What does coarse dirt do in Minecraft?

There are several hundred different blocks in Minecraft. The Creative menu does a good job separating them into proper sections, like the nature section, for example. Within that section, there are quite a few different natural blocks, all of which have different uses. Dirt, sand, stone, wood, and other blocks like them are all found in that section. In Survival, they can easily be found in the natural world as well.

Each of these blocks also comes in different variations. For sand, there is sandstone, chiseled sandstone, and red sand. For wood, there are several different types of trees that can produce multiple types of wood blocks. And with dirt, there are several options to go around as well.

Grass, dirt, and coarse dirt are the main types of this block. While dirt and grass have their obvious differences, not a lot of people are well-informed about coarse dirt and its uses in the game. Here's what it does, how to get it, and more.

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Coarse dirt in Minecraft: A complete guide

Simply put, coarse dirt is a dirt block that doesn't grow grass. The technical way to say it would be: It doesn't allow grass to spread. Grass grows on dirt blocks if they can be connected to other grass blocks.

For example, dirt blocks placed in the Nether will not grow grass, but filling in a creeper hole with dirt will eventually result in grass growing there. Coarse dirt doesn't allow that to happen.

This can be advantageous for many reasons. Perhaps some players don't want grass to grow in certain areas. Coarse dirt can also be useful for a build in which dirt is necessary, but grass is not (a barn that has a dirt floor, for example).

In terms of obtaining coarse dirt, there are two different ways to do so. It can naturally generate in Minecraft or be crafted. Coarse dirt can be found in large patches in the windswept savanna, wooded badlands, and two variants of old growth taiga.

Coarse dirt in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

To craft it, Minecraft players will need dirt and gravel. Two blocks of dirt and two blocks of gravel will produce four blocks of coarse dirt.

Coarse dirt only differs from regular dirt because of the lack of grass. Otherwise, it functions almost exactly the same. Trees, flowers, sugar cane, bamboo, sweet berries, and other items can still be planted on these blocks.

Additionally, coarse dirt blocks can be tilled to make a garden and can be turned into a path block with a shovel. This effectively makes it a regular dirt block, though jumping on the tilled coarse dirt block reverts it back to coarse dirt.