Piston

A piston is a block capable of pushing most entities and blocks when given a redstone signal.

A sticky piston is a variant of the piston that can additonally pull most blocks when it retracts.

Some blocks cannot be moved, break when pushed or have other interactions with pistons. A piston can move up to twelve blocks at once.

Obtaining[]

Breaking[]

A piston can be broken using any tool with equal efficiency, and always drops itself. In Java Edition, it is faster to break them with a pickaxe. The pickaxe is also the preferred tool for breaking the head when extended.^[1]

Block	Piston
Hardness	1.5
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default	2.25
Wooden	1.15
Stone	0.6
Iron	0.4
Diamond	0.3
Netherite	0.25
Golden	0.2

Natural generation[]

Three sticky pistons generate as part of each jungle temple. Five sticky pistons also generate in each ancient city.

Crafting[]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Piston	Any Planks + Cobblestone + Iron Ingot + Redstone Dust
Sticky Piston	Slimeball + Piston

Usage[]

Pistons are always placed facing toward the player. When powered, the piston's wooden surface (the "head") starts extending immediately in Java Edition; or either 2 game ticks (1 redstone tick; 0.1 seconds) later or immediately, depending on how it was powered, in Bedrock Edition. When it extends, it pushes at most 12 blocks. The piston makes a sound that can be heard within a 31×31×31 cube centered on the activating piston. Any entities in the path of the extending head are pushed with the blocks. If there is no place for the entities to go, the block pushes inside them, suffocating mobs if the block is not transparent when pushed into the eye height of the mob.

When a piston loses power, its head retracts. Like extending, this retraction starts immediately in Java Edition; or, depending on how it was powered, after 1 tick in Bedrock Edition. It finishes retracting 2 game ticks (1 redstone tick; 0.1 seconds) after it starts. A sticky piston also pulls the block attached to its head, but not any of the other blocks it may have pushed.

Sticky pistons stick to a block only when retracting, so a block next to the piston head can be pushed aside by another piston and sticky pistons cannot hold falling blocks horizontally against gravity. In Java Edition, pistons finish extending early and start retracting if given a pulse shorter than 3 game ticks (1.5 redstone ticks; 0.15 seconds). These shorter pulses cause sticky pistons to "drop" their block, leaving it behind when trying to push it with a short pulse. Also, this causes the block to end up in its final position earlier. However, if they receive a short pulse and don't have a block to be pushed, they pull the block which is 1 block away.

A piston that pushes a slime block bounces any entity that it displaces in the direction the piston is facing. In addition, when a slime block is moved by a piston, any movable blocks adjacent (not diagonally) to the slime block also moves. See the "Slime blocks" section below for more details.

In Bedrock Edition, blocks that stick to walls (such as levers) can be placed on pistons or sticky pistons.

Limitations[]

Pistons can push most blocks, and sticky pistons can pull most blocks, except those listed in the table below. A sticky piston simply leaves a block behind if it cannot pull it.

Pistons cannot push blocks into the void or beyond the top of the map. They also cannot push more than 12 blocks. If the requirements for a block to be pushed are not met, the piston simply does not extend.

