Redstone Torch

Overview

A redstone torch is a power source and an inverter at the same time, and the inversion is what makes it interesting. On its own it outputs a signal of 15 to the dust beside it and to the block above it. Attach it to a block that receives a redstone signal and it switches off — so a torch on the side of a powered block is a NOT gate, the single most useful logic component in the game and the building block of every other gate. Chained together, torches make AND, OR and XOR circuits, and a torch feeding back into its own input makes a clock. The one behaviour that catches people out is burnout: a torch toggled more than a few times in a very short window turns itself off and stays off until the circuit stops changing, which the game does deliberately to stop runaway loops. Torches also power the block directly above them but not the block they are attached to, which is why a torch under a piston fires it and a torch beside it does not. They give light level 7, dimmer than an ordinary torch's 14, so they will not reliably stop mob spawns.

Inverting a signal, building logic gates, powering a component through the block above it, and making simple clocks. Almost every redstone circuit contains at least one.

Minecraft classifies Redstone Torch as a light-emitting block. A crafting table turns its ingredients into Redstone Torch. It breaks almost instantly, with a hardness of just 0.

You can break it by hand without losing the drop. It drops as the same block you mined. It gives off a dim light level 7, enough to see by but not to stop mobs spawning.

Because it is transparent it does not block light. A blast resistance of 0 means a single creeper will clear it away. It stacks to 64.

You make it with Redstone Dust and Stick. Its crafting uses are Activator Rail, Redstone Comparator, and Redstone Repeater.

How to get it

Craft it from 1 stick and 1 redstone dust, which makes it the cheapest power source in the game — one redstone ore block yields enough dust for 4 or 5 torches.

Tips

A torch on a powered block turns off — that inversion is the basis of every logic gate you will ever build.
Torches burn out if toggled more than about 8 times in a very short period; use a repeater clock instead for fast loops.
It powers the block above it, so a torch under a piston fires the piston while a torch beside it does not.
At light level 7 it is too dim to prevent mob spawns, so do not use redstone torches for lighting a base.

Properties

Blast resistance on Redstone Torch is 0, so any explosion nearby takes it out. It lets light pass and gives off light level 7. 64 fit in a slot — a full stack.

Transparent: Yes
Required tool: Any