You’ll need 4 different resources to make a Piston in Minecraft. However, none are too hard to find, and the crafting recipe for a Piston is also simple. You just need to lay the ingredients out properly on a Crafting Table.
Table Of Contents
What You Need to Make a Piston
To make a Piston in Minecraft, you’ll need these 4 ingredients:
- 4 Cobblestone
- 3 Wood Planks
- 1 Iron Ingot
- 1 Redstone Dust
When you combine them, you can start by putting the Redstone Dust on the bottom-middle slot and then putting the Iron Ingot on top of it on the center-most slot. After that, fill the top row with the 3 Wood Planks, and then put the 4 Cobblestone on the remaining 4 slots.
Where to Get the Ingredients for Making a Piston
- Cobblestone comes from Stone that is mined by the player
- Wood Planks can be made from Wood Logs, which are dropped from trees that are mined
- You can find Iron Ore between layers 1 to 63, which will drop Raw Iron that can be smelted into Iron Ingots by using a Furnace
- Redstone Dust is gained from Redstone Ore that spawns between layers 1 to 16
How to Make a Sticky Piston
Sticky Pistons are a variation of the Piston that can pull blocks as well as push them. You can make one by combining a regular Piston with a Slimeball. The most common way you can get Slimeballs is by defeating Slimes. However, you can also get Slimeballs by trading with Wandering Traders (1 Slimeball will cost 4 Emeralds). Furthermore, you can also get 1 Slimeball from a baby Panda if they sneeze–which is adorable, gross, and useful in equal parts.
How to Use Pistons and Sticky Pistons
To use a Piston or a Sticky Piston, you’ll have to power it in some way. After placing a Piston, you can give it some power by sending a Redstone signal to it. You can do this in many different ways, however, these methods all involve using Redstone in some form. Placing a Redstone Torch next to a Piston will activate it, causing it to extend its head and push whatever block is in front of it. Breaking the Redstone Torch will cause the opposite effect, resulting in the head retracting. This is the most basic way to activate and deactivate a Piston, with there being many more convenient and complex methods.
Using Pistons in Redstone Circuits
Using Redstone Dust to make lines on the ground will let you create a circuit. A simple Redstone circuit can be a single line of Redstone Dust connecting a Piston to a power source. A highly recommended power source for toggling the active and inactive states of a Piston is a Lever. Placing the Lever at the end of a simple circuit as mentioned will let you use your Piston with ease. Flipping the Lever once will extend the head while flipping the Lever again will retract the head.
How Sticky Pistons Work
Usually, when a Piston pushes a block, that block stays where it is pushed, even when the Piston retracts. However, a Sticky Piston will push the block in front of it as well as pull it when the head of the Sticky Piston retracts. As such, Sticky Pistons can be useful in contraptions that need things to move back and forth.
