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How to Build Hidden Doors in Minecraft

There may be moments in which you want to make a quick escape from enemy mobs or players, but besides escaping the scene, you also want to make sure your opponent cannot come after you. This can be achieved very easily, though some methods are easier to build, while others are less effective when your opponent is quite skilled.

All the methods below should be quite easy to copy, though some of them require at least basic knowledge of redstone circuitry. However, even if you know nothing about redstone circuits, the images should be clear enough to show you where to place everything, if they’re not, feel free to tell me to improve them.

Painting Door and 1 Time Only Painting Door

Most people who have looked for hidden doors will have found the trick with paintings. You can place a painting over any gap, as long as the holes have been covered (partially) by a transparent block, like a sign or trapdoor, as seen in the image below.

Most people who have looked for hidden doors will have found the trick with paintings. You can place a painting over any gap, as long as the holes have been covered (partially) by a transparent block, like a sign or trapdoor, as seen in the image below. This gap allows you to walk through it, which might be useful when nobody’s around to see you, but if you’re being chased that person will be able to follow you.

To prevent people from following you we can use 2 methods. The first is by using the trapdoors on which we’ve placed the painting. By putting them in their down position, people won’t be able to walk through the painting and they won’t be able to click the trapdoor from the other side of the painting either. This is a very effective way of escaping, but if a person is close, turning around to click the trapdoor may not be an option.

A simple piston and pressure plate can solve this for you. By running through the gap, you’ll spring over the pressure plate which will activate the piston and push the block up behind you. Any chaser will be stuck, or at least until that person breaks that block, buying you valuable time. However, it’s important you run, as walking over the pressure pad will cause you to be pushed back into the opening by the piston, which means you’ll be stuck with your opponent.

Hidden Stairs

Sticky pistons are a great way to push and pull blocks temporarily. We use this to create a temporary staircase, which will only last long enough for you to climb up, but not your chaser.

A simple button on a wall will activate 3 sticky pistons behind that wall. Each piston has a different, but short delay added, to make sure they don’t all activate at once. Once you push the button you will have to jump up the stairs immediately, as waiting too long will cause the pistons to retract again. This means that any chaser behind you won’t have enough time to jump up the stairs without pushing the button again, which most people won’t do.

This can be the perfect getaway in an alley that seems like a dead-end or perhaps in a tall building with many different floors. Make sure you practice the stairs a little, you don’t want to get stuck with your chaser.

Fishing Rod Reveal

Not many people carry a fishing rod, which makes a fishing rod the perfect tool to trigger wooden pressure plates, especially wooden pressure plates connected to iron doors, pistons or other passage opening mechanisms.

The door you use can be extremely simple, just a piston or iron door connected to a long circuit of redstone wires will let you escape your chaser, if you manage to trigger the pressure plate. If you place your pressure plate in a hole or somewhere else far away from the door, make sure you practice hitting it. Find a specific pixel on a block at which you have to aim to trigger the pressure plate in 1 shot.

Alternatively, run passed the pressure plate, trigger it with your fishing rod from up close and run through the open door. The range of your fishing line is about 30 blocks, so make sure your line doesn’t break before you’re inside.

Hidden Minecarts and Boats

Minecarts and boats allow you to basically teleport yourself into it by clicking it from a close enough distance, even if it’s behind lava, water or small gaps. This means boats and minecarts make perfect getaway paths, however, just a single minecart usually won’t do, as any player who knows this trick will be able to follow you.

However, by placing your minecart or boat on tactical places, like above a fireplace or a lava fountain, people may be a little cautious to follow you and rightly so.

The fireplace in our example below will set you on fire if you step inside to click the minecart, but the minecart is placed in water, so clicking it will immediately extinguish you. By either staying in the minecart or blocking it with another block, any person following you will either be stuck in the fire or stuck inside the block you’ve placed above the minecart.

Alternatively, place lava flows around your getaway minecart. This will obstruct the view of anybody getting in and the only way out is by clicking another minecart on the other side of the lava, but only you know where to click.

