Glowstone is a light-emitting block that occurs in branching structures, found hanging from ceilings and overhangs in the Nether.
Obtaining[]
Natural generation[]
A naturally occurring blob of glowstone in the underside of netherrack.
Glowstone occurs naturally only in the Nether, where it generates in crystalline blobs on the underside of ceilings or overhangs. They can be found in every Nether biome, although they are significantly rarer in soul sand valleys,[1] because the ceiling of this biome is made of soul sand or soul soil below which glowstone blobs cannot generate; they can still occasionally generate in caves and canyons in this biome,[2] because the ceiling is made of netherrack.
Glowstone can also generate as a part of hoglin stable bastion remnants.
Breaking[]
If glowstone is broken using a tool with Silk Touch, the block drops itself. 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. When a glowstone block is broken using any other tool, it drops 2–4 glowstone dust.
| Block | Glowstone | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 0.3 | |
| Breaking time (secs) | ||
| Default | 0.45 | |
Chest loot[]
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Glowstone | Bastion remnant | Hoglin stable chest | 3–6 | 22.8% |
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Glowstone | Bastion remnant | Hoglin stable chest | 3–6 | 22.8% |
Crafting[]
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Glowstone Dust |
Trading and drops[]
Although glowstone can only be found in block form in the Nether, all renewable ways of obtaining glowstone are accessed through the Overworld.
Journeyman-level cleric villagers sell glowstone for four emeralds.
Wandering traders sell glowstone for two emeralds.
Witches may drop glowstone dust, which can be crafted into glowstone.
Usage[]
Analyzing glowstone in a material reducer, it turns out to be a 1:1:1:1:1 mixture of Argon, Neon and Krypton noble gases, Boron and an unknown element.[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]
Light 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 lanterns, sea lanterns, jack o'lanterns, redstone lamps, conduits, beacons, shroomlights, and froglights.
Redstone circuits[]
When placing redstone dust 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, does 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.
Piston interactivity[]
Glowstone, like other pushable blocks, becomes a block of moving piston when moved by a piston; this momentarily stops it from giving off light.[3]
Crafting ingredient[]
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Redstone Lamp | Redstone Dust + Glowstone |
|
| Respawn Anchor | Crying Obsidian + Glowstone |
Note blocks[]
Glowstone can be placed under note blocks to produce pling sounds.
Respawn anchors[]
Glowstone is used to charge respawn anchors.
If a dispenser containing glowstone is facing a respawn anchor, it can automatically charge the respawn anchor when powered.
Transparent block[]
Mobs, in this case blazes, are able to choose glowstone blocks as their pathfinding target, as if they are normal solid blocks.
Glowstone blocks all sunlight, players and mobs suffocate inside it, mobs are able to pathfind to it, and it blocks a beacon beam, preventing the beacon's activation. However, like transparent blocks, it does not prevent the opening of chests, monsters (including slimes) cannot spawn on it, and it does not transfer a redstone signal. This behavior also occurs in sea lanterns.
Sounds[]
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block broken | Blocks | Once the block has broken | block | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 | 16 | |
| Block placed | Blocks | When the block is placed | block | subtitles | 1.0 | 0.8 | 16 | |
| Block breaking | Blocks | While the block is in the process of being broken | block | subtitles | 0.25 | 0.5 | 16 | |
| None[sound 1] | Entity-Dependent | Falling on the block with fall damage | block | None[sound 1] | 0.5 | 0.75 | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Entity-Dependent | Walking on the block | block | subtitles | 0.15 | 1.0 | 16 |
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blocks | Once the block has broken | random | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Blocks | When the block is placed | dig | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Blocks | While the block is in the process of being broken | hit | 0.4 | 0.6 | |
| Players | Falling on the block with fall damage | fall | 0.4 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Walking on the block | step | 0.3 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Jumping from the block | jump | 0.12 | 1.0 | |
| Players | Falling on the block without fall damage | land | 0.22 | 1.0 |
Data values[]
ID[]
| Name | Identifier | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glowstone | glowstone | Block & Item | block.minecraft.glowstone |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Item ID[i 1] | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glowstone | glowstone | 89 | Block & Giveable Item[i 2] | Identical[i 3] | tile.glowstone.name |
Advancements[]
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Not Quite "Nine" Lives | Charge a Respawn Anchor to the maximum | Who is Cutting Onions? | — | nether/charge_respawn_anchor
|
History[]
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.2.0 | preview |  Added glowstone.
