Tutorial:TNT cannons

A TNT cannon is a mechanism that launches entities using TNT. They can be used in survival to mine, fast travel and destroy. Cannons built in survival often follow premade blueprints. In creative, on the other hand, cannons might be built to experiment with one's redstone skills or have fun in general.

Over the years communities have emerged around cannon-PVP and created constraints on the cannons to increase fun when fighting. A limit on the use of blocks, especially those with high blast resistance, is the most common constraint. In WarGear and Slime Block Robot Battles, the fighting machines are built in creative and then are copied to an arena where combat takes place in survival. The size of both is constrained. Dispensers and some entities (and for WarGear also duplication bugs) are prohibited. SBRT requires the whole fighting machine to be movable. Factions bases, on the other hand, are built in survival, though they might be designed in creative. Dispenser cannons and water shielding are allowed here. Those constraints and the absence of constraints have caused a great amount of cannon diversity, which is discussed in this article.

Topic specific speech is used for this page and the sub-pages. It is either explained on this page or under the according headlines.

Types of cannons

Loading types

One game tick Tunnler Machine gun (1gt TMg).

Manual cannons

In manual cannons everything is loaded by hand. This includes TNT and might include other entities such as sand.

The manual cannons subpage provides further information about the following loading types: Underfoot, Overhead, Crossbow, Sustainable loader, Buffer, Semi automatic, Double cannon, Branches and Blockstream.

Automatic cannons

An automatic cannon can shoot without player interaction once activated.

The automatic cannons subpage provides further information about the following loading types: Preloaded cannon, Machine gun, Duper cannon and Dispenser cannon.

Damage types

Instead of just exploding all TNT at the same position, like in a Shotgun, many different ways to damage the enemy on multiple positions were found. Tunnler cannons stood out as being the most effective in a lot of situations but there are also some other important damage types.

The damage types subpage provides further information about Shotgun, Ripple, Mortar, Scatter, Nuke, Multi impact and Synchronization. Tunnler cannons are covered on a separate page.

Other projectiles

Most other projectiles have different movement physics and explosion interactions.

Pearl cannons

A Pearl cannon can move players far distances.

Arrow launchers

Since arrows do way more damage when traveling faster, arrows accelerated by TNT might instantly kill any entity that is not protected by a Totem of Undying. Arrows can be scattered easily using the random motion, when dispensing them. This eliminates the need to aim arrow launchers precisely and allows to hit multiple targets in a single shot.

Sand cannons

Sand and other falling blocks have the same flight behavior as TNT (apart from TNT usually flying only for less than 4 seconds).

When multiple falling blocks are accelerated downwards together, they can form towers up to the height of their velocity (rounded up). Those towers are usually used to remove water and could be used to remotely build structures.

Some falling blocks such as anvils and dripstone might be used to damage players, though this is hard to achieve, when they are moving.

Falling blocks can be stored, while inside moving pistons.

Player cannons

A Player cannon is usually just a fun cannon build with a few propellants under the player launching them up hundreds to tens of thousands of blocks. TNT-minecarts might be used instead of TNT.

Some player cannons accelerate pigs instead of players to take advantage of lazy acceleration. They are similar in functionality to pearl cannons but don't need to have their destination loaded.

Course types

Straight trajectories

Straight trajectories describe all trajectories that are not influenced by TNT after leaving the cannon or barrel.

The straight trajectories subpage provides further information about Ascend, Descend, Central, Shift, Artillery and chunk phasing cannons as well as some techniques that generalize to implementing those including displacement, slime boost, TNT and Rebound.

Mid-air maneuvering

Mid-air maneuvering is mostly achieved using injectors that explode near the projectiles.

It may be used used to hit the enemy from unexpected angles, to shift around freely or to reduce barrel size.

The mid-aid maneuvering subpage provides further information about Down-, Up-, Flank-, Back-cannons, Warhead, Delayed fire, Gust and Momentum cancelling.

Launch types

The place where the Boosters explode is called the launch point. There are two general variants of launch points. Either the Boosters sit on blocks, such a launch point is called a platform or they are in mid-air - such launch points are found in Ejector cannons.

The launch point subpage provides further information about Platform, Multi platform, Ejector, Nether, Cloud and Catapult cannons.

Special purposes

Some cannons have attributes that don't fit into the categorization but still deserve mention. Those are listed on this subpage.

The special purposes subpage provides further information about Piercing, Hybrid, Instant, Anti-Tech-KO, Anti-Cannon/ Scraper, Playerkill, Moving and Extender cannon.

