What Is Stained Hardened Clay In Minecraft?

What is Stained Hardened Clay

Stained hardened clay is a building block that was added in Minecraft version 1.7. It is a decorative block that comes in 16 different color variations and has a tiled texture. Stained hardened clay is obtained by smelting regular clay blocks dyed with dyes in a furnace. This process “hardens” the clay and provides a more vibrant colored block that does not fade.

When mined, stained hardened clay drops itself, rather than the dye it was crafted with. Stained hardened clay has a blast resistance of 30 and a hardness of 1.5. It is affected by gravity and entities (mobs, items, etc) can pass through it. Stained hardened clay can be used decoratively for buildings, floors, walls, paths, pixel art, etc. Its vibrant colors and resistance to fading make it a popular choice for builders looking to add color to constructs.

Overall, stained hardened clay is a craftable building block that allows players to decorate with vibrant permanent colors by smelting dyed clay blocks. It provides aesthetic options for construction and decoration projects in Minecraft.

Obtaining Stained Hardened Clay

Stained hardened clay can be obtained in a few different ways in Minecraft:

Finding naturally occurring stained clay: Stained clay can be found naturally occurring in Mesa biomes. The different color variations of stained clay will spawn randomly throughout the Mesa biome.

Crafting stained clay from hardened clay: To craft stained clay, you will first need to find a source of regular hardened clay blocks. Hardened clay can be found naturally in Mesa biomes. Once you have hardened clay, you can craft stained clay by placing 8 hardened clay blocks in a crafting grid surrounding 1 dye of any color. This will produce 8 stained clay blocks of that color.

Crafting stained hardened clay from stained clay: To create stained hardened clay, place 4 stained clay blocks of the same color in a 2×2 grid in the crafting menu. This will produce 4 stained hardened clay blocks of that color.

So in summary, you can obtain naturally occurring stained clay in Mesa biomes, craft stained clay from dye and hardened clay, or craft stained hardened clay from existing stained clay blocks. The crafting recipes allow you to create large amounts of stained clay and stained hardened clay once you have an initial source.

Uses for Stained Hardened Clay

Some of the main uses for stained hardened clay are:

Decorative building blocks

Stained hardened clay can be used as colorful building blocks for decorative purposes in various structures and builds. The different dye colors allow for vibrant palettes. Builders can get creative with stained hardened clay to liven up walls, floors, roofs, and more.

Beacons

In beacon pyramids, stained hardened clay can be used instead of iron blocks, gold blocks, diamond blocks or emerald blocks. This allows players to build beacon pyramids in different colors while still activating the beacon.

Coloring builds

Stained hardened clay is useful for adding splashes of color to any Minecraft build. It provides a wider range of hue options compared to wool. Builders can use stained hardened clay to create colorful patters, art, murals, mosaics, and more.

Stained Hardened Clay vs Stained Clay

While their names are similar, stained hardened clay and stained clay are quite different blocks in Minecraft. The key differences between these two blocks include:

Appearance

Stained hardened clay has a tiled, terracotta-like texture and comes in 16 different colors. Stained clay has a flat, uniform texture and comes in 16 colors as well, but the colors appear more saturated on stained clay compared to stained hardened clay.

Obtaining

Stained hardened clay can only be obtained by smelting hardened clay in a furnace. Hardened clay generates naturally in mesa biomes. Stained clay can be crafted directly by placing clay blocks with dyes in a crafting table.

Crafting

As mentioned above, stained hardened clay requires smelting hardened clay with dyes in a furnace. Stained clay is crafted by placing a clay block with dyes in the crafting grid. This makes stained clay quicker and easier to craft in the early game.

So in summary, while their names are similar, stained hardened clay has a more textured terracotta appearance compared to the flat saturated colors of stained clay. Stained hardened clay also takes more effort to craft and obtain through smelting versus the simpler crafting recipe for stained clay.

List of Stained Hardened Clay Colors

Stained hardened clay comes in 16 different dye colors that can be used for decorating and building. The colors are:

• White – Made from bone meal.
• Orange – Made from orange dye.
• Magenta – Made from magenta dye.
• Light Blue – Made from lapis lazuli.
• Yellow – Made from dandelion yellow dye.
• Lime – Made from lime dye.
• Pink – Made from pink dye.
• Gray – Made from ink sacs.
• Light Gray – Made from azure bluet.
• Cyan – Made from cyan dye.
• Purple – Made from purple dye.
• Blue – Made from lapis lazuli.
• Brown – Made from cocoa beans.
• Green – Made from cactus green dye.
• Red – Made from rose red dye.
• Black – Made from ink sacs.

