Paths and trails

Repeated trips can leave a visible trail. As people cross the same grass blocks in survival, some turn to dirt; with more traffic, those blocks can wear down into coarse dirt. Small plants on the route may break as the ground wears down. Build a proper dirt path where you want the route to move faster: walking on one gives a 20% movement speed boost that stacks with other speed effects.

Let a trail form

Walk the same grassy route in survival and the surface will change a little at a time. Sprinting makes wear more likely; sneaking suppresses it. A hard landing can also leave a mark. Grass and flowers may be trampled once the block below has turned to coarse dirt.

The change is gradual and chance based: at ordinary walking speed, each grass block you cross has roughly a 5% chance to change, while sprinting raises that estimate to about 7%. A route used day after day will show far more wear than one visited once. The change has two distinct stages: a grass block becomes dirt before repeated steps can turn that dirt into coarse dirt. The same wear can thin shallow snow or clear it completely, while water underfoot may freeze briefly before returning to normal.

Make a faster path

Use a shovel on suitable ground to make vanilla dirt path blocks. The speed bonus applies while you are on those path blocks. Coarse dirt from a worn trail does not grant the same boost. To make a busy route both visible and fast, convert suitable ground into dirt path blocks after the walking traffic has shown you where the path belongs.

A marked trail shows where people go; a built path makes that trip quicker. Around a settlement, the two work well together: follow the worn ground to see where traffic flows, then pave the stretch people use most.

See also

• Rails and ladders for minecart and cliff routes
• Waystones for named travel stops
• Travel overview for the rest of the travel network