When it comes down to it, Minecraft is a fairly simple game to play. Things are pretty intuitive in terms of crafting, especially since a recipe book allows you to go back and check all the recipes you know so far. However, there's one form of craft in the game that's only reserved for the smartest: Redstone contraptions.
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If Redstone in Minecraft feels like a foreign language, no need to worry. Just replicating a few basic farms tends to teach the basics to a player. Redstone is worth getting into because of how many things can be automated and simplified. Less time tending to crops will mean more time spent building or exploring. Without further ado, here are some Redstone contraptions that are insanely useful.
Updated on November 6, 2025, by Anastasia Maillot: The last couple of Minecraft updates have changed a few things regarding Redstone, and due to this, some contraptions now have links to up-to-date designs. There are also a couple of new contraptions for players to try, namely one that involves the sculk sensor, which introduces sound detection to Redstone builds.
The difficulty level of these contraptions is ranked out of five, with five being the most difficult.
Gold Farm
Earn Plenty of Gold and XP
- Difficulty Level: 4/5
- Blocks Required: Turtle Egg, Obsidian, Trapdoors, Slabs, Ladders, Chests, Glass, Ender Pearl, Flint and Steel
One of the more laborious farms to create is a gold farm. Players will need to access the Nether roof for it, which requires digging upwards until hitting bedrock, and then using an Ender Pearl to glitch through. The Nether roof is completely flat without hazards, so it's easy to traverse and ideal for controlling mob spawns for farms like this. Since mobs don't spawn on bedrock, any block placed on the Nether roof will attract mob spawns.
A gold farm specifically involves Zombie Pigmen. They can be lured in through a portal system that links the turtle egg lure to the killing area where the player is waiting. It's a ton of gold in just a few kills and decent XP as well, though it can be finicky to set up with the Nether portals. Ianxofour has the most timeless design that still works in the current Java version.
Super Secret Door
Use the Calibrated Sculk Sensor and Lectern to Your Advantage
- Difficulty Level: 1/5
- Blocks Required: Sticky Pistons, Repeaters, Comparators, Observer, Block of Redstone, Lectern, Book and Quill, Calibrated Sculk Sensor, Redstone, Any Building Blocks
Sculk sensors were introduced in the Caves and Cliffs update, and Calibrated Sculk sensors followed in Trails and Tales, which helped solidify a spot for them in Redstone builds. A Calibrated Sculk sensor is a thing of beauty when paired with a lectern, as it can read certain sounds in order to send out a Redstone signal.
This means it's possible to make various super-secret doors that are only activated upon performing certain actions, such as putting on armor, which makes a sound the sensor will detect. The player is free to choose whatever key they want for their secret door; it's just the lectern that needs to be adjusted for a change. To get a better idea of what a secret door like this can do and look like, check out Jax and Wild's tutorial.
Minecart Loading Station
A Quick Way To Get Down Into The Mines
- Difficulty Level: 2/5
- Blocks Required: Building blocks, Dirt, Crops, Composters, Minecarts, Rails, Button, Beds
Building a mine is a given in Minecraft. It's important to dig deep to find items like Diamonds, Redstone, and underground structures. Minecarts are something used as a quick way to get up and down those mines. However, they are easily lost, meaning a new cart may be needed for each journey.
Building a quick and easy minecart station is something to help keep track of minecarts and for an easy and smooth journey down into the abyss. Also, it looks better from an aesthetic point of view, having some sort of structure in the mine to help build up the world. MumboJumbo has a simple version of this build over on YouTube.
Ender Pearl Station
An Easy Method Of Equipping Throwable Items
- Difficulty Level: 1/5
- Blocks Required: Building Blocks, Buttons, Redstone, Redstone Torch, Dispensers
Ender Pearls are an important tool for combat as they can be used to teleport away from danger when fighting in a tough battle. They are somewhat hard to store as they can only be stacked to 16. It may be tedious to remember to grab a full stack before heading out on an adventure.
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This is where the quick and simple Ender Pearl Station comes into play. At a simple touch of a button, it fires out a full stack of Ender Pearls ready for the player to use. It uses a simple Redstone system that fires out a signal that pushes out the item when the button is pressed. Asif Gaming talks through this build on YouTube.