Farmland Gap

The farmland block is slightly shorter than other blocks, which creates a gap when other blocks are on top of it. While placing a block on top of it will kill the farmland, tilling dirt with other blocks on top of it won’t, or at least not immediately. The gap that is created when you till dirt with another block on top of it is big enough to allow you to click a minecart on the other side, especially if you place it on an angle.

Note that a minecart can only be placed on an angle if you use powered rails. Other rails will cause it to ride into any block at the end of the rails. Also note that you will only be able to see through the gap if you’re standing on slabs.

Once you’re in the minecart, all you have to do is destroy it while you’re inside and nobody will be able to follow you.

Minecart Rails Switcheroo

Minecart rails make perfect getaway paths, but sometimes an opponent may be prepared and able to follow you with a minecart of their own. In this case we’ll have to make sure their chase ends on the tracks. There are 2 very easy ways to do this.

The first is by simply destroying the part of the track once you’ve passed. By connecting a piston to a detector rail with the needed delay, anybody riding over it will cause the piston to push part of the tracks away and cause anybody riding behind that person to stop in the gap between the tracks. This is a very effective way, but you may not always want to have to repair the tracks after each repair.

To prevent the destruction of your rails, changing the direction the rails go in could be the perfect way to get rid of your follower. A simple >T-flip flop connected to a detector rail will change a corner piece after you’ve passed. You’ll continue your journey to safety and your opponent will ride into a lava pool.
The T-flip flop will make sure your opponent will return the rails to its original state, so next time you drive over it the tracks will lead you to safety again, instead of into a lava pool. However, if you’re troubled by multiple followers, about half of them will be able to follow you. As the rails will alter between each state. You’ll go to safety, follower 1 into lava, follower 2 will be able to follow you, follower 3 goes into lava, and so on.

Hidden Double Door

I’m sure most of you are familiar with hidden doors, but a hidden door isn’t usually a great getaway when you’re being chased as your chaser will usually be able to follow you. However, by adding a few added tricks, people will not only not be able to follow you, they may not even be able to find or figure out your hidden door.

The first thing we add is a system that will only open the door when 1 or 2 pressure plates are activated. The pressure plates will be hidden underground and are only visible for a short time when you push a button. To activate the pressure plates, all you have to do is place 2 items on the blocks above the pressure plates and push the botton. Sticky pistons will pull those blocks again, which will cause those items to fall onto the pressure plates, which will then in turn cause pistons to pull blocks to open a passage in the wall.

Note that you can also choose to activate just 1 pressure plate, which will then open a 2×1 part of the wall instead of a 4×4 part.

While this is a great trick to prevent people from using your door, people who are following you will be able to enter, as the door will remain open until the items on the pressure plates despawn. To overcome this, a simple lever can be placed inside which will activate all the pistons and close the door. You could then either pick up the items from the pressure plate or leave the scene and make your escape.

This door also isn’t seamless, as you have to place a few blocks on the outside of your wall that sticks out to make sure the redstone circuits can’t be seen. This isn’t an issue if the whole wall is in the same style, but you may not always want this, which is why we also have a seamless door, as seen in the next section.

Hidden, Seemless Door

This door is a small step up from our previous door, though it’s only 2×1 instead of 2×2. The general idea of this door is the same, you push a button to open a hole in the ground above a pressure plate. An item will have to fall onto that pressure plate, which now activates part 1 of our door. After that, you push the button again, which will activate the second part of our door and allow you to enter. A simple lever will block the entrance behind you again.

The first part of our door causes 2 pistons to pull a 2×1 section of our wall away, but you won’t be able to enter yet. This can only be done when the 4 other pistons pull those first 2 pistons and the blocks they pulled. Once you’ve entered, a lever will activate the 4 pistons again, which will push the first pistons back in place. A redstone torch behind them will also be activated by that lever, which means the pistons will extend and close the wall again, leaving no trace of any entrance.