Obsidian
Transparent |
No |
---|---|
Luminance |
0 |
Blast resistance |
6,000 |
Tool | |
Renewable |
Yes |
Stackable |
Yes (64) |
Flammable |
No |
Drops |
Itself |
Data value |
dec: 49 hex: 31 bin: 110001 |
Name |
obsidian |
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“ | Strong almost beyond compare and able to stand huge blasts, glossy, black obsidian is forged in the very fires of the earth. What a block! | „ |
— Alex Wiltshire[1] |
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“ | Obsidian is tough to design in Minecraft because: This is obsidian. Very specular, brittle, see-through on thin edges, very dark, very smooth. texture is largely defined by specular and shape. In MC, it's a purple colored 'rock' with a few spots! | „ |
— Jasper "JAPPA" Boerstra[2] |
Obsidian is a dark block known for its high blast resistance and strength.
Contents
Obtaining[edit]
Obsidian is the sole block that can be successfully mined only with a diamond pickaxe.
Block | Obsidian | |
---|---|---|
Hardness | 50 | |
Tool | ||
Breaking time[note 1] | ||
Hand | 250 | |
Wooden | 125 | |
Stone | 62.5 | |
Iron | 41.7 | |
Diamond | 9.4 | |
Golden | 20.85 |
- ↑ Times are for unenchanted tools in seconds.
Enchanting a pickaxe with "Efficiency" and using a beacon with Haste both drastically decrease the mining time. See the obsidian farming tutorial for more information.
Lava and water[edit]
Obsidian is formed when flowing water hits a lava source block, and can be found naturally where water from a spring or lake has flowed over a nearby lava pool.
Natural generation[edit]
Obsidian can be created when a Nether portal is generated in the Nether or the Overworld. This portal can then be mined, providing a way of obtaining obsidian renewably.
When a player enters the End, a platform of 25 obsidian blocks is generated for the player to spawn on. This platform can then be mined, and will be regenerated when the player reenters the End. Solid pillars of obsidian can also be found on the surface, which will regenerate when the ender dragon is respawned. Obsidian also generates as a part of end ship in end cities.
Obsidian also occurs naturally where underwater springs flow onto lava, often at layer 10 or lower.
Obsidian also generates in woodland mansions in a tree shape with a diamond block in the middle of it.
Chests[edit]
Obsidian can be found in 8.0% of nether fortress chests in stacks of 2–4, and in 25.6% of village blacksmith chests in stacks of 3–7. In 1.14[upcoming] they can be found in 25.6% of village weaponsmith chests in stacks of 3–7.
Ender chests[edit]
When an ender chest is mined with a pickaxe without the Silk Touch enchantment, it drops 8 obsidian.
Usage[edit]
Obsidian can be used to build explosion resistant structures. At 6,000, obsidian's explosion resistance is the highest the player can obtain in Survival mode, other than anvils, which have the same blast resistance. Obsidian cannot be pushed by pistons. Obsidian is also notoriously known in servers as a defense block. It is common in many builds as building armor and is essential for protection.
Nether portals[edit]
Obsidian can be used to create a nether portal frame, which can then be ignited using fire. The frame must be a vertical rectangle any size from 4×5 to 23×23. Note that the corners of the frame are not required.