Stained Hardened Clay Data Values

Stained hardened clay has 16 different variants, one for each dye color. Each color variant has a unique data value that determines the texture and color it displays in-game:

• White – 0
• Orange – 1
• Magenta – 2
• Light Blue – 3
• Yellow – 4
• Lime – 5
• Pink – 6
• Gray – 7
• Light Gray – 8
• Cyan – 9
• Purple – 10
• Blue – 11
• Brown – 12
• Green – 13
• Red – 14
• Black – 15

These data values determine the texture applied to the hardened clay block and what dye was used to stain it. By changing the data value with commands or NBT editing, players can modify the color of stained hardened clay blocks.

Crafting Stained Hardened Clay

Stained Hardened Clay is crafted by placing 8 Hardened Clay in a circle around 1 dye of any color in a crafting table. This will create 8 Stained Hardened Clay blocks of that dye’s color.

For example, to craft red Stained Hardened Clay, place 8 Hardened Clay and 1 Red Dye in a crafting table:

The dye can be any of the 16 dyes available in Minecraft, which will produce Stained Hardened Clay of these colors:

• White
• Orange
• Magenta
• Light Blue
• Yellow
• Lime
• Pink
• Gray
• Light Gray
• Cyan
• Purple
• Blue
• Brown
• Green
• Red
• Black

So by combining 8 Hardened Clay and any dye, you can craft any color of Stained Hardened Clay in Minecraft.

Trivia & History

Stained hardened clay was added to Minecraft in version 1.6 as part of the 1.6 Redstone update. It gave players 16 new building block options with unique colors.

Stained hardened clay has some interesting properties compared to regular hardened clay. When mined without a pickaxe, it drops nothing. With a pickaxe, it drops itself. This makes automatic farms using pistons or flowing water impossible.

Before 1.8, stained hardened clay had a bug where the bottom side had a different texture than the other 5 sides. This was fixed in 1.8.

Stained hardened clay is notable for its vibrant colors. Before it was added to the game, building with colors like cyan and lime was very difficult. Stained hardened clay made constructing colorful buildings much easier.

Stained hardened clay can be used to create pixel art, patterns, murals, and all kinds of colorful constructions. Many Minecraft builders love stained hardened clay for its versatility.

While stained glass has transparency, stained hardened clay is completely opaque. This makes it preferable for colorful solid walls and structures.

Stained hardened clay has the same blast resistance as regular hardened clay. However, it is not as durable as blocks like obsidian when subjected to explosions.

Overall, stained hardened clay opened up many new artistic possibilities for Minecraft builders and is considered one of the most fun decorative blocks.

Stained Hardened Clay Farming

One popular way to farm large quantities of stained hardened clay is by creating automated farms. These farms are designed to automatically harvest and collect all 16 color variants of stained hardened clay.

A basic automated stained hardened clay farm consists of 3 main components:

• A tower or large cube made of undyed hardened clay blocks. This provides a spawn platform for the colored clay.
• Water streams flowing over the spawn platform that wash the stained clay blocks into a central collection system.
• Hoppers and chests that collect the washed stained clay blocks.

There are a few key principles that allow these farms to collect all color variants automatically:

• Hardened clay blocks can be dyed in a crafting window to produce stained hardened clay.
• Stained hardened clay has a chance of spawning naturally on top of undyed hardened clay blocks that receive light.
• The spawning follows a random distribution resulting in all 16 colors.
• Water streams can float stained clay blocks but not undyed clay blocks.

By leveraging these mechanics, automated farms provide a renewable andefficient way to collect large quantities of stained hardened clay in survival Minecraft.

Summary

Stained hardened clay is a decorative building block that comes in 16 different colors. It is created by smelting stained clay in a furnace. Stained hardened clay has the same blast resistance as regular hardened clay and can be used for both building and decorating structures.

The main uses for stained hardened clay include:

• Crafting colored blocks for buildings, paths, pixel art, etc.
• Adding pops of color to floors, walls, roofs, and terrain
• Decorating larger builds with custom details and accents
• Building color-coded storage systems, sorting systems, maps, etc.

Stained hardened clay is more vibrant and durable than regular stained clay. It cannot be dyed or re-stained like normal clay. Overall, stained hardened clay is an easy way to incorporate color into builds and projects in Minecraft.