Minecart

{
 "title": "Minecart",
 "rows": [
 {
 "field": "<span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; background-color: #fff; border: 1px solid #888; border-radius: 0.3em; color: transparent; width: 1em; height: 1em; vertical-align: -0.36em; margin-right: -0.1em\"><br></span> </span> Common",
 "label": "(link to Rarity article, displayed as Rarity tier)"
 },
 {
 "field": "Yes",
 "label": "(link to Renewable resource article, displayed as Renewable)"
 },
 {
 "field": "No",
 "label": "Stackable"
 },
 {
 "field": "Height: 0.7 blocks<br>Width: 0.98 blocks",
 "label": "Size"
 },
 {
 "field": "1 <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:ItemSprite minecart.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Minecart|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Minecart article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Minecart</span>)</span>",
 "label": "(link to Drops#Common drops article, displayed as Drops)"
 },
 {
 "field": "Has separate system; see (link to #Destruction article, displayed as <span style=\"white-space: nowrap;\">§ Destruction</span>)",
 "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
 }
 ],
 "invimages": [
 "Minecart"
 ],
 "images": [
 "Minecart.png"
 ]
}

A minecart is a ridable vehicle entity that runs on rails and can be used to transport both players and mobs.

Once placed, minecarts can be retrieved by attacking them for some time. One attack from a pickaxe, sword or axe is enough for a minecart to drop in item form, provided the player's attack cooldown is reset‌^{[Java Edition only]}. A minecart is also destroyed if it makes contact with a cactus, or if shot with a bow/crossbow. Critical hits are not applied to minecarts, although the particles suggest otherwise.

Minecarts with command blocks can be given to the player with the /give command or through the Creative inventory under certain conditions‌^{[Java Edition only]}; minecarts with spawners‌^{[Java Edition only]} are available only via the /summon command. Each drop 1 minecart when broken.

A minecart can be placed in the same manner as most blocks, but only on top of a rail. Once placed, it may be derailed by pushing it off the end of the track. After this, it can be railed again by placing a rail directly below it or pushing it onto a track.

Anything crafted with the minecart functions similar to a regular minecart, but cannot be ridden.

Minecarts can be ridden by pressing the "use" control on them. Once inside, an external impulse may be needed to make the minecart start moving. The player can slowly move the minecart forward at about 8 blocks per second while riding it, by pressing forward. If the Minecart Experiments experiment is enabled, the game rule max_minecart_speed can be used to change the max minecart speed. If a mob walks in front of a moving empty minecart, it is pulled into the cart.

After rolling off of the end of a track, a minecart can be pushed around on open blocks. If a minecart is pushed onto or falls onto tracks, it "snaps" to those tracks. When riding a minecart, if the minecart lands on a rail, the player does not take any fall damage.

Unlike with beds, there is no message in the action bar‌^{[Java Edition only]} or in chat‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} for attempting to enter a fully occupied minecart.^[1]

Players can exit the minecart by sneaking while riding it. When a player or mob dismounts a minecart, either by choice, by breaking the minecart, or by passing over a powered activator rail, the minecart tries to find a safe ejection destination for the player one block away. First it checks the eight horizontally adjacent blocks in the following order of priority relative to direction of travel: right, left, rear right, rear left, front right, front left, rear, front. A valid destination has a block underneath with a solid (not necessarily full) top surface and a space with enough headroom and width for the passenger to fit in when standing at the center. The space can even contain liquid or have open trapdoors if the mob is slim enough, and presence of other mobs doesn't matter. If no valid destination exists on same horizontal level, the minecart then checks the blocks one above, then one below. For a player, the minecart also checks for crawlable destinations. If still none, the minecart chooses its own location. Once the minecart picks a destination, it actually ejects the passenger one block up in the air and the passenger settles down on its own. Under a low ceiling this may cause one tick of suffocation damage. The air drop exists to allow passengers to land on carpet or bottom slabs.

Minecarts have a predefined speed limit of exactly 8 blocks per second per axis of travel. A minecart traveling diagonally can, therefore, travel up to 11.314 blocks per second.^{[note 1]} When a minecart comes to a turn it moves diagonally across that turn.

Powered rails powered by redstone give minecarts a boost of speed. Speed is gradually decreased if there are no powered rails to assist its movement, and an unpowered powered rail slows down a minecart rapidly and can stop minecarts even on slopes.‌^{[BE only]} The speed decreases at a faster rate when going uphill, compared to when moving horizontally, but a riding player can still move it uphill at the lowest speed in Bedrock Edition. A minecart does not need powered rails to assist its movement down a hill.