Blocks that cannot be pushed or pulled

Block	Effect (Java Edition)	Effect (Bedrock Edition)
Barrier Beacon Bedrock Command Block Conduit Crying Obsidian Enchanting Table End Gateway End Portal End Portal Frame Ender Chest Grindstone Jigsaw Block Jukebox Light Lodestone Monster Spawner Moving Piston Nether Portal Obsidian Piston (extended) Piston Head Reinforced Deepslate Respawn Anchor Sculk Catalyst Sculk Sensor Sculk Shrieker Structure Block Structure Void‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Cannot be pushed or pulled.
Allow Deny Border	N/A	Cannot be pushed or pulled.
Compound Creator Element Element Constructor Hardened Glass Hardened Glass Pane Heat Block Lab Table Material Reducer Underwater TNT		Can be pushed or pulled.
Underwater Torch Colored Torches		Breaks when pushed, turning to drops when applicable. Cannot be pulled.
Barrel Beehive Bee Nest Blast Furnace Brewing Stand Chest Chiseled Bookshelf Daylight Detector Dispenser Dropper Furnace Hopper Lectern Smoker Trapped Chest	Cannot be pushed or pulled, because these blocks hold block entities.	Can be pushed or pulled.
Large Chest		Can be pushed or pulled, but separates into two chests.
Banner Hanging Sign Sign		Breaks when pushed or unsupported, turning into drops.
Campfire Soul Campfire		Breaks when pushed, turning to drops when applicable. Cannot be pulled.
Glazed Terracotta	Can be pushed, but not pulled.
Carpets (not moss)	Can be pushed and pulled. Breaks when pulled downward, turning into drops.
Bell Candle Lantern Soul Lantern	Breaks when pushed, turning to drops when applicable. Cannot be pulled.	Can be pushed or pulled.
Amethyst Cluster Bamboo Bed Budding Amethyst Button Cactus Cake Carved Pumpkin Cave Vines Chorus Flower Chorus Plant Cobweb Cocoa Dead Bush Decorated Pot Door Dragon Egg Fire Flower Pot Flower Frogspawn Grass Head Item Frame[note 1] Jack o'Lantern Ladder Lava Leaves Lever Lily Pad Melon Melon Stem Moss Block Moss Carpet Mushroom Nether Wart Painting[note 2] Pink Petals Pointed Dripstone Pressure Plate Pumpkin Pumpkin Stem Redstone Comparator Redstone Dust Redstone Repeater Redstone Torch Saplings Scaffolding Sculk Vein Sea Pickle Shulker Box Snow Structure Void‌[Java Edition only] Sugar Cane Suspicious Sand Torch Torchflower Torchflower Crop Tripwire Tripwire Hook Turtle Egg Twisting Vines Vines Water Weeping Vines Weighted Pressure Plate Wheat	Breaks when pushed, turning to drops when applicable. Cannot be pulled.
Anvil	Cannot be pulled. Pushable only when in a falling state.	Can be pushed or pulled, but falls if unsupported.
Concrete Powder Gravel Red Sand Sand	Can be pushed or pulled, but falls if unsupported.

Pistons do not move blocks that are "attached to a block", as they detach and drop as an item.

Exceptions[]

• Rails: as long as they remain on top of a solid face of a block in their new position, and that block isn't moving at the same time.
  • An exception is when the rail and block supporting it are on two parallel extended pistons at which the rail remains attached. Trying to move both on the same piston using slime blocks does not work, nor does moving them on perpendicular pistons (although the latter temporarily appears to work because of the bug MC-75716).
  • Rails re-orient themselves after being pushed, similar to when placed manually.

Powering pistons[]

Pistons can be powered in various ways:

• If a redstone wire is in a line shape toward the piston. In Java Edition, the wire does not automatically curve to the piston.
• Pistons can be powered by a powered block directly adjacent to them, whether it is strongly powered or weakly powered.
• Pistons can be powered by a redstone torch directly adjacent to them.
• In Java Edition, pistons can be powered by any powered block one block above and to the side, including the "activated space" above it (if a piston, both sticky and normal were to be facing up and a block of redstone placed on its head, it extends when powered, but doesn't retract when the power it receives from the side or back turns off). However, the piston doesn't extend or retract until it receives a block update. This property is called quasi-connectivity and can be used to make a BUD switch.
• A repeater cannot transfer power through a piston, as pistons are a transparent block.
• An upward-facing piston can't be powered by a block above it, unless it is extended In Java Edition.
• In Bedrock Edition a redstone torch attached to a piston turns off whenever the piston is powered. This mechanic is called soft inversion.
• Pistons can also be powered by observers. This can create a clock if the setup is correct.

Slime blocks and honey blocks[]

When a slime block is pushed or pulled by a piston, while moving, adjacent blocks also move with the slime block, unless a non-piston movable block stops the blocks that are "grabbed" by the slime blocks. These blocks may in turn push other blocks, not just the blocks in the line in front of the piston. For example, a slime block sitting on the ground attempts to move the ground block underneath itself, which in turn has to push additional ground blocks in the direction of motion just as if it were being pushed directly by a piston.

