Piston

This article is about the vanilla piston. For the mod, see mods/Pistons.

Pistons are blocks capable of pushing or pulling adjacent blocks, depending on the direction they face. The original version of this feature was a mod posted on the Minecraft Forums by Hippoplatimus.^[1] Pistons were added in version 1.7, along with Sticky Pistons.

Functionality

Pistons are slightly altered from the original mod; for example. While the original Piston Mod could propel gravity-affected blocks, as well as entities and mobs several meters vertically or horizontally, vanilla Pistons do not.^[2] However, if a gravity-affected block is sitting on an upward-facing piston, and the piston retracts, the block will fall.

Pistons cannot move blocks like obsidian and bedrock to avoid abuse, and any blocks with tile entities,^[3] as moving blocks are stored as tile entities on the piston.^[4]

Piston functions include:

Pushing (and pulling if sticky) at least 1 block, and at most 12.^[5] Pulling will always only pull 1 block, while pushing will push between 1 and 12 blocks.^[6]
Moving the player and other mobs, as well as entities.
The ability to toggle fluid flows like a flood gate.
Redstone triggered, so that en masse automated block is possible (e.g. piston walls and retractable bridges).
Pistons can be moved by other pistons, but only when the piston is not extended.

A basic demonstration on the functionality of pistons can be seen here:

Crafting

Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Wooden Planks + Cobblestone + Iron Ingots + Redstone (Dust)	Template:Grid/Crafting Table	Used to push blocks. Tutorial

As a Crafting Ingredient

Ingredients	Input » Output	Description
Slimeball + Piston	Template:Grid/Crafting Table	Used to push/pull blocks. Tutorial

Trivia

Leaf blocks are destroyed if they are pushed by a piston.
A maximum of 12 blocks in a row can be pushed by one piston.
Pistons cannot be used to 'crush' players or mobs against walls. A piston will simply pass through them if attempted.
Pistons appear to be destroyed at the same rate, regardless of the tool used.

Bugs

When gravity-affected blocks are pushed over a hole in the ground and quickly pulled back again (or pushed away with another piston), a duplicate block appears in the hole.
Pushing any block that a player can walk through (e.g. roses, sugar cane, and torches) with a Piston causes the game to crash with a "Saving Chunks..." screen, and may also corrupt your world,This was fixed and stopped the placing of such blocks in 1.7_01.
When attempting to push ice blocks, they will turn into water in their original position, and the piston head will disappear. The piston will return to normal once retracted.

Gallery

OldPiston.png

How pistons in the mod look.
Pistons in the 1.7 update.
Pistons.png

Another screenshot of official pistons.
Notch's explanation on how the rod fits into the piston box.^[7]

References

Natural
Soil	Clay Dirt Coarse Rooted Dirt Path Grass Block Gravel Suspicious Mud Mycelium Nylium Podzol Sand Red Suspicious Soul Sand Soul Soil
Stone	Andesite Basalt Bedrock Blackstone Calcite Deepslate Diorite Pointed Dripstone Block End Stone Glowstone Granite Infested Block Magma Block Netherrack Obsidian Crying Sandstone Red Stone Terracotta Tuff
Ore/Mineral	Amethyst Bud Cluster Ancient Debris Budding Amethyst Coal Ore Deepslate Copper Ore Deepslate Diamond Ore Deepslate Emerald Ore Deepslate Gilded Blackstone Gold Ore Deepslate Nether Iron Ore Deepslate Lapis Lazuli Ore Deepslate Nether Quartz Ore Redstone Ore Deepslate
Liquid/Related	Bubble Column Ice Blue Packed Lava Flowing Snow Powder Block Water Flowing
Non-physical	Air Cave‌^{[JE only]} Void‌^{[JE only]} Fire Soul

Biota
Wood/Hypha	Logs Stripped Wood Stripped Stems Stripped Hyphae Stripped
Plant	Azalea Flowering Bamboo Shoot Block Stripped Beetroots Big Dripleaf Small Stem Cactus Carrots Cave Vines Plant Chorus Plant Flower Cocoa Dead Bush Fern Large Flowers Tall Torchflower Crop Grass Tall Hanging Roots Leaves Lily Pad Mangrove Roots Muddy Melon Attached Stem Stem Moss Block Carpet Pink Petals Pitcher Plant Crop Potatoes Pumpkin Attached Stem Carved Stem Saplings Seagrass Tall Spore Blossom Sugar Cane Sweet Berry Bush Vines Wheat Hay Bale
Fungus	Fungi Glow Lichen Mushrooms Blocks Stem Nether Sprouts Nether Wart Nether Wart Block Warped Roots Shroomlight Twisting Vines Plant Weeping Vines Plant
Algae	Kelp Dried Block Plant
Fauna	Coral Dead Coral Blocks Dead Coral Fans Dead Sea Pickle
Fauna/Related	Bee Nest Bone Block Cobweb Dragon Egg Frogspawn Sniffer Egg Turtle Egg
Sculk	Sculk Sculk Catalyst Sculk Sensor Calibrated Sculk Shrieker Sculk Vein

