Technical blocks



Technical blocks are blocks whose main functions are strictly tied to the usage of other blocks. They cannot be acquired through normal gameplay, and require commands or mods to obtain. They serve various purposes during events within the game. If acquired, they will usually have a missing texture.

Piston Head
The piston head is the block that represents the piston's extended head.

Piston Extension
The piston extension handles the animation of the piston and the block it is pushing or pulling.

Lit Redstone Ore
This is a block used to make redstone ore glow when stepped on, when, or left-clicked. Glowing redstone maintains its glow if pushed or pulled by a piston, but eventually stops glowing as if it had been touched by the player when placed.

Unlit Redstone Torch
This is a block representing a redstone torch in the "off" state.

Powered Redstone Repeater
This is the "on" state of the redstone repeater.

Lit Redstone Lamp
This is the "on" state of the redstone lamp.

Powered Redstone Comparator
This is the "on" state of the redstone comparator. It will provide a one tick pulse and then will turn off, similar to block 94 (active repeater). Note: Block 149 (originally "off state Comparator") has been changed to include the off and on states in the same block, making this an unused technical block not just one without an item form.

Inverted Daylight Sensor
This is the inverted state of the daylight sensor.

Flowing Water
The flowing water block tells the game to check for any air blocks around it and put some water into them if applicable. This is distinct from whether or not the fluid appears to be moving, and whether or not it is a source block. When placed using a water bucket it will flow 8 blocks.

Flowing Lava
The flowing lava block tells the game to check for any air blocks around it and put some lava into them if applicable. This is distinct from whether or not the fluid appears to be moving, and whether or not it is a source block. Lava flows for 4 blocks in overworld and 8 in the Nether.

Farmland
Farmland is a block on which seeds (melon, pumpkin, wheat, carrot, potato, and the Pocket Edition exclusive item beetroot) can be planted and grown, and it is made by using a hoe on dirt or grass blocks.

Cake
When you place a cake using, it will appear as a cake block, and its block state has 7 positions which determine how much cake has been "eaten".

Monster spawners
A monster spawner can be obtained with, but will always spawn pigs when placed. Spawners that create other entities can be obtained using commands. The spawned mob can be changed by using a spawn egg on a spawner.

Nether Portal
Nether Portal blocks are generated when a Nether portal is formed, standing in them will teleport the player from the Overworld to the Nether and vice versa.

End Portal
The End Portal is a block that generates when an End portal is completed or when the Ender dragon is defeated. The block will teleport the player into or out of the End dimension.

End Gateway
The End Gateway is a block generates as part of an End gateway portal, which will teleport the player out to one of the outer islands of the End.

Glowing Obsidian
Glowing obsidian is a block which only generates when the Nether reactor is activated. Upon activation, the blocks that make up the reactor turn into glowing obsidian.

Update Game
The Update Game block is a placeholder for nonexistent data values. It is a block with a dirt texture with "update!" written on it in green.

info_reserved6
info_reserved6 is a solid-gray looking block. According to the code, the block's name is "info_reserved6", but in-game, the block appears to be named as ".name". The block was a placeholder for fire, due to a problem with the fire-spreading mechanics. info_reserved6 could only be obtained between and. In, fire was returned with fixed spreading mechanics, replacing info_reserved6. Its data value, however, changed to ID 255. Currently, it can only be obtained through hex editing.