Cactus

The cactus is a structure made of cactus blocks that grows in the desert.

## Damage

It does 15 damage per second or intermittently, per contact. Cactus related kills give a lot of laughs to the entire server.

## Morphology

### Stem

The stem is a tall slender tower of 4 to 7 cactus blocks in height and 1 block in circumference.

### Branches

Out of the stem, at a height of 2 to 3 blocks, juts out, at most, one branch per side (i.e. between 0 to 4 branches around the whole stem), connected by a cactus block that is rotated in such a way that is facing the direction of the branch. After the cactus block they bend upwards for 2 to 3 blocks more.

#### Probabilities of branches

This in turn, creates five possibilities for each side of the stem, namely, at 2 height and bend 2 upwards, at 2 height and bend 3 upwards, at 3 height and bend 2 upwards, at 3 height and bend 3 upwards, and no branch (which are theoretically, all equally as probable). Such that, in theory, the number of possible events is

5
4

{\displaystyle 5^4}

, and the probability that a cactus has a number n of branches is:

(

4
n

)

(

4
5

)

n

(

1
5

)

4
−
n

=

(

4
n

)

4
n

5
4

{\displaystyle {4 \choose n}\left(\frac{4}{5}\right)^n\left(\frac{1}{5}\right)^{4-n} = {4 \choose n}\frac{4^n}{5^4}}

(i.e., a binomial distribution) which would mean that: it is 16 times more probable for a cactus to have one branch than to have zero branches, 6 times more probable for a cactus to have two branches than to have one branch, 8/3 times more probable for a cactus to have three branches than two branches, and equally as probable for a cactus to have four branches so as to have three branches.

### Root

Below the stem, there's a single cactus block, that is known as the root of the cactus for where it spawns, it replaces one block of sand underneath, so that usually, the root is found surrounded by sand as if underneath, except when the cactus replaces a sand at the edge of a contour level in the terrain.

## Generation

Cacti generate in the desert, with its most important point being the root, that's located one block below the sand. Generally speaking, cacti's roots do not generate at one below beach level, so you don't see any cacti in beaches or islands, an exception to this rule happens in Oasis Map, where this does not apply, and cacti are able to generate one below beach level but not more below that.

Cacti can override each other, can override structures like the bulwark, and there have been some observations of boulders overriding cacti (even the boulder overriding the stem of the cactus and its root). It is not clear, however, if cacti can override the main stem of each other, or if cacti can override boulders or trees.

## Uses

### Making traps

One way to make traps is through the use of perspective, so that players pass a narrow passageway, and through this narrow passageway, there appears to be merely a small step downwards to what follows of this narrow passageway, but what they do not realize is that between the current step and the step downwards there's a bigger descent to a row full of cacti (or even a room), so that it's not easy for the player to get out of the trap, and as the seconds pass or they jump around, they go losing HP.

## Trivia

* It is the only block that can deal damage in the game.

1. ↑ a theory which was partly motivated from the observation of the distribution of branches, but hasn't yet been rigorously corroborated.