Obsidian is a dark purple block known for its high blast resistance and strength, most commonly found when water flows over lava. Among other things, obsidian is used to construct Nether portal frames and enchanting tables.
Obtaining
Obsidian drops itself only when mined with a diamond pickaxe or netherite pickaxe; otherwise, it drops nothing.
| Block | Obsidian | |
|---|---|---|
| Hardness | 50 | |
| Tool | ||
| Breaking time[A] | ||
| Default | 250 | |
| Wooden | 125 | |
| Stone | 62.5 | |
| Iron | 41.7 | |
| Diamond | 9.4 | |
| Netherite | 8.35 | |
| Golden | 20.85 | |
- ↑ Times are for unenchanted tools as wielded by players with no status effects, measured in seconds. For more information, see Breaking § Speed.
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.
Also, 8 obsidian are dropped by an ender chest when broken without Silk Touch.
Natural generation
Naturally occurring obsidian.
Water pouring onto lava springs, forming obsidian.
Obsidian generates naturally in all dimensions:
- Overworld:
- Obsidian generates in woodland mansions with a diamond block concealed by it. These are found in the secret "obsidian room" and "lava room", on the 2nd or 3rd floors.
- Obsidian generates as part of ruined portals.
- Obsidian generates in sufficiently deep ravines and caves where water meets lava source blocks.
- The Nether: Obsidian generates as part of ruined portals.
- The End:
- Solid obsidian pillars can be found on the End's main island, generating all the way down to Y=0.
- Obsidian also generates as a part of the end ship in end cities.
Post-generation
Obsidian is 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 gets regenerated when an entity (only in pre-1.9/1.16) enters the End, which provides another way of obtaining Obsidian renewably. Obsidian pillars also regenerate when the ender dragon respawns.
Using a water spring to mine obsidian.
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.
Chest loot
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Obsidian | Bastion remnant | Generic chest | 4–6 | 24.4% |
| Nether fortress | Chest | 2–4 | 8% | |
| Ruined portal | Chest | 1–2 | 46.4% | |
| Village | Weaponsmith's chest | 3–7 | 25.6% | |
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Obsidian | Bastion remnant | Generic chest | 4–6 | 24.4% |
| Nether fortress | Chest | 2–4 | 8% | |
| Ruined portal | Chest | 1–2 | 46.4% | |
| Village | Weaponsmith's chest | 3–7 | 25.6% | |
Bartering
Piglins may barter 1 obsidian when given a gold ingot with a chance of 8.71%.
Usage
Obsidian is useful for building explosion resistant structures as it has, along with anvils and netherite blocks, a blast resistance of 1,200; the highest of all blocks obtainable in survival mode (together with crying obsidian and block of netherite). Obsidian also cannot be destroyed by the ender dragon. However, when being trapped in an obsidian cage in the overworld, ender dragons can traverse obsidian blocks without destroying them.
These qualities make obsidian an extremely effective defensive block, and it is commonly used in many bases in multiplayer servers as protection from griefers.
End crystals can be placed on top of obsidian, which can be useful in PvP combat, or just as decoration.
Nether portals
Obsidian is used to create a nether portal frame, which is then ignited using fire. The frame must be a vertical rectangle any size from 4×5 to 23×23. The corners of the frame are not required for an operational portal.
Crafting ingredient
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Beacon | Glass + Nether Star + Obsidian |
|
| Enchanting Table | Book + Diamond + Obsidian |
|
| Ender Chest | Obsidian + Eye of Ender |
Note Blocks
Obsidian can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass drum" sounds.
Piston interactivity
Obsidian cannot be pushed by pistons. It also cannot be pushed nor pulled by sticky pistons.
