EthosLab – Minecraft – Tutorial: Water

Hi everyone this is Ethel and I have a very special tutorial for you guys today this is one I’ve been meaning to make for a long time it’s about water water is one of the most abundant blocks in Minecraft it’s all around you and yet in my opinion is the most complicated block

In Minecraft a lot of people don’t fully understand how it works myself included and quite often it will do things you don’t expect it to so today’s tutorial is to hopefully fill you on some information on how water works even if you’re an expert at this

Game you might be surprised that you may learn something this tutorial so I will be covering basics with it and I’ll also look at advanced things about water and I’ll try to do this in a straightforward manner as I can so let’s begin water can be moved using a bucket select your

Budget right click on the water block your bucket becomes full of water and right-click it again where you want to place it a water source block can be destroyed in three ways one way is by placing a water block in the same location as another water block that

Just destroyed it a second way is by having lava flow over top it that destroyed both those and a third way is by placing another block inside the same location as a water source block the only way to create new water blocks is to have an air block with two or more

Water blocks adjacent to it so if I place a water block here and here and destroy the soil block so that it becomes an air block then a new water block is created where that air block would be and you can create infinite water doing this that’s with four adjacent to it still

Works to create new water blocks in this way one condition must be met the block underneath the air block must be solid so in this case sand is underneath so that works also semi solid blocks such as pressure plates signs doors also will create new water blocks and see creating

New ones it will not work if there is an air block underneath the air block when I click in the center here there is no new water to pick up it also will not work if there’s a water block a water block underneath the air block the one I

Picked up was the one below I try to pick up anymore there is none so by applying this it’s safe to pick up water blocks anywhere where the water is only one deep and a new block will form where that air pocket was but if you attempt

To do this where the water is greater than one block deep in this case it’s two blocks deep that air pocket will not create a new water block because there is water underneath it you can fix these water streams by running solid blocks up to one block below the surface and it

Will cause the water block to form the best way to create an infinite water stream is to dig out a 2×2 area place water in each corner diagonally from each other place one here and now it’s safe to pick water up from any of these four blocks

In a way water can be created and destroyed in the form of ice as well breaking ice will create water and in snowy biomes all water will freeze into ice when it is snowing it’s also possible to destroy ice without it producing water if there is air

Underneath it and in that way you are kind of destroying water as well a water source block or a water stream will always try to spread in five directions placing it here causes it to spread downward and removing the blocks on the sides will cause it to spread north

South west east as well on flat ground the water source block is able to spread up to seven blocks away from itself in all four directions the placeable water block I refer to as a source and these other water blocks I refer to as water stream blocks a water stream that hits

The ground after flowing downward will create a new type of block that I refer to as a stream source you cannot pick this block up it acts just like a regular water source except that you can’t pick it up and it will also spread seven blocks away from the source so

This is 14 blocks away from our original water source if we remove it it removes all these water blocks this spreading only occurs if there’s a solid block underneath if there is air or water it does not happen it does not try to spread to these blocks a water

Stream will spread up to seven blocks away from a water source but in order to move one block diagonally the water must move to positions so 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 in a large flat area a water source will flow out setting blocks all around itself

Which looks like this because of the way it flows diagonally it creates a diamond shape rather than a circle when water is spreading it will always attempt to find the shortest route of going down so in this case this hole here is only two blocks away from the

Gravel this holds three blocks away this one’s three blocks away and this one’s four blocks away so it’s going to go to this hole if we were to remove that closest hole then the next closest holes becomes this one three blocks apart and this one which is also three blocks

Apart so they’re an even distance from the water so the water will split and go to both of them now I’ve made all four of the drops an equal distance from the water so the water must flow three blocks to each of them and so the water

Will go to all four of them but in order for the water to flow diagonally we need to remove blocks in the diamond shape and so for the water to get to this one here it has to go forward right block that’s three get to that one it would

Need to go one two three so it’s an equal distance for all these holes around me and so because of that the water will flow in a diamond shape water has one interesting feature that a lot of people are not aware of even the water can spread seven blocks from its

