The Ultimate Guide to Making Obsidian in Minecraft

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Everything you need to know to make (or find) this rare block
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In Minecraft, obsidian is a deep purple and black block that resists almost any explosion. This makes it useful for creating blast-resistant shelters, and you can also use it to create Nether portals, enchanting tables, and more. But obsidian is rarely found naturally and you can’t craft it. We have all the best ways to get obsidian, including pro insights from Minecraft expert Zac Churchill. Read on!

How to Make Obsidian in Minecraft: Quick Steps

  1. Find a lake or pool of non-flowing lava.
  2. Place water on top of the lava—the lava blocks will turn into obsidian.
  3. Pour more water onto the obsidian to protect yourself from lava.
  4. Use a diamond or netherite pickaxe to mine the obsidian.
  5. Pick up the obsidian to add it to your inventory.
Section 1 of 5:

Making Obsidian from Lava and Water

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  1. Explore the map until you find lava. Look for stationary lava source blocks—don’t use lava that’s flowing. Flowing lava will turn into cobblestone, not obsidian. [1]
    • Lava is most commonly found by digging underground or by exploring caves and ravines. If you’re digging, travel diagonally so you don’t accidentally fall into the lava.
    • You can sometimes find lava on the surface—try scanning the landscape as you fly. Also, some villages have a smithy with two blocks of lava outside.
    • If you’re not sure if a lava block is a source, try picking it up in your bucket. If you can’t pick it up, it’s not a source block.
  2. Equip a water bucket, then place the water one block higher than the lava. The water should flow down and turn the surface of the lake into obsidian.
    • To craft a bucket , arrange 3 iron ingots in a V shape in your crafting table. Then, with the bucket equipped, find water and pick it up—now you have a water bucket. [2]
    • Some players like to build a small wall on one side of the lava pool before pouring the water. This can reduce the chances of water pushing you into the lava.
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  3. If you’re mining obsidian in a lava pool, there’s a chance that the blocks underneath the obsidian will be lava. Adding more water will ensure that any lava you uncover will be turned into obsidian or cobblestone.
    • If there is lava underneath the obsidian, stand next to the water and mine the obsidian at its edge. The water should rush in as you mine, turning the next layer into obsidian before the lava can cause any damage.
    • If you don’t add the water, your obsidian could burn up in the lava after you mine it, or you might accidentally fall into the lava and die.

    If you want to make a single obsidian block: Use a bucket to gather the lava, then place the lava block where you want the obsidian to be (ensure there’s nothing flammable in the surrounding blocks). Pour water over the lava block, then use the obsidian block where it is or mine it with a diamond or netherite pickaxe.

  4. Obsidian is the only block in Minecraft that has to be mined with diamond or stronger. Churchill recommends using diamond tools to mine obsidian, as diamonds make durable and efficient tools. You can also use a netherite pickaxe. It can take a few tries to mine obsidian, so keep hitting the block with your pickaxe until it breaks and a smaller piece of obsidian appears. Pick up the obsidian to add it to your inventory.
    • Don’t use anything weaker, like iron, or the obsidian will be destroyed when you try to mine it.
    • The lava blocks won’t regenerate after you mine them, but if there are lava source blocks underneath the obsidian, you can turn them into obsidian blocks as well.
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Section 2 of 5:

