The piston is one of the more remarkable blocks in Minecraft. With this Redstone device, players will be able to push blocks forward and even pull them back. This opens up building possibilities entirely and can be used in an infinite amount of ways.
Players may find making a piston in Minecraft initially confusing. However, the process is relatively simple. Here are the things you’ll need to craft this useful block.
Also read: Things to build in Minecraft
Necessary Materials for Piston
The following are the materials you’ll need to collect to make a piston in Minecraft:
- Cobblestone (4)
- Wood Planks (3)
- Iron Ingot (1)
- Redstone Dust (1)
Cobblestones are simple to acquire. Simple mine a stone block using a pickaxe and you’ll get as many cobblestones as you need.
For your wood planks, simply mine any kind of wood, then place it in the crafting menu. One block of wood will generate four wood planks, which is perfect considering you’ll only need three to create one piston.
For the next material, iron ingot, mine an iron ore from an iron ore block using your pickaxe. Then, smelt it using a furnace. Once again, you’ll only need one.
Then, mine a Redstone dust. You can easily obtain this material from any Redstone ore using a pickaxe.
Once you have all the materials needed, it’s time to craft your very own piston.
Crafting a Piston
Like many blocks in Minecraft, to craft a piston, you’ll need to place the materials in the Crafting Table in exact positions.
Open up the 3×3 crafting grid. Then, place all three wood planks at the top three grids. In the first and third columns, place a cobblestone on the second and third rows. Third, place the iron ingot in the middle of the crafting grid. Finally, place the Redstone dust on the grid below the iron ingot.
The crafting grid should look like this:
Once that’s done, the piston block will appear on the box to the right. Simply drag the piston to your inventory. With that, you’ve finally made your very own piston block!
Using a Piston Block in Minecraft
The piston is a handy and versatile block. As mentioned early on in this guide, piston blocks can push and pull other blocks. However, the block also has limitations when it comes to interactions with other blocks.
There are a ton of blocks in Minecraft and most of them can interact properly with a piston block. However, some can’t. The following are a handful of examples of blocks a piston cannot push or pull:
- Bedrock
- Enchanting Table
- Loadstone
- Monster Spawner
- Obsidian
Some blocks will instead break if pushed by a piston, such as the following:
- Bamboo
- Bed
- Cactus
- Cake
- Door
- Dragon Egg
- Flower Pot
- Jack o’lantern
- Lava source block
- Melon
- Mushroom
- Pressure Plate
- Pumpkin
- Redstone Comparator
- Redstone Repeater
- Sugar cane
- Torch
- Water source block
- Weighted pressure plate
If unsure whether or not a piston can interact properly with another block, be sure to experiment and have fun with it in the Creative Test World.
To activate a piston, be sure to attach a button, a lever, or a Redstone switch to it.
