Get some structure (blocks) in your life

It’s been a while since we ran our award-deserving Block of the Week series on Minecraft.net, but maybe we should resurrect it for a special limited run, like a mid-2000s pop star doing a line of Vegas shows? Because the superb Structure Block has just made its structurally-sound debut in the latest Bedrock beta. Well, technically they were already in Bedrock, but now they actually function. Neat!

Have you tried playing a Minecraft beta before? It's where we test upcoming features of the game! To try these features, you have to play a version of Minecraft that supports betas (so that's the Windows 10, Xbox One and Android versions). Learn how to sign up for a Minecraft beta on each version here. You can also find more help regarding this specific beta (and a list of all the added features!) on our feedback site.

Remember, beta features can be unstable. The reason we want players to try them early is to give us feedback and catch bugs for us to fix – so make sure to backup your worlds!

HURRY UP AND TELL ME MORE ABOUT STRUCTURE BLOCKS THEN

Sure! Structure blocks are a really handy editing tool for Creative Mode players. Among other functions, they’re an incredibly helpful way of copying and pasting builds all over your Minecraft world. To use them in this beta, make sure you toggle the Use Experimental Gameplay option in the settings. Let’s take a look at how they work in Bedrock:

Bedrock beta structure blocks work a bit differently to their Java counterparts. We’ve redesigned the structure block interface to make it more user-friendly. Let us know what you think on our feedback site.

Let’s take a look at the snazzy new structure block menu:

Once you’ve successfully decided how many blocks you want your structure block to cover, you can set other filters too. Remove Blocks will take away all the blocks from the area, which is handy if you just want to copy plants and mobs.  

But if you don’t want mobs to be part of your copy-paste funtimes, you can toggle Include Entities to remove/include them. Otherwise, you can clone Wandering Traders and pigs and more to your heart’s content! Why not stick the nametag ‘Dolly’ on a sheep and re-enact some SCIENCE?

This is one of the most helpful uses of structure blocks. It can make constructing large buildings which have lots of similar foundations, such as castles and palaces, much easier.

Or maybe, like me, you just want to live on a street full of identical hot pink homes?