Anything in the way of the minecart brings it to a stop. Once a minecart has left the track, it rapidly decelerates within one or two blocks. When mobs touch a minecart, they affect it in the same way a player would, i.e. mobs that move up against a still cart set it in motion.

If a minecart is moving fast enough, it can skip across one block without a track and reattach to a track on the other side, at significantly reduced energy and speed. A minecart's hitbox can skip turns if the minecart is boosted using enough powered rails.^[2]

The speed and momentum of a minecart can differ depending on whether or not it is empty, and in the case where a minecart has a container, the speed can differ depending on the quantity and type of items inside.

Moving minecarts become frozen when more than one chunk beyond the simulation distance of the nearest player, but resume their motion when a player comes within range.

In Java Edition, two or more minecarts can be merged by pushing them into each other so that they overlap. Merged minecarts move as a collective, like a train, and can be useful for long-distance transport because while moving in a straight line, they do not need powered rails to keep their speed.

• Minecarts can also be merged by dropping a minecart on another minecart, but only if that minecart is on a rail.
• Merged minecarts do not lose speed while traveling on straight rails.
• Corners in the rails might cause merged minecarts to unmerge.
• Minecarts with chests (even fully filled) can also be merged and also do not require powered rails.
• Merged minecarts can travel off-rail at half-speed (4 blocks/second). They can travel diagonally if the last rail is a turned rail.

This table shows the distance traveled by an unoccupied minecart, in meters, on a downward slope, with a boost (or no boost). The most efficient way is to use only 1 boost at the bottom of the incline on the flat surface. Using 2 increases distance by about 20% or 1.5 blocks. All distance trends based on the height seem to be logarithmic. The carts started from rest, on a slope Height blocks up.

Minecarts are about the same size as a block (1×1). Because of this, a ladder, door, or trapdoor prevents it from falling down a 1×1 hole. Carts on rails also ignore collision in certain situations. A cart traveling uphill, downhill, or on a curve with a block placed in front of it, goes through the block.^[3]

A minecart that reaches the end of a rail up against an opaque solid block bounces back, but if the block is transparent then it stops. The minecart can even bounce against an opaque block from a standstill if the rail underneath is powered. A player or mob riding in a minecart does not collide with or suffocate in any transparent blocks but suffocates inside opaque blocks.

Minecarts are completely unaffected by ice, packed ice, and blue ice^[4]; they can also be destroyed by coming in contact with lava, fire and cactus, causing it to drop itself as an item. The last block can be used to automatically destroy the cart and collect it (with a hopper) at the end of a track.

A cart on an ascending rail performs its horizontal movement at a higher position, with the following effects:

• A cart traveling downhill does not collide with a block in front of it, but collides with a block one block higher.
• A cart can trigger a pressure plate or tripwire above its bounding box in this process, which can't detect the cart when checking for entities. If deactivated when the cart has not moved away, the pressure plate or tripwire is immediately retriggered.
  • If updates originating from the pressure plate or tripwire break the rail, the cart appears at the higher position.

Most mobs can be picked up when a minecart collides with them. The following mobs, however, cannot be picked up:

• Bats, ender dragons, wardens, and withers in both Java Edition and Bedrock Edition;
• Iron golems in Java Edition
• Creakings, NPCs, agents, sulfur cubes, and 0.75% of zombified piglins^{[note 2]} in Bedrock Edition

This is much different from boats, which can be entered only by mobs smaller than the boats; even large mobs like ghasts can enter minecarts. In addition to mobs, minecarts can also pick up boats in Java Edition,^[5] and armor stands and cameras in Bedrock Edition.

A mob is picked up when a moving minecart on rails collides with the mob, or if the mob walks into a minecart on rails. Additionally, in Bedrock Edition, a minecart can pick up a mob even if stationary or off-rails. It is easier to pick up a mob when a minecart is turning.^[verify] For the purposes of picking up mobs, the bounding box of a minecart is extended by 0.2 (approx. ³⁄₁₆) blocks on each direction on the X and Z axes. This means that a minecart can pick up a mob even if the mob is not intersecting the minecart's hitbox.

In Java Edition, mobs in minecarts (except unnamed endermites) don't despawn, and don't count toward the mob cap.^[6]

Mobs cannot control the minecart, unless they are a jockey in Java Edition,^[7] and cannot exit the minecart unless the minecart is destroyed or moves onto an active activator rail. In Bedrock Edition, it is also possible to force a mob out of a minecart by reeling it in using a fishing rod.