Making a Lava Generator with Dripstone

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  1. Go underground and look for a cave filled with pointed stalactites and stalagmites—this is a dripstone cave. Gather a solid dripstone block and a pointed dripstone. [3]
    • You’ll need a dripstone block and a pointed dripstone for each generator you want to build, so gather several of each if you plan to make multiple lava generators.
    • To make a lava generator, you’ll need to be using Minecraft Java Edition 1.17 or later. [4]
  2. Since your lava will be going into a cauldron, you can put your generator anywhere. But since you’ll need to check it regularly, it’s a good idea to put it near your respawn point or a spot where you normally spend a lot of time. [5]
    • If you don’t already have a cauldron, craft one in your crafting table: 3 ingots on the left side, 3 on the right, and 1 in the bottom center.
  3. Start by placing your dripstone block (you can substitute another fireproof block if you prefer). Then, place the pointed dripstone beneath the dripstone block, turned so it’s pointed down at the cauldron. [6]
    • You can go a little higher above the cauldron if you want, but don’t place the dripstone any higher than 7 blocks above the cauldron.
  4. Put a few fireproof blocks around the top of the dripstone block to enclose it, leaving the center open. Place a lava source block into the opening directly on top of the dripstone block. [7]
    • To get a lava source block, place non-flowing lava into a bucket. Flowing lava can’t be harvested, so if it goes into the bucket, it’s a lava source block.
    • Lava will slowly drip down and fill the cauldron.
  5. It takes about 20 minutes for the cauldron to fill up. Once the cauldron is full, put the lava block in a bucket—be careful not to fall into the cauldron when you’re harvesting the lava. Then, place the lava on the ground and pour water over it to turn it into obsidian. [8]
    • Or, if you prefer, you can use that lava source block to build a new generator, allowing you to create twice as many blocks in the same amount of time.
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Section 3 of 5:

Making Nether Portals to Mine Obsidian

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  1. Use the lava mining method or find at least 20 pieces of obsidian in the Minecraft world. This will give you enough obsidian to make two Nether portals, which you can then use to get as much obsidian as you’re willing to mine.
    • You need 10 obsidian to make one Nether portal.
  2. Use the obsidian to create a Nether portal . If you don't have a portal already, place obsidian blocks in a vertical frame 5 tall x 4 wide. Activate it by using a flint and steel on the lowest obsidian block. This trick may not work if there is another portal close by. [9]
    • Place 2 obsidian blocks on the top and bottom of the frame and 3 obsidian blocks on each side for a total of 10 blocks. The corners of the portal do not have to be obsidian.
  3. The Nether is a dangerous place, so prepare yourself if you haven't been there before. Consider leaving the 10 remaining obsidian blocks behind until you’ve found a safe route. You'll need to travel a certain minimum distance away from your original Nether portal:
    • PC, Pocket Edition, and Console Edition “large” worlds: Travel 19 blocks away from the portal.
    • Console Edition “medium” worlds: Travel 25 blocks away from the portal.
    • Console Edition “classic” worlds (including all PS3 and Xbox 360 worlds): Travel 45 blocks away from the portal.
    • If you have multiple portals close by, move to another area of the map. This trick will not work if you are too close to an existing portal.
  4. Build this in the Nether and activate it the same way you did the first one. When you walk through it, you should appear in a brand-new portal in the Overworld.
    • If you appear next to a portal you already built, you did not walk far enough in the Nether. Go back to the Nether and break your portal with a diamond pickaxe, then rebuild it somewhere else.
  5. The portal that just appeared has fourteen obsidian blocks free for the taking. Mine these with a diamond pickaxe.
  6. Each time you walk through the Nether portal you just built, a new portal will appear in the Overworld. Mine this for free obsidian. Speed this up if you want a large amount of obsidian:
    • Use a bed to set your spawn near the permanent Overworld portal.
    • Place a chest near the temporary Overworld portal. Stash the obsidian and diamond pickaxe in the chest after mining the portal.
    • Kill yourself to return to spawn.
    • Walk through the Nether again and exit the same portal to create a new one. Build a tunnel between the Nether portals to increase safety.
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Section 4 of 5:

Finding Obsidian in Minecraft

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  1. Woodland mansions are large structures that you can sometimes find in the dark forests. These contain a secret “obsidian room,” where you can find 19 obsidian blocks and 1 diamond block. [10]
  2. Ruined portals generate when the world is built, and they can appear anywhere—overground, underground, underwater, and in the Nether. If you find one of these, you can either mine it for the obsidian or repair it and use it as a working Nether portal. [11]
    • You can sometimes find obsidian by exploring underwater ruins, too. [12]
  3. The End portal leads to the final, most challenging area in Minecraft. When you travel through the End portal, a platform of 9 obsidian blocks will appear for you to stand on. Mine it with the diamond pickaxe (though you may want to kill that Ender Dragon bothering you first).
    • Locating and activating the End portal is a long quest involving many Eyes of Ender. Try this only when you're ready to face the fearsome Ender Dragon.
    • If you are on Pocket Edition, the End Portal will only work on infinite (not “Old”) worlds running on version 1.0 or later (released December 2016).
    • If you die or defeat the Ender Dragon and walk through the exit portal that appears, the obsidian platform will respawn, and you can mine the obsidian again.
  4. The island with the Ender Dragon has several tall towers with purple crystals atop them. The towers are made entirely of obsidian.
    • The obsidian pillars will respawn if you respawn the dragon after killing it. To bring back the dragon, place four ender crystals on top of the exit portal that appeared when the dragon died. [13]
  5. If you barter with a piglin using a gold ingot, there’s a small chance (about 8%) that they’ll drop an obsidian block. And if you're lucky, you can sometimes find obsidian in NPC villager chests. [14]
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Section 5 of 5:

Frequently Asked Questions: Making Obsidian

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  1. Churchill says that “obsidian helps to create a portal to the Nether dimension.” And if you’re crafting, using obsidian can help make your structure resistant to explosion. You can also use obsidian to make:
    • Ender chests
    • Enchanting tables
    • Beacons
    • Bass drum note blocks
  2. You can speed up the time it takes to mine obsidian by enchanting your diamond or netherite pickaxe with Efficiency. You can also set up a beacon with “Haste” applied. [15]
  3. If you put water over moving lava, it will turn into cobblestone instead of obsidian. If you put water on a lava source block, it will turn into obsidian.
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  • Question
    What enchantments can speed up the process of mining obsidian with the diamond pickax in Minecraft?
    Mocha Latte
    Community Answer
    Use the efficiency enchantment. The higher the efficiency, the better it will work.
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  • Question
    Can I make obsidian without a pickaxe? If I only have an iron pickaxe, how long would it take to break the obsidian?
    Community Answer
    First of all, you can't use an iron pickaxe to mine obsidian. If you do, the obisidian will break and it will not be given to you. So just use a diamond pickaxe.
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  • Question
    How do I get diamonds In Minecraft?
    Stephz16
    Community Answer
    You simply craft an iron pickaxe, dig down, and search for them! They can sometimes be found more frequently near lava.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://youtu.be/EcwUxRvGCPM?t=39
      2. ↑ https://youtu.be/vtGa_zAPO_s?t=11
      3. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/minecraft-guides/23272797/dripstone-block-pointed-stalactite-stalagmite-cave-farm-grow-infinite
      4. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Lava
      5. ↑ https://www.dualshockers.com/minecraft-lava-generator/
      6. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/minecraft-guides/23277177/lava-infinite-farm-dripstone-obsidian-cobblestone-fuel
      7. ↑ https://www.polygon.com/minecraft-guides/23277177/lava-infinite-farm-dripstone-obsidian-cobblestone-fuel
      8. ↑ https://www.dualshockers.com/minecraft-lava-generator/
      9. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Nether_portal
      1. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Woodland_Mansion
      2. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Ruined_Portal
      3. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Obsidian
      4. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Ender_Dragon#Respawning
      5. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Obsidian
      6. ↑ https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Obsidian

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      To make obsidian in Minecraft, start by searching for a pool of stationary lava, which are often located in caves or ravines. Once you find a source block of lava, collect it in a bucket crafted from 3 iron ingots. Then, dig a hole where you want the obsidian, but make sure it is at least 2 blocks away from any flammable materials such as wood and grass. Pour the lava into the hole, and use your bucket to gather water to pour over the lava. Once the water touches the lava, it will turn into obsidian that you can mine with a diamond pickaxe. If you want to learn how to make Nether Portals using your obsidian, keep reading the article!

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