Minecart with TNT

A minecart with TNT is a block of TNT inside a minecart. Unlike normal TNT it can detonate instantly under certain conditions and its damage and blast radius is increased by its speed when it detonates.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
TNT + Minecart

Minecarts with TNT can be retrieved by attacking them, and by doing so it drops as an item.

Usage

TNT minecart and powered activator rail — When the TNT minecart passes over the powered activator rail, it explodes after four seconds.

Simple TNT minecart detonator setup — Placing two TNT minecarts on the rail and powering it (here, by flicking the lever) creates an instant explosion.

TNT minecart roof trap — Destroying the gold block causes the TNT minecart to fall down and instantly explode.

A minecart with TNT detonates after a delay on these conditions:

It moves over a powered activator rail.
It is destroyed while in motion (except by a player in Creative mode).
It is destroyed by fire, lava, or an explosion.
In Java Edition, it is hit by a fire charge.

The delay is 4 seconds (80 game ticks) for an activator rail, like the TNT block. For other causes there is a random delay between 0 and 1.9 seconds, but more likely to be close to 1.

It detonates instantly on these conditions:

It hits the ground with a downward velocity of it falling more than three blocks, unless landing on any form of rail.
It turns on a curved track too fast, with a solid block or entity located beside the track (in the previous movement direction).
It is hit by a flaming arrow.
It is pressed into a block or entity and has velocity.

Upon detonation it acts as normal TNT, exploding and damaging nearby blocks, players, and entities. Upon detonation after activating on activator rail, it does not destroy its rails and the blocks the rail is on, however other nearby carts can.‌^{[Java Edition only]} More than one minecart can be placed on the same rail block, allowing many of them to fit into a single block. They explode when touched, dealing large amounts of damage.

The explosion has a base power of 4, the same as regular TNT, but the game also adds a random bonus value up to 1.5 times velocity, but no higher than 7.5. This means that with a speed of 5 or higher the power will be a random value between 4 and 11.5. When triggered by an activator rail or by damage, the bonus value is calculated using the horizontal velocity of the minecart. When hit by a flaming arrow the velocity of the arrow is used instead. When triggered by fall damage, the fall distance divided by 10 is used.

Minecarts with TNT bounce off of other minecarts and cannot be linked to minecarts with furnaces.

Sounds

Java Edition:
Minecarts with TNT use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.^{[sound 1]}

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Minecart rolls	Friendly Creatures ^{[sound 1]}	While a minecart with TNT is moving	`entity.minecart.riding`	`subtitles.entity.minecart.riding`	0.0-0.35 ^{[sound 2]}	0.0-1.0 ^{[sound 3]}	16
TNT fizzes	Blocks	When a minecart with TNT is primed	`entity.tnt.primed`	`subtitles.entity.tnt.primed`	1.0	1.0	16
Explosion	Blocks	When a minecart with TNT explodes	`entity.generic.explode`	`subtitles.entity.generic.explode`	4.0	0.56-0.84	16

↑ ^a ^b MC-42132
↑ Relates linearly with horizontal velocity (max 0.5)
↑ Will increase by 0.0025 per tick if the minecart's horizontal velocity is more than 0.01

Bedrock Edition:^{[sound 1]}

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Friendly Creatures	While a minecart with TNT is moving	`minecart.base`	?	?
	Blocks	When a minecart with TNT explodes	`random.explode`	4.0	1.0

↑ MCPE-35778 — Minecart with tnt does not have the sound of tnt being ignited when we use flint and steel, fire charge or activator rail

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Item	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Minecart with TNT	`tnt_minecart`	Item	`item.minecraft.tnt_minecart`

Entity	Identifier	Translation key
Minecart with TNT	`tnt_minecart`	`entity.minecraft.tnt_minecart`

Bedrock Edition:

Item	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Minecart with TNT	`tnt_minecart`	`525`	Item	`item.tnt_minecart.name`

Entity	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Minecart with TNT	`tnt_minecart`	`97`	`entity.tnt_minecart.name`

Entity data

Minecarts with TNT have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all minecarts
- TNTFuse: Time until explosion or -1 if deactivated.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Video

History

Java Edition
1.5		13w02a			Added minecart with TNT.
1.5		13w03a			Minecart with TNT no longer destroys nearby rails and rail supports during explosion.^[1]
1.8		14w11a			Minecart with TNT explosions no longer stack.
1.8		14w26a			Minecart with TNT can now be detonated using arrows on fire.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID for minecart with TNT has been changed from `MinecartTNT` to `tnt_minecart`.
1.12		1.12-pre6			No longer instantly explode when hit with fire charges; instead, they explode as if primed by an activator rail.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 407.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of minecart with TNT have been updated.
1.14		19w11a			Minecart with TNT explosions now have a 100% drop rate.
1.15		19w38a			The TNT now appear dark, same as suffocating mobs.
		19w39a			The TNT texture now colored correctly.
		Pre-release 1			The model of minecart with TNT has been changed.^[2]
		Pre-release 3			The model of minecart with TNT has been changed back to the 18w43a model.
1.19		22w13a			The crafting recipe for a minecart with TNT is now shapeless.
1.19		22w13a			Breaking a minecart with TNT will now drop the item instead of the minecart and TNT separately.^[3]
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.14.0		build 1			Added minecart with TNT.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The entity ID has been changed from `minecarttnt` to `tnt_minecart`.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The textures of minecart with TNT have been updated.
1.19.0		beta 1.19.0.30			Breaking a minecart with TNT will now drop the item instead of the minecart and TNT separately.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added minecart with TNT.
		1.90			The textures of minecart with TNT have been updated.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added minecart with TNT.
0.1.0					Minecart with TNT emits smoke particles when destroyed.

Issues

Issues relating to "Minecart with TNT" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

A direct hit from three merged minecarts with TNT can reduce a fully diamond armored player to half a heart.^[4] However, if the TNT minecarts explode, they do not destroy any rails.

Gallery

The first image of minecarts with TNT, released by Dinnerbone.^[5]^[6] (One can be seen in the lower-left corner.)
A more zoomed in image.
Minecart with TNT and activator rail for detonation.
The 13w02a banner, with a minecart with TNT and a hopper.
Dinnerbone showing how minecarts with TNT have controlled explosions.^[7]
Primed minecart with TNT.
Explosion from a minecart with TNT. (The "bridge" of rails is left undestroyed by the explosion.)