5 things you may not know about hoppers in Minecraft

Pistons serve an important purpose (Images via Minecraft Wiki)
Pistons serve an important purpose (Images via Minecraft Wiki)

Pistons are one of the most useful blocks in all of Minecraft. Most farms or redstone devices use pistons or sticky pistons extensively. They're one of the best blocks because they can move items and no other block has that capability.

Three wooden planks, four cobblestone blocks, one iron ingot and one redstone dust, will craft a piston and the combination of that and a slime ball makes it a sticky piston.


Fun facts players may not have known about Minecraft pistons

5) Natural generation

Crafting is the most common way to get pistons or sticky pistons. Regular pistons cannot naturally generate anywhere in Minecraft. However, sticky pistons can. Three of them can be found in jungle temples. When the 1.19 update is released, it will also be found in Ancient Cities.


4) Breaking time

Pickaxes are the standard tool for breaking a piston (Java Edition). Here's how fast each one will break it:

  • Wooden - 2.25 seconds
  • Stone - 1.15 seconds
  • Iron - 0.6 seconds
  • Diamond - 0.3 seconds
  • Netherite - 0.25 seconds
  • Gold - 0.2 seconds

3) Crafting recipe

The crafting recipe for pistons is three wooden planks, four cobblestone blocks, one iron ingot and one redstone dust. However, players may not have known that the wooden planks don't have to match. Any three completely different planks can work in the recipe.


2) Limitations

Crying Obsidian cannot be moved (Image via Mojang)
Crying Obsidian cannot be moved (Image via Mojang)

A piston can move almost anything. However, these blocks are immovable in either Bedrock or Java Edition:

  • Barrier
  • Beacon
  • Bedrock
  • Command Block
  • Conduit
  • Crying Obsidian
  • Enchanting Table
  • End Gateway
  • End Portal
  • End Portal Frame
  • Ender Chest
  • Grindstone
  • Jigsaw Block
  • Jukebox
  • Light
  • Lodestone
  • Nether Portal
  • Obsidian
  • Piston (extended)
  • Respawn Anchor
  • Spawner
  • Structure Block
  • Structure Void

Some blocks are immovable in either Bedrock or Java, but they are restricted in both versions, so no one has ever been able to push them with a piston.


1) Original version

Pistons have been a part of the game for a long time, but they weren't the idea of Mojang. The piston originated as a mod shared on the Minecraft Forums by creator Hippoplatimus. They gave the code to Jeb, the developer, who began working on implementing the item into vanilla Minecraft. Eventually, the piston was added and the rest is history.


Note: This article is subjective and reflects the views of the author.

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