Why you should use barrier blocks to protect your base in Minecraft

Building a base is a huge part of Minecraft. It's one of the first things players do, though the starter base often isn't the final base. Either way, the base is where players do everything and in a PvP world (and even just in regular worlds, too), protecting the base is very important.

There are a lot of ways to do this, but one of the most underrated ways is by using barriers. They're great for a lot of things, but especially protecting a base. Here's why players should use them and how to get them.

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Protecting a Minecraft base with barriers

When it comes to keeping things out, barrier blocks are some of the most impenetrable blocks in the game. Unlike other kinds of "unbreakable" blocks like bedrock, barrier blocks are better because they are invisible.

Barrier blocks also cannot be destroyed by TNT, Creeper or any other explosion. The biggest benefit of using them is that players will not be able to get around them. Same goes for mobs and they aren't smart enough to try different ways of traversing them.

TNT cannot penetrate barriers (Image via Mojang)

In theory, they can build up and go over the barrier blocks, but there's no telling how high that might be if the player places enough. It will also take a while to figure out where any potential opening in the barrier is.

Another reason gamers should use them to protect their base is that they're unexpected. No player expects to be blocked randomly from moving forward. This can throw them off their game and allow an opening for attack if it is a PvP world.

One downside to using barrier blocks is that they are inaccessible in vanilla Minecraft. The only way to get them is through the use of commands.

The command: /give @p minecraft:barrier <amount> will allow players to place the barriers wherever they please.

When in the inventory, barriers will look like a red circle with a slash through it. Once placed, they will be completely invisible to everyone, including the placer.

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