How to build obsidian in minecraft

Obsidian is a very hard substance formed when lava meets water. You need it to build a Nether Portal or an enchantment table. It's also useful if you want to build something that's completely creeper-proof!

Mining Obsidian

Obsidian can be mined with a diamond pickaxe. It takes 8 seconds for each block &emdash; much longer than any other substance, but be thankful because in pre-release versions of the game it took 15s!

Finding obsidian

Obsidian is most commonly found deep underground where water meets lava, ofen in the form of a single layer of obsidian on top of a lava lake.

Making obsidian

You can make obsidian by emptying a bucket of wateror diverting a stream so that it flows onto a lava lake.

Mining safely

Because obsidian is often found in a single layer on top of a lava lake, when you mine a block the obsidian will often fall into the lava and be lost. Often the player falls in after it and dies.

To prevent this, pour a bucket of water so that it flows over the surface of the obsidian you are mining. When you mine the block, the lava below will instantly be turned to obsidian, saving both the player and the mined obsidian. Yay!

Safely mine obsidian by having a flow of water over the surface.

Another approach for tidier mining. Obsidian blocks adjacent to the placed water can be mined safely.

Forming Obsidian structures in place

Because obsidian is formed when you pour water over lava, it is possible to build obsidian structures by placing buckets of lava in the position you want the obsidian, then pouring water over. This is useful if you want to build with obsidian, but don't have any diamonds to make a diamond pickaxe. A Nether Portal could be constructed with 10 buckets of lava and 1 bucket of water.

A sneaky way to turn Redstone into Obsidian

There is a way to turn as much redstone as you want into obsidian, using only one bucket of lava. It seems to be an unintended feature of the game, and as such may be removed. But for now it works.

Dig a 2x4 hole, and remove a block from the bottom in one corner.

Place a bucket of water so that it flows into the hole as shown (water was placed in top right).

Place redstone dust next to the water.

Build a "U"-shape of stone or dirt with the open part above the redstone.

Place a bucket of lava at the closed end of the "U"

The redstone under the lava will turn to obsidian.

The lava will spread 4 blocks, converting all the redstone to lava.

Pick up the lava with your bucket, and mine out your obsidian with a diamond pickaxe. (You might need to use sand or dirt to mop up some remaining lava). Put down more redstone and repeat!

If you are sufficiently ingenious, you could go through this process to generate obsidian blocks in the place you want them, so you don't need to mine the obsidian with a diamonnd pickaxe.

For instance, to use this technique to build a Nether Portal, follow the steps above and then:

Raise the level of the water stream by 1 block, and lay 2 pieces of redstone dust and 2 blocks of dirt on top of your existing obsidian.

Build the "U"-shape over the water again (I'm using dirt this time).

Place the lava at the end of the "U" as before; this time you will make 2 obsidian blocks with dirt between them.

Repeat this process 2 more times.

Finally, place 4 pieces of redstone dust to make the top layer and convert to obsidian.

Dig away all the excess dirt and stone you used in the creation process.

Behold your new portal!

Dig a 2x4 hole, and remove a block from the bottom in one corner.

Obsidian is a handy block for protecting your base and crafting various blocks. Obsidian not only takes several seconds to break with a diamond or netherite pickaxe, but it also has a very blast resistance. Additionally, you can use it to craft blocks such as respawn anchors and beacons or make a portal to travel to the Nether. This guide will teach you how to make Obsidian in Minecraft Bedrock and Java Editions.

How to Make Obsidian in Minecraft

To make obsidian, you need water and lava. The easiest way to accomplish this is by finding a pool of lava in the overworld or underground caves. Alternatively, if you already have access to a Nether portal, you can take empty buckets and fill them up with lava. If you use buckets of water on the lava, it will not work. Instead, the water will not appear at all, and you will lose your water.

Once you have your lava, place it on the ground beside a water source to turn it into obsidian. The lava must not be flowing, or it will turn into cobblestone instead of obsidian. Likewise, using flowing lava on a pool of water will turn it to stone instead. Once you have made your obsidian, you can use a diamond or netherite pickaxe to mine it. The obsidian block will not drop once it breaks if you use any other pickaxe.

Related: Minecraft: How to Get Grass Blocks

If you have difficulty finding pools of lava or water, you may also search for ruined portals. They naturally generate in the overworld and the Nether. Ruined portals spawn with regular and crying obsidian that you can mine or use to make a new portal. These portals also spawn other useful blocks, such as blocks of gold and bonus chests. If you also have trouble finding ruined portals, you can mine the large obsidian pillars in the End dimension.

Minecraft is available on PC, Android, iOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation platforms.

For other uses, see Obsidian (disambiguation).

Obsidian is a block found in all dimensions or created when water flows over a lava source. It has high durability and blast resistance rendering it immune to normal explosions. Obsidian is used for crafting and to make the frame for a nether portal.

Obtaining[]

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

1. ↑ 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.

8 obsidian are dropped by an ender chest when broken without Silk Touch.

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

Natural generation[]

Naturally occurring obsidian.

Water pouring onto lava springs, forming obsidian.

Obsidian generates naturally in all dimensions:

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.

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

When a player enters the End, it will always spawn on a platform of 25 obsidian blocks. 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 touches 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[]

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.

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[]

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:

1. ↑ ID of block's direct item form, which is used in savegame files and addons.
2. ↑ Available with /give command.
3. ↑ The block's direct item form has the same id with the block.

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 Enchantment 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 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 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.
?	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 (~8.84%) 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.
1.16.2	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 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	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.
• 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[]

See also[]

• Obsidian wall
• Crying Obsidian
• Glowing Obsidian
• Nether Portal

External links[]