Minecart

| Rarity tier |
Common |
|---|---|
| Renewable |
Yes |
| Stackable |
No |
| Size |
Height: 0.7 blocks |
| Drops | |
| Health points |
6HP |
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"field": "Common",
"label": "(link to Rarity article, displayed as Rarity tier)"
},
{
"field": "Yes",
"label": "(link to Renewable resource article, displayed as Renewable)"
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{
"field": "No",
"label": "Stackable"
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{
"field": "Height: 0.7 blocks<br>Width: 0.98 blocks",
"label": "Size"
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A minecart is a train-like vehicle entity that runs on rails.
Obtaining
Once placed, minecarts can be retrieved by attacking them for some time. One attack from a pickaxe, sword or axe is enough for a minecart to drop in item form, provided the player's attack cooldown is reset. A minecart is also destroyed if it makes contact with a cactus, or if shot with a bow/crossbow. Critical hits are not applied to minecarts, although the particles suggest otherwise.
Crafting
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Iron Ingot |
Entity loot
Minecart with command blocks can be given to the player with the /give command or through the Creative inventory under certain conditions; minecart with spawners are available only via the /summon command. Each drop 1 minecart when broken.
Usage

A minecart can be placed in the same manner as most blocks, but only on top of a rail. Once placed, it may be derailed by pushing it off the end of the track. After this, it can be railed again by placing a rail directly below it or pushing it onto a track.
Crafting ingredient
Anything crafted with the minecart functions similar to a regular minecart, but cannot be ridden.
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minecart with Chest | Chest + |
||
| Minecart with Furnace | Furnace + |
| |
| Minecart with Hopper | Hopper + |
||
| Minecart with TNT | TNT + |
Transportation

Minecarts can be ridden by pressing the "use" control on them. Once inside, an external impulse may be needed to make the minecart start moving. The player can slowly move the minecart forward at about 8 blocks per second while riding it, by pressing forward. If the Minecart Experiments experiment is enabled, the minecartmaxspeed gamerule can be used to change minecart speed. If a mob walks in front of a moving empty minecart, it is pulled into the cart.
After rolling off of the end of a track, a minecart can be pushed around on open blocks. If a minecart is pushed onto or falls onto tracks, it "snaps" to those tracks. When riding a minecart, if the minecart lands on a rail, the player does not take any fall damage.
Unlike with beds, there is no message above the hotbar or in chat for attempting to enter a fully occupied minecart.[1]
Dismounting
Players can exit the minecart by sneaking while riding it. When a player or mob dismounts a minecart, either by choice, by breaking the minecart, or by passing over a powered activator rail, the minecart tries to find a safe ejection destination for the player one block away. First it checks the eight horizontally adjacent blocks in the following order of priority relative to direction of travel: right, left, rear right, rear left, front right, front left, rear, front. A valid destination has a block underneath with a solid (not necessarily full) top surface and a space with enough headroom and width for the passenger to fit in when standing at the center. The space can even contain liquid or have open trapdoors if the mob is slim enough, and presence of other mobs doesn't matter. If no valid destination exists on same horizontal level, the minecart then checks the blocks one above, then one below. For a player, the minecart also checks for crawlable destinations. If still none, the minecart chooses its own location. Once the minecart picks a destination, it actually ejects the passenger one block up in the air and the passenger settles down on its own. Under a low ceiling this may cause one tick of suffocation damage. The air drop exists to allow passengers to land on carpet or bottom slabs.
Behavior
Speed
Minecarts have a predefined speed limit of exactly 8 blocks per second per axis of travel. A minecart traveling diagonally can, therefore, travel up to 11.314 blocks per second.[note 1] When a minecart comes to a turn it moves diagonally across that turn.
Powered rails powered by redstone give minecarts a boost of speed. Speed is gradually decreased if there are no powered rails to assist its movement, and an unpowered powered rail slows down a minecart rapidly. The speed decreases at a faster rate when going uphill, compared to when moving horizontally. A minecart does not need powered rails to assist its movement down a hill.
Anything in the way of the minecart brings it to a stop. Once a minecart has left the track, it rapidly decelerates within one or two blocks. When mobs touch a minecart, they affect it in the same way a player would, i.e. mobs that move up against a still cart set it in motion.
