Update order
Updated Jun 08, 2026
Definition
Update order is the order in which Minecraft will process actions. Because Minecraft is a software program, actions that appear to occur simultaneously must occur sequentially one after another in some way. For designs using redstone which activates on the same tick, the behavior of a circuit depends on which activates first, in other words, update order.
Details
- The default update order is West, East, Down, Up, North, South. See
NeighborUpdater.UPDATE_ORDER. - Shape updates (what observers detect) have a different update order: West, East, North, Up, Down. See
BlockBehaviour.UPDATE_SHAPE_ORDER - Redstone dust has random/locational redstone update order, but deterministic shape updates. So powering something with dust will have locational order (avoid!!), but observing a dust wire with an observer will have consistent source to sink order (fine).
- Powered and activator rails have directional redstone neighbor update order, it is source to sink in the north-south axis, and is sink to source in the east-west axis. Shape updates are consistently sink to source (opposite of dust).
- Flat rails will propagate updates to the rail block and its neighbors, then the block below and its neighbors. Sloped rail will also update the block above and its neighbors before everything else.
- Pistons have block event delay, which means adding a piston to logic will often mean the next thing the piston triggers will update last.
- Repeaters and comparators have different tile tick priority depending on the block it is pointed to.