Usually, you must make a Diamond Pickaxe before you can get Obsidian in Minecraft. However, you can bypass the need for a Diamond Pickaxe by using lava and water to make Obsidian. All you need is a Bucket.
What You Need to Make Obsidian
Firstly, you will need a Bucket–ideally more than 1 if you want to be as efficient as possible. 2 Buckets should do for the simplest method. However, the most important component for making Obsidian blocks is a lava source block. This is the type of lava that you can scoop up with a Bucket, as opposed to flowing lava, which you can’t collect with a Bucket. Lastly, you’ll need a Water Bucket to cool the lava into Obsidian.
Just don’t forget that you can only collect Obsidian with a Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe. If you try to mine Obsidian Blocks with any other kind of Pickaxe, you can still break it, but it won’t drop itself as an item. Just keep in mind that you need to get flowing water to cover a source lava block to turn it into Obsidian. A source block of water dumped onto a source block of lava will make Cobblestone. Similarly, flowing water that touches flowing lava will also turn it into Cobblestone.
Steps for Making Obsidian Blocks
- Place 1 or more source blocks of lava
- Empty a Water Bucket nearby, but not on top of any lava source blocks
- After the flowing water turns the lava source blocks into Obsidian, collect the water source block in your Bucket
- Mine your Obsidian with a Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe to collect it
Making a Nether Portal With Lava and Water
If you don’t have a Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe and still want to use Obsidian to make a Nether Portal, you can. You just have to create each block with the steps mentioned above. Be sure to contain each source block of lava safely in Cobblestone before trying to pour flowing water over it. A Nether Portal needs to be 4 blocks long and 5 blocks high, however, you don’t need to have the corners. As such, you can make a Nether Portal with only 10 Obsidian.
Other Ways to Get Obsidian Without Mining
You have a small chance of finding Obsidian in the Weaponsmith’s Chests of Villages. In each of such Chests, you have a 25.6% chance to find 3 to 7 Obsidian blocks. There are other ways that you can get Obsidian without mining it, however, the rest will all take you into the Nether or the End. Out of these 2 dimensions, the Nether is the best place to gather Obsidian-making resources. Therefore, you will ironically need to make a Nether Portal out of a bunch of Obsidian if you want the best Obsidian farming method.
How to Get a Lot of Obsidian Quickly
The overworld does have lava here are there, though it is often found deep underground. Conversely, the Nether is full of lava–there are literal lakes of the stuff. As such, one of the quickest methods of getting a lot of lava is to bring a bunch of empty Buckets into the Nether, find the closest lava lake, and scoop up a bunch of the orange resource. Establishing an efficient route for this can allow you to ferry many Lava Buckets into your base on the safe side of your Nether Portal.
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.
| 50 |
| 250 |
| 125 |
| 62.5 |
| 41.7 |
| 9.4 |
| 8.35 |
| 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.
Obsidian is one of the two blocks an end crystal can be place on; the other is bedrock.
They cannot be picked up by endermen, despite obsidian being a full block.
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:
| Obsidian | obsidian | Block & Item | dragon_immune mineable/pickaxe needs_diamond_tool | block.minecraft.obsidian |
Bedrock Edition:
- ↑ ID of block's direct item form, which is used in savegame files and addons.
- ↑ Available with /give command.
- ↑ The block's direct item form has the same id with the block.
Achievements[]
| 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[]
| 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[]
| Obsidian is extremely tough to break and drops one cobblestone block when broken. |
| 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. |
| The obsidian wall has been removed. |
| Obsidian is now created when water touches a lava source. |
| Obsidian now drops itself when broken. |
| Obsidian's explosion resistance increased. Before this, obsidian had the same blast resistance as stone. |
| Obsidian made indestructible to TNT. |
| 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. |
| Obsidian can now be mined with an iron pickaxe (has since been removed[when?]) or moved by endermen. |
| Obsidian can no longer be mined by an iron pickaxe. |
| The enchantment table has been introduced, which is crafted using obsidian. |
| Introduced the End, with obsidian platform and obsidian pillars. |
| 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. |
| Obsidian can now be found in village blacksmith chests. |
| 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. |
| The beacon block has now received a crafting recipe, which uses obsidian. |
| The wither's blue wither skull projectile has been introduced, which produces a special explosion that can destroy obsidian. |
| Obsidian can now be destroyed with explosives by summoning a fireball with custom data. |
| An infinite obsidian glitch (MC-4239, allowing conversion of redstone into obsidian) has been fixed during the implementation of the new block metadata format. |
| Obsidian can now be found inside chests in nether fortresses. |
| Obsidian now generates as part of the end cities. |
| The obsidian yield from nether fortress chests has been slightly decreased. |
| Obsidian now generates in woodland mansions. |
| Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 49. |
| Obsidian now generates in some underwater ruins. |
| Obsidian has a 1⁄109 (~0.92%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1. |
| Obsidian now has a 10⁄113 (~8.84%) chance of being offered by piglins when bartering, in a stack size of 1–5. |
| Obsidian now generates in bastion remnants chests. |
| Obsidian can now spawn as part of ruined portals or be found in its chests. |
| The chance of finding obsidian in bastion remnant chests has been decreased from 31.5% to 24.4%. |
| 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. |
| The "spires" generated by nether reactors are now made of netherrack, instead of obsidian. |
| Obsidian can now be found in villages within blacksmith chests. |
| Obsidian can now be used to form nether portals. |
| Obsidian is now used to craft enchantment tables. |
| Obsidian now requires 6.5 seconds to mine, rather than 3. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Obsidian now generates in woodland mansions. |
| Obsidian now generates in some underwater ruins. |
| Obsidian can now be found in village weaponsmith chests. |
| Obsidian can now be obtained from bartering. |
| Obsidian breaking time is now 6.2 seconds instead of 9.6 seconds. |
| 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. |
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