How to learn redstone
Redstone is easier to learn than it looks, because it is built from five ideas that stack. This page is the order to learn them in, with a working circuit to open for each one. Nothing here needs the game installed: every circuit runs in the browser, and you can pause it, step it one tick at a time, and read the signal strength on every piece of dust.
The five ideas
- A signal is a number from 0 to 15. A lever, torch or button gives 15. Every block of dust drops it by one, so a signal dies after fifteen blocks. A repeater puts it back to 15. That is all "signal strength" means, and once you can read it, half of redstone stops being mysterious. Start with the dust line and the repeater.
- Delay is measured in ticks. The game runs 20 ticks a second. A repeater waits 2, 4, 6 or 8 of them; a torch flips 2 ticks after its block changes; a lamp goes dark 4 ticks late. Every timing in redstone is one of these small numbers added up. The timings table has all of them, measured.
- A torch is a NOT gate. Power the block a torch stands on and the torch goes out. Every logic gate in the game is torches and dust arranged so the right combination of inputs puts the right torch out. Open the NOT gate, then AND and OR, and press the truth table rows to watch the inputs settle.
- Feedback gives you memory and clocks. Loop an output back to its own input and the circuit either holds a state (a latch) or never settles (a clock). Which one you get depends on whether the loop inverts the signal an odd or even number of times.
- Machines are logic plus a few special blocks. Comparators read containers as numbers, hoppers move items, pistons move blocks, observers turn changes into pulses. The item sorter and the piston door are the first two machines everyone builds, and both are in the library with their timing explained.
How to practice
For each circuit: read the goal, predict what the output will do, then run it and check. If you were wrong, step it one tick at a time until you see where your model differs from the game. The lessons in the library are written around that loop, with a prediction to make and an explanation to compare against. Then place the circuit in your own lab and change one thing.
Build with the overhead view open. Seeing the signal numbers on the dust, the countdown rings on scheduled ticks, and the pulse trail of what just changed is the fastest way to understand a circuit, and it is the thing the game itself cannot show you.
A note on Java and Bedrock
Redstonery runs the Java Edition rules, checked against a real 26.2 server. Bedrock differs in update order, in quasi-connectivity (Java only), and in several component timings, so a circuit that works here may need changes on Bedrock. If you play Java, everything on this site applies as is.
Six paths, in order
Questions people ask
What is a redstone tick?
One redstone tick is two game ticks, or 0.1 seconds at the normal 20 game ticks per second. Repeater settings 1 to 4 are one to four redstone ticks, which is 2 to 8 game ticks.
How do I convert redstone ticks to seconds?
Divide game ticks by 20. A 20 game tick period is one second. A repeater on setting 4 waits 8 game ticks, which is 0.4 seconds. Redstonery shows game ticks everywhere so you never have to guess which kind of tick a number means.
How far does a redstone signal travel?
Fifteen blocks of dust. The first dust after a full-strength source reads 15, the fifteenth reads 1, and the sixteenth reads 0. A repeater anywhere along the line restores the signal to 15.
How long does a stone button stay pressed?
Twenty game ticks, which is one second. A wooden button stays pressed for 30 game ticks, or 1.5 seconds.
Why does a lamp stay on after the signal stops?
A redstone lamp turns on instantly but waits four game ticks before turning off. Short pulses look longer on a lamp than they are on the wire.
Why does my redstone torch burn out?
A torch that changes state more than eight times within sixty game ticks burns out, and it will not relight until 160 game ticks have passed and something updates it. Very fast torch clocks and feedback loops trigger this.
Why does a lever next to a block not turn off the torch on it?
A lever beside a block only powers that block weakly, and a torch ignores weak power. Dust pointing into the block, or a repeater facing it, powers it strongly and puts the torch out.
What is quasi-connectivity?
A Java Edition rule: a piston (and a dropper or dispenser) also counts as powered when the block above it is powered, even though nothing touches the piston itself. It only notices when it gets a block update. The piston door circuit in Redstonery shows a lower piston following the upper one through it.
Is Redstonery accurate to the real game?
The engine is a port of the Java Edition 26.2 rules and is checked tick for tick against 95 scenarios recorded on a real server. Each of the 60 library circuits also passes its own behavior test in four rotations. Moving entities, fluids, TNT explosions, sculk sensors, the crafter and daylight detectors are not simulated.
Does it work for Bedrock?
No. Redstonery runs the Java Edition rules. Bedrock redstone differs in update order, quasi-connectivity, and several component behaviors, so a circuit that works here may need changes on Bedrock.
Do I need an account or a download?
No. It runs in the browser. Your build is saved in your browser, and you can copy any build as a list of setblock commands.
Where the analogy ends
Redstone strength is a game value from 0 to 15. It is not voltage, current, resistance, or stored electrical energy.
Boolean tables describe settled on/off behavior. Real redstone also has direction, distance, block updates, startup behavior, and delays.
A redstone tick is two game ticks. At the normal 20 game ticks per second, one game tick is 0.05 seconds; changing the lab speed changes playback time.
Electronic gates use specified voltage ranges and have physical propagation delays. Redstone makes the logic visible but does not simulate transistor electronics.
The combination explorer connects mathematical gate outputs. It does not route dust, place blocks, or certify that a physical layout will work.