Obsidian in Minecraft: Everything players need to know

Obsidian is every Minecraft player's least favorite block. Due to its excruciatingly long mining times, most players never have any Obsidian to spare.

Players mostly use Obsidian for the creation of Nether Portals, thereby overlooking its full potential.

This article takes a look at everything players need to know about Obsidian in Minecraft.

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Obsidian in Minecraft

Obtaining

Shown: A surface Lava pool in which Obsidian can be formed (Image via Minecraft)

Obsidian can be obtained in various ways. It can be spawned naturally in caves if water finds its way into a lava pool. This is the most commonly used technique for acquiring Obsidian.

If the player is lucky, they may find a surface lava pool, which serves as one of the easiest ways to acquire Obsidian.

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To mine Obsidian, players must have either a Diamond or Netherite pickaxe. If mined with any other pickaxe, the block will break, and no item will drop. Obsidian will take very long to mine.

Players may also barter with a Piglin for a 10% chance of receiving one Obsidian block.

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Uses

Shown: A giant Nether Portal. Ignore the carnage in the background... (Image via Minecraft)

As stated above, Obsidians are commonly used for the creation of the Nether Portal, a necessary build if the player has any desire to beat Minecraft.

Obsidian has many other great uses. They are listed below:

• Three Obsidian needed to craft a Beacon.
• Four Obsidian needed to craft an Enchanting Table.
• Eight Obsidian needed to craft an Ender Chest.

In addition to these crafting uses, Obsidian is an extremely strong block and is commonly used in PvP for base defense. It is also useful when fighting the Wither, as the player can create an arena in which the Wither cannot blow up!

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Loot

Shown: A ruined Portal (Image via Minecraft)

Obsidian can also be obtained in multiple loot chests. The chest locations are listed below: (Java Edition only)

• 24% chance to find 4-6 in a Bastion Remnant chest.
• 8% chance to find 2-4 in a Nether Fortress chest.
• 46% chance to find 1-2 in a Ruined Portal chest.
• 25% chance to find 3-7 in a Weaponsmith's chest.

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