Glowstone

Transparency	Yes
Luminance	15
Blast resistance	1.5
Tool	Any tool
Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Drops	Glowstone Dust (2–4)
Data value	dec: 89 hex: 59 bin: 1011001
Name	glowstone

This article is about the block. For the dust, see Glowstone Dust.

	“	Glowstone was added to Minecraft on 30 October 2010 in the Halloween Update - which also added Jack o’Lanterns, clocks and fishing. It occurs naturally in the Nether, generating on the underside of netherack, but if you’re having trouble finding it then clerics in Minecraft villages will sometimes sell small amounts in exchange for emeralds.	„
		— Duncan Geere^[1]

Glowstone is a light-emitting block that appears in the Nether.

Obtaining[edit]

Unless broken with a tool that is enchanted with Silk Touch or Fortune, a glowstone block drops 2–4 glowstone dust. If tool with Silk Touch is used, the block drops itself, and if a tool with Fortune is used, it has a higher chance of dropping a large amount of glowstone dust—but never more than 4.

Block	Glowstone
Hardness	0.3
Breaking time
Hand	0.45

Natural generation[edit]

A naturally occurring vein of glowstone in the Nether.

Glowstone only occurs naturally in the Nether, where it generates in coral-like clusters on the undersides of netherrack.

Crafting[edit]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Glowstone Dust

Trading[edit]

Villager clerics will sell 1-3 glowstone for an emerald as a third tier trade.

Usage[edit]

Light source[edit]

Glowstone blocks emit a light level of 15, the brightest possible light level in the game. They emit the same amount of light as sea lanterns, jack o'lanterns, redstone lamps, conduits and beacons.

In redstone circuits[edit]

			A




			B

A glowstone block can transmit power up, but not down. Lamp A will be powered because the redstone signal travels up the glowstone block. Lamp B will be off as the signal would have to go down the glowstone, which is not possible.

When placing redstone on a glowstone block, being a transparent block, signals can pass from one block to another diagonally. Redstone wire, even though it may appear to connect up the side of a glowstone block and to the wire portion on top, will not send a redstone signal down the glowstone block. This makes glowstone effective for vertical diodes, logic gate designs and space-efficient instant vertical redstone.

Note that upside-down slabs can be used for the same purpose, and are easier to obtain.

Crafting ingredient[edit]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Redstone Lamp	Redstone Dust + Glowstone

Video[edit]

History[edit]

Alpha

v1.2.0-preview

Glowstone was shown to drop itself when mined.

v1.2.0

Glowstone has been added.

The crafting recipe for glowstone is 3×3 glowstone dust.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Glowstone Dust

The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone is 1.

Material type began as "glass".

Beta

1.6.6

Crafting recipe has been changed to 2×2 glowstone dust.

Drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone has now been increased to 2–4.

The material type of glowstone has been changed to "stone", meaning a pickaxe is now needed to drop items and block dependent blocks can now be placed on the block.

1.7.3

Harvesting glowstone will now require an iron pickaxe or higher.

Java Edition

1.0.0

Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5

The glowstone's texture has been changed, removing the border on the outside.

RC1

The material type of glowstone has now been changed once again to "glass".

1.2.1

12w06a

Redstone can now be placed on glowstone. Redstone wire can now only transmit upwards through it.

12w07a

Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.

1.3.1

12w21a

Priest villagers will now sell 2–3 glowstone for 1 emerald.

12w22a

Inventory sprites for blocks have been flipped from left to right, changing
to
.

1.5

13w02a

In texture packs, glowstone will now use /textures/blocks/lightgem.png.

1.7.2

13w41a

Glowstone can now no longer be used to see through blocks.

1.8

14w02a

Trading has been changed: cleric villagers will now sell 1–3 glowstone for 1 emerald.

1.13

17w47a

Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 89.

Glowstone added.

Smooth lighting has now been removed from glowstone.

0.13.0

build 1

Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.

Legacy Console Edition

Glowstone was added.

Trivia[edit]

Since glowstone blocks become block entities when moved by pistons, this momentarily stops them from giving off light. This will not be fixed.^[2]
Rarely, glowstone can be found touching the ground if the ceiling it was generated on was extremely low (2-3 blocks of clearance).
When glowstone is placed 9 or more blocks above ground level (out of its lighting range), the glowstone will actually cast a shadow, despite being a light-emitting block.