User:Blobs2/Renewable resources

This page discusses a theory of renewability in Minecraft. If you have any questions or suggestions, please visit my talk page.

Renewability of non-Item Features
Renewability usually refers to an item being infinitely obtainable. However, some unobtainable blocks can be created indefinitely. It is difficult to tell whether many technical blocks are renewable. However, we can consider the following blocks:

Of the above blocks, only chorus plants and Nether portal blocks can be created renewably.

In addition, tall grass can be created indefinitely as a block by applying bone meal to normal grass, but it can only be obtained as an item from savanna village house chests.

Mobs
Most mobs are renewable — i.e., they can spawn indefinitely — with the following exceptions:

Status Effects
All status effects are renewable; they can be applied to the player indefinitely. The exceptions are Health Boost and Fatal Poison, which cannot be applied at all without commands.

Level IV of Regeneration and Absorption are not renewable, since they can only be applied via enchanted apples.

Enchantments
All enchantments are renewable, since librarian villagers can sell any enchanted book. The exception is curses, which are unused.

Other
Experience is renewable.

Renewability Levels
Some non-renewable resources are necessary to obtain another resource renewably. For example, stone is only renewable because it can be created from non-renewable lava (note that some items can be crafted from renewable blackstone instead of cobblestone).

Let’s say that a non-renewable resource is, and a renewable resource that requires a non-renewable resource is. In general, a renewable resource that requires an resource or less is.

No blocks or items are or higher.

Infinite Renewability
Usually, a resource obtainable as a mob drop or related method cannot be described as for any n. We will call these resources infinitely renewable.

Sometimes, a resource is renewable with an initial use of itself. In this case, if the resource were, then the resource would be renewable with an initial use of an resource (namely itself) making it at least. This conflicts with the resource being only, so the resource must be infinitely renewable. We will show some examples.

Dirt
The player can kill vindicators and evokers in raids. This is an initial use of nothing but a pillager outpost, and the emeralds can be used to buy podzol from a wandering trader. By the logic described above, dirt and emeralds are infinitely renewable.

The infinite renewability of emeralds implies the infinite renewability of anything that wandering traders sell. Furthermore, an initial use of dirt to plant trees makes logs renewable. This makes crafting tables, fishing rods and many profession blocks infinitely renewable, along with items obtainable from fishing or a corresponding villager infinitely renewable.

Villager Trading
Since emeralds are infinitely renewable, anything available through villager trading is also infinitely renewable, if the job site block is as well. This is true for all villagers except armorers and weaponsmiths. Despite some job site blocks not being infinitely renewable, there is an infinitely renewable (though extremely inefficient) way to buy items from the corresponding villagers:
 * 1) Find a randomly-spawned zombie villager, which is infinitely renewable.
 * 2) Cure the zombie villager. The golden apple and Splash Potion of Weakness needed to cure the zombie villager are infinitely renewable (for the potion, make sure you used blackstone to make the brewing stand).
 * 3) Do all of the trades where you only need to spend infinitely renewable resources. The villager will not be able to restock, but you can buy any items as long as you can level the villager high enough.

Armorers and weaponsmiths can all be promoted to master by only selling infinitely renewable resources. Therefore, every item obtainable via trading is infinitely renewable. Stonecutters are infinitely renewable for this reason: Starting with an initial stonecutter, a villager can be converted to stone mason, which can then sell polished granite, andesite, or diorite for more stonecutters.

The player can first max out the novice trades, which give the villager 44 xp. Then max out the apprentice trades for another 180 xp (224 xp total). Finally, buy 10 chainmail helmets, chainmail chestplates, or shields for a final 120 xp, enough to level the villager up completely. This makes all armorer trades infinitely renewable. Like the armorer, the weaponsmith can gain 44 xp from the novice trades. Next, the weaponsmith can gain 135 xp from the apprentice trades, for a total of 179 xp. Now complete the journeyman trades for 360 xp, enough to promote the villager to master. Again, all weaponsmith trades are infiniteyl renewable.
 * Armorer
 * Weaponsmith

Obsidian
We will consider a process that initially requires only obsidian and a diamond pickaxe. The steps are:
 * 1) Make a Nether portal frame. The portal will activate when lightning strikes next to it. Call this portal A.
 * 2) Make and activate another portal (call it portal B) sufficiently far from portal A that the 2 portals cannot connect to the same portal in the Nether.
 * 3) Say that portals A and B connect to portals A' and B', respectively. Build a path between portals A' and B'.
 * 4) Use your diamond pickaxe to mine the obsidian from portal B. Use portal A to return to the nether, and use portal B' to recreate portal B. Repeat this step as many times as desired.

Since obsidian requires an initial use of only itself and an infinitely renewable resource, obsidian is also infinitely renewable.

Quasi-Renewable Resources
Let’s consider blocks and items that would be “renewable” with the initial use of a resource that does not exist in vanilla survival without cheats or NBT editing.

First, consider command blocks, programmed as. This would make the corresponding resource “renewable”, but the command block cannot be obtained legitimately and cannot be programmed in survival.

Command blocks would make almost all resources "renewable", so we will exclude them from the definition of quasi-renewability. There is a similar problem with the following unavailable resources:
 * A structure block in load mode in which the structure contains the resource. This can be used in survival using a redstone circuit.
 * A villager who sells the desired item, since their trading table can be changed through NBT editing.

We will only consider blocks and items that make specific features "renewable".

Chemistry
The element constructor, material reducer, compound creator, and lab table (they can only be obtained in Creative in worlds with “Education Edition” enabled) are necessary to create the following blocks and items "renewably".
 * Balloons
 * Bleach
 * Colored Torches
 * Compounds
 * Elements
 * Garbage
 * Glow Sticks
 * Hardened Glass
 * Hardened Glass Panes
 * Heat Blocks
 * Ice Bombs
 * Medicine
 * Sparkler
 * Super Fertilizer
 * Underwater Torches
 * Underwater TNT

We can show that all of these are quasi-renewable:
 * An element constructor can produce an unlimited amount of most elements, making elements quasi-renewable.
 * The exception is ???, which cannot be obtained using an element constructor. This element can, however, be obtained from renewable netherrack, glowstone, or end stone, using a material reducer.
 * A compound creator can create compounds out of quasi-renewable elements, making compounds quasi-renewable.
 * A lab table can construct bleach, ice bombs, super fertilizer, and garbage out of quasi-renewable elements and compounds, or construct a heat block from renewable and quasi-renewable resources.
 * Medicine can be brewed by adding certain elements to Awkward Potion, making medicine quasi-renewable.
 * The remaining blocks and items can be crafted from renewable and quasi-renewable resources.