If a minecart is moving fast enough, it can skip across one block without a track and reattach to a track on the other side, at significantly reduced energy and speed. A minecart's hitbox can skip turns if the minecart is boosted using enough powered rails.[2]
The speed and momentum of a minecart can differ depending on whether or not it is empty, and in the case where a minecart has a container, the speed can differ depending on the quantity and type of items inside.
Moving minecarts become frozen when more than one chunk beyond the simulation distance of the nearest player, but resume their motion when a player comes within range.
Merged minecarts
In Java Edition, two or more minecarts can be merged by pushing them into each other so that they overlap. Merged minecarts move as a collective, like a train, and can be useful for long-distance transport because while moving in a straight line, they do not need powered rails to keep their speed.
To summarize:
- Minecarts can also be merged by dropping a minecart on another minecart, but only if that minecart is on a rail.
- Merged minecarts do not lose speed while traveling on straight rails
- Corners in the rails might cause merged minecarts to unmerge.
- Minecarts with chest (even fully filled) can also be merged and also do not require powered rails.
- Merged minecarts can travel off-rail at half-speed (4 blocks/second). They can travel diagonally if the last rail is a turned rail.
Distance traveled by empty carts starting on a downward slope
This table shows the distance traveled by an unoccupied minecart, in meters, on a downward slope, with a boost (or no boost). The most efficient way is to use only 1 boost at the bottom of the incline on the flat surface. Using 2 increases distance by about 20% or 1.5 blocks. All distance trends based on the height seem to be logarithmic. The carts started from rest, on a slope Height blocks up.
| Height | No boost | Bottom | Bottom and top | All boosts on incline and bottom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.77m | 8.77 | 10.8 | 10.8 |
| 2 | 4.59m | 9.59 | 10.83 | 13.37 |
| 3 | 5.81m | 9.81 | 11.66 | 15.12 |
| 4 | 7.04m | 10.04 | 12.46 | 16.95 |
| 5 | 7.87m | 10.87 | 12.29 | 17.95 |
| 10 | 11.65m | 13.38 | 15.12 | 21.68 |
| 100 | 15.87m | 17.05 | 17.54 | 25.34 |
Collision
Minecarts are about the same size as a block (1×1). Because of this, a ladder, door, or trapdoor prevents it from falling down a 1×1 hole. Carts on rails also ignore collision in certain situations. A cart traveling uphill, downhill, or on a curve with a block placed in front of it, goes through the block.[3]
A minecart that reaches the end of a rail up against an opaque solid block bounces back, but if the block is transparent then it stops. The minecart can even bounce against an opaque block from a standstill if the rail underneath is powered. A player or mob riding in a minecart does not collide with or suffocate in any transparent blocks but suffocates inside opaque blocks.
Minecarts are completely unaffected by ice, packed ice, and blue ice[4]; they can also be destroyed by coming in contact with lava, fire and cactus, causing it to drop itself as an item. The last block can be used to automatically destroy the cart and collect it (with a hopper) at the end of a track.
Uphill and downhill movement
This feature can only be accessed through the "Minecart Improvements" experimental data pack in Java Edition.
A
| |
B
|
A cart on an ascending rail performs its horizontal movement at a higher position, with the following effects:
- A cart traveling downhill does not collide with a block in front of it, but collides with a block one block higher.
- A cart can trigger a pressure plate or tripwire above its bounding box in this process, which can't detect the cart when checking for entities. If deactivated when the cart has not moved away, the pressure plate or tripwire is immediately retriggered.
- If updates originating from the pressure plate or tripwire break the rail, the cart appears at the higher position.
Mobs

Most mobs can be picked up when a minecart collides with them. The following mobs, however, cannot be picked up:
- Bats, ender dragons, wardens, and withers in both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition;
- Iron golems in Java Edition
- NPCs and agents in Bedrock Edition
This is much different from boats, which can be entered only by mobs smaller than the boats; even large mobs like ghasts can enter minecarts. In addition to mobs, minecarts can also pick up boats in Java Edition,[5] and armor stands and cameras in Bedrock Edition.
A mob is picked up when a moving minecart on rails collides with the mob, or if the mob walks into a minecart on rails. Additionally, in Bedrock Edition, a minecart can pick up a mob even if stationary or off-rails. It is easier to pick up a mob when a minecart is turning. For the purposes of picking up mobs, the bounding box of a minecart is extended by 0.2 (approx. 3⁄16) blocks on each direction on the X and Z axes. This means that a minecart can pick up a mob even if the mob is not intersecting the minecart's hitbox.
