Top 5 reasons why you should use piston circuits in Minecraft

Piston circuits are a smaller alternative to standard redstone circuits in Minecraft. They can be used in redstone machinery in an assortment of ways.

Primarily formed out of sticky pistons, repeaters, redstone wire, and redstone torches, piston circuits can be used for creations such as automated gates and clocks.

Compared to other redstone circuits, piston circuits are easier to build material-wise and take up significantly less space.

Piston circuits won't be suitable for every situation, but they are incredibly useful when constructing elaborate structures that require plenty of automation via redstone signals.

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Benefits of using piston circuits in Minecraft

1) They won't burn out

A piston circuit-based portcullis (Image via Tyruswoo.com)

Despite being great for most circuits, redstone torches have their limits in Minecraft.

If a torch powers an adjacent block on and off more than eight times in approximately three seconds (60 game ticks), it will reach a state of burnout. It will begin smoking and be rendered inoperable until the number of power states it changes is lowered (below eight in 60 ticks).

The use of repeaters and pistons within redstone circuits will eliminate the possibility of burnout. Players can power and de-power blocks as quickly as needed without fear of damaging the circuit.

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2) They're compact

A small toggle-friendly piston circuit (Image via Gaming Stack Exchange)

While redstone circuits and clocks based on other machinery can take up a substantial amount of space, piston circuits can be compressed into incredibly small areas.

A piston circuit can be set up in dimensions as small as 3x4 block areas, with some Minecraft players capable of making even smaller ones. This makes piston circuits great to hide when you don't want your automated machinery's inner parts showing.

The small size also makes the circuits easy to fix when something is out of place, and it will require minimal movement on the player's behalf.

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3) Pistons can activate from above and below

An array of pistons activated from below the block (Image via Gaming Stack Exchange)

A unique feature of pistons in Minecraft is their ability to power themselves from a redstone signal vertically. If a redstone pulse is generated or a block is powered one block above or below a piston, it can activate and extend/retract. This allows players to save redstone wiring and gives them the ability to use pistons in infinite redstone signal loops.

In some circumstances, redstone signals above pistons can be used when there is air separating the signal and the piston. However, this is situational and can be difficult to pull off without significant knowledge of redstone circuitry in Minecraft.

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4) Wide range of application

A programmable music machine using piston circuitry (Image via Youtube user Kimundi2)

From music machines, clocks, gates, ring circuits, traps to circuit extenders, piston circuits can be used for just about any kind of machinery in Minecraft. If it works with a redstone pulse and operates on some form of circuit logic, piston circuits can meet the demand.

Pistons are one of the most easily engaged and replicable circuits in the entirety of Minecraft. Players should give them a try if their conventional redstone machinery isn't working quite as well as they'd hoped.

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5) They are cheap to build

A monostable circuit built with an incredibly small number of blocks and materials (Image via Reddit user FiniteInfinity0)

Due to their compact nature and ease of crafting, piston circuits are incredibly cheap to make in Minecraft.

Since things like air and gravity blocks can be utilized in the circuit, players can save more than just a few materials and blocks without really noticing it.

This also saves players a lot of time that they would otherwise need to mine and harvest blocks and materials to create a circuit.