Top 5 Minecraft redstone builds for your base

During the middle stages of a Minecraft world, redstone is usually only mined for experience, and eventually it's just taking up precious space in chests.

The utility and honest fun that redstone brings to any world is unknown to a lot of players, or at least, not well understood. It's a very complex game mechanic, with the official guide having 96 pages dedicated to just redstone. While the majority of builds found online can be extremely confusing and filled with more advanced jargon, these five simple redstone builds are easy to set up and fun to include in your Minecraft bases.

Top 5 Minecraft redstone builds for fun or ease of life

#5- Armor Auto-Equipper

Image via Minecraft

Every death in Minecraft comes as a challenge, especially if proper preparations haven't been made to ensure the items dropped upon death won't despawn. This armor auto-equipper makes sure time is saved, not only from finding armor to wear before braving the night, but also equipping it, hence the name.

For this project you'll need:

• 6 dispensers
• (28 cobblestone, 4 redstone dust, and 4 bows which are each made with 3 string and 3 sticks)
• 6 redstone dust
• 1 pressure plate of any kind
• A full set of armor

1. Place two dispensers on top of each other.
2. Place the pressure plate in front of those so that they are facing the plate.
3. Place the remaining dispensers on the left and right of the pressure plate, facing towards it.
4. Run the line of 6 redstone from under the pressure plate to the top dispenser.

#4- Ender Pearl Dropper

Image via Minecraft

This Minecraft build is in the same line as the previous - a great way to quickly grab eight ender pearls and head out into adventure. This design can even be upgraded with a second dispenser to send out 16 ender pearls almost instantly into the players inventory.

For this project you'll need:

• 1 dispenser
• 1 redstone torch
• 1 redstone dust
• 1 button of any kind
• Optional: 1 more dispenser

1. Place the dispenser.
2. Place the redstone torch on any side of the dispenser except the face.
3. Place a block above that (or the second dispenser).
4. Place the redstone dust on top of the dispenser.
5. Place the button on the face of the dispenser.

#3- Block swapper

Image via Minecraft

One of the modern marvels of the world today is the light switch. In Minecraft there's the possibility for something much more fun - having lights that come out of the ceiling at the flip of a switch.

The Block Swapper, as the name implies, swaps two blocks with each other, allowing for hidden crafting tables, and lights. It looks a lot more complicated than it really is, but after building this redstone machine once, it's never forgotten.

For this project you'll need:

• 3 redstone torches
• 1 redstone dust
• 1 button of any kind
• 2 redstone repeaters
• (four redstone torches, 6 stone blocks, and two redstone dust)
• 3 pistons (one sticky, requiring 1 slime ball)
• (12 cobblestone, 9 wooden planks, 3 redstone, 3 iron ingots)
• 2 blocks that are going to be swapped
• 3 blocks of any kind, for this it is lime concrete

1. Place the first concrete block down with the button on top of it.
2. On any side place one of the redstone torches.
3. Place the two redstone repeaters pointing away from the redstone torch on both the left and right sides(these repeaters need to be set to one tick, the default setting once the repeater is placed).
4. Place the remaining concrete blocks in front of the two repeaters so that way the pulse will go into the blocks, and place the redstone dust on the top of one of those (does not matter which).
5. Place the last two redstone torches on these concrete blocks in the same way as the first torch.
6. Place the two regular pistons on top of those torches and place them so when the pistons extend, they're extending towards each other.
7. Place one of the swapped blocks on the piston that isn't extended.
8. Place the sticky piston facing up with the second swapped block on top of it.

#2- Intruder Alarm/Noise Machine

Image via Minecraft

Ever just wanted to annoy someone in Minecraft? Maybe just have a system to know when someone has entered your base without permission? This simple yet effective Minecraft build creates a never ending loop of sound, and it is extremely easy to craft.

For this project you'll need:

• 4 note blocks
• (32 wooden planks and 4 pieces of redstone dust)
• 7 redstone dust
• 6 redstone repeaters
• Something to send the redstone pulse

1. Place the four note blocks in a 5x5 square with 3 blocks of space between them.
2. After each note block, place a repeater set to three ticks(after placing the repeater, right click it twice)
3. Fill the remaining empty spaces with redstone dust
4. Make sure that whichever note block starts the loop, the final two repeaters both lead into it. One from the end of the loop, and one to start the loop.

#1- TNT Cannon

Image via Minecraft

While not the most advanced piece of redstone engineering ever thought of within Minecraft, this bad boy has withstood the test of time. The design in the image above is still the same basic design from nearly a decade ago. No base is complete without proper home defense, and the greatest part about TNT cannons is that they're able to be stacked and fully configurable, from blast load to detonation timers.

The materials for this project vary by design, but you'll need at least:

• 5 redstone repeaters
• 9 redstone dust
• A button of any kind
• One water bucket
• One slab of any kind
• 15 blocks of any kind
• 6 TNT per shot

1. Make a long U shape out of the 15 blocks.
2. Cap the open end of that U with the slab.
3. Place the water so it will run towards the slab.
4. On the top of the blocks on the left run redstone. (This line will activate the TNT)
5. On the other side place the 5 repeaters in a row that end in a block of any kind so that the block is next to the slab.
6. Its suggested to have a total tick delay of at least 12. Reminder: when a repeater is placed it's default setting is one tick, each right click adds another tick.
7. Connect the redstone to the repeaters and place a button to active it opposite the half slab.
8. Place TNT down the middle except the water source, if this is replaced by TNT, the entire canon will explode.
9. Place a piece of TNT on the slab.
10. Press the button, have fun, and adjust your shot accordingly.
11. More ticks means shorter shot

Image via Minecraft

Every Minecraft base should be outfitted with something that makes it worth going home to, something to spark joy every time it's used. These redstone builds will make a house into a home, or in case of #1, a heavily armed stationary tank. All of these builds are small enough to fit into a single Minecraft home, and they're each rewarding in their own way.