Glazed terracotta is an exception; it does not move when adjacent slime blocks are moved. The same occurs when a slime block is moved by an adjacent Slime Block. For example, a 2×2×2 cube of Slime Blocks may be pushed or pulled as a unit by a single piston acting on any of the blocks in the cube. A slime block adjacent to a block that cannot be moved by pistons ignores the immobile block. But if an adjacent block could be moved but is prevented by the presence of an immobile block, the slime block is prevented from moving.

Slime blocks are not pulled by a non-sticky piston, nor are they moved if an adjacent (non-Slime) block is moved by a piston. The maximum of 12 blocks moved by a piston still applies. For example, a 2×2×3 collection of Slime Blocks may be pushed or pulled by a sticky piston as long as no other movable blocks are adjacent to it. A piston cannot move itself via a "hook" constructed of slime blocks, but self-propelled contraptions can be created with multiple pistons. For that, see the article Tutorials/Flying machines. The same happens for the honey block, but it does not stick to slime blocks.

Technical components[]

Piston head[]

The piston head is a technical block used as the second block of an extended piston. A block state defines whether it is a normal or a sticky piston head. It can be placed using the /setblock command or with the debug stick, though if not part of a proper piston, it disappears after receiving any block tick, such as when a block is placed next to it unless the player uses the debug stick. It drops nothing.

In Java Edition, the normal and sticky piston heads are distinguished by a block state. In Bedrock Edition, they use separate block IDs, and it can be obtained as an item via inventory editors.

Block states[]

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	down east north south up west	The direction the piston head is pointing.
short	false	false true	If true, the piston arm is shorter than usual, by 4 pixels.
type	normal	normal sticky	The type of piston head.

Bedrock Edition: Piston Head:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
facing_direction	0x1 0x2 0x4	0	0 1 2 3 4 5	0 1 2 3 4 5	The direction the piston head is pointing. 0: facing up 1: facing down 2: facing south 3: facing north 4: facing east 5: facing west

Sticky Piston Head:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
facing_direction	Not Supported	0	0 1 2 3 4 5	Unsupported	The direction the piston head is pointing. 0: facing up 1: facing down 2: facing south 3: facing north 4: facing east 5: facing west

Moving piston[]

The moving piston, also known as block 36 due to its pre-flattening block ID, is an unobtainable technical block that contains part of a piston head, and/or part of one or two blocks that the piston is carrying into or out of the grid cell (including blocks carried indirectly via slime blocks). Since moving blocks vary in how much of each grid cell they occupy, they can't be stored as normal blocks and are instead stored as block entities. It is overwritten with air, the piston head or the carried block at the end of the piston stroke; but if it is placed through editing and no piston is connected, it remains indefinitely.

It is invisible and non-solid in Java Edition, and cannot be broken without the use of commands or TNT. Although it is non-solid, fluids cannot pass through it. It also prevents players from building at its location. Mobs can see through it, but cannot walk through it. The game treats the block as a stone block when it comes to the player's footstep sounds. It is similar to Invisible Bedrock in properties with the exception that the player can walk through the moving piston but not invisible bedrock.

Block states[]

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	down east north south up west	The direction the block is being pushed by the piston.
type	normal	normal sticky	What piston base this has.

Block data[]

The moving piston has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Sounds[]

Generic[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	None[sound 1]	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	None[sound 1]	0.5	0.75	16
	Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition (piston):

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.37	0.5
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0

Bedrock Edition (arm):

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.27 [sound 1]	0.5
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0

Unique[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Piston moves	Blocks	When a piston extends	block.piston.extend	subtitles.block.piston.move	0.5	0.6-0.85	16
	Piston moves	Blocks	When a piston contracts	block.piston.contract	subtitles.block.piston.move	0.5	0.6-0.75	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	When a piston extends	tile.piston.out	0.5	0.6-0.75
	Blocks	When a piston contracts	tile.piston.in	0.5	0.6-0.75

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Translation key
Piston	piston	Block & Item	None	block.minecraft.piston
Sticky Piston	sticky_piston	Block & Item	None	block.minecraft.sticky_piston
Piston Head	piston_head	Block	None	block.minecraft.piston_head
Moving Piston	moving_piston	Block	dragon_immune wither_immune	block.minecraft.moving_piston