Building
Lighting	Candle End Rod Froglight Jack o'Lantern Lantern Soul Sea Lantern Torch Soul
Ornamental	Bamboo Mosaic Bookshelf Carpets Chain Decorated Pot Fences Iron Bars Glass Pane Tinted Stained Glass Pane Glazed Terracotta Honeycomb Block Slabs Stairs Walls Wool
Mineral Block	Block of Amethyst Block of Coal Block of Copper Cut Raw Block of Diamond Block of Emerald Block of Gold Raw Block of Iron Raw Block of Lapis Lazuli Block of Netherite Block of Quartz Bricks Chiseled Pillar Smooth Block of Redstone
Structural	Bricks Cobblestone Mossy Deepslate Concrete Powder Cut Sandstone Chiseled Smooth Cut Red Sandstone Chiseled Smooth Deepslate Bricks Cracked Deepslate Tiles Cracked End Stone Bricks Nether Bricks Chiseled Cracked Red Packed Mud Mud Bricks Planks Polished Andesite Polished Basalt Smooth Basalt Polished Blackstone Chiseled Polished Blackstone Bricks Cracked Polished Diorite Polished Granite Polished Deepslate Chiseled Prismarine Bricks Dark Purpur Block Pillar Reinforced Deepslate Smooth Stone Stone Bricks Chiseled Cracked Mossy
BE & edu only	Elements Hardened Glass Pane Hardened Stained Glass Pane

Utility
Interactable	Anvil Chipped Damaged Barrel Beacon Brewing Stand Cartography Table Chest Ender Chiseled Bookshelf Crafting Table Enchanting Table Fletching Table Furnace Blast Smoker Grindstone Lectern Loom Shulker Box Sign Hanging Smithing Table Stonecutter
Utilizable	Banners Beehive Beds Bell Cake with Candle Campfire Soul Cauldron Lava Powder Snow Water Composter Conduit End Gateway End Portal End Portal Frame Farmland Flower Pot Frosted Ice Heads Item Frame Glow Jukebox Ladder Lodestone Monster Spawner Nether Portal Respawn Anchor Scaffolding Sponge Wet TNT
Redstone/Mechanical	Button Daylight Detector Dispenser Dropper Doors Trapdoors Fence Gates Honey Block Hopper Lever Lightning Rod Note Block Observer Piston Sticky Head Moving Pressure Plates Rail Activator Detector Powered Redstone Wire Comparator Repeater Lamp Torch Slime Block Target Trapped Chest Tripwire Hook Tripwire
Education Edition only	Border Chalkboard
BE & edu only	Allow Compound Creator Colored Torches Deny Element Constructor Heat Block Lab Table Material Reducer Underwater TNT Underwater Torch

Creative only
All editions	Monster Spawner Player Head
Java Edition only	Barrier Command Block Chain Repeating Jigsaw Block Light Structure Block Void
BE & edu only	Allow Compound Creator Deny Element Constructor Lab Table Material Reducer
Minecraft Education only	Border Chalkboard

Commands only
All editions	Petrified Oak Slab Unstable TNT
Java Edition only	Custom Player Head
BE & edu only	Barrier Broken Anvil Chiseled Purpur Command Block Chain Repeating Fern Fern Jigsaw Block Light Block Structure Block Air Void Smooth Stone Bricks tile.purpur_block.smooth.name Unknown
China Edition only	mod_ore

Unimplemented
All editions	Branches Copper Button Colored Wood Planks Coral Slab Dirt Slab Empty Barrel Fish Barrel Furniture Paeonia Sculk Jaw Spike Block Wax Block

Unused
Bedrock Edition only	Bell Stand tile.client_request_placeholder_block.name Glowing Obsidian Invisible Bedrock Nether Reactor Core Smokeless Campfire info_update info_update2 reserved6 Stonecutter (old)

Joke features
Java Edition only	An Ant Block of Coal Box of Infinite Books Torch (Burnt-out) Cheese Copper Sink Copper Spleaves Cursor Etho Slab Funky Portal How did we get here? Leftover Other Portal Packed Air Pickaxe Block Place Block Swaggiest stairs ever Tinted Glass USB Charger Block

Removed

Java Edition only

Bedrock Edition only

MinecraftEdu only

Legacy Console Edition only

Ring Block

Extreme metadata variants
All editions	Seamless Stone Slab Six-sided Hay Bale Weird Piston
Java Edition only	Faceless Jack o'Lantern Overripe Melon Stem Attached Overripe Pumpkin Stem Attached Overgrown Cocoa Overeaten Cake Potted non-flower block Green Shrub Potted
Bedrock Edition only	Diorite Bell Granite Bell Polished Six-sided Bone Block grass_carried leaves_carried Six-sided Purpur Pillar Six-sided Quartz Pillar