In Java Edition, mobs in minecarts (except unnamed endermites) don't despawn, and don't count toward the mob cap.[6]
Mobs cannot control the minecart, unless they are a jockey in Java Edition,[7] and cannot exit the minecart unless the minecart is destroyed or moves onto an active activator rail. In Bedrock Edition, it is also possible to force a mob out of a minecart by reeling it in using a fishing rod.
Tamed pets, as well as endermen, cannot teleport out of minecarts.[8]
Sounds
Java Edition:
Minecarts use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.[sound 1]
| Sounds | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
| None[sound 6] | Friendly Mobs [sound 1] | While the player or mob is inside of a moving minecart | entity | None[sound 6] | 0.0-0.75 [sound 2] | 1.0 | 16 (technical) / rider only (effective) | |
| None[sound 6] | Friendly Mobs [sound 1] | While inside of a moving minecart when the player's eye level is underwater | entity | None[sound 6] | 0.0-0.75 [sound 2] | 1.0 | 16 (technical) / rider only (effective) | |
| Minecart rolls [sound 3] | Friendly Mobs [sound 1] | While a minecart is moving | entity | subtitles | 0.0-0.35 [sound 4] | 0.0-1.0 [sound 5] | 16 | |
- ↑ a b c d "[MC-42132] The sounds of minecarts aren't controlled by the correct sound slider - Jira" – Mojira, December 13, 2013.
- ↑ a b Based on horizontal speed; it is clamped between 0.0 and 0.75 and does not play if speed is less than 0.01
- ↑ Shows far less often than it should - see MC-181831
- ↑ Relates linearly with horizontal velocity (max 0.5)
- ↑ Increases by 0.0025 per tick if the minecart's horizontal velocity is more than 0.01
- ↑ a b c d MC-278135
| Sounds | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
| Friendly Creatures Friendly Mobs | While the player or mob is inside of a moving minecart | minecart | ? | ? | |
| Friendly Creatures Friendly Mobs | While a minecart is moving | minecart | ? | ? | |
Data values
ID
| Item | Identifier | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
minecart | Item | item |
| Entity | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
minecart | entity |
| Item | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
minecart | 370 | Item | item |
| Entity | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
minecart | 84 | entity |
Entity data
Minecarts have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.
- [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- Tags common to all minecarts see Template:Nbt inherit/vehicle/template
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | ||||||
| On A Rail | Travel by minecart to a point at least 500m in a single direction from where you started. | Travel by 500 blocks in a straight line away from the player's starting point. | 40 | Gold | |||
Video
History
| Java Edition Infdev | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20100618 | |||||||
| Minecarts are not rideable but instead are used to store things in. | |||||||
| Right-clicking minecarts opens them like a chest (with the container called "Minecart"). Filling them up makes the dirt layer inside them rise. | |||||||
| 20100624 | |||||||
| The minecart mechanics have been changed to being rideable, removing their ability to store items. | |||||||
| Minecarts now render a chest inside for unknown reasons. | |||||||
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||||
| v1.0.4 | |||||||
| A sitting animation for riding minecarts has been added. | |||||||
| v1.0.14 | Minecarts are now used to craft minecart with furnace and minecart with chest. | ||||||
| A glitch creates a new method of speeding up Minecarts known as "Boosting" with putting two Minecarts perpendicular together going the same direction, increases the speed of both carts. | |||||||
| v1.2.2 | Minecarts now appear to other players and can be ridden in multiplayer. | ||||||
| Minecarts are no longer fully solid - they no longer block movement, and can no longer be stood on top of. | |||||||
| v1.2.3 | Players in minecarts and boats now receive terrain updates. | ||||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||||
| 1.5 | Minecarts now break faster with hands. | ||||||
| Powered rails have been introduced, which enables minecarts to move automatically, although previous methods of boosting no longer work or do not work as effectively. | |||||||
| The detector rails have been introduced for use in detecting minecarts. Prior to this update, minecarts were detected by using pressure plates in line with cart tracks. This had the often undesirable effect of dramatically slowing or even stopping the minecart, which limited the use of this design mostly to boosters. | |||||||
| 1.6 | Test Build 3 | A minecart now transfers any fall damage it suffers onto its rider and is not destroyed upon impact. | |||||
| 1.8 | Pre-release | If the player punches a minecart when descending from a jump, it shows the critical hit animation. This also happens if the player punches the cart while still in it. | |||||
| Java Edition | |||||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease | C418 posted a sound showing the sound that minecarts make. | |||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 | The texture of minecarts has changed slightly. | ||||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w15a | Minecarts can now be shot out from dispensers. | |||||
| 12w21a | While sitting inside of a minecart, pushing the directional keys makes it move the direction player is pressing. This only works while the minecart is sitting on rails. | ||||||
| 12w21b | Minecarts can now be destroyed in one hit in Creative mode. | ||||||
