One inventive Minecraft player has figured out how to make a physics-defying minecart roller coaster out of powered rails and underwater bubbles. For players looking to traverse Minecraft's often expansive bodies of water, this method may be one of the most creative, instead of the generic alternative of just using a wooden boat.
Inspired methods of movement have continuously been of interest to the Minecraft community. Compared to the freedom of flight in the game's creative mode, the grounded sprint in survival mode is rather underwhelming, leading players to try a variety of methods for crossing Minecraft's infinite tracts of land. One of the best-known examples involves using a boat across lines of ice blocks to rack up extreme momentum. There have been numerous official means of quick travel built into the game to scratch player's itch for quick travel, including Nether traversal, Ender Pearl teleportation, and Elytra flight.
TheElusive02 figured out a more interesting way to get across Minecraft in a video they posted to Reddit. Kicked off by the simple press of a stone button, they're sent on a minecart ride into a local ocean. Instead of sinking to its bottom, TheElusive02 starts skipping over the surface of the water in their minecart, propelled by underwater bubble shafts that rise out of Soul Sand. They swiftly bob across the water until they're deposited on an opposite bank. Despite the imaginable weight of an iron minecart, it barely dips below the surface as it's supported by the bubbles.
The video would not have been possible without the addition of waterlogged rails in a Minecraft update over the past year. Items that aren't full, solid blocks normally have their leftover space occupied by air in Minecraft, but waterlog-able blocks can optionally have that space filled with water instead. And minecart rails would usually be destroyed by being placed underwater, but creations like TheElusive02's are possible now because of the waterlogging update.
More zany setups will likely follow the numerous new blocks and items coming in Minecraft's Caves and Cliffs Part 2 update. When it launches this holiday season, Minecraft's vertical scale will increase dramatically, and new Skulk Blocks will allow Redstone signals to be transmitted wirelessly, among many other additions. New underground lakes are also expected to be added, and TheElusive02's video could even be re-created deep below the world's surface once the update releases.
Minecraft is available on all platforms.
Source: TheElusive02/Reddit