Block properties

Block properties control how different block types interact with various gameplay mechanics. While some block behaviors are specific to individual block types, such as the ability to open a chest or activate a lever, block properties specify how blocks behave in response to interactions that can occur with any block. For example, fire may attempt to spread to any nearby block, in which case the flammable block property is used to determine if the spread succeeds. Similarly, a piston may attempt to push any block, and the push reaction block property is used to determine if the push succeeds, fails, or destroys the block.

For the most part, block properties are really properties of block types, not properties of individual blocks. For example, if a given block is flammable, all blocks of the same type will be as well. However, the values of some block properties can vary depending on the given block state—for example, fence gates are collidable when closed, but not when open.

List of properties

This section is missing information about: opacity, luminance, and blast resistance.

 

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Solid

The legacy solid block property, usually just called solid, determines if a block is considered "solid" for a number of game mechanics. It is distinct from many other notions of solidity, such as whether the block is opaque, conductive, collidable, is a full block, or allows mob spawning. A slight variant of the legacy solid property is known as blocks motion for historical reasons, though it is also unrelated to whether or not a block is collidable.

Many gameplay mechanics are affected by the legacy solid property, including support for certain attached blocks like candles, conversion of farmland to dirt, destruction of cactus, summoning of iron golems, and pathfinding. Additionally, the blocks motion property influences random teleportation and certain fluid mechanics.

Collidable

The collidable block property determines whether or not a given block has a collision box that players, mobs, or other entities cannot move through. It is distinct from whether or not the block is considered solid or movement-blocking for certain other gameplay mechanics. Most blocks are collidable, but the following blocks are not:^[1]

Conductive

The conductive block property determines whether a given block can conduct redstone signals when powered by redstone components. For historical reasons, conductive blocks are often called solid or opaque and non-conductive blocks are often called transparent, but conductivity is separate from whether a block is considered solid, collidable, or opaque.

As a rule of thumb, opaque full blocks (like stone) tend to be conductive while partial blocks (like slabs) or transparent blocks (like glass) tend to be non-conductive. However, there are numerous exceptions. For example, glowstone and observers are not conductive despite being opaque full blocks, while mud and soul sand are conductive despite not being full blocks.

Valid spawn

The valid spawn block property determines whether ordinary mobs can spawn on top of a given block (assuming their other spawn conditions are met).

As a rule of thumb, blocks with a full, solid top face tend to allow mob spawning while other blocks tend not to. For example most full blocks allow mob spawning, as do upside-down stairs and azaleas, as their top face is solid and spans the entire block. However, there are numerous exceptions. For example, mobs cannot spawn on glass or bedrock even though they are full blocks, and mobs can spawn on soul sand even though it is not. A full list is given below.

