Weight & encumbrance
LiveEverything you carry has weight. Carry too much and you slow down; wear heavy armour in deep water and you sink.
Everything in your inventory weighs something. An ordinary block weighs 1, so a full stack of stone weighs 64. The more you carry, the slower you get. The idea is to make roads, horses and above all ships worth having.
Your current load shows as a ⚖ weight bar above your hotbar.
Load levels
| Level | Weight | Roughly | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | under 120 | up to ~2 stacks of blocks | None |
| Burdened | 120+ | ~2 stacks | 15% slower |
| Heavy | 240+ | ~4 stacks | 30% slower, 20% lower jumps, no sprinting |
| Overloaded | 400+ | ~6 stacks | 50% slower, no jumping, mining fatigue |
A shulker box counts its own weight (5) plus everything inside it.
Sinking
You sink in water if either of these is true:
- Your total load is over 400.
- Your worn armour alone weighs over 30, which is about a full set of iron.
So plate armour and deep water don't mix. Cross rivers at fords, build bridges, and take a ship across the sea.
If you're going under, sneak and press drop to throw away your heaviest stack in one go.
What things weigh
Armour (per piece)
| Material | Each piece | Full set |
|---|---|---|
| Leather | 2 | 8 |
| Chainmail | 5 | 20 |
| Iron / gold | 8 | 32 (you sink) |
| Diamond | 10 | 40 |
| Netherite | 12 | 48 |
| Turtle helmet | 6 | |
| Shield | 4 |
The starter kit (chain helmet and leggings, iron chestplate, leather boots) weighs 20 in armour, safely under the sinking limit.
Tools and weapons
| Material | Weight |
|---|---|
| Wooden | 2 |
| Stone | 3 |
| Iron / gold | 4 |
| Diamond | 5 |
| Netherite | 6 |
| Bow, crossbow, trident | 3 |
Blocks and materials
| Item | Each | Stack of 64 |
|---|---|---|
| Anvil | 8 | – |
| Gold / diamond / emerald block | 4 | 256 |
| Iron / copper block | 3 | 192 |
| Netherite block | 5 | 320 |
| Any ordinary solid block (stone, planks, dirt…) | 1 | 64 |
| Non-solid blocks (rails, ladders, flowers…) | 0.5 | 32 |
| Wool, leaves, hay bales | 0.3 | 19 |
| Ingots, gems, lapis, quartz | 0.5 | 32 |
| Most other items | 0.25 | 16 |
| Food | 0.2 | 13 |
| Torches | 0.2 | 13 |
| Arrows, string, paper, seeds, redstone, gunpowder | 0.1 | 6 |
| Feathers, saplings, flowers | 0.05 | 3 |
Moving heavy loads
- Ships carry whole chests of cargo with no weight penalty. See Ships.
- Horses and donkeys carry you, and a donkey's chest carries cargo.
- Roads don't make you lighter, but they make the trip quicker to walk.
- Carrying money: a gold block weighs 4 and the nine bars it's made of weigh 4.5, so blocks are the lightest way to carry a lot of gold.