Piston/Technical components

Pistons and sticky pistons have 2 technical blocks that cannot be obtained. These include the piston head and moving piston blocks.

Piston head

Piston Head

• Regular
• Sticky

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No
Tool
Blast resistance	0.5
Hardness	1.5
Luminous	No
Transparent	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color (Java)	11 STONE

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    "title": "Piston Head",
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            "field": "Yes",
            "label": "(link to Renewable resource article, displayed as Renewable)"
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        {
            "field": "<span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"height:32px;width:32px;--vertical-align:middle\">(link to File:SlotSprite Pickaxe Required.png article, displayed as 32x32px|link=Pickaxe|alt=|class=pixel-image|This block can be broken with any tool, but a pickaxe is the quickest)</span>",
            "label": "Tool"
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            "label": "(link to Explosion#Blast resistance article, displayed as Blast resistance)"
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            "label": "(link to Breaking#Blocks by hardness article, displayed as Hardness)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "(link to Light article, displayed as Luminous)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Yes",
            "label": "(link to Opacity article, displayed as Transparent)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "(link to Flammable article, displayed as Flammable)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Catches fire from (link to lava article, displayed as lava)"
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            "label": "(link to Map color article, displayed as Map color) <small>((link to Java Edition article, displayed as Java))</small>"
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    "invimages": [
        "pistonArmCollision"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Piston Head.png",
        "Piston Head BE.png",
        "Sticky Piston Head.png",
        "Sticky Piston Head BE.png"
    ]
}

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 a block update, 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	[hide]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	[hide]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	[hide]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

Moving Piston

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	No
Tool	None
Blast resistance	0
Hardness	-1
Luminous	No
Transparent	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

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            "label": "Stackable"
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        {
            "field": "None",
            "label": "Tool"
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        {
            "field": "0",
            "label": "(link to Explosion#Blast resistance article, displayed as Blast resistance)"
        },
        {
            "field": "-1",
            "label": "(link to Breaking#Blocks by hardness article, displayed as Hardness)"
        },
        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "(link to Light article, displayed as Luminous)"
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        {
            "field": "Yes",
            "label": "(link to Opacity article, displayed as Transparent)"
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            "field": "No",
            "label": "(link to Flammable article, displayed as Flammable)"
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        {
            "field": "No",
            "label": "Catches fire from (link to lava article, displayed as lava)"
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    "invimages": [
        "movingBlock"
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    "images": [
        "Moving Piston.png"
    ]
}

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	[hide]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:

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Block entity data
  • Tags common to all block entities see Template:Nbt inherit/blockentity/template[show]
  • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] blockState: The moving block represented by this block entity.
    • Block state see Template:Nbt inherit/block state/template[show]
  • [Byte] extending: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the piston is extending instead of withdrawing.
  • [Int] facing: Direction that the piston pushes (0=down, 1=up, 2=north, 3=south, 4=west, 5=east).
  • [Float] progress: How far the block has been moved. Starts at 0.0, and increments by 0.5 each tick. If the value is 1.0 or higher at the start of a tick (before incrementing), then the block transforms into the stored blockState. Negative values can be used to increase the time until transformation.
  • [Byte] source: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the block represents the piston head itself, false if it represents a block being pushed.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	[hide]Translation key
Piston Head	piston_head	Block	None	block.minecraft.piston_head
Moving Piston	moving_piston	Block	dragon_immune wither_immune	block.minecraft.moving_piston

Name	[hide]Identifier
Moving piston entity	piston

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Alias ID	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID	[hide]Translation key
Piston Head	piston_arm_collision	pistonArmCollision	34	Block & Ungiveable Item	piston_arm_collision Alias ID: pistonarmcollision	tile.piston_arm_collision.name
Sticky Piston Head	sticky_piston_arm_collision	stickyPistonArmCollision	472	Block & Ungiveable Item	stick_piston_arm_collision Alias ID: stickpistonarmcollision	tile.sticky_piston_arm_collision.name
Moving Block	moving_block	movingBlock	250	Block & Ungiveable Item	moving_block Alias ID: movingblock	tile.moving_block.name

Name	[hide]Savegame ID
Moving block entity	MovingBlock

History

[hide]Java Edition Beta
1.7							Added piston head and moving piston blocks.
[hide]Java Edition
1.8			14w17a				The models for piston and related blocks when facing up and down have been changed.
			14w27b				The moving piston block no longer has a selection outline.
			14w29a				There are now "short" piston heads. Their model is used during a piston's extension/retraction to avoid having part of the head's texture poke out of the back of the piston.
1.14			18w43a				The textures associated with piston heads 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.
1.19			22w17a				Changed piston textures, to match the color of the oak planks on the piston head.

Data history

[hide]Java Edition
1.8			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 34 and 36.
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.16.0			build 5				The movingblock block for pistons can no longer be placed using commands.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.9				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.
1.18.30			beta 1.18.30.26				The ID of pistonarmcollision is changed to piston_arm_collision
							The ID of stickypistonarmcollision is changed to sticky_piston_arm_collision
							The ID of movingblock is changed to moving_block

Trivia

• Mobs can spawn inside the piston head block.
• 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.