The Minecraft world is filled with all sorts of blocks that you can find, mine, and use. However, not all substances are as easy to obtain as wood. Some require a bit of knowledge and the right tools to acquire. One such substance is obsidian.
The volcanic rock has been in the game since the early days. For new players, however, it’s not instantly clear how to mine it. After all, if you go at it with an iron pickaxe, you’ll be wasting your time. So, here is all the information you need to not only mine the seemingly unbreakable material but make it yourself.
Where To Find Obsidian In The Overworld
Obsidian isn’t a substance that simply spawns in all of the game’s biomes. In fact, there are only a few places you can find it in the wild. The most common one is underground. Roam around underneath the earth for long enough, and you’re likely to eventually find a patch of lava that has some water flowing over it. Under the water will be some obsidian ready to be mined.
Alternatively, you can find plenty of obsidian in the End. Firstly, the platform you spawn on is made out of the material. Plus, there are also large obsidian pillars in the dimension that hold the end crystals. So, you can tear them down. But getting the substance this way isn’t recommended as it’ll take a lot longer than finding some in caves.
How To Mine The Blocks
Just because you’ve located some obsidian doesn’t mean you can mine it successfully. The blocks are tough, and the only way to pick them up is by using either a diamond or netherite pickaxe — here’s a guide showing how to make netherite tools.
If you’ve found the obsidian in caves, then you need to watch out because each block typically has lava underneath it. Therefore, when you break one, it’s likely to fall straight into the fiery liquid and burn to a crisp.
A good way to avoid that is to pour some water next to the block you’re looking to break. Then when you destroy it, the water will cover the bit of lava before your item burns. Or you can carefully mine under the block and then use a bucket and blocks to replace the lava.
How To Make Your Own Obsidian
The problem with just finding obsidian out in the wild is that you can’t usually find large quantities of it at once. Luckily, there are a few ways that you can make your very own blocks of the substance.
Pour Water Over Lava
The obsidian found in caves is formed because water naturally flows over the top of lava. You can create these same conditions yourself with a bucket of water. Yet, in this scenario, you’ll still need to mine the blocks afterward, which won’t be possible if you haven’t got a strong enough pickaxe.
However, you can tweak this method to make tools unnecessary. To do this, you must first create a mold. This means positioning non-flammable blocks around where you want the obsidian blocks to go.
Then pour the burning liquid into the gaps before letting water glide over it. Many use this method to build a nether portal early in the game, which requires you to create one block of obsidian at a time.
The Nether Portal Method
Sometimes you might not be looking for your first taste of obsidian. You might just want more of it. In that case, the nether portal method is a good way to farm plenty of the material. Although it takes a bit of time.
First, you need to create a nether portal in the overworld and use it to teleport to the other dimension — make sure you’re prepared for what’s there. Then once you’re in the dangerous place, travel at least 16 blocks away from your portal and create another one.
Going through this new portal will spawn a fresh one in the overworld, which you can mine for blocks. Keep repeating this process to farm the material. Unfortunately, you don’t get a lot of blocks each time. Do it enough, though, and you’ll have all the obsidian you need.
The Uses For Obsidian
While a nether portal is certainly the most famous use for obsidian, it’s not the only one. In fact, there are a few different recipes that include the substance.
For instance, you need three pieces of obsidian to craft a beacon. The giant beam of light can be utilized as a marker that you and other players can see for a distance. Plus, it can also provide various status effects for those in its vicinity.
Another item that requires obsidian is the ender chest. With plenty of the material and a few eyes of ender, you can create a set of chests that are all connected. So when you put items in one of them, you can retrieve those same items from another. It’s incredibly useful for transporting things across the world without having to carry them.
The last thing you can craft with obsidian is an enchanting table. Every player at some point will likely use one of these tables to improve their bows, swords, or armor — perhaps in preparation for a difficult fight. To do so, you’ll need to part with four blocks of obsidian, as well as two diamonds and a book.
NEXT: Minecraft 1.16: 5 Things We Love About The New Nether (& 5 We Hate)
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Ben Jessey spends all his time playing video games, watching TV, watching movies, watching football aka soccer (which I guess counts as watching TV) or writing about those things. He has a degree in Film and Television studies and is now a freelance writer.
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