Minecraft's new honey blocks are somehow perfect for parkour courses

(Image credit: Microsoft, Mojang)

As with every Minecraft update since I first played in 2010, my strategy with the Minecraft 1.15 Java snapshot is to wait for people much more creative than me to decide how to best use its new features, after which I shamelessly copy their cool inventions in my own worlds. As a testament to their ingenuity, players have already come up with unexpected uses for the new honey block added in the snapshot of Minecraft 1.15 accessible to Java edition players.

According to the official patch notes, the new Minecraft honey block has several interesting properties:

Walking and jumping is limited
If you stand on a honey block that is pushed by a piston, you come along for the ride
Jump into a wall of honey blocks to slide down and slow your fall
Landing on a honey block cushions your fall somewhat
When a honey block is pushed or pulled by a piston, it attempts to move all adjacent blocks in the same direction (just like slime blocks)
Mobs and animals dislike walking on honey blocks. Too sticky for their comfort

Using the sticky properties of honey blocks has begun opened all sorts of new possibilities for players designing parkour courses. Jumping into the side of a sticky wall at a sprint allows you to wall run as if you're in Mirror's Edge.

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Via tubbylumcin on Reddit.

User "tubbylumcin" on Reddit showed off some of the possibilities in a wall-running course using a bunch of honey blocks for safely running through the air. Just try not to imagine how sticky Steve's hands are after all that honey sliding.

Via HasseHynd on Reddit.

Reddit user "HasseHynd" created a conveyor belt for transporting objects using the honey block's ability to carry other entities with it when pushed by a piston. It's a neat idea, but someone will need to come up with a more practical application. Fortunately, the comments beneath the post are already brainstorming with ideas like a sushi conveyor bar or a system for transporting items through the Nether safely.

Minecraft honey block animal pen — *Via* *SirBenet on Reddit*. (Image credit: Microsoft, Mojang | Via SirBenet on Reddit)

Reddit user SirBenet came up with the most unassuming but immediately practical uses for the honey blocks: keeping your animals safely in their pens. While other methods have been used in the past to make hopping over fences easy for a player but impossible for animals, the honey block may be the best yet. Its sticky properties prevent animals from jumping over even a single block. Unfortunately, they also prevent a player from doing the same. The commenters beneath the post recommend using only a ring of honey blocks directly inside the pen so that animals will stick to them while standing next to the wall but a player can sprint and leap over them and on top of the wall.

Players are bound to come up with even more interesting ways to use the new honey blocks so between your attempts at building a stick obstacle course, you can check out these posts and other ideas over on Reddit.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.