Dirt

For other uses, see Dirt (disambiguation).

Dirt

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	0.5
Hardness	0.5
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

Dirt is a block found abundantly in most biomes under a layer of grass blocks at the top of the Overworld.

Obtaining

Natural generation

Dirt is found at any altitude, and comprises the majority of the upper terrain layers in most Overworld biomes, bridging the gap between stone and grass blocks in various thicknesses.

There are approximately 1,850 dirt blocks per chunk in plains, forest, snowy tundra, jungle, and mountain biomes. There can be as many as 3,000 in chunks with high mountains. In villages, dirt generates naturally as part of several different structures.

Dirt can generate in the Overworld in the form of blobs. Dirt attempts to generate 15 times per chunk in blobs of size 0-160 at any level in all biomes. It can replace stone, granite, diorite, andesite, tuff, and deepslate. If the Caves & Cliffs experimental gameplay toggle is enabled in Bedrock Edition, dirt blobs do not generate below Y=-4.

Breaking

Dirt drops as an item when broken with any tool or by hand, but a shovel is the quickest way to break it.

Block	Dirt
Hardness	0.5
Tool
Breaking time
Default	0.75
Wooden	0.4
Stone	0.2
Iron	0.15
Diamond	0.1
Netherite	0.1
Golden	0.1

Farmland, dirt paths, grass blocks, mycelium, and podzol drop dirt if broken without Silk Touch. Farmland and dirt paths‌^{[JE only]} drop dirt even if broken with Silk Touch.

Mob loot

An enderman drops a dirt block upon death, if holding one.

Post-generation

Farmland turns into dirt if either a mob jumps on it, a solid block is placed over it, or if nothing is planted on it and it is not within four blocks of water.

Dirt path immediately turns into dirt if a solid block is placed over it.

Coarse dirt can be tilled with a hoe to become dirt.

Tilling rooted dirt with a hoe turns it into normal dirt, and yields a hanging roots item.

Grass blocks and mycelium can die under various circumstances. When they die, they turn into dirt.

Renewable acquisition

By tilling coarse dirt, the player can convert gravel into dirt. Two blocks each of gravel and dirt become four blocks of coarse dirt, which can then be placed and tilled. Since gravel is renewable through bartering with piglins, this makes a renewable source of dirt.

Another renewable way to obtain dirt makes use of moss blocks. Since large spruce trees can convert moss blocks into podzol, and moss can be grown on renewable stone (generated with water and lava), dirt can be renewably created as long as there is access to water, lava, moss, spruce saplings and bone meal. Azalea can also convert moss blocks into rooted dirt when grown into a tree, but since only one block is converted at a time, it is much less efficient than large spruce trees.

A third way to obtain renewable dirt is by buying podzol from wandering traders. However, only 18 blocks of podzol can be purchased from each trader, so this method cannot be performed on a large scale.

Usage

Dirt's primary use is for farming, but it can also be used as a highly available building block.

Crafting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Coarse Dirt	Dirt + Gravel	4

Farming

Dirt has the ability to grow saplings, sugar cane, mushrooms, sweet berries, and bamboo, which can be planted directly in dirt under appropriate conditions.

Using a hoe on dirt turns it into farmland, enabling wheat seeds, pumpkin seeds, melon seeds, potatoes, carrots and beetroot seeds to be planted on it.

Dirt path

Using a shovel on dirt turns it into a dirt path.

Grass and mycelium spreading

See also: Grass Block

When a dirt block is adjacent to a grass block and is exposed to a light level of at least 4, it is eventually converted into a grass block at random intervals.

Mycelium spreads in a similar fashion, but requires a light level of at least 9.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.gravel.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	None	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.gravel.fall	None	0.5	0.75	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.gravel.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.gravel.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.gravel.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Block tags (JE)	Form	Translation key
Dirt	dirt	bamboo_plantable_on enderman_holdable dripstone_replaceable_blocks moss_replaceable lush_ground_replaceable mineable/shovel dirt	Block & Item	block.minecraft.dirt

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Dirt	dirt	3	Block & Item	tile.dirt.default.name

Metadata

See also: Data values

In Bedrock Edition, dirt uses the following data values:

	DV	Description
	0	Dirt
	1	Coarse Dirt

Block states

See also: Block states

In Bedrock Edition, dirt uses the following block states:

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
dirt_type	normal	normal	Dirt
		coarse	Coarse Dirt

History

Java Edition pre-Classic
rd-20090515					Added dirt.
					Grass spreads to dirt when under light.
Java Edition Classic
0.24 SURVIVAL TEST					Grass blocks and dirt now drop dirt when broken.
Java Edition Indev
?					Dirt now uses a sound distinct from grass.
20100206					Dirt can now be tilled with a hoe into farmland.
Java Edition Infdev
20100617-2					Dirt and gravel now generate naturally as blobs underground.
Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Dirt now generates naturally in villages and mineshafts.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Mycelium has been introduced, and now spreads to dirt.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5			The texture of dirt has been changed. Dirt now has a slightly different arrangement of grains around the sides.
1.1		12w01a			Dirt is now generating in Superflat world type.
1.4.2		12w38a			Dirt has been given new sounds for being placed and walked upon.
1.8		14w27b			Dirt's textures now rotate randomly due to the addition of arrays to the block model format.
1.11		16w39a			Dirt now generates in mansions.
1.14		19w05a			Dirt is now renewable due to the wandering trader selling podzol.
1.16		20w07a			As gravel has become renewable through piglin bartering, dirt can be more easily and renewably obtained through crafting and tilling coarse dirt.
1.17		20w45a			A shovel can now be used on dirt to create a dirt path block.
		21w06a			Dirt blobs are now able to generate below Y=0.
		21w07a			Dirt blobs no longer generate below Y=0.
1.18		21w37a			Dirt no longer generates as part of the starting room in mineshafts.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release					Added dirt.
v0.2.0					The texture of dirt has been changed.
v0.4.0					Dirt can now be hoed into farmland.
v0.8.0		build 2			The textures of dirt are now randomly rotated.
v0.9.0		build 1			Grassless dirt has been added.
v0.11.0		build 1			Dirt can now be obtained by breaking grass path blocks.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Dirt now generates in woodland mansions.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Grassless dirt has been replaced with coarse dirt.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Dirt is now renewable.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	[verify] Added dirt.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added dirt.

Data history

Java Edition
1.8		14w10a			Dirt with numerical metadata variants 3 through 15, which are inaccessible through normal gameplay, now have no model rather than appearing identical to dirt.
		14w25a			Dirt and its variant are now defined via block states rather than by numerical metadata. Prior to this version, the numerical metadata variants of dirt were as follows: DV Description 0 Dirt 1 Grassless Dirt 2 Podzol 3-15 Inaccessible "boring" variants of dirt
		14w26a			Dirt with metadata values 3 through 15 have now been completely removed from the game.
1.13		17w47a			The different variant block states for the dirt ID have been split up into their own IDs.
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 3.

Issues

Issues relating to "Dirt" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery

• 

  A cave entrance containing multitudes of dirt.

• 

  Grassless dirt (now known as coarse dirt) found in a savanna biome.

• 

  Grass spreading on a square of dirt.