Crafting ingredient[edit]
Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
---|---|---|
Beacon | Glass + Nether Star + Obsidian |
|
Enchantment Table | Book + Diamond + Obsidian |
|
Ender Chest | Obsidian + Eye of Ender |
Achievements[edit]
Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Availability | Xbox points earned | Trophy type (PS) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Xbox | PS | Bedrock | Nintendo | ||||||
Enchanter | Use a book, obsidian and diamonds to construct an enchantment table | Pick up an enchantment table from a crafting table output. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 20G | Silver |
Advancements[edit]
Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Internal ID |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Ice Bucket Challenge | Form and mine a block of Obsidian | Hot Stuff | Get a block of obsidian in your inventory. | minecraft:story/form_obsidian |
![]() | Enchanter | Enchant an item at an Enchanting Table | Diamonds! | — | minecraft:story/enchant_item |
Video[edit]
History[edit]
Java Edition Classic | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
October 24, 2009 | Showed obsidian. | ||||
? | ![]() | ||||
Obsidian is extremely tough to break and would drop one or two cobblestone blocks when broken. | |||||
Java Edition Indev | |||||
? | Obsidian has now been removed.[verify] | ||||
Java Edition Infdev | |||||
Infdev | 2010-02-27 | Obsidian has now been restored.[verify] | |||
Obsidian can now be used to mark the positions of the cardinal directions. This creates two intersecting planes extending just above the surface of the solid material that surrounds them. | |||||
2010-03-13 | The two obsidian intersecting planes have now been removed. | ||||
Java Edition Alpha | |||||
v1.2.0 | preview | The nether portal has now been introduced, which is made using obsidian. | |||
Java Edition Beta | |||||
1.8 | Pre-release | Obsidian can now be mined with an iron pickaxe (has since been removed) or moved by endermen. | |||
Java Edition | |||||
1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 | The enchantment table has now been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian. | |||
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 | Obsidian mining time has now been decreased from 15 to 2.5 seconds. | ||||
? | Obsidian mining time has now been increased from 2.5 to 9.4 seconds. | ||||
1.1 | 12w01a | Obsidian can now be found in village chests. | |||
1.3.1 | 12w21a | The ender chest has now been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian. | |||
12w22a | Inventory sprites for blocks have now been flipped from left to right, changing to . | ||||
1.4.2 | 12w36a | The beacon block has now received a crafting recipe, which uses obsidian. | |||
12w38a | The wither's “blue wither skull” projectile has now been introduced, which produces a special explosion that can destroy obsidian. | ||||
1.7.2 | 13w36a | Obsidian can now be destroyed with explosives by summoning a fireball with custom data. | |||
1.8 | 14w25a | “Infiniobsidian” glitch (allowing conversion of redstone into obsidian) has been fixed during the implementation of the new block metadata format. | |||
14w30a | Obsidian can now be found inside chests in nether fortresses. | ||||
1.9 | 15w31a | Obsidian will now generate as part of the end cities. | |||
15w43a | The obsidian yield from nether fortress chests has now been slightly decreased. | ||||
1.11 | 16w39a | Obsidian will now generate in woodland mansions. | |||
July 18, 2017 | ![]() | ||||
July 19, 2017 | ![]() | ||||
July 11, 2018 | ![]() | ||||
1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 49. | |||
18w09a | Obsidian will now generate in some underwater ruins. | ||||
Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
1.14 | 18w43a | ![]() | |||
18w44a | ![]() | ||||
Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
0.1.0 | ![]() | ||||
0.5.0 | Glowing obsidian has been added, which drops a block of regular obsidian when mined. | ||||
The newly added nether reactor structure will generate a “spire” of obsidian when activated. | |||||
0.6.0 | The “spires” generated by nether reactors are now made of netherrack, instead of obsidian. | ||||
0.9.0 | build 1 | Obsidian can now be found in villages within blacksmith chests. | |||
0.12.1 | build 1 | Obsidian can now be used to form nether portals. | |||
Obsidian is now used to craft enchantment tables. | |||||
0.13.0 | build 2 | Obsidian will now require 6.5 seconds to mine, rather than 3. | |||
0.16.0 | build 1 | Obsidian is now used to craft beacons. | |||
Pocket Edition | |||||
1.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Obsidian is now used to craft ender chests. | |||
Obsidian will now generate naturally in the End as obsidian platforms, obsidian pillars and some parts of end ships in end cities. | |||||
1.1 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Obsidian will now generate in woodland mansions. | |||
Bedrock Edition | |||||
1.4 | beta 1.2.20.1 | Obsidian will now generate in some underwater ruins. | |||
Upcoming Bedrock Edition | |||||
1.10 | beta 1.10.0.3 | Obsidian can now be found in village weaponsmith chests. | |||
Legacy Console Edition | |||||
TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | ![]() | |
New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
0.1.0 | Added Obsidian. |
Issues[edit]
Issues relating to "Obsidian" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[edit]
- Obsidian is one of the hardest blocks to destroy in Minecraft. In reality, obsidian is glass-like in texture and quite fragile.
- In real life, obsidian is an extrusive igneous rock like andesite, meaning that they are both formed from lava that has cooled down.
- Destroying an obsidian block with a diamond pickaxe, while underwater, without standing on solid ground would take 3 minutes and 54 seconds (without the pickaxe, it takes 4 minutes and 10 seconds). Either way, the player will run out of air long before the block is mined (unless a potion of water breathing is used).
- It is a common misconception that enough TNT will destroy obsidian. Even though its explosion resistance rating is finite, additional TNT or other explosives will have no more effect on an individual block than only one (it would take 71.25 times the explosive power of TNT to destroy a block of obsidian). It is possible to hack or use
/summon
an explosion strong enough to destroy obsidian, but no such explosion appears naturally.
Gallery[edit]
Old obsidian wall from Infdev.
Obsidian can be used to shield from explosions.