Explosion

"Exploding" redirects here. For the enchantment, see MCD:Exploding.

A TNT explosion.

An explosion is a physical event, generally destructive, that can be caused by several different circumstances. It can destroy nearby blocks, propel and damage nearby players, entities, and their armor, and cause one or more fires under correct circumstances. Explosions produce a "shockwave" particle effect.

Multiple close explosions may propel objects further, but have no cumulative effect on the destruction of a block - for example, no amount of TNT will destroy a block of Obsidian, even if it all explodes at once. This is because explosion damage to blocks is evaluated individually (per explosion), and blocks' blast resistance do not become "weakened" from previous explosions.

The propulsion effect of explosions is often used for TNT cannons, and can also be used to shoot out gravity affected blocks.

Explosion strength

Explosion Type	Power	Creates fire?	Notes
Wither ‌ (half health charge move)	8	No	Breaks any block that is breakable in survival mode (except reinforced deepslate), ignoring blast resistance. Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false.
Wither (when spawned, or when killed‌)	7	No	Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false.
End crystal (when destroyed)	6	No
Charged creeper	6	No	Drops heads or skulls of mobs killed by explosion. Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false.
Beds when used in the Nether, the End or custom dimensions	5	Yes	Uses the death message "(player) was killed by [Intentional Game Design]"‌
Respawn Anchor when used in the Overworld, the End or custom dimensions	5	Yes	Uses the death message "(player) was killed by [Intentional Game Design]"‌
TNT	4	No	Any blocks destroyed by explosion drop their respective items. No effect when in water.
Underwater TNT‌	4	No	Damages terrain, even when underwater.
Creeper	3	No	Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false.
Fireball (ghast projectile)	1	Yes	Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false. Does not damage Cobblestone.
Black wither skull	1	No	Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false.
Dangerous wither skull	1	No	Treats blocks breakable in survival mode as having a blast resistance of no more than 0.8. Does no terrain damage when the mobGriefing game rule is set to false.

Despite doing damage to entities, fireworks do not destroy terrain and as such are not counted as conventional explosions.

Lab tables sometimes perform a non-terrain-damaging explosion when creating garbage item.‌

Comparison of explosion craters, from a charged creeper (left), TNT (center) and regular creeper (right).

Effect

Model of block destruction

The rays from the explosion center to points that are uniformly distributed on the surface of a cube centered at the explosion with an edge length of 2. (However, this defines only their directions, not their length).

The roughly spherical pattern of blocks destroyed can be seen here.

An explosion can destroy nearby blocks. Its blast effect is evaluated independently on many explosion rays originating from the explosion center, as shown in the right figure.

An explosion must be powerful (power ~1542860) to destroy a bedrock block.

1. A cube around the explosion is divided into a 16×16×16 grid, and rays are created from the center to each outer point of this grid, meaning that there are a total of 1352 rays.
2. Each ray is given an intensity, calculated as (0.7 + [a random value from 0 to 0.6]) × [power].
3. For every attenuation step (0.3 blocks along the ray), the intensity of the ray is reduced by 0.225 (0.3×0.75). If the block passed through is anything other than air, it is further reduced by (blast resistance + 0.3) × 0.3.
4. The ray destroys any blocks that could not reduce the ray intensity to zero at any checkpoint.

From the above process, the following results can be deduced (where $\lfloor x \rfloor$ is the floor function):

• The maximum blast radius (assuming no block absorption) is $\left\lfloor 1.3\times\frac{\text{power}}{0.225}\right\rfloor\times 0.3$ = 10.4 (charged creepers), 6.9 (TNT), 5.2 (creepers), 1.7 (fireballs). For example, a TNT explosion can destroy a torch 7 blocks away. However, how many blocks an explosion can destroy is non-deterministic and also dependent on the specific location of the explosion.
• The minimum block resistance required to absorb maximum blast force of an explosion happening in nearby air = $\frac{1.3\times \mathsf{power}-0.75\times \mathsf{attenuation\ steps} \times \mathsf{step\ length}}{\mathsf{step\ length}} - 0.3$. To not be destroyed, a block has to absorb all blast force at the first checkpoint in it.
  • The attenuation steps is subject to collision restrictions. For explosion in air, there is at least one attenuation step. TNT and creeper explosions are always 0.49 and 0.5 blocks away from nearest block (2 attenuation steps), but fireball explosions can happen anywhere (1 attenuation step).
  • Thus, the block resistances are 24.2 (charged creepers), 15.534 (TNT), 11.2 (creepers), 3.284 (fireballs).
  • So water, lava (the stationary block), obsidian, and bedrock are always indestructible, and fences and less blast-resistant blocks can be destroyed by fireballs. These are theoretical values, and in reality less resistant blocks are not always destroyed; there is no such mechanic.

