Obsidian

Overview

Obsidian is what you get when flowing water meets a lava source block, and it is the toughest material a player can place. Its blast resistance of 1,200 means creepers, TNT and ghast fireballs do nothing to it, and its hardness of 50 means a diamond or netherite pickaxe takes several seconds per block and no other tool will collect it at all — a stone or iron pickaxe simply destroys it and drops nothing. Those two properties make it the standard material for anything that must survive: a nether portal frame, a bed-blast-proof wall, a base's outer shell on a survival multiplayer server, a beacon's base, an ender chest, an enchanting table and a crying obsidian respawn anchor. The classic collection method is to pour a water bucket over a lava lake and mine the crust, which is why a water bucket is standard mining kit. Note that only lava source blocks convert; flowing lava becomes cobblestone, which is why an improvised obsidian farm produces a mix. Piglins barter obsidian, which is often faster than casting it yourself. Endermen cannot pick it up and pistons cannot push it, which is exactly why it makes a good vault.

Nether portal frames, blast-proof walls, enchanting tables, ender chests, beacons and the crying obsidian that a respawn anchor is built from. Nothing else in the game resists explosions as well.

Obsidian counts as a stone-family block in Minecraft 1.21.4. There is no way to craft it; you have to find it and mine it. A hardness of 50 makes it slow going without the right tool.

Anything below a diamond pickaxe breaks it without leaving a drop. It drops as the same block you mined. Its blast resistance of 1,200 shrugs off creeper explosions.

Sixty-four fit in one inventory slot. Its crafting uses are Beacon, Enchanting Table, and Ender Chest.

How to get it

Pour water onto a lava source block and mine the result with a diamond or netherite pickaxe — anything less destroys it. A nether portal needs 10 blocks minimum, or 14 for a complete frame.

Tips

Only lava source blocks turn to obsidian; flowing lava becomes cobblestone, so aim your water carefully.
A diamond pickaxe takes about 9.4 seconds per block unenchanted — Efficiency V cuts that dramatically.
Piglins barter obsidian for gold, which is often faster than casting and mining it by hand.
Build a portal from 10 blocks in a frame with open corners rather than the full 14 if obsidian is scarce.

How long it takes to break

Obsidian sits at hardness 50: 250 seconds per block with your fists, 8.4 with the correct netherite tool.

An iron tool takes 42 seconds and a diamond one 9.4, so the jump that actually matters for this block is the one to diamond.

Below diamond the block breaks and simply vanishes. Bring the right tier or leave it in the ground.

Efficiency adds its level squared plus one to the tool speed, so Efficiency V is about 3.9 times faster than the same tool unenchanted.

* breaks the block but yields no drop
Tool	No enchantment	Efficiency III	Efficiency V
Hand *	250 s	250 s	250 s
Wooden *	125 s	21 s	9 s
Stone *	63 s	18 s	8.4 s
Iron *	42 s	16 s	7.9 s
Diamond	9.4 s	4.2 s	2.3 s
Netherite	8.4 s	4 s	2.2 s
Golden *	21 s	11 s	6.6 s

Properties

Obsidian resists blasts at 1,200, which survives a creeper and a point-blank TNT charge. Light does not pass through it, and it emits none of its own. 64 fit in a slot — a full stack. It is renewable, so one world can supply as much of it as you want. A pickaxe is the fastest choice here. A tool of the wrong class is no better than your fist — the speed bonus is tied to the block's own tool tag.

Transparent: No
Required tool: Diamond Pickaxe
Renewable: Yes