| |||||||
| Glowstone is shown to drop itself when mined. | |||||||||
| release | The crafting recipe for glowstone is 3×3 glowstone dust.
| ||||||||
| The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone is 1. | |||||||||
| The material type of glowstone is currently "glass". | |||||||||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||||||
| 1.6.6 | The crafting recipe of glowstone has changed to 2×2 glowstone dust. | ||||||||
| The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone has increased to 2–4. | |||||||||
| The material type of glowstone has changed to "stone", meaning a pickaxe is now needed to drop items, and block dependent blocks can now be placed on the block. | |||||||||
| Java Edition | |||||||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5 |  The texture of glowstone has changed, removing the border on the outside. | |||||||
| RC1 | The material type of glowstone has changed once again to "glass". | ||||||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w06a | Redstone can now be placed on glowstone. Redstone wire can now transmit only upward through it. | |||||||
| 12w07a | Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps. | ||||||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w21a | Priest villagers now sell 2–3 glowstone for 1 emerald, making glowstone renewable. | |||||||
| 1.5 | 13w02a | In texture packs, glowstone now use /textures/blocks/lightgem.png. | |||||||
| 1.7.2 | 13w41a | Glowstone can typically no longer be used to see through blocks. | |||||||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Trading has changed: cleric villagers now sell 1–3 glowstone for 1 emerald. | |||||||
| 14w05b | Mobs now suffocate inside of glowstone. | ||||||||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 89. | |||||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a |  The texture of glowstone has changed. | |||||||
| 18w47a |  The texture of glowstone has changed, once again. | ||||||||
| 19w05a | Added wandering traders, which sell glowstone. | ||||||||
| 19w09a | Glowstone now makes a "pling" sound when placed under a note block. | ||||||||
| 1.16 | 20w12a | Glowstone is now used to craft and power up respawn anchors. | |||||||
| 20w13a | Dispensers can now charge respawn anchors with glowstone. | ||||||||
| 20w16a | Glowstone now generates in bastion remnants chests. | ||||||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||||||
| v0.5.0 | Added glowstone. | ||||||||
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Smooth lighting has removed from glowstone. | |||||||
| v0.12.1 | build 1 | Glowstone can now be obtained by breaking it using the Silk Touch enchantment. | |||||||
| v0.13.0 | build 1 | Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps. | |||||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||||||
| 1.0.4 | alpha 1.0.4.0 | Glowstone is now sold by cleric villagers. | |||||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | Glowstone is now sold by the new wandering trader. | |||||||
| The texture of glowstone has changed. | |||||||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.4 | Trading has changed, cleric villagers no longer sell glowstone. | |||||||
| 1.13.0 | beta 1.13.0.9 | Glowstone now causes a note block to make a "pling" sound when placed under it. | |||||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added glowstone. | ||||
| 1.90 | The texture of glowstone has changed. | ||||||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||||||
| 0.1.0 | Added glowstone. | ||||||||
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Glowstone" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- Rarely, glowstone can be found touching the ground if the ceiling it was generated on was extremely low (2–3 blocks of clearance).
Gallery[]
The melting pattern of glowstone.
Purchasing glowstone from a cleric villager.
A diode made using glowstone.
An example of the glowstone redstone results.
A small glowstone blob.
A large glowstone blob.
References[]
- ↑ MC-171520 — "Glowstone clusters cannot generate in Soul Sand Valley biomes" — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-192936 — "Glowstone clusters generate on netherrack in Soul Sand Valley" — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-123217 — Moving blocks don't inherit behaviors of the block they hold
External Links[]
- Block of the Week: Glowstone – Minecraft.net on April 20, 2018