| The player no longer spawns on top/inside of the minecart after getting out. Instead, the player gets out a few blocks away. Also, the player can nudge a stationary minecart while inside it to move onto a powered rail, etc. | |||||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w38b | Sounds for minecarts have been added. | |||||
| 1.5 | 13w02a | Minecarts can now be edited with a third-party program to show any block inside of it (it does not take on the characteristics of this block), as well as make it take on the characteristics of any cart. | |||||
| Minecarts are now used to craft TNT minecarts. | |||||||
| 13w03a | Minecarts are now used to craft hopper minecarts. | ||||||
| 13w06a | Added minecart with spawner. | ||||||
| 1.6.1 | 13w16a | Minecarts are now dismounted using the sneak key; previously, this was achieved by right clicking on the minecart a second time. | |||||
| 1.6.2 | release | A player in a moving minecart no longer turns with the minecart. | |||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w39a | Added minecart with command block. | |||||
| 1.8 | 14w11a | Minecart physics have been changed - they now go faster and further, can derail at corners if going too fast and refuse to go uphill and they can also (if going fast enough) go over 1 block. | |||||
| The collision and position handling of minecarts have been improved. | |||||||
| 14w17a | All changes to old minecart physics used before 14w11a have been reverted. | ||||||
| 1.9.1 | pre2 | Extreme typos in minecarts with hoppers and chests, reading "container.minecart'' have been fixed. | |||||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The player's hunger bar is now visible when riding in a minecart. | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||||
| 19w13a | Minecarts now move much slower when pushed along standard rails using the W key, even slower on unpowered powered rails, and cannot be pushed off of unpowered powered rails without the player looking at a certain angle. | ||||||
| 1.16 | 20w09a | Minecart now checks dismount position height against entity height. | |||||
| 20w16a | Minecarts no longer have subtitles for movement. | ||||||
| 20w18a | Mobs in minecarts no longer despawn. | ||||||
| 1.17 | 20w45a | Minecarts can now move in water. | |||||
| 1.18 | pre2 | Minecarts no longer contain the hidden dirt layer left over from their introduction in Infdev.[9] | |||||
| 1.19 | 22w13a | Minecarts no longer drop when breaking a minecart with chest, hopper, furnace, or TNT.[10] | |||||
| 1.20 | 23w16a | Sniffers can now enter minecarts. | |||||
| 1.21.2 | 24w33a | Pressing the movement controls while riding a boat or a saddled pig that has been picked up by a minecart no longer moves the minecart at a high speed.[11] | |||||
| 1.21.2 Experiment | 24w33a | The speed of minecarts is now determined by the game rule minecartMaxSpeed, which is set to a default of 8.
| |||||
| Whether or not the player follows the rotation of minecarts is now controlled by the accessibility setting "Rotate with Minecarts". | |||||||
| Minecarts can no longer be placed by players or dispensers if the spot is already occupied by another minecart. Dispensers simply drop the minecart as an item if this is the case. | |||||||
| Minecarts now retain their vertical momentum when its track ends with a slope, and now visually correspond to it by tilting while in the air. | |||||||
| Minecarts no longer make any movement noise while in the air. | |||||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||||
| v0.8.0 | build 2 | ||||||
| build 3 | Minecarts now ride smoother. | ||||||
| v0.13.0 | build 1 | Sounds for minecarts have been added. | |||||
| build 2 | Minecarts now stack on top of each other. | ||||||
| v0.14.0 | build 1 | Minecarts can now be used to craft storage, TNT, and hopper minecarts. | |||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||||
| Xbox 360 | Xbox One | PS3 | PS4 | PS Vita | Wii U | Switch | |
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | |
| Minecarts are now twice the speed than in other editions. | |||||||
| TU12 | Minecarts are now slower. | ||||||
| Minecarts can now be placed by dispensers. | |||||||
| TU13 | Minecarts have had their speed increased again. | ||||||
| TU19 | CU7 | 1.12 | 1.12 | 1.12 | Minecarts are now used to craft TNT minecarts and hopper minecarts. | ||
| A player in a moving minecart no longer turns with the minecart. | |||||||
| Minecarts are now dismounted using the sneak key; previously, this was achieved by pressing use on the minecart a second time. | |||||||
| TU20 | CU8 | 1.13 | 1.13 | 1.13 | A player in a moving minecart once again turns with the minecart. | ||
| TU21 | CU9 | 1.14 | 1.14 | 1.14 | The minecart limit has been increased. | ||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | 1.22 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Minecart sounds have been updated. | |
| TU34 | CU22 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.25 | Patch 4 | An option to enable or disable minecart sounds has been added to the audio settings. | |
| 1.90 | |||||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||||
Data history
| Java Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 | 13w02a | Minecart types no longer all share the same entity ID – Minecart – and are no longer distinguished by a Type field. They have been given separate entity IDs. | |||||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID has been changed from MinecartRideable to minecart. | |||||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 328. | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Minecart" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.
