Redstone Ore

Redstone Ore

Transparency	No
Luminance	Yes, 9 (when updated, clicked, or stepped on)
Blast resistance	15
Tool
Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Experience	Mined: 1–5 Smelted: 0.7
Drops	Redstone (4–5)
Data values	See Data values
Name	See Data values

This article is about the ore. For the item, see Redstone. For other topics related to redstone, see Redstone (disambiguation).

	“	You'll most often find redstone deep below the surface, in the bottom 16 layers of the map. Normally it spawns in large veins of 4-8 blocks, each of which will drop 4-5 redstone and some experience when you mine it with an iron or better pickaxe. You'll get more with a fortune-enchanted pick, of course.	„
		— Duncan Geere

Redstone ore is the ore block from which redstone is obtained.

Obtaining

The redstone ore block itself (rather than its redstone drops) can be obtained by mining it with an iron or diamond pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment.

Drops\Fortune level	0	1	2	3
4	1/2	1/4	1/6	1/8
5	1/2	2/4	2/6	2/8
6	0	1/4	2/6	2/8
7	0	0	1/6	2/8
8	0	0	0	1/8
Average	4.5	5	5.5	6

Block	Redstone Ore
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time
Hand	15
Wooden	7.5
Stone	3.75
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Golden	1.25

Natural generation

Redstone ore veins form at the bottom 16 layers of the map. Below layer 14, it can be found in 1.025% of stone. There is an average of about 24.8 redstone ores per chunk.

Redstone ore forms in veins made up of 4 to 8 blocks. However, multiple veins together or non-stone surrounding the vein can change those numbers.

Usage

Redstone ore drops 4 to 5 redstone and 1-5 experience when mined with an iron pickaxe or better. Mining with a Fortune enchanted pickaxe will increase yields.

Light

Redstone ore will produce light (strength 9) and red particles when clicked, updated, or contacted by any mob (including the player if not sneaking and armor stands). This effect will continue until the redstone ore block receives a block tick (averaging 68.27 seconds). This effect does not actually produce redstone power, but the block changes can be detected with a block update detector or observer allowing redstone ore to act like a pressure plate for mobs, but capable of detecting contact with its sides and bottom surfaces as well.

If a lit redstone ore block receives external light greater than its natural level, it will emit the light level that it absorbed until the block deactivates or is broken or moved by a piston. For example, a torch is placed 2 blocks away from the block illuminates it with a light level of 11. If the torch is broken, the block will continue to emit a light level of 11. If a lit redstone ore block is exposed to sky light being generated by a magma block, it will continue to emit that level of sky light even if later covered.

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Redstone Dust	Redstone Ore + Any fuel

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Block	ID Name
Redstone Ore	redstone_ore

Bedrock Edition:

Block	ID Name	Numeral ID
Redstone Ore	redstone_ore	73
Lit Redstone Ore	lit_redstone_ore	74

Block States

Name	Value	Description
lit	true false	If the redstone ore is lit.

History

Alpha
v1.0.1					Redstone ore added in Seecret Friday Update 3. Mining time took far longer compared to other ores (4.5 seconds with iron pickaxe).
v1.0.4					Redstone ore now has a name (previously all redstone-related blocks had no official name).
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6		Mining time significantly reduced - it now has the same mining time as other ores.
1.3.1			12w22a		Mining redstone ore, along with other ores, gives the player experience orbs. One stack of redstone ore will give roughly 10 levels of experience.
					Inventory sprites for blocks were flipped from left to right, changing to .
1.7.2			13w37a		The item form of block ID 74 (lit redstone ore) was removed from the game. It can no longer exist in inventories, only as a block in the world.
1.13			17w47a		The different block IDs for the redstone ore got merged into 1 ID.
					Added lit block state.
					Prior to The Flattening, these blocks' numeral IDs were 73 and 74.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.1.0					Added redstone ore.
0.4.0					Redstone ore added to creative mode.
0.8.0			build 2		Redstone ore now drops redstone when mined.
0.12.1			build 1		Redstone ore can now be obtained if mined with a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch.
0.13.0			build 1		Redstone ore now emits light and red particles when walked on.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added redstone ore.

Issues

Issues relating to "Redstone Ore" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• In the Bedrock Edition, stepping on redstone ore does not cause a block update.

Gallery

• 

  Lots of ore.

• 

  A vein of redstone ore next to some lava.

• 

  Multiple natural veins of redstone in a cave.

• 

  Redstone ore in a mine with a diamond ore (bottom right) and a vein of iron ore (bottom left) next to it.

See also

• Mechanisms
• Traps

References

Redstone

View at: Template:Redstone/content [edit]

Blocks

View at: Template:Blocks/content [edit]