Tick speed: the randomTickSpeed command
Random tick speed controls how fast the "random" processes in a Minecraft world happen: crops growing, leaves decaying, grass spreading, fire burning out, ice melting. Raising the value speeds these processes up, lowering it slows them down, and setting it to 0 freezes them completely. It's one of the most commonly changed game rules, especially on servers.
The command
Command syntax:
/gamerule randomTickSpeed [value] Examples:
/gamerule randomTickSpeed 3- the Java Edition default/gamerule randomTickSpeed 100- crops grow about 33x faster/gamerule randomTickSpeed 300- very fast growth (handy for testing)/gamerule randomTickSpeed 0- freezes all random processes/gamerule randomTickSpeed 1- the Bedrock Edition default
If you leave out the value (/gamerule randomTickSpeed), the command shows the current setting. You need operator permissions or cheats turned on. The change takes effect immediately and is permanent: it's saved in the world.
What tick speed affects
Random tick speed affects every block that has "random tick" behavior. In every game tick (0.05 seconds), the game picks random blocks in the loaded chunks and checks whether they should change. The randomTickSpeed value sets how many blocks per chunk section get checked each tick.
Processes driven by random ticks
- Crop growth: wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroots, cactus, sugar cane, melons, pumpkins. The higher the tick speed, the faster they grow
- Leaf decay: leaves cut off from their logs disappear faster
- Grass and mycelium spread: grass spreads faster onto nearby dirt blocks
- Fire: fire spreading and burning out
- Ice and snow melting
- Vine growth and mushroom spread
- Copper oxidation: copper blocks oxidize faster
- Farmland hydration: nearby water moistens dry farmland faster
- Dripstone growth: stalactites and stalagmites grow faster
Default value and popular settings
Default values
- Java Edition: the default value is 3. This means that in every game tick the game picks 3 random blocks in each chunk section (16x16x16) to check
- Bedrock Edition: the default value is 1. Bedrock handles ticks differently, so a value of 1 there has a similar effect to 3 in Java
Popular values
| Value | Effect | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Processes frozen | Crops don't grow and leaves don't decay. Handy for building with leaves without logs |
| 3 | Default (Java) | Normal survival |
| 20-50 | Moderate speed-up | Farms grow several times faster. A good compromise on small servers |
| 100 | Fast processes | Testing farms, fast crops. Noticeable impact on FPS |
| 300+ | Very fast | Testing only. Significant performance drop |
| 1000+ | Extremely fast | Building timelapses. The server may freeze |
A value of 6 makes the processes 2x faster than the default 3. A value of 30 makes them 10x faster, and 300 makes them 100x faster. The relationship is linear: double the value and you double the speed of random processes.
Impact on performance
Raising randomTickSpeed puts extra load on the server (and on your own computer in singleplayer). Every extra random tick means extra work: the game has to check more blocks, run their logic and update the state of the world.
In practice:
- Up to 20: no noticeable impact on most computers and servers
- 20-100: a slight TPS (ticks per second) drop on weaker machines. If TPS falls below 20, the game starts to stutter
- 100-1000: visible slowdown. The world loads more slowly, mobs move jerkily and redstone runs with delays
- 1000+: the server may go over its tick limit and start skipping updates. Risk of freezing
On multiplayer servers, never leave the value above 50 permanently. A high tick speed only makes sense temporarily, for example for 5 minutes to speed up crop growth, after which you go back to the default value.
/tps command. The ideal TPS is 20.0. If it drops below 18 after you raise the tick speed, lower the value.
What tick speed does NOT change
randomTickSpeed doesn't affect EVERYTHING. Many processes in Minecraft use scheduled ticks, not random ones:
- Redstone: repeaters, comparators and pistons run on scheduled ticks, so randomTickSpeed doesn't affect them
- Sand and gravel: gravity blocks fall right away, regardless of random ticks
- Mob behavior: mob AI, spawning and despawning are separate systems
- Day and night cycle: time in the world passes at a fixed speed (use
/gamerule doDaylightCycleto control it) - Water and lava: fluid flow is scheduled, not random
- Hunger and regeneration: the rates at which hunger drains and health regenerates are fixed
- Furnaces and brewing stands: smelting and brewing take a fixed time that doesn't depend on tick speed
