Redstone Basics for Beginners

Quick answer

• A Lever, button or redstone torch makes a signal. Redstone dust carries it.
• A signal goes 15 blocks along dust before it dies out.
• A Repeater boosts it back to full. A Comparator reads containers.

Redstone is Minecraft's electricity. Learn these basics and you can build doors, lamps, farms and traps.

Power sources

• Lever: on or off, stays where you leave it.
• Button: a short pulse.
• Pressure plate: on while something stands on it.
• Redstone torch: always on, unless the block it's on is powered.
• Observer and daylight detector: react to changes and light.

Signal strength

So a line of dust carries a signal 15 blocks. For longer lines, add a repeater.

Repeaters

A repeater takes any signal and sends out a full strength 15. You can also click it to add a short delay, which is useful for timing.

Comparators

A comparator passes a signal through, and it can also read how full a chest, hopper or other container is. That's how item sorters and "storage full" lights work.

First buildPut a lever, a few dust and a Redstone lamp in a line. Flip the lever and the lamp lights up.

Next steps

Add a Piston or Sticky piston to make things move. Pistons are the start of doors, farms and flying machines.

Cheat sheet

• Signal travels 15 blocks on dust
• Repeater resets it to 15
• Comparator reads containers
• 1 redstone tick = 0.1 seconds

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