automatically configures itself to point toward adjacent blocks or mechanism components. $$, it does not. If such a configuration is desired, the other neighbors of the redstone wire must be arranged to create it, i.e the redstone dust must be placed in a way that it would be pointed at the block’s location even if it were not there.

When redstone wire is reconfigured after placement, it does 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 wire that can be used to make a block update detector.

Behavior
Redstone wire can transmit power, which can be used to operate mechanism components (doors, pistons, redstone lamps, etc.). Redstone wire can be "powered" by a number of methods:
 * from an adjacent power component or a strongly-powered block
 * from the output of a redstone repeater or redstone comparator
 * from adjacent redstone wire. The powering dust can be a level higher or lower, but with restrictions:
 * Redstone dust can be powered by redstone dust that is one level lower, or on an opaque block one level higher. A transparent block cannot pass power downward.
 * The block "between" the two dust blocks must be air or transparent. 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 wire it crosses. Thus, redstone wire 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 wire on top of, or pointing at, an opaque block provides weak power to the block. A weakly-powered block cannot power other adjacent redstone wire, but can still power redstone repeaters and comparators, and activate adjacent mechanism components. Transparent blocks cannot be powered.

When redstone wire is unpowered, it appears dark red. When powered, it becomes bright red at power level 15, fading to darker shades with decreasing power. Powered redstone wire also produces "dust" particles of the same color.

Since Java Edition 1.16, while redstone wire always provides power to the directions it points into, it can still point into directions in which it cannot give power. If redstone wire comes in the form of a cross, the player can right-click to toggle it between a cross and dot. A redstone dot does not power anything adjacent to it, but powers the block under it.

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Trivia

 * Five updates for Windows 10 released from 2016 to 2018 were codenamed "Redstone", referencing Minecraft.
 * The block has 1,296 possible block state combinations, the highest of all blocks as of 1.15.2, beating fire's 512 and note block's 800.