Name	Identifier
Block entity	piston

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Alias ID	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Piston	piston	None	33	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.piston.name
Sticky Piston	sticky_piston	None	29	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.sticky_piston.name
Piston Head	piston_arm_collision	pistonArmCollision	34	Block & Ungiveable Item[i 4]	piston_arm_collision Alias ID: pistonarmcollision	tile.piston_arm_collision.name
Sticky Piston Head	sticky_piston_arm_collision	stickyPistonArmCollision	472	Block & Ungiveable Item[i 4]	stick_piston_arm_collision Alias ID: stickpistonarmcollision	tile.sticky_piston_arm_collision.name
Moving Block	moving_block	movingBlock	250	Block & Ungiveable Item[i 4]	moving_block Alias ID: movingblock	tile.moving_block.name

Name	Savegame ID
Piston block entity	PistonArm
Moving block entity	MovingBlock

Block states[]

The piston and sticky_piston blocks use following block states:

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
extended	false	false true	If true, the piston is extended.
facing	north	down east north south up west	The direction the piston head is pointing. The opposite from the direction the player faces while placing the piston.

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
facing_direction	0x1 0x2 0x4	0	0 1 2 3 4 5	0 1 2 3 4 5	The direction the piston is pointing. 0: facing down 1: facing up 2: facing south 3: facing north 4: facing east 5: facing west

Block data[]

In Bedrock Edition, a piston has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other
		Inception	Push a piston with a piston, then pull the original piston with that piston.	—	20G	Silver

Video[]

History[]

Java Edition Classic
May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding blocks that can pull and push other blocks when a pulse from a wire is received; he called them "Pulley1", which would pull a block up, and "Pulley2", which would push a block up.
Java Edition Beta
?					The original piston was a mod posted on the Minecraft Forums by Hippoplatimus.[2] The code for that version was given to Jeb, who then worked on implementing pistons into vanilla Minecraft; Hippoplatimus is in the game's credits under "Additional Programming", like other modders whose work made it into vanilla Minecraft.
					Another user, DiEvAl, privately submitted code as well, including the idea of block entities to track moving blocks.[3]
June 7, 2011					Jeb tweets an image of pistons in development.
					The piston texture as screen-captured while in development had iron bands running over the head. The bands were removed for the release, leaving only iron brackets around the corners and edges.
1.7					Added pistons and sticky pistons, alongside associated head and moving blocks.
1.7_01					Sticky pistons no longer stick when they aren't retracting.
Java Edition
?					The wireframe hitbox of the moving piston block is now halfway aligned.
1.2.4		release			Spruce planks, birch planks, and jungle planks can now be used to craft pistons.
1.3.1		12w22a			Sticky pistons now generate naturally inside jungle temples. In the temples, the pistons are used to form a puzzle mechanism.
		12w27a			Pistons have been updated to make them less error-prone, thus they also appear to update slower. This also alters the way pistons work, so the player might have to adapt their repeater delays and similar. For this change, pistons now take 2 redstone ticks (4 game ticks) to extend, but they still retract instantly.
1.7.2		1.7.1			Acacia planks and dark oak planks can now be used to craft pistons.
1.8		14w17a			The models for piston and related blocks when facing up and down have been changed.
		14w18a			Slime blocks now push and pull blocks adjacent when connected to sticky pistons.
					Extending a piston with a slime block on top of it launches the entity (mobs, players, items, launched arrows, etc) into the air.
		14w19a			Slime blocks can now push entities sideways and downward when attached to a piston.
		14w29a			There are now "short" piston heads. Their use is unknown.
		14w32a			The moving piston block no longer has a hitbox.
1.9		15w49a			Unextended pistons, downward-facing pistons, and upward-facing piston heads are now considered to have a solid top surface, like upside-down stairs and top slabs. There also existed a bug where when a piston retracted, it would pull entities through them.
1.12		17w16a			Sticky pistons do not pull glazed terracotta, and when pistons move slime blocks, they do not move glazed terracotta attached to the side of the slime block.
		pre3			Slime blocks can no longer pull glazed terracotta attached to any side of a piston, whatsoever.
1.13		17w47a			Pistons now can push note blocks.
		pre6			Sticky pistons now pull glazed terracotta again.
		pre8			Sticky pistons no longer pull glazed terracotta.
1.14		18w43a			The textures associated with pistons have been changed.
					While the texture for oak planks was later updated in subsequent snapshots, the piston texture is yet to be changed to reflect this.[4]
		18w44a			Pistons are no longer transparent.
		18w46a			Extended pistons now allow light to pass through certain faces.
1.15		19w41a			Added honey blocks, which have multiple different types of interactions with pistons.
1.16		20w06a			The hardness of pistons has been increased from 0.5 to 1.5.
					Pickaxes are now the tool for breaking pistons.
					Pistons no longer pop off redstone components placed on the back when retracting.
					Crimson planks and warped planks can now be used to craft pistons.
1.17		20w45a			Particles now appear if a block is broken by a piston.
1.19		22w11a			Mangrove planks can now be used to craft pistons.
		22w13a			Sticky pistons and piston heads now generate in ancient cities.
		22w17a			Changed piston and sticky piston textures, to match the color of the oak planks on the piston head.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0		build 1			Added pistons and sticky pistons.
					Pistons and sticky pistons have a version exclusive animation and the ability to push block entities.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of pistons has been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU3	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added pistons and sticky pistons.
TU14		1.04			Pistons now take double the amount of time (2 redstone ticks or 4 game ticks) to extend, but they still retract instantly.
		1.90			The texture of pistons has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added pistons and sticky pistons.