Dropping blocks

Destroyed blocks have a ¹⁄_p chance of dropping as collectible resources, where p is the explosion power. So, blocks destroyed by an (uncharged) creeper's explosion have a ¹⁄₃ chance of dropping. However, dragon eggs, beacons, conduits, heads, shulker boxes and decorated pots always drop from explosions, though the items may be destroyed by subsequent explosions. In addition, in Java Edition, explosions from TNT and minecarts with TNT cause a 100% drop rate; this is not the case in Bedrock Edition.

In Java Edition, the drop chance of blocks in explosions can be customized via three game rules:

• blockExplosionDropDecay controls whether block-based explosions (e.g. a bed explosion) cause only some blocks to drop.
  • It is set to true by default.
  • An end crystal explosion is controlled by this game rule, despite the end crystal being an entity.
• mobExplosionDropDecay controls whether mob-based explosions (e.g. a creeper explosion) cause only some blocks to drop.
  • It is set to true by default.
• tntExplosionDropDecay controls whether TNT explosions cause only some blocks to drop.
  • It is set to false by default.

The precious blocks listed above always drop from explosions, regardless of the values of these game rules.

Interaction with entities

An explosion has different effects on entities than blocks. Entities are damaged and propelled by an explosion if within its damage radius of 2 × power. Note that the "damage radius" is different from the blast radius of explosion effect on blocks.

1. For every entity within a 2×[power] block sphere of the explosion center, the impact is (1-[distance from explosion/damage radius])×[exposure] (see section below on exposure).
2. The entity is damaged by ((impact×impact+impact)×7×power+1) rounded down (armor enchantments for damage are handled separately). This is scaled by difficulty.
3. After damage, exposure is reduced by (exposure×[max Blast Protection from all armor]×0.15).
4. The entity's eyes are propelled along the ray from the explosion center by the new exposure.

From the above process, the following results can be deduced:

• Entities always get at least 1 point of damage if they are within the radius, regardless of their explosion exposure.
• The maximum damage that entities can take (at the explosion center with 100% exposure and normal difficulty) = (1 × 1 + 1) × 7 × power + 1 point of damage = 99, (Wither newly spawned by the player), 85 (charged creepers), 71 (Beds when using in the Nether or in the End), 57 (TNT), 43 (creepers), 15 (fireballs). When entities are away or covered by blocks from the explosion center, they take less damage.
• The maximum velocity gain that an entity can obtain from a single explosion is 1, at the explosion center with 100% exposure.

A primed TNT AABB has directionally asymmetrical sample points (1/2.96 spacing) because of rounding.

Calculation of explosion exposure

1. The entity's bounding box is divided into a [2×width+1] by [2×height+1] by [2×depth+1] grid of unequally spaced points.
2. A ray is drawn from the explosion center to each point.
3. The exposure of the entity is the percentage of these rays that are unobstructed by solid blocks.

The approximation algorithm has sampling error that results in directional asymmetry of propulsion. For example, a typical TNT cannon has maximum range in the west direction partly because the primed TNT has largest sampled exposure in that direction.

Causing fire

If the explosion has the ability, it randomly starts fires in ⅓ of all destroyed air blocks that are above opaque blocks.

Prolonged lag

In addition to the initial lag from processing the explosion, which subsides once the explosion has occurred, there can also be a prolonged fallout from an explosion, that consists of dropped items, liquid physics, and increased render-complexity of the crater. Technically, the dropped items disappear after 5 minutes, however those 5 in-game minutes may take a long time to process during extreme lag.

Certain rules and commands can be used to avoid this prolonged lag: setting the game rule doTileDrops to false, for instance with /gamerule doTileDrops false, prevent dropped items from being generated by explosions. Also, the command /kill @e[type=item] destroys all dropped items.

Blast resistance

"Blast resistance" redirects here. For the enchantment, see Blast Protection.

Not to be confused with Hardness.

The following table shows blast resistance values for blocks as shown in Minecraft's code. In Add-ons for Bedrock Edition, these values are multiplied by 5 when used for the "explosion_resistance" value in the "minecraft:descructible_by_explosion" component.

