Transportation
Transportation involves the methods by which players move around the world or between dimensions (the Overworld, the Nether and the End).
Contents
Methods[edit]
NOTE: As 1 block is 1 m3, 1 m/s is equal to 1 block per second. Thus for convenience, all speeds are shown in SI Units. 1 m/s equals 3.28 ft/s and 1 km/h equals 0.621 MPH. It is important to remember that the speeds also assume that the form of transportation doesn’t have, if any or if possible, the Speed or Slowness status effect. Some forms are not affected by status effects. Elytras are only slower than listed below if the player has the Slow Falling status effect.
| Method | Conditions | Running start? | Average speed (m/s) | Average speed (km/h) | Works in Nether | Average speed (m/s) Overworld equivalent[note 1] | Average speed (km/h) Overworld equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Walking |
Flat terrain | No | 4.3 | 15.5 | Yes | 34.4 | 124.0 |
Sprinting |
Flat terrain | No | 5.6 | 20.2 | Yes | 44.8 | 161.6 |
Sneaking |
Flat terrain | No | 1.3 | 4.7 | Yes | 10.4 | 37.6 |
Minecart |
Powered Track |
Yes, small | 8.0 | 28.8 | Yes | 64.0 | 230.4 |
| 1⁄4 slope track | No | 7.1 | 25.6 | Yes | 56.8 | 204.8 | |
Boat[note 2] |
1⁄4 slope rapids | Yes, small | 7.3 | 26.4 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A |
| 1⁄4 slope rapids | No | 7.0 | 25.2 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
Flat ice Flat packed ice Flat frosted ice |
No | 40.0 | 144.0 | Yes | 320 | 1152 | |
Flat blue ice |
No | 70.0 | 252.0 | Yes | 560 | 2016 | |
Flat water |
No | 8.0 | 28.8 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
Saddled pig |
Flat terrain | No | 4.0 | 14.4 | Yes | 32.0 | 115.2 |
| Flat terrain, using carrot on a stick |
Yes | 8.0 | 28.8 | Yes | 64.0 | 230.4 | |
Horse [note 3] |
Flat terrain | No | 9.675 | 34.83 | Yes | 77.4 | 278.6 |
| Flat terrain, fastest possible horse breed | No | 14.57 | 52.45 | Yes | 116.6 | 419.6 | |
Donkey Mule |
Flat terrain | No | 7.525 | 27.125 | Yes | 60.2 | 217.0 |
Zombie horse Skeleton horse |
Flat terrain | No | 8.62 | 31.03 | Yes | 68.9 | 248.2 |
Swimming |
Still water, surface[note 4] | No | 2.20 | 7.92 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A |
| Still water, underwater[note 5] | No | 1.97 | 7.09 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
| Upstream, underwater | No | 0.39 | 1.40 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
| Downstream, underwater | No | 1.81 | 6.52 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
| While Diving | No | 0.39 | 1.40 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
| Downstream, underwater, standing | No | 1.37 | 4.93 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
| Dolphin's Grace status effect | No | 80 | 288 | No, no water can be placed | N/A | N/A | |
Flying (horizontal)[note 6] |
Creative Mode Spectator Mode |
Yes | 11.0 | 39.6 | Yes | 88.0 | 316.8 |
| Sprint-flying | Yes | 22.0 | 79.2 | Yes | 176.0 | 633.6 | |
Ender Pearl |
Thrown 15º above horizontal | No | ~23.0 | ~82.8 | Yes | ~184.0 | ~662.4 |
| Biggest TNT pearl cannon [note 7] | Yes | max. 3000 | max. 10800 | Yes | max. 24000 | max. 86400 | |
Elytra |
Gliding at 0° pitch | Yes, small | 30.0 | 108 | Yes | 240 | 864 |
| Continuous rocket boost | No | 33.5 | 120.6 | Yes | 268 | 964.8 | |
| Gliding at 52° pitch down | Yes | 67.3 | 242.3 | Yes | 538.4 | 1938.2 |
- ↑ Certain transportation methods are also valid methods of transportation if used in the Nether. Since one block in the Nether is equal to eight blocks in the Overworld, using the Nether for transportation effectively multiplies transportation speeds by eight.
- ↑ The time taken by a boat to reach maximum speed is 9.4 seconds—the difference in time between a running start and not, is half that, or 4.7 seconds.
- ↑ Horses vary in speed. They are the fastest method of land transportation on open terrain.
