How to Make Obsidian in Minecraft With Water and Lava

Obsidian forms when water touches a lava source block. Pour a water bucket next to or over still lava and each source block it reaches turns into obsidian. Then mine it with a diamond or netherite pickaxe; anything weaker breaks it with no drop.

Two things catch people out. Only lava source blocks make obsidian (flowing lava turns into cobblestone instead), and obsidian is slow to mine, several seconds per block even with diamond.

Making it from a lava pool

Lava pools are common on the surface in some biomes and very common deep underground. Below about Y -55, cave pockets are filled with lava instead of air, so you’ll run into plenty of it while hunting diamonds.

1. Stand on solid ground at the edge of the pool, not on the lava’s level if you can avoid it.
2. Pour a water bucket so the water spreads across the lava.
3. Pick the water back up. The surface is now obsidian, and there may be more lava underneath.
4. Mine the obsidian from the side, never from on top of it. Lava often sits right below.

Keep a block in your hand and fill in any gap you see before stepping forward.

The bucket trick

You can carry lava to a safe spot instead. Scoop up lava sources with empty buckets, bring them home, and build the shape you need. For a Nether portal, many players build a mold from dirt or cobblestone, pour lava into it, and then add water so each lava block turns into obsidian exactly where the frame should be. No mining needed.

Other sources

• Ruined portals have some obsidian and crying obsidian in the frame, and their chest often has 1 or 2 more.
• Piglin bartering. Each gold ingot has roughly an 8.5% chance to return a block of obsidian.
• The End. The arrival platform is obsidian and rebuilds each time you enter, and the towers on the main island are huge obsidian pillars.
• Ender chests. Breaking one without Silk Touch drops 8 obsidian.
• Chests in bastions, village weaponsmiths and Nether fortresses sometimes carry a few.

For lava itself without trips to the Nether, see our renewable lava guide.

What it’s for

Use	Obsidian needed
Nether portal	10 (14 with corners)
Enchanting table	4
Beacon	3
Ender chest	8

Obsidian also has the highest blast resistance of any normal survival block (1,200), so it shrugs off creepers and TNT. That makes it a good bunker material, but not a Wither cage: the Wither is the one mob that can break it. Pistons can’t push obsidian, which some redstone builds use on purpose.

More resource guides are on the guides hub.