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

Obtaining[edit | edit source]

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^{[note 1]}
Hand	0.45

↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds.

Natural generation[edit | edit source]

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 | edit source]

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Glowstone Dust

Trading[edit | edit source]

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

Usage[edit | edit source]

Light source[edit | edit source]

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 and beacons.

In redstone circuits[edit | edit source]

			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 | edit source]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Redstone Lamp	Redstone + Glowstone

Video[edit | edit source]

History[edit | edit source]

Alpha

1.2.0

Glowstone was added.

Crafting recipe was 3×3 glowstone dust.

Recipe

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Glowstone Dust

Drop rate of glowstone dust was 1.

Material type began as "glass".

Beta

1.6.6

Crafting recipe was changed to the current 2×2 glowstone dust.

Drop rate of glowstone dust is now increased to 2–4.

Material type was 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 required an iron pickaxe or higher.

Official release

1.0.0

Beta 1.9-pre5

Changed texture, removing the border on the outside.

1.0.0-RC1

Material type is now changed once again to "glass".

1.2.1

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

Glowstone is used to craft redstone lamps.

1.3.1

12w21a

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

1.5

13w02a

In texture packs, glowstone uses /textures/blocks/lightgem.png

1.7.2

Glowstone can no longer be used to see through blocks.

1.8

14w02a

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

Glowstone was added.

Smooth lighting was removed from glowstone.

0.13.0

build 1

Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.

Glowstone was added.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

Since glowstone blocks become block entities when moved by pistons, this momentarily stops them from giving off light.
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.