Falling Block

Falling Block

Hitbox size	Height: 0.98 Blocks Width: 0.98 Blocks

A falling block is the entity form of block that appears when a gravity-affected block loses its support.

Spawning

Falling blocks naturally spawn where gravity-affected blocks lose their base of support. These blocks include:

• Anvil
• Concrete Powder
• Dragon Egg
• Gravel
• Pointed Dripstone
• Red Sand
• Sand
• Scaffolding
• Snow layer‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Although the same appearance as its corresponding block and affected by gravity, the primed TNT entity is not a falling block.

If cheats are enabled, falling block entities can be spawned using the command /summon. By tweaking the BlockState NBT tag, it is possible to summon a falling block entity that normally does not fall as a block, such as dirt or stone, although it will have the same behavior as a naturally spawned falling block.

Behavior

A falling block continues falling until it lands on another block with a solid top surface. If it lands with the bottom center of its hitbox on a replaceable block (grass, water, vines, air, etc.) then the falling block returns to its block state. Otherwise, it breaks and drops as an item.

Like most other entities, falling blocks are affected by explosions and bubble columns, can be launched by a moving slime block, can be pushed by pistons, can be slowed down by cobwebs, and can slide down the side of a honey block. However, they do not bounce on a stationary slime block and can neither be pushed nor slowed down by water or lava.

Falling blocks pass through most entities without colliding with them, although projectiles such as arrows bounce off them. They do not have health, cannot be attacked and do not take damage. They are also immune to all status effects.

A falling block that has existed for more than 600 ticks (30 seconds) will destroy itself and drop as an item.

Commands such as /data‌^{[Java Edition only]} can change the moving and facing directions of a falling block, although there are no in-game mechanics that can alter a falling block's facing direction. They can be removed with the /kill command.

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Translation key
Falling Block	falling_block	entity.minecraft.falling_block

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Translation key
Falling Block	falling_block	66	entity.falling_block.name

Entity data

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format

• Dynamic block entity data
  • Tags common to all entities
  •  BlockState: The falling block represented by this entity.
    •  Name: The resource location of the block.
    •  Properties: Optional. The block states of the block.
      •  Name: The block state name and its value.
  •  DropItem: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should drop as an item when it breaks. Any block that does not have an item form with the same ID as the block does not drop even if this is set.
  •  FallHurtAmount: Multiplied by the FallDistance to calculate the amount of damage to inflict. By default this value is always 2.
  •  FallHurtMax: The maximum hit points of damage to inflict on entities that intersect this falling block . For vanilla falling blocks, always 40 × 20.
  •  HurtEntities: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block should hurt entities it falls on.
  •  TileEntityData: Optional. The tags of the block entity for this block.
  •  Time: The number of ticks the entity has existed. If set to 0, the moment it ticks to 1, it vanishes if the block at its location has a different ID than the entity's BlockState.Name. If the block at its location has the same ID as its BlockState.Name when Time ticks from 0 to 1, the block is deleted, and the entity continues to fall, having overwritten it. When Time goes above 600, or above 100 while the block is below Y=1 or is outside building height, the entity is deleted.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

History

Java Edition Infdev
20100618					Added falling block entity with the ID FallingSand, although it affects gravel as well.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			Added dragon eggs, which create falling blocks.
1.4.2		12w41a			Added anvils, which create falling blocks.
1.7.2		13w39a			Added red sand, which creates falling blocks.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from FallingSand to falling_block.
1.12		17w06a			Added concrete powder, which creates falling blocks.
1.14		18w45a			Added scaffolding, which creates falling blocks.
1.17		20w48a			Added pointed dripstone, which creates falling blocks if the block above it gets destroyed while the pointed dripstone is a stalactite.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.6.0					Sand and gravel are now affected by gravity with the addition of falling blocks.
v0.8.0		build 8			Falling blocks now drop their item form when falling onto blocks they cannot replace.
v0.9.0		build 1			Added red sand, which creates falling blocks.
v0.12.1		build 1			Added anvils, which create falling blocks.
					Snow now creates falling blocks.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added dragon eggs, which create falling blocks.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Added concrete powder, which creates falling blocks.
Bedrock Edition
1.8.0		beta 1.8.0.8			Added scaffolding, which creates falling blocks.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.210.56			Added pointed dripstone, which creates falling blocks if the block above it gets destroyed while the pointed dripstone is a stalactite.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added sand and gravel along with falling blocks.
TU9					Added dragon eggs, which create falling blocks.
TU14		1.05			Added anvils, which create falling blocks.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Added red sand.
TU53	CU43	1.49	Patch 23	1.0.3	Added concrete powder, which creates falling blocks.
		1.83			Added scaffolding, which creates falling blocks.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added falling blocks along with sand, red sand, gravel, and anvils.
1.7.10					Added dragon eggs, which create falling blocks.
1.9.19					Added concrete powder, which creates falling blocks.

See also

• Tutorials/Falling blocks
• Entity

Entities

View at: Template:Entities/content [edit]