Obsidian



Obsidian is a deep purple and black block. Obsidian may be found naturally on rare occasions, when there is flowing water and source lava blocks nearby. Obsidian is formed when flowing water hits a lava source block. When water and runoff lava collide, cobblestone is created. In the Overworld, Obsidian never actually spawns with the chunk, but is created by the environment. In The End, solid pillars of obsidian can be found on the surface as well as in the obsidian platform. Obsidian can only be successfully mined with a diamond pickaxe or using a wither explosion. Obsidian can be used for not only building blocks, but also as a decor for things like pillars, arches, Nether Portals and more.

Each obsidian block takes 9.4 seconds to mine (around 15 seconds on the Xbox 360 Edition) when using a diamond pickaxe, taking 76 consecutive strikes, otherwise, it takes 4 minutes and 10 seconds to break it.

Obsidian found naturally is somewhat rare and difficult to mine since it usually rests on top of a Lava block. Obsidian farming is thus the preferred way to acquire large quantities. A basic Obsidian farm is composed of a trough seven blocks long into which seven blocks of Lava are poured using a Bucket. A water block is then placed on top of one end of the trough so that it flows onto the lava and converts it into Obsidian. Another way to get obsidian without having to get a bucket of lava each time, is to convert redstone dust into obsidian.

As of the Halloween Update, Obsidian can be used to create portals to The Nether. This requires 10 to 14 blocks of Obsidian and a Flint and Steel or Fire Charge. The portal must be four blocks wide and five blocks tall (with 10 blocks, it would be the same dimensions, only with no corner blocks).

Usage

 * Igniting the interior of a 4x5 vertical rectangle made of Obsidian will create a Nether Portal.
 * Obsidian is often used as a griefing block due to its long mining time and contrasting appearance against most other blocks.
 * On the opposite end, it is a good material to make a home or other structure out of if you want your building protected on a multiplayer server. This will deter most griefers since obsidian takes a while to mine with a diamond pickaxe, and will take even longer without it.
 * Obsidian can be used to build explosion resistant shelters. At 6,000, Obsidian's explosion resistance rating is second only to Bedrock, End Portal Frame, and End Portal, with the same resistance as an Enchantment Table, and twice that of an Ender Chest. It is therefore an exceptionally desirable construction material for making defensive structures, in both SSP or SMP, as it is effectively impervious to Lava, explosions, and Ender Dragons.
 * Building and testing of structures used to set off explosives, such as a TNT cannon, or an explosive defense.
 * In Beta 1.8.1, Endermen could still pick up and move Obsidian, allowing them to create holes in defenses made of Obsidian. This is no longer the case in version 1.0.0.
 * Obsidian is used to craft Enchantment Tables.
 * As of 12w21a, Obsidian has another use for crafting; it can be crafted with an Eye of Ender to make an Ender chest, and as of 12w36a, it can also be crafted with Glass and a Nether Star to make the Beacon block.
 * As of 12w37a, The Wither's "Blue Wither Skull" projectile was introduced, producing a special explosion which can destroy obsidian.

Natural mining
This generally starts out with a naturally-generated case of water-over-lava, producing an obsidian layer which often has more lava beneath it. This makes for unsafe mining, but use of water buckets can make things much safer.

Mining with Water Buckets
The simplest way is to place a water source over the obsidian, and mine through the water. When you break through into lava, the water will quench the lava (producing obsidian or cobblestone) so quickly that it won't even have time to burn your newly-mined obsidian. Once you've mined the first block, you can move your water block into the hole to continue with the next strategy.

Alternatively, look for the edge of the obsidian "lake", and dig a one block deep hole under which there is no lava. Place the water source in this hole, and mine outward from there. The player can continue mining outward from the spring as far as the water will travel, after which they can move the water. This lets you stand on solid blocks rather than in running water.



Shelf mining
A bit more dangerous technique but one that works equally well and probably somewhat faster than the above when you have some practice is simply to use your water bucket as you work. You most likely have noticed that if you act quickly or even if you don't, you can place a block directly next to the source cutting it off. This works in your favor as water buckets can do this too, just place them directly next to the source, you can even override lava if it's already in the block.

If you find a lava pool that is more than 1 deep, simply start on the top in a shelf pattern, making sure to work the upper levels first moving down to the bottom. If you stand directly up against the block without moving while mining, you will collect the block before it burns if there is lava below at least 95% of the time, though it occasionally does burn up.

