How Minecraft's Tick System Works

Learn more about how the tick system works.

Learn more about how the tick system works.

Introduction

Minecraft may look like a game that runs continuously, but a lot of what happens in the world is processed in distinct steps called ticks. Understanding ticks helps explain everything from Redstone and crop growth to mob behavior and server lag.

Understanding Ticks

In Minecraft, the game normally tries to run at 20 Ticks Per Second (TPS). That means one game tick occurs every 50 milliseconds.

A tick is essentially one step of the game's simulation. During a tick, Minecraft processes things that need to happen in the world, such as entity movement, AI, block updates, Redstone logic, scheduled events and other game mechanics.

At 20 TPS:

• 1 tick = 0.05 seconds
• 20 ticks = 1 second
• 1,200 ticks = 1 minute
• 72,000 ticks = 1 Minecraft hour

Although it's worth mentioning that not everything happens in every tick. Different systems use different types of updates and schedules.

Game Ticks

Every game tick, the server processes loaded entities and other scheduled game logic. A mob might update its AI, a player might move, a furnace might progress toward smelting an item and scheduled block events may be processed.

Minecraft's target is 20 TPS, servers can fall below that however if they have too much work to process. For example, if a server takes 100 milliseconds to process what should have been one tick, it can only manage around 10 TPS instead of 20.

This is where MSPT (MilliSeconds Per Tick) becomes useful. At 20 TPS, the server needs to complete each tick in 50 ms or less. If a tick takes longer than 50 ms, the server begins falling behind.

Redstone Ticks

Redstone has its own concept of timing.

Many Redstone components operate according to game ticks, but some mechanisms introduce delays measured in ticks. A standard Redstone repeater can be configured from 1 to 4 Redstone ticks, with each Redstone tick corresponding to 2 game ticks.

Therefore:

• 1 redstone tick = 2 game ticks = 0.1 seconds
• 4 redstone ticks = 8 game ticks = 0.4 seconds

This is why a repeater's maximum delay is 0.4 seconds.

Redstone also interacts with Minecraft's block update system, which is responsible for notifying blocks that something around them has changed.

Random Ticks

Some mechanics don't need to be checked every game tick. Instead, Minecraft uses random ticks for certain blocks.

Random ticks are responsible for mechanics such as:

• Crop growth
• Grass and mycelium spreading
• Leaf decay
• Fire spreading
• Certain plant growth
• Snow and ice behavior

The number of random block updates can be influenced by the randomTickSpeed gamerule.

Increasing it can make crops and other random-tick mechanics happen more frequently, but it does not make the entire game run faster.

Scheduled Ticks

Minecraft also has scheduled block ticks, The allow blocks to tell the game that something should happen after a certain delay. For example, fluids can schedules updates for themselves, allowing water and lava to propagate through the world without the game having to constantly process every fluid block.

This system is one reason Minecraft can simulate a huge world without checking every possible interaction every single tick.

What Happens When a Server Lags

If a server cannot finish its work within 50 ms, its TPS can drop.

Suppose a tick takes 75 ms. The server is now processing only about 13.3 ticks per second instead of the intended 20.

Players may notice:

• Delayed block breaking
• Slow Redstone
• Mobs moving strangely
• Delayed item pickups
• Blocks appearing to "snap back"
• Commands taking longer to respond

The important distinction is that TPS and ping are not the same thing. Ping measures network latency between the player and server, while TPS measures how quickly the server is processing its simulation.

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