- ↑ The swimming speeds are not affected by Swiftness potions. The surface speed refers to "skimming" across the top of the water by holding the spacebar.
- ↑ Underwater refers to any part of the body submerged in water and walking on flat terrain. The Player travels the same speed regardless of if the water is 1 block deep or 2 (in observed cases).
- ↑ Flying speed can be varied.
- ↑ Fastest travel speed currently achievable in survival, numbers are from the Pearl cannon created by SciCraft and Xcom6000
Potions[edit]
Using potion effects (including beacon effects), walking and sprinting speeds become competitive with other methods of transportation.
Each additional level of
Speed allows the player to walk at nearly the sprinting speed of the previous level, and sprinting with Speed II is only slightly slower than a minecart at full speed or a boosted pig. With adequate food and potion supplies, sprinting may be more cost-effective than building high-speed transportation systems.
| Effect level | Walking speed (m/s) | Sprinting speed (m/s) |
|---|---|---|
| none | 4.317 | 5.612 |
Speed |
5.181 | 6.735 |
Speed II |
6.044 | 7.857 |
Commands[edit]
Using the /effect command, extremely high or low speeds become reachable. At exceedingly high levels (100+), the player moves faster than chunks can load.
| Effect level | Sneaking speed (m/s) | Walking speed (m/s) | Sprinting speed (m/s) |
|---|---|---|---|
Speed 50 |
14.25 | 47.49 | 61.74 |
Speed 127 |
34.19 | 113.97 | 148.17 |
Speed 256 |
67.61 | 225.36 | 292.96 |
Vertical transportation[edit]
There are some examples of purely vertical transportation methods:
| Method | Conditions | Average speed (m/s) |
|---|---|---|
Jumping [note 1] |
Climbing slope without stairs, pillar jumping, etc | 2.0 |
Stairs |
Ascending | 3.2 |
| Descending | 3.6 | |
Ladder |
Ascending | 2.35 |
| Descending | 3.0 | |
Waterfall |
No adjacent blocks | 2.0 |
| Ascending, with adjacent blocks | 0.6 | |
| Descending, with adjacent blocks | 3.4 | |
Lavafall |
Using a Potion of Fire Resistance | 0.8 |
Levitation |
Level 1 | 0.9 |
Flying |
Creative Spectator |
7.5 |
Falling |
No blocks below player | 86.7 |
Swimming |
Water |
0.39 |
- ↑ The player can jump up a distance of 1 1⁄4 blocks. With Jump Boost I, that increases to 1 15⁄16 blocks, and with Jump Boost II, that increases to 2 1⁄2 blocks.
Falling speed is more complex: Every tick (1⁄20 second), non-flying players and mobs have their vertical speed decremented (less upward motion, more downward motion) by 0.08 blocks per tick (1.6 m/s), then multiplied by 0.98. This would produce a terminal velocity of 3.92 blocks per tick, or 78.4 m/s. However, the sky isn't quite high enough for that: Falling from layer 256 to bedrock takes about 5.5 seconds, with impact at 3.5 blocks per tick (70 m/s). (In creative mode, you can fly higher, and could potentially reach terminal velocity falling from "above the sky".)
A function to calculate the speed of a (free)falling player is the following: v(t) = (0.98floor(t) - 1) × 3.92. The velocity v is in blocks/tick (or meters/tick), and the time t is in ticks. The usual downward velocity will be negative. t is floored because Minecraft only updates your velocity once a tick (so, for example, your velocity at t=3.4 will be exactly the same as your velocity at t=3.0).
Integrating the previous yields an estimate of the distance fallen by tick: d(t) = 196 - 3.92 × t - 194.04 × 0.98t-0.5. Again, distance fallen is negative. The derivation of this distance estimate, and Java code for generating the exact distace, can be found here.
Other modes of transportation[edit]
- Players are also able to use pistons for transport.
- It is possible to construct complex flying machines using pistons, blocks of redstone, and slime blocks.
- Dying is an instant mode of transportation that will take you to your bed or spawn point, but at the cost of all of your items and XP (if the
keepInventorygamerule is disabled) and your world (on Hardcore).- If the player has already defeated the ender dragon, and is near a stronghold/End portal, they can enter and exit the End to instantly be transported to their bed or spawn point without dying.
- Standing next to an explosion will send you flying for a certain distance, depending on the strength of the explosion.
