All of the blocks in Java Edition 1.12.2
Blocks are the basic units of structure in Minecraft.
Behavior
Blocks are arranged in a grid, each cell of which is 1 cubic meter, and are snapped to it, which means a block cannot be in more than one cell. There might seem to be exceptions, such as beds and falling sand, however, a bed consists of two blocks, each making up one half of it, and when a block of sand falls it converts to an entity instead.
Together, blocks and fluids build up the in-game environment and can be harvested and utilized in various fashions. Some blocks, such as dirt and sandstone, are opaque, while other blocks, such as glass and ice, are transparent.
Some blocks, such as torches and glowstone, will 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 either have no effect on light or merely weaken it.
Almost all blocks will ignore gravity, with the exception of sand, red sand, gravel, anvils, dragon eggs, concrete powder, scaffolding, and snow[Legacy Console and Bedrock editions only].
Mostly, only one block can occupy a single grid cell at a time. The only exceptions to this are snow layers[Bedrock Edition only], which can combine with each other up to eight in a cell, and water, which can combine with most non-full-size blocks using a game mechanic called waterlogging.
Block height
Most solid blocks are 1 meter high (3.28084 ft), but certain blocks (especially slabs and stairs) have non-standard block heights.
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.
Also the world height limt is 256 blocks/meters (839.895 ft).
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 also have static textures, though water, lava, Nether portal, End portal, End gateway, fire, sea lantern, command block, prismarine, and magma blocks are animated.
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.
List of blocks
Blocks with a gray background cannot be obtained in the inventory.
Bedrock Edition/New Nintendo 3DS Edition only
These blocks can only be accessed in Bedrock Edition and New Nintendo 3DS Edition. In these versions, item frames work as block entities, stonecutters are only obtainable from creative mode inventory, through commands, or by inventory editing, and glowing obsidian, Invisible bedrock and nether reactor cores are not obtainable at all but continue to exist in old worlds.
Education Edition (mobile) only
These blocks can only be accessed in Education Edition and Bedrock Edition
Removed/Unimplemented blocks
Removed blocks no longer exist in current versions of the game.
Unimplemented blocks are blocks that were planned for a previous version but were never added.
Technical blocks
Technical blocks up to Java Edition 1.6.1. Blocks in this image are no longer available in the current Minecraft version, except farmland and spawner.
Technical blocks are blocks whose main functions are strictly tied to the usage of other blocks. They cannot be acquired through normal gameplay, most of them cannot be obtained with commands and even external editors[Java and Legacy Console editions only], but other ones require commands or mods to obtain. They serve various purposes during events within the game. If acquired, they will usually have a missing texture.
Many of these blocks have different representations in the inventory; flint and steel is used to place fire, water and lava can be placed with their respective buckets, and blocks such as beds, doors, cake and flower pots have separate inventory items.
Video
History
| pre-classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rd-132211 | Added blocks that can be placed and destroyed. | ||||
| Added air, but internally isn't a block. | |||||
| rd-160052 | There is now support for different block types. | ||||
| New particles are now shown when destroying a block. | |||||
| New support for dynamic blocks. | |||||
| Added pick blocks functionality. | |||||
| classic | |||||
| ? | Added multiple sounds for blocks. | ||||
| August 4, 2009 | Breaking blocks allows picking them up and place them, thus adding and removing them from the inventory. | ||||
| August 14, 2009 | The requirement to have to hold down the mouse button to break blocks, creating a block-breaking animation, was first shown. | ||||
| 0.27 SURVIVAL TEST | The player will now begin with 10 TNT blocks and can now obtain dirt, cobblestone from stone, wooden planks from wood, gold blocks from gold ore, iron blocks from iron ore, stone slabs from coal ore, and white wool from sheep. | ||||
| 0.28 | Right click will now add blocks and left click will now remove them. | ||||
| The player can now build with naturally occurring blocks. | |||||
| The player can now use bookshelves, sponges, colored wools, bricks, obsidians and mossy cobblestones. | |||||
| Operators of servers can now also build bedrock. Some custom servers can now give the ability to place grass blocks and fluid blocks, too. | |||||
| All new block types have now been added. | |||||
| indev | |||||
| 0.31 (December 23, 2009, 2) | Blocks can now be dropped on the ground. | ||||
| Blocks that are thrown on the ground can now also be picked up. | |||||
| 0.31 (January 22, 2010) | Blocks can now be placed on resource items. As a result, resource items will now be pushed off. | ||||
| 0.31 (January 25, 2010, 1) | Added new block particles. | ||||
| infdev | |||||
| February 27, 2010 | It is now possible to place blocks inside the player. | ||||
| ? | It is now impossible to place blocks inside the player. | ||||
| Solid blocks will now cause suffocation. | |||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w37a | The ability to obtain the item form of 26 technical blocks has now been removed. These were the bed (26), piston head and extension (34 & 36), redstone wire (55), wheat crops (59), standing and wall sign (63 & 68), wooden and iron door (64 & 71), lit redstone ore (74), unlit redstone torch (75), sugar cane (83), cake (92), unpowered and powered repeater (93 & 94), pumpkin and melon stem (104 & 105), nether wart (115), brewing stand (117), cauldron (118), lit redstone lamp (124), tripwire (132), flower pot (140), skull (144), and unpowered and powered comparator (149 & 150). | |||
| 13w38b | Air is now internally a block[1] and can be kept in the inventory. It has a missing texture, File:MissingTextureInventory.png. | ||||
| 13w38c | Air can now no longer be kept in the inventory anymore. | ||||
| 1.8 | 14w25a | The ability to obtain the item form of 12 technical blocks has now been removed. These blocks were flowing and stationary water and lava blocks (8, 9, 10 & 11), double stone and wooden slabs (43 & 125), fire blocks (51), nether and end portal blocks (90 & 119), cocoa pods (127), and potato and carrot crops (141 & 142). | |||
| Blocks will now show the closest item form to themselves as the icon in the superflat settings menu. | |||||
| 14w26b | All technical blocks, except for the monster spawner (52) and farmland (60), will now have a missing texture in the inventory, File:Missing Texture Block.png, due to their item models being nonexistent. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w49a | The ability to obtain the item form of lit furnaces (62) has now been removed. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| Pre-release | Added exclusive cyan flowers and invisible bedrock. Blocks were also 2D in the inventory | ||||
| 0.2.0 | Breaking blocks will now allow the player to pick them up and place them, thus adding and removing them from the inventory. Blocks are now 3D in the inventory | ||||
| 0.2.1 | Added block breaking animation. | ||||
| 0.5.0 | Added exclusive nether reactor core and glowing obsidian. | ||||
| 0.6.0 | Added exclusive stonecutter. | ||||
| 0.9.0 | ? | Removed cyan flower. | |||
| 0.12.1 | ? | Nether Reactor Core is now no longer obtainable in survival or creative. | |||
| 0.13.0 | ? | Removed crafting recipe and functionality of the stonecutter. It can still be found in the creative inventory. | |||
Issues
Issues relating to "Block" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Gallery
All blocks in Classic 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST.
All blocks in Classic 0.0.21a.
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
/setblockor through bugs will remain in midair even when updated, until either it is broken, or a block is placed below it and broken.
See also
References
- ↑ "This snapshot may be very crashy because @_grum redefined the concept of "air". We're keeping an eye on the crash list though!" – @Dinnerbone (Nathan Adams) on X, September 20, 2013

