How To Get And Use The Secret Jigsaw Block In Minecraft (Updated Tutorial)

Hey everybody, it’s UnderMyCap and welcome back to another post! Today I’m going to be showing you how to use the Jigsaw Block in Minecraft. I have covered this topic before and it went really well, however I wanted to redo it in an updated format and also properly show you how to use each individual feature this time — including the Target Pool, Target Name, and Turns To fields. So let’s get straight into it!

If you’d prefer to watch the video version of this tutorial, you can check it out here: How To Get And Use The Secret Jigsaw Block In Minecraft – YouTube

Does The Jigsaw Block Work On Bedrock?

Before we dive in, I want to address something that came up a lot in the comments on my last video. The Jigsaw Block does not work on Bedrock Edition. You can technically get the block using the /give command on Bedrock, however when you place it down you will notice that everything appears to be there — except there is no Generate button. That Generate button is the most important part of the whole process, and without it you simply cannot generate any roads or structures. So for now, the Jigsaw Block only fully works on Java Edition.

How To Get The Jigsaw Block

To get the Jigsaw Block, you will need to use the give command. Type in /give @s jigsaw in your chat. The reason we use the give command rather than searching for it in the creative inventory is that if you search “jigsaw” it actually won’t appear — this is because the Jigsaw Block is a very special block that you are not meant to be able to obtain in survival or even through the standard creative menu. You will also need to make sure that cheats are enabled on your world. If cheats are not enabled, you won’t be able to get or use the block at all.

Placing The Jigsaw Block

Once you have your Jigsaw Block, go ahead and place it down. One important thing to keep in mind is the direction the block is facing. In most of my tests, when the block was pointing upward it did not work correctly. When the block is pointing in a horizontal direction, it will generate structures along that path. So make sure your Jigsaw Block is facing the direction you want your structures to generate toward.

Understanding The Jigsaw Block Interface

When you open the Jigsaw Block, you will see a few different fields. Here is a breakdown of what each one does.

Target Pool

The Target Pool is essentially the folder or category of builds you want to pull from. In Minecraft, there is a whole set of folders containing templates for how to build different structures. The Target Pool tells the game which folder or “pool” of data to look inside. Think of it as choosing a big bucket full of different builds.

Target Name

The Target Name is what you specifically want to pull out of that pool. Going back to the bucket analogy — if the Target Pool is a bucket full of fish, the Target Name is the specific fish you want to pull out. This field lets you get more precise with what gets generated.

Name

The Name field is simply the label for your Jigsaw Block itself. It doesn’t affect what gets generated, so you can name it whatever you like. I’ll often just put something like “test” here.

Turns To

The Turns To field is something that is still in a bit of a beta state in Minecraft. In theory, it should turn the Jigsaw Block into the block type you specify after generation. However, for now changing this field doesn’t really have a noticeable effect, so you can safely leave it as “air” for the time being.

Generating A Village – Starting With The Streets

Now let’s get into actually creating something! When I am generating a village, I like to start with the streets first. The streets give you a great foundation because they create a whole bunch of connection points where you can then generate other structures like houses and decorations. Another great benefit is that once the street is generated, the Jigsaw Blocks that appear along it already have the relevant information stored in them, so you can simply click on one when you want to place a house and copy the settings across without having to remember everything yourself.

To generate a village street, open your Jigsaw Block and in the Target Pool field type: minecraft:village/plains/streets. What we are doing here is telling Minecraft to look inside the village folder, then the plains village specifically, and then look for the streets data that Mojang has set up inside that folder. You can swap out “plains” for other biome types such as taiga, desert, or spruce forest depending on what style of village you want to build.

For the Name field, just type something simple like “test” — it doesn’t affect anything. For the Target Name, type street as a general starting point. Leave the Turns To field as “air.”

Using The Size/Levels Setting And Generating

At the bottom of the Jigsaw Block interface you will see a levels or size setting. This controls the scale and intensity of what gets generated. Level one produces a small road, while going all the way up to level seven produces a very large area. I recommend starting with level three as a good middle ground — level seven can get quite large! Once you are happy with your settings, hit the Generate button. Make sure you have spelled “village,” “plains,” and “streets” correctly in the correct order, as small mistakes here can cause issues. After generating, you will notice the name field automatically updates to “street” and your road will appear in the world — it might look a little bumpy on uneven terrain but it gets the job done beautifully.

Adding Houses And Decorations

Once your streets are generated, you will notice Jigsaw Blocks appearing along the road with little arrows and markers — these are the connection points for houses and decorations. This is where it really starts to feel like a city building game! To place a house, click on one of those Jigsaw Blocks. For the Target Pool, type minecraft:village/plains/houses and for the Target Name, type building_entrance. Set the level to something like three and hit Generate. A village house will appear right there — it’s really cool to see it come together! Sometimes leaves may remain inside the structure if a tree happened to be in the way during generation, since those areas are marked as structure voids, but most of the time it works out just fine.

You can keep going around the street and placing houses at each connection point. Changing the level to something higher like seven will generate different and larger building variations — not all of them will look like traditional houses, but that is part of what makes it so fun and interesting to experiment with. There are also decoration connection points along the street where you can generate smaller details to bring your village to life.

Wrapping Up

And that is how you get and use the Jigsaw Block in Minecraft Java Edition! It is such a fun tool for building villages and experimenting with Minecraft’s built-in structure templates. I really enjoy making tutorials like this one and I hope you found it helpful. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to leave a comment below letting me know what you would like me to cover next. Don’t forget to check out the video version linked above, and if you would like to support me or follow along with my streams over on Twitch, you can find the links in the video description. Thank you so much for reading and happy building!