How to use powered rails efficiently in Minecraft

Minecraft players who want to travel across vast distances quickly can do so by using a minecart and rail system. Functioning much like a train, these minecarts follow along the track laid down by the player.

Powered rails are a great way for players to quickly increase their speed and make travel across long distances and up hills in a minecart easier (Image via Mojang Studios || William Strife/YouTube)

Powered rails will propel the cart along, giving them a speed boost and forward momentum, even up hills. But there are specific ways players can use powered rails more effectively.

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How players can use powered rails efficiently in Minecraft

The first thing players will want to do to efficiently use powered rails is craft some themselves. They can do this by using six gold ingots down each side of the crafting table box, one stick in the middle, and one redstone dust in the bottom middle slot. Once this is done, players will have crafted six powered rails to use in their builds.

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What does a powered rail do exactly?

A powered rail can work in two different ways. One of the first and most well-known ways that a powered rail function is to dramatically increase the speed of every minecart that passes over it, as long as it receives power from a redstone source.

However, powered rails can also be used to slow down passing minecarts. The non-activated powered rail will function as a braking system.

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How to power a powered rail in Minecraft

When a player is building their track, they will most likely use a combination of powered rails and regular rails. When placing powered rails down, they need to be powered to function.

The best way to do this is for players to place a redstone torch underneath the block that the powered rail is placed on. This will ensure that the powered rail is powered up and ready to speed up minecarts.

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How fast can a powered rail make a minecart go in Minecraft?

It can get pretty complex when discussing how to make minecarts go even faster. However, the general rule of thumb for minecarts is that they cannot be accelerated more quickly than eight blocks per second in any direction using just powered rails alone.

They will achieve this maximum speed after three powered rails in a row. Players must then place an additional powered rail every 38 blocks to maintain this speed.

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Players of Minecraft can also use detector rails in place of redstone torches

Detector rails are an excellent way for players to create a well-functioning rail system. When a minecart passes over a detector rail, it will lose a little speed. The detector rail will become active, which will shortly power nearby redstone sources.

In turn, detector rails can be used to power the powered rails and have the player easily speeding off again after rolling over a detector block in their minecarts.