[edit values]

Block name	Blast resistance
Allow	?
Board	?
Border	?
Deny	?
Poster	?
Slate	?
Barrier	3,600,000.8
Light Block	3,600,000.8
Bedrock	3,600,000
Command Blocks	3,600,000
End Gateway	3,600,000
End Portal	3,600,000
End Portal Frame	3,600,000
Jigsaw Block	3,600,000
Structure Block	3,600,000
Ancient Debris	1,200
Anvil	1,200
Block of Netherite	1,200
Crying Obsidian	1,200
Respawn Anchor	1,200
Enchanting Table	1,200
Obsidian	1,200
Reinforced Deepslate	1,200
Ender Chest	600
Bubble Column	100
Lava	100
Water	100
Dragon Egg	9
End Stone	9
End Stone Bricks	9
End Stone Brick Wall	9
Andesite	6
Blackstone	6
Block of Coal	6
Block of Copper	6
Block of Diamond	6
Block of Emerald	6
Block of Gold	6
Block of Iron	6
Block of Raw Copper	6
Block of Raw Gold	6
Block of Raw Iron	6
Block of Redstone	6
Bricks	6
Brick Stairs	6
Chain	6
Chiseled Deepslate	6
Cobbled Deepslate	6
Cobblestone	6
Cobblestone Stairs	6
Coral Blocks	6
Deepslate	6
Deepslate Bricks	6
Deepslate Tiles	6
Diorite	6
Gilded Blackstone	6
Granite	6
Grindstone	6
Iron Bars	6
Jukebox	6
Lightning Rod	6
Mossy Cobblestone	6
Nether Bricks	6
Nether Brick Fence	6
Nether Brick Stairs	6
Polished Deepslate	6
Prismarine	6
Purpur Block	6
Purpur Pillar	6
Purpur Slab	6
Purpur Stairs	6
Red Nether Bricks	6
Smooth Quartz Block	6
Smooth Quartz Slab	6
Smooth Quartz Stairs	6
Smooth Stone	6
Stone	6
Stone Bricks	6
Stone Brick Stairs	6
Stone Slabs	6
Stone Walls (except End, Sandstone)	6
Tuff	6
Bell	5
Iron Door	5
Iron Trapdoor	5
Monster Spawner	5
Hopper	4.8
Basalt	4.2
Polished Basalt	4.2
Smooth Basalt	4.2
Terracotta	4.2
Cobweb	4
Lodestone	3.5
Blast Furnace	3.5
Dispenser	3.5
Dropper	3.5
Furnace	3.5
Lantern	3.5
Soul Lantern	3.5
Smoker	3.5
Stonecutter	3.5

Block name	Blast resistance
Observer	3
Beacon	3
Block of Lapis Lazuli	3
Coal Ore	3
Cocoa	3
Conduit	3
Copper Ore	3
Deepslate Coal Ore	3
Deepslate Copper Ore	3
Deepslate Diamond Ore	3
Deepslate Emerald Ore	3
Deepslate Gold Ore	3
Deepslate Iron Ore	3
Deepslate Lapis Lazuli Ore	3
Deepslate Redstone Ore	3
Diamond Ore	3
Emerald Ore	3
Gold Ore	3
Iron Ore	3
Lab Table	3
Lapis Lazuli Ore	3
Mud Bricks	3
Nether Quartz Ore	3
Packed Mud	3
Planks	3
Pointed Dripstone	3
Redstone Ore	3
Sculk Catalyst	3
Sculk Shrieker	3
Wooden Fences	3
Wooden Fence Gates	3
Wooden Doors	3
Wooden Slabs	3
Wooden Stairs	3
Wooden Trapdoors	3
Blue Ice	2.8
Barrel	2.5
Cartography Table	2.5
Chest	2.5
Crafting Table	2.5
Dried Kelp Block	2.5
Fletching Table	2.5
Lectern	2.5
Loom	2.5
Smithing Table	2.5
Trapped Chest	2.5
Bone Block	2
Campfire	2
Soul Campfire	2
Cauldron	2
Compound Creator	2
Shulker Box	2
Wood	2
Concrete	1.8
Amethyst Bud	1.5
Amethyst Cluster	1.5
Block of Amethyst	1.5
Bookshelf	1.5
Budding Amethyst	1.5
Sculk Sensor	1.5
Glazed Terracotta	1.4
Bamboo	1
Banners	1
Dripstone Block	1
Jack o'Lantern	1
Heads	1
Nether Wart Block	1
Pumpkin	1
Shroomlight	1
Signs	1
Warped Wart Block	1
Block of Quartz	0.8
Note Block	0.8
Quartz Stairs	0.8
Red Sandstone	0.8
Red Sandstone Stairs	0.8
Sandstone	0.8
Sandstone Stairs	0.8
Sandstone Walls	0.8
Wool	0.8
Calcite	0.75
Infested Blocks	0.75
Activator Rail	0.7
Detector Rail	0.7
Powered Rail	0.7
Rail	0.7
Mangrove Roots	0.7
Muddy Mangrove Roots	0.7
Dirt Path	0.65
Beehive	0.6
Clay	0.6
Composter	0.6
Farmland	0.6
Grass Block	0.6
Gravel	0.6
Honeycomb Block	0.6
Sponge	0.6
Wet Sponge	0.6
Mycelium	0.6