- Not recommended in Survival mode.
- Due to to how damage is calculated after explosion knockback, you can’t take damage if you make the player cannon powerful enough.
- It is possible to mount minecarts and boats as long as they are within 4-5 blocks (inclusive) from the player. Placing minecarts in a straight line allows for extremely fast transport. This also works with saddled pigs, provided they stay in position (placed on posts).
Achievements[edit]
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Availability | Xbox points earned | Trophy type (PS) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox | PS | Bedrock | Nintendo | ||||||
|
| On A Rail | Travel by minecart to a point at least 500m in a single direction from where you started. | Travel by minecart to a point at least 500 m from where you started. Distance is measured in a straight line. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 40G | Gold |
|
| Beam Me Up | Teleport over 100 meters from a single throw of an ender pearl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 20G | Silver | |
|
| Super Sonic | Use elytra to fly through a 1 by 1 gap while moving faster than 40 m/s | Yes | Yes | Alt | Yes | 60G | Gold | |
| Alt | Yes | 30G | |||||||
Advancements[edit]
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Internal ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Subspace Bubble | Use the Nether to travel 7km in the Overworld | Nether | Use the Nether to travel between 2 points in the Overworld with a minimum horizontal distance of 7000 blocks between each other. | minecraft:nether/fast_travel |
Video[edit]
History[edit]
| Java Edition Pre-classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rd-132211 | Added walking as the first form of locomotion. | ||||
| Java Edition Classic | |||||
| 0.0.12a | Added water and lava. "Swimming" (more akin to treading water) introduced. | ||||
| Java Edition Infdev | |||||
| June 18, 2010 | Added minecarts. | ||||
| June 25, 2010, 2 | Added saddles, which made it possible to use pigs as a (somewhat unreliable) method of transportation. | ||||
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
| v1.0.6 | Added boats. | ||||
| v1.1.1 | Added sneaking. | ||||
| v1.2.0 | preview | Added the Nether, which could be used as a fast travel zone since any distance covered in the Nether is multiplied by 8 in the Overworld. | |||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.5 | Added powered rails, which removed the need for "booster" minecarts. | ||||
| 1.8 | ? | Sprinting and flying were added in the Adventure Update. | |||
| Fixed an infamous bug where walking on the edges of blocks would accumulate step sounds and rapidly play them upon touching solid ground. | |||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Added ender pearls, which can be thrown, teleporting the player to where it lands. | |||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 | Speed potions added, allowing for faster travel. | ||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w23a | Boats were made faster. | |||
| 1.4.2 | 12w36a | Added carrot on a stick in the Pretty Scary Update, which made it possible to control saddled pigs.[1] They start slow but will end up going up to 5 blocks per second (5m/sec).[2] | |||
| Before this update, the player had no control over the pig's wandering, so this was not a practical form of long-distance transportation. After this update, however, the pig did not jump when being controlled, so transportation was still limited (to the same height or downhill directions). | |||||
| 12w37a | Saddled pigs now jump over blocks when being directed with the carrot on a stick. | ||||
| 12w38a | Teleportation by Nether Portal is now instantaneous in creative mode. | ||||
| 1.6.1 | 13w16a | Added horses in the Horse Update. | |||
| 13w16b | Made horses slower and reduced the amount of gliding. | ||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | Added ability to "sprint" in minecarts, boats and horses, and while flying in Creative Mode, speeding them up slightly. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w05a | Added Spectator mode in the Bountiful Update, one of the fastest methods of transportation due to its no-clip ability and adjustable flying speed. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Added levitation. | |||
| 15w41a | Added elytra in the Combat Update, which is currently the fastest legitimate method of transportation in the game. | ||||
| 1.13 | 18w07a | Added the ability to sprint while in water, which causes the player to dive to the ground and actually swim. This is much faster than the previous form. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added water, therefore allowing swimming. | ||||
| 0.2.0 | Added flying. | ||||
| 0.8.0 | build 2 | Added minecarts and rails, allowing travel by minecart. | |||
| 0.11.0 | build 1 | Added boats. | |||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Added sneaking and sprinting. | |||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Added ender pearls. | |||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Added horses. | |||
| Added saddles, which can be equipped on horses and pigs to ride them. | |||||
| Added carrot on a stick to control pigs when riding. | |||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0 | build 1 | Added elytra. | |||
Issues[edit]
Issues relating to "Transportation" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
References[edit]
