Minecraft’s Redstone Crafter Block Means It’s Time For a New Type of Generated Structure

Minecraft‘s upcoming 1.21 update will be bringing a slate of new features to the game, with one being held up by fans as a game-changer for the title. The Crafter block, a redstone component that will allow players to automate crafting, has broad potential outside of even its practical uses. Not only does it promise to expand the possibilities of redstone tinkering, it would serve as a great nucleus for a new generated Minecraft structure.

The Crafter block will allow for Minecraft players to select a crafting recipe for it to automatically pump out, so long as it’s fed with the needed materials. Indeed, the ramifications this will have on Minecraft and redstone are immense, allowing for processing in automatic farms or immediate production of items using the resources from mob farms. However, its narrative possibilities must not go unstated. Automated farms or storage systems rely on maps of pistons and observers. A block that itself is dedicated to automating a process is entirely new, suggesting a whole new level of industrialization.

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Minecraft Needs A Structure Based Around The Crafter Block

With 1.21’s introduction of Trial Chambers to Minecraft, players will see a structure decked out with copper plating and mechanical lighting. This leap in technological implications more than justifies having a place more dedicated to redstone and the Crafter block in particular. Given the abandoned state of most Minecraft structures — from mossy dungeons to cobweb-ridden mineshafts — it would make sense for this building to be a dilapidated factory of sorts. This would not only provide a new and exciting structure to explore, but could add some thrilling new lore and some decent gameplay improvements.

Such a structure could be made up of two sections: one section where resources are produced and a section where a Crafter receives these resources and spits a crafted item into a chest. A simple way this could be achieved would be a mob grinder (where mobs are spawned via mob spawners and fed through water to a kill point) where drops enter a hopper and are fed into the Crafter block. These could even be interlinked with dungeons, simultaneously sprucing up one of Minecraft‘s most underwhelming structures. Since it would be abandoned, the factory would be inoperable, though a player could potentially fix it up. This could manifest in broken water tracks or holes where spawning monsters have escaped containment, overrunning the area.

Not only would this idea provide some great challenge, exploration, and loot, it could serve as a great tool for introducing players to redstone. Redstone is one of Minecraft‘s most fleshed-out features, but new players will easily be stumped by it without external guides. In recent years, Mojang has increasingly used structures to help the player learn mechanics:

• Igloos with underground lairs give players everything they need to learn how to cure a zombie villager, with carefully placed test subjects to boot.
• Ruined Portals house an unfinished obsidian frame, pointing toward the need to complete them to open an entrance to the Nether.
• Villages introduce multiple mechanics, such as farming, brewing, and trading.

Whilst Jungle Temples impart some limited redstone knowledge, having a new structure that isn’t tied to a specific biome and expands on the concept would create a good learning opportunity for players. It would really give new and intermediate Minecraft players more direction.

Though the idea may seem anachronistic on its face, an abandoned factory structure in Minecraft would make for a great addition. It would add to the mystique of an inherited world, wrought with the ghosts of its past — greatly expanding Minecraft’s secretive lore. Moreover, it would produce more exploration thrills and more ways for gamers to learn about the wondrous possibilities of redstone.

Minecraft

Platform(s)

PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, 3DS, PC, Android, iOS, Wii U

Released

November 18, 2011

Developer(s)

Mojang

Publisher(s)

Mojang

Genre(s)

Sandbox, Survival

ESRB

E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence

How Long To Beat

N/A

X|S Enhanced

No

File Size Xbox Series

1 GB (December 2023)

Metascore

89

Split Screen Orientation

Vertical or Horizontal

Number of Players

1-4