• 

  First screenshot of pistons.

Data history[]

Java Edition Beta
1.7					Pistons with six sides exist as extreme metadata variants of pistons.
Java Edition
1.8		14w26a			Pistons now use block states instead of metadata. As such, weird pistons have been removed.
		14w29a			Added the "short=true/false" block state to piston_head.
1.11.1		16w50a			Added a new byte tag source for the piston_extension block entity, which is true if the block represents the piston head itself, and false if it represents a block being pushed. Pistons moving entities to the other side has been fixed.
1.13		17w47a			The moving block ID of pistons has been changed from piston_extension to moving_piston.
					Prior to The Flattening, these blocks' numeral IDs were 29, 33, 34 and 36.
Pocket Edition Alpha
?					Weird pistons also existed, but they didn't look six-sided.
Bedrock Edition
1.13.0		?			Sticky piston heads are now a separate block from normal heads, instead of being differentiated by a block state. The namespaced ID is now stickypistonarmcollision, while the numerical ID is 472.
?					The movingblock block for pistons can no longer be placed using commands.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.30.26			The ID of stickypistonarmcollision is changed to sticky_piston_arm_collision
					The ID of pistonarmcollision is changed to piston_arm_collision
					The ID of movingblock is changed to moving_block
Legacy Console Edition
?					Weird pistons and sticky pistons definitely existed at one point.

Piston head/moving piston "items"[]

The following content is transcluded from Technical blocks/Pistons.

Java Edition Beta
1.7					Piston heads have an unobtainable item form corresponding to its block ID. It can be obtained via inventory editors with numeric item ID 34.
					The moving piston has an unobtainable item form corresponding to its block ID. It can be obtained via inventory editors with numeric item ID 36.
					Both blocks do not appear to be able to be placed.
					If certain colors of cloth were obtained in a world prior to their mass removal in late Infdev, items of these could convert forward into piston head or moving piston items.
1.8		Pre-release 2 ;)			Added pick block functionality. This changes the currently selected slot to any containing these otherwise-unobtainable items, but does not allow them to be obtained if not already in the hotbar.
Java Edition
1.2.5		pre			Piston heads and moving pistons can now be obtained via Pick Block in creative.
1.3.1		12w15a			Using pick block on a piston head or moving piston now causes a game crash.
		12w16a			Piston head and moving piston items can now be obtained in singleplayer worlds via the /give command using their respective numeric IDs.
					Piston heads and moving pistons can no longer be obtained with pick block in Creative.
1.7.2		13w37a			The direct item forms of piston heads and moving pistons have been removed from the game. They can no longer exist as an item in any way, only as placed blocks.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0					Both the "moving piston" and "piston head" items have been added. The "piston head" item has an ID of 34 and the "moving piston" item has an ID of 250.
Bedrock Edition
1.18.30		beta 1.18.30.26			The ids of sticky piston heads and piston heads are now changed. For backward compatibility, their original IDs (stickypistonarmcollision and pistonarmcollision) are registries as their alias IDs, which can be obtained with /give command.
					Moving block's ID is also changed, but it still cannot be obtained by /give.