List of valid spawn blocks

Block	Valid spawn?[2]
Activator Rail	No
Air	No
Amethyst Cluster	No
Ancient Debris	Yes
Andesite	Yes
Anvil	No
Azalea	Yes
Bamboo	No
Bamboo Mosaic	Yes
Banners	No
Barrel	Yes
Barrier	No
Basalt	Yes
Beacon	No
Bedrock	No
Beds	No
Bee Nest	Yes
Beehive	Yes
Bell	No
Big Dripleaf	No
Blackstone	Yes
Blast Furnace	Yes
Block of Amethyst	Yes
Block of Bamboo	Yes
Block of Coal	Yes
Block of Copper	Yes
Block of Diamond	Yes
Block of Emerald	Yes
Block of Gold	Yes
Block of Iron	Yes
Block of Lapis Lazuli	Yes
Block of Netherite	Yes
Block of Quartz	Yes
Block of Raw Copper	Yes
Block of Raw Gold	Yes
Block of Raw Iron	Yes
Block of Redstone	Yes
Block of Resin	Yes
Block of Stripped Bamboo	Yes
Blue Ice	Yes
Bone Block	Yes
Bookshelf	Yes
Brewing Stand	No
Bricks	Yes
Budding Amethyst	Yes
Buttons	No
Cactus	No
Cake	No
Calcite	Yes
Calibrated Sculk Sensor	No
Campfire	No
Candles	No
Carpets	No
Cartography Table	Yes
Cauldron	No
Cave Vines	No
Chain	No
Chest	No
Chiseled Bookshelf	Yes
Chiseled Copper	Yes
Chiseled Tuff	Yes
Chiseled Tuff Bricks	Yes
Chorus Flower	No
Chorus Plant	No
Clay	Yes
Coal Ore	Yes
Coarse Dirt	Yes
Cobbled Deepslate	Yes
Cobblestone	Yes
Cobweb	No
Cocoa	No
Command Blocks	Yes
Composter	No
Concrete	Yes
Concrete Powder	Yes
Conduit	No
Copper Bulb	Yes
Copper Grate	No
Copper Ore	Yes
Coral	No
Coral Blocks	Yes
Coral Fans	No
Crafter	Yes
Crafting Table	Yes
Creaking Heart	Yes
Crops	No
Crying Obsidian	Yes
Daylight Detector	No
Dead Bush	No
Decorated Pot	No
Deepslate	Yes
Detector Rail	No
Diamond Ore	Yes
Diorite	Yes
Dirt	Yes
Dirt Path	No
Dispenser	Yes
Doors	No
Dragon Egg	No
Dried Kelp Block	Yes
Dripstone Block	Yes
Dropper	Yes
Emerald Ore	Yes
Enchanting Table	No
End Gateway	No
End Portal	No
End Portal Frame	No
End Rod	No
End Stone	Yes
End Stone Bricks	Yes
Ender Chest	No
Farmland	No
Fence Gates	No
Fences	No
Fern	No
Fire	No
Fletching Table	Yes
Flower Pot	No
Flowers	No
Froglights	No
Frogspawn	No
Frosted Ice	Only polar bears
Fungi	No
Furnace	Yes
Gilded Blackstone	Yes
Glass	No
Glass Pane	No
Glazed Terracotta	Yes
Glow Lichen	No
Glowstone	No
Gold Ore	Yes
Granite	Yes
Grass Block	Yes
Gravel	Yes
Grindstone	No
Hanging Roots	No
Hanging Signs	No
Hay Bale	Yes
Heads	No
Heavy Core	No
Honey Block	No
Honeycomb Block	Yes
Hopper	No
Hyphae	Yes
Ice	Only polar bears
Iron Bars	No
Iron Ore	Yes
Jack o'Lantern	Yes
Jigsaw Block	Yes
Jukebox	Yes
Kelp	No
Ladder	No
Lantern	No
Lapis Lazuli Ore	Yes
Lava	No
Leaves	Only ocelots and parrots
Lectern	No
Lever	No
Light Block	No
Lightning Rod	No
Lily Pad	No
Lodestone	Yes
Logs	Yes
Loom	Yes
Magma Block	Only mobs immune to fire
Mangrove Propagule	No
Mangrove Roots	Yes
Melon	Yes
Monster Spawner	Yes
Moss Block	Yes
Moss Carpet	No
Moving Piston	No
Mud	Yes
Mud Bricks	Yes
Muddy Mangrove Roots	Yes
Mushroom Blocks	Yes
Mushrooms	No
Mycelium	Yes
Nether Bricks	Yes
Nether Gold Ore	Yes
Nether Portal	No
Nether Quartz Ore	Yes
Nether Sprouts	No
Nether Wart	No
Nether Wart Block	Yes
Netherrack	Yes
Note Block	Yes
Nylium	Yes
Observer	Yes
Obsidian	Yes
Packed Ice	Yes
Packed Mud	Yes
Pale Hanging Moss	No
Pale Moss Block	Yes
Pale Moss Carpet	No
Pink Petals	No
Piston Head	Only when facing up
Pistons	Only when facing down or not extended
Pitcher Crop	No
Pitcher Plant	No
Planks	Yes
Podzol	Yes
Pointed Dripstone	No
Polished Tuff	Yes
Powder Snow	No
Powered Rail	No
Pressure Plates	No
Prismarine	Yes
Pumpkin	Yes
Purpur Block	Yes
Rail	No
Red Sand	Yes
Red Sandstone	Yes
Redstone Comparator	No
Redstone Dust	No
Redstone Lamp	Yes
Redstone Ore	Yes
Redstone Repeater	No
Redstone Torch	No
Reinforced Deepslate	Yes
Resin Bricks	Yes
Resin Clump	No
Respawn Anchor	Yes
Roots	No
Sand	Yes
Sandstone	Yes
Saplings	No
Scaffolding	No
Sculk	Yes
Sculk Catalyst	Yes
Sculk Sensor	No
Sculk Shrieker	No
Sculk Vein	No
Sea Lantern	No
Sea Pickle	No
Seagrass	No
Short Grass	No
Shroomlight	No
Shulker Box	Yes
Signs	No
Slabs	Only when top or double slabs
Slime Block	Yes
Small Dripleaf	No
Smithing Table	Yes
Smoker	Yes
Sniffer Egg	No
Snow	Only when 8 layers tall
Snow Block	Yes
Soul Sand	Yes
Soul Soil	Yes
Sponge	Yes
Spore Blossom	No
Stained Glass	No
Stained Glass Panes	No
Stairs	Only when upside-down
Stone	Yes
Stone Bricks	Yes
Stonecutter	No
Structure Block	Yes
Structure Void	No
Sugar Cane	No
Suspicious Gravel	Yes
Suspicious Sand	Yes
Sweet Berry Bush	No
TNT	Yes
Tall Grass	No
Target	Yes
Terracotta	Yes
Tinted Glass	No
Torch	No
Torchflower	No
Torchflower Crop	No
Trapdoors	No
Trapped Chest	No
Trial Spawner	Yes
Tripwire	No
Tripwire Hook	No
Tuff	Yes
Tuff Bricks	Yes
Turtle Egg	No
Twisting Vines	No
Vault	Yes
Vines	No
Walls	No
Warped Wart Block	Yes
Water	No
Weeping Vines	No
Wood	Yes
Wool	Yes

Flammability

Three related block properties determine how fire spreads to and interacts with other blocks:

• The ignite odds property controls how quickly a block catches fire if nearby fire is available to spread there.

