World border in Minecraft: Everything you need to know

Not to be confused with Minecraft's Far Lands, world borders mark the edge of a given Minecraft dimension and can be modified through the use of the command console.

By default, the world border in a given Minecraft world is a massive box encompassing the majority of the game's dimensions. Its center does exist, and technically lies at coordinates above Y-coordinate level 255.

The border is marked physically as a semi-transparent border of diagonal aqua stripes. In the event the world border is moving, the stripes change color. They will turn green when the border is expanding, and red when it is contracting.

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Minecraft: More world border facts

The border limits certain entities from passing it, and those that do, including players may be subject to damage (Image via Youtube user Crainer)

Omitting a few choice projectiles, the world border prohibits Minecraft entities from passing its limits. However, players may use a dropper or dispenser and place it flush with the world border in order to send items to the other side of the border, where they will be suspended midair.

This includes spawn eggs, who will spawn mobs on the other side as they would spawn the mob normally. Additionally, spiders may climb the border and endermen can teleport around it.

If Minecraft players manage to cross the world border in Survival or Adventure mode, they will take constant damage until they return to the designated play area or die. This damage is nullified in Creative and Spectator modes. The further away from the world border players are once they've passed it, the more damage they will sustain.

Outside of the world border, players cannot place blocks or interact with the environment as they normally would despite these blocks functioning normally.

For example, pistons and redstone machinery will still operate as usual. Explosions and light sources also remain unaffected on the other side of the world border. Water and lava flow as they normally would, though if they are combined in a dispenser, they will not generate any blocks once the flow has passed the boundary.

The world border in Minecraft can be changed either by editing the level.dat file in their Minecraft folder or by using the "/worldborder" commands when cheats are enabled.

The available commands of manipulating the world border can be found below:

Set

• Command syntax is /worldborder set <sizeinblocks> [timeinseconds]
• Sets the border to the designated size and can be set to expand or contract gradually over time by using the [timeinseconds] argument.

Center

• Command syntax is /worldborder center <x> <z>
• Sets the center of the world border to the specific x and z-coordinates. Since the center remains above Y=255, it is unable to be shifted from this elevation.

Add

• Command syntax is /worldborder add <sizeinblocks. [timeinseconds]
• Adds and can also subtract a certain size in blocks from the existing world border. The [timeinseconds] argument can be used to cause the effect to happen over time.

Damage

• Command syntaxes are /worldborder damage buffer <sizeinblocks> and /worldborder damage amount <damageperblock>
• The first command sets the number of blocks past the world border a Minecraft player may cross safely before taking damage. The second command sets the amount of damage inflicted on players when outside of the world border and its buffer zone.

Warning

• Command syntaxes are /worldborder warning time <timeinseconds> and /worldborder warning distance <sizeinblocks>
• The first command tints the screen red when Minecraft players when a contracting world border reaches the player within a certain number of seconds. The second command tints the screen red when a player is a certain distance from the world border.

Get

• Command syntax is /worldborder get
• Displays to the player the current world border width in their Minecraft dimension.