Cooked Chicken Farm
An Easy Food Source
- Difficulty Level: 2/5
- Blocks Required: Lava, Building Blocks, Fence, Chest, Hopper
One thing that every player needs in Minecraft is food, and finding a reliable source can be difficult. Building a Chicken Cooker is an easy way to overcome this issue.
The idea is that the chicken is trapped and bred. When the babies grow up, they are burned by the lava and automatically turned into cooked chicken. It may be a little gruesome, but gamers must remember they aren't real chickens! To build this requires no work at all. Simply place an enclosed block of lava over a fence block, giving some space below for the baby chickens to be bred. There are a lot of tutorials for this on YouTube, but Triloms' is a great one.
Raid Farm
A Superb Way To Get Lots Of Emeralds
- Difficulty Level: 3/5
- Blocks Required: Bed, Lava, Fence Gates, Building Blocks, Glass, Villager, Job Block, Hoppers, Chests
Raids are a great way to get items like Totems of Undying, Enchanted Books, and Emeralds. There is some really valuable loot available. However, they can be tricky to complete with strong enemy mobs and the risk of causing serious damage to a village.
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The simple raid farm takes away the need for this battle. The mobs are spawned in a mock village and instantly burn to death using a water and lava system, with the drops falling below into a hopper and chest system. This does not give XP or reward the player with the Hero of the Village status effect, which grants cheaper trade from Villagers. The Raid Farm is simply for the loot. There are some advanced versions of this build, but wattles has a simple one on YouTube.
Item Sorter
It's Important To Keep Organized
- Difficulty Level: 3/5
- Blocks Required: Chests, Items, Building Blocks, Hoppers, Redstone, Repeaters
When players get to a certain point in a Minecraft world, they deal with a lot of different items. A big problem with this is spending hours sorting through the items to prevent losing any important items.
An Item Sorting system can be of great benefit, and it isn't too difficult to work through on a small scale. It is when this is done for every item in the game that the real difficulty lies. The idea is that the items are put into one chest and then filtered down to chests that already have one of those items inside of them. It involves a lot of hoppers and Redstone, but worth it for saving time for the serious Minecraft player. Voltrox talks through this build over on YouTube.
Villager Breeder
A Compact Way To Gather Lots Of Villagers And Transport Them To Where They Need To Be
- Difficulty Level: 2/5
- Blocks Required: Building blocks, Dirt, Crops, Composters, Minecarts, Rails, Button, Beds
Villagers are very useful in Minecraft. They can be traded with to acquire items and emeralds (the currency in Minecraft). So a handy thing to do is to create a Villager Breeder. There are several different variations of this contraption, but the most common one works on a farm. Farmer Villagers harvest crops, and when they have too many, they will breed automatically and produce a child.
The child is then whisked off to be used elsewhere in the Minecraft world, which is where Redstone comes in. This is a rail system that can be designed for easy transportation. BlazeDude on YouTube has a handy tutorial on making a simple Villager Breeder.
Block Swapper
A Way To Change Blocks To Save Space
- Difficulty Level: 1/5
- Blocks Required: Building blocks, Pistons, Redstone, Redstone Torch, Redstone Repeaters, Switches
A Block Swapper does what it says on the tin: it swaps blocks out for other ones. A use for this could be in a base, to save space. If players have a small starting base, then they can use a Block Swapper to change from a Crafting Table to a Furnace to an Anvil as needed.
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It is not necessary, but it is a fun little way to use the various workstations in the game and a great starting point for gamers looking to get into Redstone. Enbentz games on YouTube has a simple, but effective, tutorial for creating a Block Swapper in Minecraft.
Cocoa Bean Farm
Semi-Automatic Way To Gain Lots Of Cocoa Beans
- Difficulty Level: 1/5
- Blocks Required: Building Blocks, Jungle Wood, Dirt, Observer, Droppers, Piston, Redstone, Cocoa Beans, Switch
Cocoa Beans are a useful material in Minecraft. They can be used to create cookies, but are also used as a brown dye. They can be farmed easily and grown on jungle wood, but it may become tedious to constantly farm the beans manually.
There is a way to make a semi-automatic farm that shakes the beans off when they are grown, and they can then be collected manually. That, or gamers could create a rail system, using a Hopper Minecart to collect the Cocoa Beans. There are a few different designs out there. Triloms on YouTube has a simple design, which is a method of instantly growing the beans with Bonemeal and pushing them out automatically using a Piston and Observer method.