• The burn odds property controls how quickly a block that is currently on fire burns away.

• The ignited by lava property determines whether or not nearby lava can cause the block to catch fire.

The word flammable is often used to describe blocks capable of burning away—that is, blocks that have burn odds greater than zero—but it is also sometimes used to describe blocks capable of catching fire at all.

Some blocks can be ignited by fire but not by lava and vice versa. For example, hay bales can be ignited by fire but not by lava, while mushroom blocks are ignited by lava but cannot be ignited by nearby fire. Blocks in the latter category never burn away, and they usually extinguish themselves quickly. The only exceptions are blocks that burn forever, such as netherrack and soul sand.

Replaceable

This section is missing information about: "replaceable" is also a block tag; discuss functional differences between that block tag and this block property.

 

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

If a block has the replaceable block property, blocks placed on, against, or in the same location as the replaceable block replace it rather than being placed on or against it. For example, placing a block on a block containing short grass replaces the grass with the block. Most blocks are not replaceable, but the following blocks are:^[3]

The replaceable block property is also used by a few other game mechanics:

• Falling blocks that fall onto replaceable blocks replace them.
• Huge fungi may replace replaceable blocks when generated or grown.
• Nether portals may replace replaceable blocks when generated.
• Cobwebs spawned by the weaving effect may replace replaceable blocks.

Suffocates

The suffocates block property determines whether an entity suffocates if its head is inside a block.

Usually, blocks are suffocating if and only if they are full blocks that also block motion. For example, stone suffocates mobs, but slabs do not (because they are not full blocks), and neither do chorus flowers (because they are not considered motion-blocking). However, there are some exceptions:

• Copper grates, glass, stained glass, tinted glass, leaves, and mangrove roots do not suffocate mobs despite being motion-blocking full blocks.

• Dirt path, farmland, mud, and soul sand suffocate mobs despite not being full blocks.

Blocks vision

The blocks vision block property determines whether the player can see while their head is inside a block. If a block is vision-blocking, the player's screen is obscured by a darkened version of the block's texture if their head is inside the block.

Almost all blocks that are suffocating are also vision-blocking and vice versa. However, there are a few exceptions:

• Snow blocks vision if it is 8 layers tall, but it never suffocates.

• Trial spawners and vaults do not block vision but do suffocate.

Push reaction

The push reaction block property determines what happens when a piston attempts to push or pull a block. It has four possible values:

• normal: The block can be pushed and pulled by pistons.
• push_only: The block can be pushed by pistons but cannot be pulled.
• destroy: The block breaks when pushed and cannot be pulled.
• block: The block cannot be pushed or pulled. If a piston must push the block to extend, the attempt to extend fails.

If a block's push reaction is anything other than normal, the block also does not stick to slime blocks or honey blocks.

Relationship between solid, opaque, and similar properties

There is no single property that determines if a block is a "solid block" for all gameplay mechanics. As such, the words solid, opaque, and transparent are colloquially applied to several different block properties, which can cause confusion. Much of this confusion stems from the fact that earlier versions of Minecraft used a single property to determine which blocks were opaque, conductive, caused suffocation, or allowed mob spawning, so the words solid and opaque were (and often still are) used synonymously to refer to all three.

Further confusing matters, although contemporary versions of Minecraft use distinct block properties to control distinct behaviors, the behavior of many blocks added in earlier versions has been intentionally preserved. This can result in surprising inconsistencies and exceptions with no intuitive explanation. For example, mobs cannot spawn on or suffocate inside glass blocks even though they are full blocks. This can create the mistaken impression that mobs cannot spawn on any block that is not fully opaque, but in fact mobs may spawn on top slabs, upside-down stairs, azaleas, slime blocks, and many other transparent blocks.

Furthermore, even if explicit terms like opaque, conductive, and valid spawn are used instead of the catch-all term solid, some game mechanics do depend on whether a block is considered "solid" in a more conventional sense, and several different mechanisms are used to make that determination even within that category:

• Some mechanics, such as enderman teleportation, determine whether a block is solid using the legacy solid block property.

• Other mechanics, such as iron golem summoning, determine whether a block is solid by checking if it a full block, which is a property of its collision box.

• Still other mechanics, such as determining whether a block can have a torch or button attached to one of its faces, uses a separate system that checks geometric properties of the supporting block's "support box", which is usually the same as its collision box, but is different for certain blocks.

As the word "solid" is sometimes used to refer to all of these things, the set of "solid blocks" can be difficult to precisely define without additional context to determine which notion of solidity is being discussed.

History

This section is missing information about: earlier history.

 

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

See also

• Block states

References