Top 5 redstone designs that require a hopper in Minecraft

Hoppers can be one of Minecraft's most helpful blocks when used in certain situations, especially in the operation of redstone machinery.

Hoppers in redstone machinery can serve a large number of purposes in Minecraft. If a redstone machine requires the movement of items from one place to another, hoppers can handle the job without a doubt.

These blocks have other uses as well that can work with redstone nuances such as signals and pulses, so they should be a part of any good redstone engineer's toolkit. However, when it comes to redstone machinery that is centered around hoppers specifically, there are a few notable examples to keep in mind.

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Minecraft: Awesome redstone builds that center on hoppers

5) Automatic Smelters

As long as there's fuel available, auto smelters will work their magic (Image via Mojang)

There's no denying that players have plenty to smelt in Minecraft, whether they do so with a furnace, smoker, or blast furnace. Metal ingots, food, and plenty more items can be placed in a furnace and converted into something more useful.

However, sitting around and manually placing items into a furnace is tedious, which is why automatic smelters are so helpful. Requiring nothing more than a few hoppers, some chests, and at least one furnace, players can insert their fuel and items and allow them to smelt while the player is elsewhere.

Thanks to the dynamic between chests and hoppers, players can place a large number of items to be smelted without inserting them into the furnace by hand.

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4) Vending Machines

Vending machines can pop items out for players on-demand (Image via Mojang)

Though they're closer to luxuries than survival essentials in Minecraft, vending machines are a nice thing to have. Utilizing hoppers, chests, and item frames, players can manually select specific items to be dispensed to them.

Furthermore, vending machines don't have to just dispense food items like they often do in real life. They can pop-out weapons and armor, tools, or even currency items like emeralds. Whatever a Minecraft player thinks they or their friends might need, it can be used in a vending machine.

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3) Farms

Almost all semi-auto or automatic farms feature hoppers (Image via Mojang)

As long as Minecraft players have been farming crops, they've been using hoppers to collect the spoils of their labor. Regardless of whether players are farming wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, or even melons and pumpkins, it's possible for hoppers to collect these goodies and funnel them into a nearby chest.

This is often accomplished by flooding the farmland or using pistons to break larger blocks like pumpkins and watermelons. Once the blocks have been broken, they often flow to a nearby player-made stream, which floats the items into a hopper, and then a chest.

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2) Automatic Brewer

Automatic potion brewers can save a ton of time (Image via Mojang)

Much like smelting, brewing potions in Minecraft can take a substantial amount of time. However, thanks to the use of hoppers, players can create automatic brewing stations that are capable of creating potions while the player is away. They operate in a similar fashion to automatic smelters, but require a little more complexity due to the way that brewing stands operate in Minecraft.

Regardless, once a player has their machine set up and their ingredients on hand, they can simply pop the ingredients into the machine and come back later to a large assortment of potions.

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1) Automatic Item Sorter

Automatic item sorters are an extremely convenient machine to have (Image via Mojang)

With so many different items in Minecraft, it can be easy for players' chests to end up in a jumbled mess. Items are strewn everywhere to the point where finding a specific item or material can be a chore.

However, by using hoppers, chests, and item frames in an automatic item sorter, players won't ever have to worry about losing specific items again. Each item can be conveniently placed into its own receptacle, eliminating the disorganized mess of storage forever.

Note: The article reflects the writer's own views.