If a lava block is below the obsidian you just mined, then quickly use the water bucket against the face of the block above it and then just as quickly scoop it back up. With practice you will end up only causing the block below to turn to obsidian and just continue mining.

When working a very large and deep lava pool you may not want to go one block at a time as it will slow you down. Try to keep your shelf going in as long a line as possible and once you expose a line of lava and are ready to move down, just drop water on that level of the shelf and then move down, in this manner you will have a long line of obsidian all waiting to be mined and easily contained.

As a final reminder: make sure to have an infinite source nearby as you will occasionally place the water incorrectly and be unable to scoop it back up. It's also preferable to have a backup bucket in case you panic and place the water incorrectly and find yourself in lava.

Farming and Casting
There are several ways to produce obsidian, fully described in this tutorial. To summarize: The classic way is to pour water over lava source blocks, which can also be used to "cast" structures in place. The "Infiniobsidian" glitch allows converting redstone dust into obsidian -- lava is used as a catalyst, but is not consumed. And Nether Portals can be used to create obsidian renewably, 14 blocks or so at a time. (So can an End Portal, for that matter.)

History


Obsidian was available for use since Classic mode. It is generally used for making dark things, or the black lines of Pixel Art.

In Survival Test mode, Obsidian was extremely tough to break and would drop one or two Cobblestone blocks when broken.

Obsidian was removed in Indev and brought back in Infdev. Obsidian was used to mark the positions of the cardinal directions. This created two intersecting planes extending just above the surface of the solid material that surrounds them. This has since been removed. Obsidian is now currently used for defense (in shelters) and for building materials. Obsidian can be made by placing Water on top of stationary (i.e. non-flowing) Lava

In Pre-release 6, Obsidian broke much faster, taking about 2.5 seconds to be successfully mined. In Beta 1.8.1, a block of obsidian could be mined with an iron pickaxe, but this ability was removed.

Trivia

 * Notch once planned to make floating masses of land require Obsidian veins to stay afloat. However, he later stated on Twitter that he didn't like the idea anymore, so it's unlikely that this will be implemented.
 * Even though Obsidian is the second hardest block to destroy in Minecraft, in reality obsidian is glasslike in texture and fragility (it is black or blackish in color).
 * The misconception of obsidian's hardness may be due to its use during the Stone Age in blades and arrow tips -- while fragile, it can be chipped into extremely sharp edges.
 * Its main component is quartz (SiO2); however it has no crystal structure. It is made when lava cools quickly (usually in water). Unlike in this game, in the real world, obsidian (being an extrusive igneous rock) is often found above ground.
 * Obsidian portals created by the game always have corner blocks, so you can make portals without corner blocks to get four free blocks of obsidian once you enter the Nether. If an exit portal is floating in midair, the game will add two blocks of obsidian to each side along the bottom row, increasing the free obsidian from a new portal to eight.
 * Destroying an underwater obsidian block off the ground with a diamond pickaxe takes 3 minutes and 54 seconds. Without it, it takes 4 minutes and 10 seconds, like normal. This is impossible, because the player will run out of air long before.
 * 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 the first.
 * Obsidian, unlike most other blocks, cannot be moved by Pistons (normal or sticky).
 * Obsidian is one of the three blocks that cannot be broken by Ender Dragons. The other blocks are End Stone and Bedrock.
 * Obsidian is one of only three solid blocks that can appear naturally in more than one dimension, the others being Bedrock and Gravel. It is also the only block found naturally in all three dimensions.
 * If you switch your language setting to Pirate English, it will name the obsidian block: "Rock o' Tears", referring to the Crying Obsidian.
 * Obsidian can be found in groups of 3-7 in chests in NPC Villages.
 * Here is how the number of seconds works: Obsidian takes 75 seconds to mine. However, the diamond pickaxe makes it 8 times faster. Without a diamond pickaxe, mining takes 3 1/3 times longer, which is 4 minutes and 10 seconds. (See Digging)
 * Obsidian can commonly be found on layer 10, where environmental water flows onto natural lava lakes.
 * It takes 285 times the explosive power of a single block of TNT to destroy a block of obsidian.
 * Although obsidian is very useful for bomb-shelters, as of 12w36a, Withers can break through obsidian.