Trivia
- Minecarts appear to float above the track, as their model has no wheels.
- If the player views their inventory while riding in a minecart, they appear sitting down in mid-air.
- The player can teleport to another minecart while sitting in a minecart by right-clicking a minecart in their range. This can be used as an elevator to quickly rise up when minecarts are placed on top of each other.
- If the sound is muted in the options while riding a minecart, and then turned back up, the minecart no longer makes noise in the client until the player exits the minecart.
- A minecart (alongside rails and powered rails) are used as Steve's Side-Special in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
- Minecart are twice as fast in Legacy Console Edition.
Gallery
Screenshots
-
A minecart opened in Minecraft Infdev. -
A minecart filled in Minecraft Infdev. -
A pig inside a burning minecart. -
The removed hidden dirt texture inside the bed of the minecart. -
Minecart booster. -
Minecarts being stacked on each other. -
Villager in a minecart. -
Ari in a minecart. -
A camera in a minecart.
Mojang screenshots
-
![The first image Jeb released.[12]](./_assets_/9d6101e7fafb80717850edb30382b752.png)
-
The first image of minecarts in Pocket Edition. -
An image of two minecarts with spawners and unimplemented minecarts with dispensers. -
Minecarts can be edited to show any block inside, and can also be edited to be invisible. -
Sunny riding a minecart into a Nether Portal.
In other media
-
The diamond minecart, a unique minecart featured in Minecraft: Story Mode. -
Ditto -
A minecart as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons. -
Minecart with Ice Cubes -
Minecart with Stone -
Several mobs, most notably a warden and the Arch-Illager, riding minecarts. -
A chicken jockey trying to keep up with the aforementioned train. -
Several frogs grimacing in a minecart. -

-
A snifflet in a minecart. -
Two minecarts, as depicted on Minecoin gift cards. -
A wooden minecart, featured in the Trails & Tales Event. -
A functional minecart in the Lego set, The Badlands Mineshaft. -
Minecart concept art for A Minecraft Movie. -
Minecarts in A Minecraft Movie. -
Official artwork of a Minecart in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
Notes
- ↑ The square root of 82 + 82. See Pythagorean theorem.
References
- ↑ MC-161251 — Attempting to enter an occupied bed displays a message over the hotbar, but attempting to enter an occupied vehicle does not — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-179971 — Minecart skips turns if too fast
- ↑ MC-8004 — Minecarts glitch through the stop block of a track that ends with a turn or a downward slope
- ↑ MC-8265 — Minecarts don't slide on any sort of ice
- ↑ MC-113871 — Boats and rafts can ride minecarts
- ↑ MC-182897 — Some passenger mobs don't count to the mob cap — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-71998 — Minecarts that have passengers within them riding mobs can move automatically when not on rails
- ↑ MC-3866 — Endermen, Tamed Wolves and Ocelots cannot teleport when in a Minecart — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-206303 — Minecarts have old textures on the bottom — resolved as "Fixed".
- ↑ MC-249493 — Breaking a minecart with chest/furnace/TNT/hopper separates the minecart and the block it contains — resolved as "Fixed".
- ↑ MC-200318 — Pigs can be controlled without carrot on a stick when in a minecart — resolved as "Fixed".
- ↑ "January 9, 2013" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X (formerly Twitter), January 9, 2013
External links
- Taking Inventory: Minecart – Minecraft.net on September 6, 2019
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