• 

  A piston head in the inventory.

• 

  A comparison between a normal stone block, and a stone block with a block 36 on it

• 

  A "sphere" made out of block 36.

Appearances[]

Piston head

Java Edition Beta
1.7					The piston head item uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view or as a dropped item.
Java Edition
1.4.2		12w34a			The piston head item now uses the aforementioned texture when in an item frame.
Bedrock Edition
?					The piston head block uses this item texture.[5]
?					The piston head block uses this item texture.

Moving piston

Java Edition Beta
1.7					The moving piston item uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view or as a dropped item.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5			The moving piston item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view or as a dropped item.
					This is due to the grass top texture changing in this version.
1.4.2		12w34a			The moving piston item now uses the aforementioned texture when in an item frame.
1.5		13w02a			The moving piston item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.
					This is due to major texture storage changes in this version.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0					The moving piston block uses this item texture.[6]

Names[]

Piston Head

Java Edition

• Beta 1.7 - Beta 1.9 Prerelease: [Has no defined name, rendering a minimum-length text box if highlighted]
• Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 - Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3: [Has no defined name, and attempting to render it causes a game crash]
• Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 - 13w25b: [Has no defined name, rendering a minimum-length text box if highlighted]
• 13w25c - 13w36b: tile.null.name

When given using the /give command, it is announced as null.name.

Bedrock Edition

• ? - Beta 1.18.30.22: tile.pistonArmCollision.name
• Beta 1.18.30.26 - now: tile.piston_arm_collision.name

Sticky Piston Head

Bedrock Edition

• ? - Beta 1.18.30.22: tile.stickyPistonArmCollision.name
• Beta 1.18.30.26 - now: tile.sticky_piston_arm_collision.name

Moving Piston

Java Edition

• Beta 1.7 - Beta 1.9 Prerelease: [Has no defined name, rendering a minimum-length text box if highlighted]
• Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 - Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3: [Has no defined name, and attempting to render it causes a game crash]
• Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 - 13w25b: [Has no defined name, rendering a minimum-length text box if highlighted]
• 13w25c - 13w36b: tile.null.name

When given using the /give command, it is announced as null.name.

Bedrock Edition

• ? - Beta 1.18.30.22: tile.movingBlock.name
• Beta 1.18.30.26 - now: tile.moving_block.name

References[]

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• Mojang stated that the 12-block push limit for pistons would not be changed, because "the current limitations are by design".^[1]
• When toggled between on and off rapidly with a gravity affected block (such as sand) above it, a piston can eventually break the block, which can be picked up as a resource. However, gravel broken this way never drops flint.
• If a sticky piston powered by a short pulse directly pushes a waterlogged block, the block remains waterlogged at its new position.
• Mobs can spawn inside the piston head block.
• Carpet can be placed on the piston extension block, and remains even if it is replaced with a solid block using /setblock.
• In Bedrock Edition, the piston head is invisible and non-solid when placed with commands. The moving piston cannot be placed with block placement commands in this edition.
• The moving_piston is transparent and does not emit light.
  • If a light-emitting block is moved, the player can see it turn dark briefly. If an opaque block is moved, the player may see light passing through it.

Gallery[]

Images[]

• 

  Notch's explanation on how the rod (a full block long when extended) fits into the piston box (whose depth is a block minus the face's thickness).^[2]

• 

  Fundamental logic gates, implemented purely with pistons and redstone repeaters, clockwise from upper left: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT.

• 

  Slow clock generator with pistons and redstone.

• 

  An example of a piston-controlled waterflow.

• 

  Artwork of a Piston connected to a lever.

• 

  Light shining through an extended piston.

• 

  Redstone connecting to pistons in bedrock edition.

Animations[]

• 

  An example of sticky piston use with glass panes.

• 

  An example of sticky piston use with rails.

• 

  An example of sticky piston use with fences.

See also[]

• Slime Block
• Redstone
• Tutorials/Piston uses
• Tutorials/Headless pistons
• Mechanics/Redstone/Piston circuits

Notes[]

References[]

External Links[]

• Block of the Week: Piston – Minecraft.net on October 13, 2017