7 Minecraft items with hidden features and uses

There are hundreds of different items in Minecraft. While many of them are incredibly useful for obvious reasons, such as shields that stop damage and buckets that can collect liquids, there are also dozens of items with hidden or niche uses. Many of these hidden uses end up being more powerful than their apparent counterparts.

Seven examples of Minecraft items with hidden uses can be found detailed below, along with the mechanics behind this secret functionality.

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Different Minecraft items with hidden mechanics

1) Channel tridents to derust copper

Oxidation removed with lightning (Image via Mojang)

Channeling tridents are some of the most powerful weapons in the entire game. They can be thrown at mobs to deal significant damage and can summon lightning on command during thunderstorms. While this is mostly used to farm for different mob heads, an interesting secondary use for this is derusting copper. Any copper struck by lightning will have oxidation removed.

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2) Partial blocks and spawnproofing

Carpet is a common choice of spawn proofing material (Image via Mojang)

One of the most useful hidden features for survival is shared by many different blocks. Mobs have an interesting spawn quirk, where they will only spawn on a block with a full integer height. This means that any block at a partial height, due to placing slabs, carpet, powdered snow, etc., will be immune to mob spawns, no matter their light level.

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3) Slabs and vertical redstone

Moving redstone signals vertically is easy using slabs (Image via Mojang)

Slabs are incredibly versatile items. They're amazing for decoration, as they allow for extra detail, and, as previously mentioned, will make it impossible for hostile mobs to spawn. However, that's not the full extent of their hidden uses. They are also amazing for transporting redstone signals upwards, as they are transparent blocks that can have redstone placed on them.

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4) Trapdoors and mob pathing

Trapdoors are seen as full blocks even when open, which is what makes them useful in farms (Image via Mojang)

Trapdoors are amazing ways to get into and out of a hidden survival base. They are also great for decorating due to how detailed they are. However, they also have a hidden use in controlling mob movement. Trapdoors are seen by pathfinding AI as a full block, even when the trapdoor is open.

This allows them to trick mobs into wandering off of ledges, which is vital for making many farms, such as Minecraft's classic mob farm design, work.

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5) Signs and fluids

Signs controlling the flow of water (Image via Mojang)

Signs are very handy items. They allow players to write things down, such as plans for a Minecraft survival world or reminders to friends on servers. However, they are also incredibly handy for controlling water.

Signs occupy their entire block, despite having an incredibly small hitbox. This makes them very useful for controlling the flow of water and lava within many different farms and Minecraft redstone builds.

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6) Pistons can break some blocks

Pistons being used in a melon and pumpkin farm (Image via Mojang)

The main use of pistons is to push blocks. However, they have a secondary, much more important, use. Pistons can break some blocks, causing them to drop in item form. This is used in many of Minecraft's best farms, such as melon and pumpkin farms, sugar cane farms, and bamboo farms. Knowing this secondary use of pistons makes gathering resources much easier.

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7) Pointed dripstone lava farms

A small pointed dripstone lava farm (Image via Mojang)

Pointed dripstone is an interesting block. It's incredibly pretty, making it useful in many different Minecraft builds. Additionally, pointed dripstone deals damage to mobs that fall on it or that it falls on.

However, by far its best use is farming lava. A lava source block placed over pointed dripstones will cause lava drips to fall. If a cauldron is placed under this, it will randomly fill up with lava. Players can then collect this lava using a bucket. Being able to farm for the best fuel in Minecraft in such an easy way makes knowing this fact about dripstone quite important.