Source it will only scan five blocks around it for the quickest route down so the quickest route here is five blocks away and so it goes that way but if we were to extend this to six blocks it won’t scan past that fifth block and so the water will spread everywhere

So a water source or a stream source will always flow to the shortest route down or routes if there’s more than one and they’re even but every source is also capable of flowing in that seven radius diamond that we saw before so it’s possible even though this route

Has been decided already it’s possible for us to make it spread further by having another water stream touch this existing one so if I was to place a water block here it would flow toward this hole and it’s two streams would connect like that and then if I was to

Remove it well then this stream would be extended to the full seven lengths and so let’s see another example what would happen if I placed it here all causes a chain reaction which makes it spread in that diamond shape now just place it over here it would do the same thing

And so by doing that you can cause the water to extend out in that fold aemond however you want it to let’s look at another example let’s say we place a water block here and we want it to flow down there but we also want the water to

Go all the way up to the door how can we make that happen well we need a water stream to touch this one here above the sand so one way we could do that is to place our water against the soil here a stream will flow down and when we remove

It the water is now going all the way up to the door and it’s also flowing down an easier way of setting up your water stream in this example would have been to leave this flat first place your water and then remove the block in the

Middle and that will cause the water to flow down and it’s already flowing to the door the stream source blocks created from a water source there’s one here will not be destroyed by removing blocks around it nor will it move this is what happens when I remove the soil

Molding that was around my water there the water source block still remains over there and the stream source is still over there and I’ve created a water wall it’s possible to create huge walls of water doing this but if I remove the one and only water source the

Whole wall will be destroyed water is able to destroy many different types of blocks and uproot them this includes buttons levers wheat saplings fire torches redstone torches repeaters redstone dust flowers mushrooms tall grass and a few other things as well if a water stream touches a lava stream

The water stream will be converted into cobblestone if a water stream touches a lava source block the lava source block will be converted into obsidian one interesting water glitch if a water source block or water stream has a downward water stream or lava stream on

The east side of it Sun rises in the east it becomes impossible to jump out of that block and this works with lava too it’s impossible to jump out of the water mobs or players that are set on fire can have the flames extinguished by stepping

In water players and mobs are able to hold their breath for 15 seconds under water except of course squid they can hold their breath forever after 15 seconds you’ll start drowning and take constant damage even though you’re taking damage it is possible to survive for long periods of time by eating food to

Replenish your health when underwater it takes your player five times longer to destroy a block then it normally would water placed on top of grass will eventually kill the grass but it takes a very long time water is very useful for creating barriers to prevent grass from spreading

To regular soil blocks it’s quick to apply and quick to remove water is not required to make saplings grow nor is it required to make mushrooms spread and you don’t need it to grow tactus either one water source block or stream can hydrate tilled soil for blocks in all directions in a square

Pattern making this a nine by nine watered section having watered soil is required to grow wheat normally but it is also possible to grow wheat in dry soil using bone meal instantly water is also required to plant sugarcane the water must be adjacent to the soil block

But it’s only required for planting it you can remove it after it’s been planted but it will automatically harvest itself if it grows or if a block adjacent to it gets updated such as by redstone you can also plant it if you only have a water stream next to the soil block

You can cause it to uproot using water as well by updating the adjacent block next to it and on its own over time if there’s water nearby it will grow three high once water finishes spreading it will not continue to check if it should spread unless a block adjacent to the

Water gets updated this makes it possible to control water one time using things such as redstone or levers water spreads at a rate of about one block every 5 ticks which is about one block to every quarter second by comparison a redstone torch it takes a current about

Two ticks to pass through or about one tenth of a second proof of this claim can be seen in this experiment here this torch on the Left will go off at the exact same time this torch on the right goes on the one on the right is being

Timed by water the water must move left down left left to destroy this lever which is four blocks it must spread to and 4 times 5 is 20 ticks which is about one second the repeaters on the other hand they’re set to four for 2 which is

10 torch delays or 20 ticks or 1 second so it’s the same timing let’s see if it works it does by applying this it’s possible to use water as a timing device that is very accurate when creepers or tnt explode in water the they will still