Block name	Blast resistance
Brewing Stand	0.5
Buttons	0.5
Cake	0.5
Coarse Dirt	0.5
Concrete Powder	0.5
Dirt	0.5
Frosted Ice	0.5
Hay Bale	0.5
Ice	0.5
Lever	0.5
Magma Block	0.5
Mud	0.5
Packed Ice	0.5
Piston	0.5
Piston Head	0.5
Podzol	0.5
Pressure Plates	0.5
Rooted Dirt	0.1
Sand	0.5
Soul Sand	0.5
Soul Soil	0.5
Sticky Piston	0.5
Target	0.5
Turtle Egg	0.5
Weighted Pressure Plates	0.5
Cactus	0.4
Chorus Flower	0.4
Chorus Plant	0.4
Ladder	0.4
Netherrack	0.4
Nylium	0.4
Bee Nest	0.3
Froglight	0.3
Glowstone	0.3
Glass	0.3
Glass Pane	0.3
Glowstone	0.3
Redstone Lamp	0.3
Sea Lantern	0.3
Stained Glass	0.3
Stained Glass Panes	0.3
Tinted Glass	0.3
Powder Snow	0.25
Beds	0.2
Daylight Detector	0.2
Glow Lichen	0.2
Leaves	0.2
Mushroom Blocks	0.2
Sculk	0.2
Sculk Vein	0.2
Snow Block	0.2
Vines	0.2
Candle	0.1
Carpets	0.1
Big Dripleaf	0.1
Moss Block	0.1
Moss Carpet	0.1
Snow	0.1
Air	0
Azalea	0
Beetroots	0
Carrots	0
Cave vines	0
Colored Torches	0
Corals	0
Coral Fans	0
Dead Bush	0
Element	0
End Rod	0
Fire	0
Flowers	0
Flower Pot	0
Frogspawn	0
Fungus	0
Grass	0
Hanging Roots	0
Honey Block	0
Kelp	0
Lily Pad	0
Locked chest	0
Melon Stem	0
Moving Piston	0
Mushrooms	0
Nether Portal	0
Nether Sprouts	0
Nether Wart	0
Potatoes	0
Pumpkin Stem	0
Redstone Dust	0
Redstone Comparator	0
Redstone Repeater	0
Redstone Torch	0
Roots	0
Saplings	0
Scaffolding	0
Seagrass	0
Sea Pickle	0
Slime Block	0
Small Dripleaf	0
Soul Fire	0
Spore Blossom	0
Structure Void	0‌
Sugar Cane	0
Sweet Berry Bush	0
TNT	0
Torch	0
Soul Torch	0
Tripwire	0
Tripwire Hook	0
Twisting Vines	0
Underwater Torch	0
Underwater TNT	0
Weeping Vines	0
Wheat	0

Typical damage radius

The player receives damage, if within these radii of a 100% exposure ground 1 block, 2 blocks, or 4 blocks of TNT explosion, with the amount of damage labeled on each circle in the figures below.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Explosion	Blocks	When something explodes	entity.generic.explode	subtitles.entity.generic.explode	4.0	0.56-0.84	16

Bedrock Edition:

History

May 21, 2009					Notch shows interest in adding an explosive block.
Java Edition Classic
0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST					Added creepers.
October 24, 2009					Showed off TNT.
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST					Added TNT.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100122			Explosions are now "better".
		20100125-1			Explosions now lose power when going through stronger materials.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0		preview			Added ghasts, which shoot explosive fireballs.
Java Edition Beta
1.5					Creepers now become charged when struck by lightning, increasing the explosion's radius and strength.
1.6		Test Build 3			When the player tries to sleep in the Nether, they now cause the bed to explode.
1.8		Pre-release			Explosions now emit shockwave particles. Prior to Beta 1.8, explosions emitted only smoke.
Sound Update					The 'Sound Update' on November 11th, 2011 gave TNT a new explosion sound.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Bed and fireball explosions now cause fires.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			When the player tries to sleep in the End, they now cause the bed to explode.
					Enchantment Blast Protection added, which can enhance an armor's resistance against explosions.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			End crystals added, which can be destroyed with a melee or hit with an arrow or snowball, causing an explosion.
1.3.1		12w24a			Fixed the issue of explosions not propelling players.
		12w30a			Explosions now damage the player different amounts on different difficulties. However, no damage is dealt to the player on Peaceful.
1.4.2		12w34a			Added the wither, which shoots black wither skulls.
		12w37a			An emergent wither now make a massive explosion when its health is fully charged.
					Blue wither skulls added.
		12w38b			New creeper fall mechanics have been added. Creepers now explode if they fall on the player from a certain height.
1.5		?			Destroyed blocks now have a 1/power chance of dropping as items; previously it was a fixed 30% chance.
		?			The Nether's biome now controls whether beds explode. As such, superflat worlds with this biome set will have beds explode in the Overworld. It is not known if Overworld biomes in the Nether allow sleeping as a result of this.
1.8.2		pre1			Explosions are now no longer directionally biased.
1.14		19w11a			Destroyed blocks from TNT or minecart with TNT explosions now have a 100% chance of dropping as items.
1.15		pre1			Explosions no longer create smoke particles.
1.16		20w12a			Added respawn anchors, which explode in a similar fashion to a bed, if charged and used in the Overworld and the End dimensions.
		20w18a			The Nether Wastes biome no longer allows for beds to explode in the Overworld.
1.16.2		?			Custom dimensions can specify whether beds and/or respawn anchors explode when used,
1.19.3		22w44a			Added the following game rules: blockExplosionDropDecay mobExplosionDropDecay tntExplosionDropDecay
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0					Added TNT.
v0.2.1					TNT now actually explodes.
v0.4.0					Added creepers.
v0.12.1		?			Creepers now become charged when struck by lightning, increasing the explosion's radius and strength.
					Added ghasts, which shoot explosive fireballs.
					Enchantment Blast Protection added, which can enhance an armor's resistance against explosions.
					When the player tries to sleep in the Nether, they cause beds to explode.
		?			Added explosion particles.
					TNT now uses a new explosion sound.
v0.14.0		?			An invalid mixture of liquids in cauldrons now result in a non-damaging explosion effect.
v0.16.0		build 4			Withers added.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			End crystals added.
					When the player tries to sleep in the End, they now cause the bed to explode.
1.0.7					Explosions no longer deal damage to a player, if the explosion is in water.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.20.1			Creating garbage in Lab Table sometimes cause explosion sound.
					Added Underwater TNT, which can damage terrain underwater.
?					Removed the non-damaging explosion effect from cauldrons, replaced with a hiss and smoke.

Trivia

• Explosions with a power greater than 100 look mostly the same from the outside, as only certain lines are used to determine if a block breaks. However, some of those lines continue underground.
• Explosions that occur in flowing water or lava apply propulsion to entities, but don't affect any blocks, regardless of the blocks' blast resistance.
• Underwater explosions don't emit smoke particles.
• Explosions can redirect projectiles, including ender pearls.
• An explosion just after a mob's death can propel the mob's body.
• If primed TNT explodes in a large, solid cube of stone blocks, it creates an exact 3×3×3 cube inside. Experimentation confirms that a TNT detonation causes a 3×3 hole in a solid block of anything with a blast resistance less than that of water, but more than 2.5 (e.g. crafting tables). This implies that 3×3 is the minimum possible result of a TNT detonation without the blast being resisted altogether.
• If a falling sand entity falls into primed TNT when in water, it deals block damage.
• Every block that has a higher blast resistance than cobwebs can block a ghast's fireball and remain intact.

Gameplay 

View at: Template:Gameplay/content [edit]