Obsidian

Obsidian is a block found naturally in all dimensions, and created when water flows over a lava source. It has high hardness and blast resistance, rendering it immune to normal explosions. Obsidian is used for crafting and to make the frame for a nether portal. It can only be obtained by mining it with a diamond pickaxe or better.

Obtaining[]

Breaking[]

Obsidian drops itself only when mined with a diamond or netherite pickaxe; otherwise, it drops nothing.

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.

8 obsidian are dropped by an ender chest when broken with a pickaxe not enchanted with Silk Touch.

Natural generation[]

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.
  • A single obsidian block generates in some types of ocean ruin buildings.
• 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.
  • 26 blocks of obsidian generate as a part of the end ship in an end city.

Post-generation[]

Obsidian is formed when flowing water touches a lava source block, and it can be found naturally where water from a spring or aquifer has flowed over a nearby lava pool. This provides a renewable way of obtaining obsidian, as lava can be farmed via cauldrons under pointed dripstone.

Obsidian is created when a nether portal is generated in the Nether or the Overworld. This portal can then be mined, providing another way of obtaining obsidian renewably.

In Java Edition, if the nether portal generated floating in the air, then 4 extra obsidian are created at the bottom of the portal.

When an entity enters the End via an end portal, it always spawns on a platform of 25 obsidian blocks. This platform can then be mined, and regenerates whenever an entity enters the End, which provides another way of obtaining obsidian renewably. Obsidian pillars also regenerate when the ender dragon respawns.

Chest loot[]

Bartering[]

Piglins may barter a block of 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, 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.

Obsidian is, however, not immune to the wither. Although black wither skulls has merely the explosive power of a ghast fireball, blue wither skulls ignore blast resistance, which means they can destroy obsidian. The wither's body can also destroy obsidian, either through block-breaking behavior upon taking damage, or its dash attack‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}. The wither is the only mob in the game that can break obsidian.

Obsidian is one of the two blocks an end crystal can be placed on; the other is bedrock.

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[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Achievements[]

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					Added obsidian.
					Obsidian is extremely tough to break and drops one cobblestone block when broken.
Java Edition Infdev
20100227					Added the obsidian wall, which marks the X and Z axes, intersecting at 0,0. This creates two intersecting planes extending just above the surface of the solid material that surrounds them.
20100313					The obsidian wall has been removed.
20100617-2					Obsidian is now created when water touches a lava source.
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, which also makes obsidian renewable.
					However, since diamond pickaxes are not yet renewable, obsidian cannot be fully renewably obtained.
Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Obsidian can be moved by endermen.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Obsidian can no longer be moved by endermen.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			The enchantment table has been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Introduced the End, with obsidian platform and obsidian pillars.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6			Obsidian mining time has been decreased from 15 to 2.5 seconds.
		RC1			Obsidian mining time has been increased from 2.5 to 9.4 seconds.
1.1		12w01a			Obsidian can now be found in village blacksmith chests.
1.3.1		12w21a			The ender chest has been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian.
					As diamond pickaxes can now be purchased from blacksmith villagers, obsidian is now renewable.
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 (MC-4239, 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					Jeb tweets an image of an updated obsidian texture.
July 19, 2017					Jeb tweets an image of an updated obsidian texture.
July 11, 2018					Jasper Boerstra tweets an image of an updated obsidian texture.
?					This texture of obsidian was shown at some point (not in game).
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			The texture of obsidian has been changed.
		18w44a			The texture of obsidian has been changed, once again.
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 (~8.85%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1–5.
		20w10a			Obsidian now has a 40⁄411 (~9.73%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1.
		20w11a			Obsidian now has a 40⁄417 (~9.59%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1.
		20w13a			Obsidian now has a 40⁄424 (~9.43%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1.
		20w16a			Obsidian now generates in bastion remnants chests.
					Obsidian can now spawn as part of ruined portals or be found in its chests.
		20w20a			Obsidian now has a 40⁄423 (~9.46%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1.
1.16.2		20w28a			Obsidian now has a 40⁄459 (~8.71%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1.
		20w30a			The chance of finding obsidian in bastion remnant chests has been decreased from 31.5% to 24.4%.
Pocket Edition Alpha
Pre-release					Added obsidian.
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			The texture of obsidian has been changed.
					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 9.6 seconds instead of 6.2 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	Added obsidian.
		1.90			The texture of obsidian has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added obsidian.

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 has characteristics similar to glass, being a brittle material.
• Geologically, obsidian is a volcanic glass that forms when lava is flash-cooled. It is the only igneous rock that's glassy.
  • Other volcanic rocks in the game are andesite, basalt, and tuff.
• 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 /summon an explosion strong enough to destroy obsidian.

Gallery[]

• 

  Naturally generated obsidian as found in a snowy biome.

• 

  More naturally generated obsidian pillars as seen in the End.

• 

  Obsidian as used to shield from explosions.

Java Edition[]

• 

  The first released screenshot of the End, featuring obsidian in obsidian pillars.

• 

  The brightened version of the first image featuring obsidian.

• 

  A naturally generated obsidian wall from Infdev.

Bedrock Edition[]

• 

  A comparison between glowing obsidian (left), crying obsidian (middle), and regular obsidian (right).

See also[]

• Obsidian wall
• Crying Obsidian
• Glowing Obsidian
• Nether portal

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