Apply the same amount of damage to their surroundings and amount of boost but they will not destroy any of the blocks surrounding them water will absorb the blast destruction from TNT even at its lowest level if two water streams meet each other of equal length and there is an

Even number of blocks between them so one two then they will be moving if they meet at equal length and there’s an odd number of blocks between them one two three then the one in the middle will be a dead spot so for example if we were to

Place a water source block here and one here and try to get them both to meet and flow to this end here now we would have a problem for this setup because source block here flows one two three and then this one here would flow one

Two and the third one would be here so this would create a dead zone because that’s an odd number but we could fix this by making an even number we just need to move this one back one block will be an equal distance that way and then they can merge here just one

Example there are eight block types that are particularly useful when controlling water in Minecraft one is the read or sugarcane doors half slabs stairs signs pressure plates ladders and trap doors what’s unique about all of these none of them get washed away by water for one thing and they all have air pockets

And doors and reads are particularly useful for creating air pockets underwater to breathe in but also you can use trapdoors for this they hold back the water but they have air pockets that allow you to breathe you can use science for this and also ladders and while we’re down here I’ll mention that

Jack-o’-lanterns and glowstone are the only two light emitting blocks you can place in water directly sugar cane signs and pressure plates have no collision masks so they are effectively air blocks that water cannot pass into so that’s what’s unique about them these other blocks ladders half slabs and stairs have

Unique shapes and air pockets in them as well half slabs and stairs you can walk up and soak in mobs which is useful certain for certain things such as setting up mobs spawning grounds doors and trap doors have a collision mask that changes which is very unique as

Well and lots of these things double in function pressure plates can activate redstone doors trapdoors are affected by redstone and climb up ladders sides can tell you things and you can walk up these and so on when items are thrown in water they sink to the bottom if they’re thrown in

A water stream the stream will carry them with it and as of the one point six point six patch items move at a rate of about 1.45 blocks in a water stream above ice we’ll move the items much faster I’ve timed it add five blocks per second items are likely

To flow slowly if they pass through a source block and there’s another water block above look how slow that one’s going so one way of increasing the speed of this is to use a sign to block the water from flowing and then have another water source right below it and that way

You’ll quickly go through it when mobs are in water they will try to swim upward this is except for squid and slimes they do not try to swim up the fact that mobs try to swim in water and items sink in water makes it extremely easy to separate the two if you ever

Need to just place a sign the sign will hold the water up the mobs will pass by it and items will fall down it a very simple way of separating them so water is used to push items can also be used to push mobs and players water will not push mine carts anymore

It will not push TT anymore as of one point eight point six it will however push boats it’s possible to have water streams push your player or mobs up one block with no dead zones simply have a half slab or stair and then place a sign

To the left of it up diagonally and then place a new water source above your stair and then the water will bring you or the mob up one block and continue on water can also be used to slow a player down and reset their fall distance so at

The bottom of this shaft is a water block normally falling this far will kill me but because of this water block I take no damage this is called the water break it’s just the water block being held up by a sign three blocks above the ground these easiest way to transport your

Player across water is to use a boat which you can craft in this way place on the boat on the water and then you can maneuver it and go wherever you want on the water traveling by boat is very fast but advanced uses of water and boats and

A system called êtes is even faster using the system it’s possible to reach speeds equal to that of minecarts which is eight blocks per second when a boat is in a water source block it will attempt to float up and using this principle it’s possible to make

Water elevators such as that but that is a subject for another tutorial boats will also float up water stream blocks if there are air blocks or water blocks on all four sides of them as you can see here players can also swim up these very quickly comparable to that of climbing

Ladder speed that boat will not flow up a stream block if one of the stream blocks has a solid block on one of its sides so since there is a soil block here the boat will not float up past this point here just like that if we remove it it will

Well that concludes my tutorial on water it’s a block with many uses as you’ve seen I covered many points this tutorial but believe it or not there are many more that I could have covered and I just didn’t have time to so hopefully this tutorial was useful for you though

I thank you for watching I hope you liked it and that is all bye-bye