Tamed pets, as well as endermen, cannot teleport out of minecarts.^[8]

As minecarts are not mobs, they do not have health. Instead, they have a damage system. For every 1HP👁 💔
of damage that would be dealt, instead 10 damage is added. Then, whenever the damage is greater than 1, it gets reduced by 1 each game tick. When the damage is greater than 40, the minecart is destroyed and dropped as an item, meaning that weapons dealing more than 4HP👁 ❤️
👁 ❤️
damage break a minecart in one attack. Players in Creative mode can always destroy a minecart in one attack, but the minecart does not drop as an item.

Java Edition:
Minecarts use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.^{[sound 1]}

Bedrock Edition:

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Minecarts have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format

Issues relating to "Minecart" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

• Minecarts appear to float above the track, as their model has no wheels.
• If the player views their inventory while riding in a minecart, they appear sitting down in mid-air.
• The player can teleport to another minecart while sitting in a minecart by right-clicking a minecart in their range. This can be used as an elevator to quickly rise up when minecarts are placed on top of each other.
• If the sound is muted in the options while riding a minecart, and then turned back up, the minecart no longer makes noise in the client until the player exits the minecart.
• A minecart (alongside rails and powered rails) are used as Steve's Side-Special in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Minecarts are twice as fast in Legacy Console Edition.

• 👁 A minecart opened in Minecraft Infdev.
  
  A minecart opened in Minecraft Infdev.
• 👁 A minecart filled in Minecraft Infdev.
  
  A minecart filled in Minecraft Infdev.
• 👁 A pig inside a burning minecart.
  
  A pig inside a burning minecart.
• 👁 The removed hidden dirt texture inside the bed of the minecart.
  
  The removed hidden dirt texture inside the bed of the minecart.
• 👁 Minecart booster.
  
  Minecart booster.
• 👁 Minecarts being stacked on each other.
  
  Minecarts being stacked on each other.
• 👁 Villager in a minecart.
  
  Villager in a minecart.
• 👁 Ari in a minecart.
  
  Ari in a minecart.
• 👁 A camera in a minecart.
  
  A camera in a minecart.

• 👁 The first image Jeb released.[12]
  
  The first image Jeb released.^[12]
• 👁 The first image of minecarts in Pocket Edition.
  
  The first image of minecarts in Pocket Edition.
• 👁 An image of two minecarts with spawners and unimplemented minecarts with dispensers.
  
  An image of two minecarts with spawners and unimplemented minecarts with dispensers.
• 👁 Minecarts can be edited to show any block inside, and can also be edited to be invisible.
  
  Minecarts can be edited to show any block inside, and can also be edited to be invisible.
• 👁 Sunny riding a minecart into a Nether portal.
  
  Sunny riding a minecart into a Nether portal.

• 👁 The diamond minecart, a unique minecart featured in Minecraft: Story Mode.
  
  The diamond minecart, a unique minecart featured in Minecraft: Story Mode.
• 👁 Ditto
  
  Ditto
• 👁 A minecart as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons.
  
  A minecart as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons.
• 👁 Minecart with Ice Cubes
  
  Minecart with Ice Cubes
• 👁 Minecart with Stone
  
  Minecart with Stone
• 👁 Several mobs, most notably a warden and the Arch-Illager, riding minecarts.
  
  Several mobs, most notably a warden and the Arch-Illager, riding minecarts.
• 👁 A chicken jockey trying to keep up with the aforementioned train.
  
  A chicken jockey trying to keep up with the aforementioned train.
• 👁 Several frogs grimacing in a minecart.
  
  Several frogs grimacing in a minecart.
• 👁 A skeleton, axolotl, strider, and the Arch-Illager riding together.
  
  A skeleton, axolotl, strider, and the Arch-Illager riding together.
• 👁 A snifflet in a minecart.
  
  A snifflet in a minecart.
• 👁 Two minecarts, as depicted on Minecoin gift cards.
  
  Two minecarts, as depicted on Minecoin gift cards.
• 👁 A wooden minecart, featured in the Trails & Tales Event.
  
  A wooden minecart, featured in the Trails & Tales Event.
• 👁 A functional minecart in the Lego set, The Badlands Mineshaft.
  
  A functional minecart in the Lego set, The Badlands Mineshaft.
• 👁 Minecart concept art for A Minecraft Movie.
  
  Minecart concept art for A Minecraft Movie.
• 👁 Minecarts in A Minecraft Movie.
  
  Minecarts in A Minecraft Movie.
• 👁 Official artwork of a Minecart in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
  
  Official artwork of a Minecart in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
• 👁 Image
  
• 👁 A minecart as seen in Minecraft Earth
  
  A minecart as seen in Minecraft Earth

• Boat
• Transportation

• "Taking Inventory: Minecart" by Duncan Geere – Minecraft.net, September 6, 2019.