Minecraft Sculk Sensors: How To Make Wireless Redstone

The Minecraft 1.19 Wild Update brought loads of interesting new content to the game, including brand new biomes and some new mobs, but perhaps one of the most interesting additions lies on the technical side. After far too long, players are finally able to do completely wireless redstone without needing to rely on sunlight detectors or obscure exploits.

Sculk sensors are new blocks in the game which can be found in Deep Dark caves inside Ancient Cities. They aren’t the easiest blocks to obtain, and they cannot be crafted, but considering how incredibly powerful they are, this may be for the best. These new blocks can be quite tricky to work with, but with experience, players can use them to build extremely cool and complex systems.

How Do Sculk Sensors Work?

Sculk sensors emit two-second redstone signals whenever they detect a vibration within a nine block radius of them. The power of this signal is proportional to how close the vibration is, but players can simply use repeaters to extend the signal if need be. Vibrations include all of the following, but are not limited to:

• Blocks being placed
• Blocks being destroyed
• Loud noises, such as pistons, footsteps, buttons, etc.
• Items being dropped directly on the sensor
• Armor being equipped or placed on an armor stand
• Doors or chests being opened
• Mob noises
• Eating and drinking

This means that sculk sensors can be a bit finnicky–they may be triggered unintentionally by vibrations that the players does not intend to create–though this can thankfully be controlled using wool blocks. Wool blocks act as sound dampeners, so any time a wool block is between a sculk sensor and the point of vibration, no redstone signal will be emitted. This means that if players want to avoid having a system that can be accidentally set off, they can cleverly place wool to every side of the sensor except for the direction they want the vibrations to come from. Similarly, footsteps on wool blocks are silenced and will not set off sculk sensors–even if the player walks directly past them.

One good way to make easy wireless redstone is with the use of droppers. When a dropper is activated, it makes a single ticking noise that is enough to set off a sculk sensor. Even if the dropper is empty, that sound will still cause a signal to be sent out. This allows players to easily send a wireless signal up to nine blocks, even through other blocks (provided they aren’t wool).

Players can also use this to create secret doors quite easily. Things like chests can be used to trigger sculk sensors through walls or floors–even if the chest isn’t a trapped one. If a room has a wool floor, players can cleverly hide sculk sensors in the ceiling, which are only triggered by standing in a very particular spot and making a noise of some sort, such as drinking a water bottle or equipping a piece of armor.

Where To Find Sculk Sensors

There are two ways to obtain sculk sensors, but both require an Ancient City to be found first. Ancient Cities are home to the Warden, and can only be found below Y: -51 in Deep Dark biomes. These cities are filled with sculk sensors. Players must avoid making sound around them, as doing so can summon the Warden. However, these sculk sensors that spawn naturally can only be obtained if players have a Silk Touch enchantment on their tool (any tool can be used, but hoes mine the fastest).

If players don’t have Silk Touch, they should avoid destroying the sculk sensors in an Ancient City, leaving them for when they do have Silk Touch. Until then, players will have to rely on getting sculk sensors from chests. Any chest in an Ancient City has a 23.2% chance of having 1-3 sensors within it, and with the sheer number of chests that spawn in these cities, players should have no trouble finding at least few sensors to take home. They just need to be careful not to lose them to the Warden.