Discovered, mined, and put to use, Minecraft’s world is built from a wide variety of blocks. But not all materials are as accessible as wood. Some can be obtained with only a little amount of research and the proper equipment. Obsidian is a good example of a material like this.
The presence of the volcanic rock may be traced back to the very beginning. But it’s not obvious how to mine it for new players. After all, you’re wasting your time if you attack this problem with an iron pickaxe. Consequently, here is everything you’ll need to not only extract the supposedly indestructible material, but also create it yourself.
The Best Places to Mine for Obsidian
You won’t find obsidian lying around in any of the game’s biomes. Actually, you can only spot it in the wild in a select few locations. Below-ground is the norm. If you explore the earth’s crust long enough, you will inevitably come to a pool of lava with a trickle of water over it.
Some obsidian, waiting to be extracted, will be found beneath the waves. On the other hand, there is a good supply of obsidian on the final frontier. First of all, it’s used to construct the spawn platform. The final crystals are housed in massive obsidian pillars in this reality.
That way, you can demolish them with ease. Since it would take so much more time, locating the material in caves is strongly preferred.
The Block Mining Process
Having found some obsidian is no guarantee that you’ll be able to extract it without incident. Diamond or netherite pickaxes are required to remove the blocks because of their hardness.
Be careful if you’ve uncovered the obsidian in a cave; each piece probably has molten rock underneath it. This means that if you shatter one, it’s probably going to land in the boiling liquid and get charred beyond recognition.
To prevent this from happening, water can be poured adjacent to the block in question. Then, when you smash it, the water will shield your possession from the lava pooling underneath it. Alternately, you might carefully mine under the block and then use a bucket and bricks to restore the lava.
Making Obsidian: A Guide
The issue with just searching for obsidian in nature is that huge volumes are rarely discovered all at once. It’s good news that there are a few methods for fabricating your own blocks of the chemical.
To Cool Lava, Saturate It With Water
Obsidian is commonly found in caves because water naturally runs over the top of lava, creating the material. All you need is a pail of water to replicate these conditions at home. However, in this case you still need to mine the blocks, which is impossible without a sufficiently robust pickaxe.
Tools aren’t required if you modify this technique a bit. You’ll need to make a mould before you can proceed. To prevent the obsidian blocks from catching fire, you must first place non-combustible blocks in their intended locations.
Then, you can let water run over the surface after pouring the flammable liquid into the cracks. In the beginning of the game, many players choose to utilise this technique, which entails producing a single block of obsidian at a time in order to construct a nether portal.
What is the Nether Portal Approach?
It’s possible that your first experience with obsidian won’t be what you expected. Perhaps you’re craving more of it. In that instance, the nether portal technique is an effective means of harvesting large quantities of the resource. This does take some time, though.
You can use this new portal to create a new one in the overworld that can be mined for resources. It will take a lot of repetitions, but you can farm the material this way. In each round, you do not receive a large number of blocks. However, if you do it often enough, you’ll eventually amass enough obsidian to satisfy your needs.
Applications of Obsidian
The most well-known application of obsidian is undoubtedly a nether gateway, however this is far from being the only possible application. Indeed, it’s an ingredient in a variety of dishes. Three pieces of obsidian are required, for instance, to make a beacon.
The massive ray of light might serve as a visible signal for you and your fellow players to follow. Additionally, it can affect nearby targets’ statuses in a number of ways. The ender chest is another tool that can only be crafted with obsidian.
You can build a network of interconnected chests if you have enough of the material and a few eyes of ender. Because of this, you can store things in one and then get them from another. It’s fantastic for shipping items throughout the world without having to physically move them.
An enchanted table is the final object you can make out of obsidian. Every player will use these tables at some point, maybe before a tough battle, to upgrade their bows, swords, and armour. Four blocks of obsidian, two gems, and a book are needed for this.