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 | dig | 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 | 0.37 | 0.5 | |
| 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 | Block tags (JE) | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian | obsidian | Block & Item | dragon_immune mineable/pickaxe[upcoming: JE 1.17] needs_diamond_tool[upcoming: JE 1.17] | block.minecraft.obsidian |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian | obsidian | 49 | Block & Giveable Item[i 1] | tile.obsidian.name |
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Into The Nether | Construct a Nether Portal. | Light a nether portal. | 30G | Bronze | ||
| Enchanter | Construct an Enchantment Table. | Pick up an enchantment table from a crafting table output. | 20G | Bronze | ||
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Ice Bucket Challenge | Obtain a block of Obsidian | Hot Stuff | Have a block of obsidian in your inventory. | story/form_obsidian
|
![]() | We Need to Go Deeper | Build, light and enter a Nether Portal | Ice Bucket Challenge | Enter the Nether dimension. | story/enter_the_nether
|
![]() | Enchanter | Enchant an item at an Enchanting Table | Diamonds! | Insert an item in an enchanting table, then apply an enchantment. | story/enchant_item
|
History
| Java Edition Classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.28 | |||||
| Obsidian is extremely tough to break and drops one cobblestone block when broken. | |||||
| Java Edition Infdev | |||||
| 20100227 | 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. | ||||
| 20100313 | The two obsidian intersecting planes have been removed. | ||||
| 20100618 | Obsidian now drops itself when broken. | ||||
| Obsidian's explosion resistance increased. Before this, obsidian had the same blast resistance as stone. | |||||
| Java Edition Alpha | |||||
| v1.0.14 | Obsidian made indestructible to TNT. | ||||
| v1.2.0 | preview | Introduced the nether portal, made using obsidian. | |||
| Java Edition Beta | |||||
| 1.8 | Pre-release | Obsidian can now be mined with an iron pickaxe (has since been removed[when?]) or moved by endermen. | |||
| Unknown | |||||
| ? | Obsidian can no longer be mined by an iron pickaxe. | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 | The enchantment table has been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian. | |||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 | Obsidian mining time has been decreased from 15 to 2.5 seconds. | ||||
| ? | Obsidian mining time has 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 been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian. | |||
| 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 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 | An infinite obsidian 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 now generates as part of the end cities. | |||
| 15w43a | The obsidian yield from nether fortress chests has been slightly decreased. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w39a | Obsidian now generates 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 now generates in some underwater ruins. | ||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| 18w44a | |||||
| 1.16 | 20w07a | Obsidian has a 1⁄109 (~0.92%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1. | |||
| 20w09a | Obsidian now has a 10⁄113 (~8.84%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1–5. | ||||
| 20w16a | Obsidian now generates in bastion remnants chests. | ||||
| Obsidian can now spawn as part of ruined portals or be found in its chests. | |||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| Pre-release | |||||
| v0.5.0 | Glowing obsidian has been added, which drops a block of regular obsidian when mined. | ||||
| The newly added nether reactor structure generates a "spire" of obsidian when activated. | |||||
| v0.6.0 | The "spires" generated by nether reactors are now made of netherrack, instead of obsidian. | ||||
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Obsidian can now be found in villages within blacksmith chests. | |||
| v0.12.1 | build 1 | Obsidian can now be used to form nether portals. | |||
| Obsidian is now used to craft enchantment tables. | |||||
| v0.13.0 | build 2 | Obsidian now requires 6.5 seconds to mine, rather than 3. | |||
| v0.16.0 | build 4 | Obsidian is now used to craft beacons. | |||
| The wither's "blue wither skull" projectile has been introduced, which produces a special explosion that can destroy obsidian. | |||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Obsidian is now used to craft ender chests and end crystals. | |||
| Obsidian now generates naturally in the End as obsidian platforms, obsidian pillars and some parts of end ships in end cities. | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Obsidian now generates in woodland mansions. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.20.1 | Obsidian now generates in some underwater ruins. | |||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||
| Obsidian can now be found in village weaponsmith chests. | |||||
| 1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.51 | Obsidian can now be obtained from bartering. | |||
| ? | Obsidian breaking time is now 6.2 seconds instead of 9.6 seconds. | ||||
| beta 1.16.0.57 | Obsidian now has a 10⁄106 (9.43%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1. | ||||
| Obsidian now be found in bastion remnants chests. | |||||
| Obsidian can now generate as part of ruined portals and can be found in its chests. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | |
| 1.90 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Obsidian" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- Obsidian is one of the hardest blocks to destroy in Minecraft. In reality, obsidian is glass-like in texture and quite fragile.
- Geologically, obsidian is a volcanic glass that forms when lava is flash-cooled. It's the only igneous rock that's glassy.
- Destroying an obsidian block with a diamond pickaxe, while underwater, without standing on solid ground would take 3 minutes and 54 seconds.
- 71.25 times the explosive power of TNT would be required to destroy a block of obsidian; however, additional TNT increases the blast radius, not explosive power. It is possible to
/summonan explosion strong enough to destroy obsidian. - The blue wither skull has the ability to destroy obsidian as a special feature; its explosion is otherwise no stronger than a ghast's fireball.
Gallery
Obsidian as used to shield from explosions.
Java Edition
A naturally generated obsidian wall from Infdev.
Bedrock Edition
A comparison between glowing obsidian (left), crying obsidian (middle), and regular obsidian (right).
See also
External links
- "Block of the Week: Obsidian" by Alex Wiltshire. Minecraft.net, January 27, 2017
- Jasper Boerstra's tweet on the difficulties of giving Minecraft obsidian a proper texture