General implementation strategies

Intel

Having intel about the enemies actions as well as the damage to all fight machines is crucial for deciding which cannon to use and where to shoot.

The intel subpage provides further information about Windows, Alarms, Spotting and Intel-Tools.

Signals

There exist many techniques for wiring TNT cannons some of which are described on the signals subpage which contains further information on Manual and Automatic inputs, Auto delay, Auto modes, Automation matrices, the role of predictions, double and long activation, piston spitting, update order, zero ticks and the synchronisation of signals.

Moving TNT

Every cannon needs to move TNT. Inside of the cannon TNT can be moved either as a block or as an entity. When moved as an entity it is useful to compress batches of similar purpose together to reduce complexity but different batches also need to stay separated or be separated again.

The moving TNT subpage provides further information about moving TNT blocks, Compression and Separation.

Increasing accuracy

Very high accuracy can be achieved by rebounding the TNT or shooting straight forward, because this reduces the alignment complexity by one axis. On the other hand direction changes in mid-air usually decrease accuracy.

Higher accuracy by providing more modes can hurt the cannons usability by increasing the amount of setup needed for aiming the cannon as well as the complexity of the cannon itself. So it is often preferable to have just enough modes for the cannon to achieve its purpose while maintaining high usability.

The increasing accuracy subpage provides further information about pixel precision, subpixel precision and motion alignment.

Increasing efficiency

Higher efficiency allows cannons to be more compact, lag-friendly and faster if they are loaded manually.

The increasing efficiency subpage provides further information about increasing the propulsion provided by a single TNT and about using every projectile.

Lag reduction

Lag reduction can be important in some cannons. For that it is advisable to shoot as straight as possible or use modifications, that improve entity motion performance. Apart from that all the rules that apply for other redstone contraptions also apply here.

Lazy acceleration

Lazy chunks only tick blocks and not entities. If the projectiles lay inside lazy chunks, they can accumulate acceleration given by propellants that explode outside lazy chunks. This allows for cannons to be charged way longer than four seconds, so that only a few hundred TNT are loaded at any time (except for the few ticks, where the cannon is shooting). Thus lag is reduced and cannons are also more compact. Chunk loading will break lazy cannons, if no safety mechanisms are implemented.

Related technologies

Armor and Shielding

Armor

Armor is using space within the fighting machine to protect the player and the fighting machine from damage.

It is generally best to use the highest blast resistance allowed. It is preferable to use blocks that have no hit box but some blast resistance (such as fence gates) over air.

The armor subpage provides further information about Anti-Mortar, invisible, unmovable armor, alternatives to high blast resistance armor and armor gaps.

Shielding

The idea of shielding is to counter cannons specialized on hitting a target by blocking the trajectory. If the cannon is not prepared against it this will not only serve as more armor but it will also be way more efficient armor. Even with little shielding the efficiency of the enemy's cannons can be greatly damaged for it being impossible to specialize on every type of shielding or no shielding so that inefficiencies have to occur at some point in exchange for more general usability of the cannon.

The most basic form of shielding is just to push blocks out of the fighting machine.

The shielding subpage provides further information about ATOX, Pergola, Spikes, Heavy, Layered, Relocational shielding, 3D Printer, Mining and Active shielding.

Missiles and flying machines

Missiles

A Missile is a flying machine that transports TNT to the enemy and explodes it there.

After a couple of TNT, there are quick diminishing returns in TNT usage vs damage output if no cannon is mounted on top of the missile. A Missile can be more TNT efficient than a cannon. On the other hand it is way slower, might use up other blocks instead, needs more loaded chunks and is easier to defend.

Making a missile able to move in both directions can be critical in maintaining efficiency when enemies can attack from both sides.

The missile subpage provides further information about Bomber, Torpedo, Missile magazine, Return missile, Netherite buster, Tunnel bore, Cannon mounted missile and Instant win missile.

Flying machines

Flying machines are most commonly used to prevent the enemy's tech from working as intended but they are also used for other purposes such as transporting players.

The flying machine subpage provides further information about Moses, Blanket, Anti Moses, Cruncher and Player transport.

This tutorial page is linked to on an official Minecraft page.

v t e Cannon tutorials
Related	Explosion Projectile Motion Defenses Armor Shielding Flying machines Missiles Intel
General Concepts	Loading Manual Automatic Launch point Trajectories Straight Mid-air maneuvering Signals Moving TNT Accuracy Efficiency
Combat	Damage patterns Tunnler Other projectiles Arrow Falling block Special purposes
Utility	Pearl cannon Player cannon