List of Minecraft blocks only available by cheating

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different blocks available when exploring and building in Minecraft. However, certain blocks are only available through either the creative menu or commands, making them inaccessible to survival enthusiasts. While most of these are niche, it's still useful to know about them, as they're typically quite powerful.

In this article, we list all the different blocks obtainable using cheats, along with their utility functions. The commands needed to obtain the item, or items, are also listed below.

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These Minecraft blocks are locked behind cheats

1) Barriers

A square of barrier blocks (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:barrier amount

Barrier blocks are the first of several invisible blocks normally inaccessible to players. These blocks, as their name might suggest, can be used to limit where players can move, acting as physical barriers. While holding a barrier block, existing ones will emit a particle effect to help indicate where they are already placed.

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2) Structure blocks and voids

The structure block's UI (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:structure_block amount
• /give username minecraft:structure_void amount

Structure blocks, as their name might suggest, allow players to manually force the generation of different Minecraft structures. They can also save and load custom structures, making them the closest thing to schematics available to builders.

Structure voids are the opposite side of the coin. These invisible blocks allow pre-existing blocks to avoid being overwritten when using a structure block to load a structure. They essentially act as negative space that the structure block is unable to build within, allowing for much finer control.

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3) Light blocks

A placed light block (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:light amount

Light blocks are fascinating blocks. They are invisible and have no hitbox. This essentially means that once placed, the only way to get rid of them is to place another block in their spot. These blocks can emit light of any level between 0 and 15, which makes them great for Minecraft map builders looking to add dramatic lighting without placing torches or lanterns.

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4) Command blocks

All three command blocks (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:command_block amount
• /give username minecraft:chain_command_block amount
• /give username minecraft:repeating_command_block amount

Command blocks are the most powerful blocks in the game. When interacted with, players will be able to input different Minecraft commands in these blocks. There are three different kinds of command blocks, with each executing code differently.

Impulse command blocks are orange and will only execute once when activated. Chain command blocks are teal and will run their code each time they are triggered. And finally, repeat command blocks are purple and will execute every game tick until deactivated.

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5) Jigsaw blocks

The UI for jigsaw blocks (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:jigsaw amount

Jigsaw blocks are quite similar to the structure blocks mentioned previously. However, rather than generating a structure in its entirety, jigsaw blocks can create larger structures together out of smaller individual pieces. This is how many of the game's larger vanilla structures, such as villages and Minecraft trial chambers, are generated, and makes for much more dynamic sights.

An interesting fact about jigsaw blocks is that any structure that uses them as a part of generation does spawn them in survival, but they are replaced as part of the spawning process. Consequently, these blocks technically exist in survival, just for such a small amount of time.

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6) Petrified oak slabs

These slabs look identical to oak slabs but have several unique properties (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:petrified_oak_slab amount

Petrified oak slabs are one of the most interesting of the inaccessible items. When wooden slabs were first added to the game, they were given the characteristics of stone, including requiring a pickaxe to mine and being immune to fire. However, this needed to change as more wood types were added to the game, so Mojang replaced these original wooden slabs with oak Minecraft slabs.

All of the older items could still be found and used in survival worlds, but were renamed to petrified oak slabs. Therefore, these items are technically obtainable if a world is started on a very old version of the game where they exist. However, modern players can only access these interesting building blocks with cheats, hence their spot on this list.

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7) Player heads

A group of default Steve heads (Image via Mojang Studios)

• /give username minecraft:player_head amount

Minecraft player heads are the most decorative of the inaccessible blocks. These are modeled after the head of a player, with the default model being that of Steve. On Java Edition, player heads can be given NBT data that allows them to match the skin of any player's account. There are also a handful of set accounts, created by Marc Watson, all with set skins to help players display certain things.