Crying Obsidian

For other uses, see Obsidian (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Glowing Obsidian.

Crying Obsidian

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	1,200
Hardness	JE: 50 BE: 35
Luminous	Yes (10)
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color	29 COLOR_BLACK
Note block instrument	Bass Drum
Sulfur cube archetype	Slow Bouncy

Crying obsidian is a luminous variant of obsidian that can be used to craft respawn anchors. Purple particles drip from its faces. Like obsidian, It has high hardness and blast resistance, making it immune to normal explosions. It can be obtained by mining it with a diamond or netherite pickaxe, and it cannot be crafted.

Obtaining

There is no way to convert normal obsidian into crying obsidian. It can be obtained only via the methods listed below.

Breaking

The suitable tool to break crying obsidian is pickaxe. Crying obsidian needs to be broken using a diamond pickaxe or better, otherwise the breaking time will increase and the block drops nothing.

Block	Crying Obsidian
Hardness	50
Tool
Breaking time (sec)[A]
Default	1250.05 (JE) 250 (BE)
Wooden	1125.05 (JE) 125 (BE)
Stone	162.55 (JE) 62.5 (BE)
Copper	150 (JE) 50 (BE)
Iron	141.7 (JE) 41.7 (BE)
Diamond	19.4 (JE) 9.4 (BE)
Netherite	18.35 (JE) 8.35 (BE)
Golden	120.85 (JE) 20.85 (BE)
Options
Efficiency	000
Haste	001 1JEBE

Legend

• incorrect tool, drops nothing
• correct tool, drops nothing or something other than the block itself
• correct tool, drops the block itself
• italicized can be instant mined

Crying obsidian drops itself when it's destroyed.

Natural generation

Crying obsidian generates as part of some ruined portals. Each obsidian has a 15% chance to generate as crying obsidian.

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition and Bedrock Edition
Crying Obsidian	Bastion Remnant	Hoglin stable chest	1–5	22.8% { "item": "Crying Obsidian", "stacksize": "1–5", "chance": 0.22793887963348602, "structure": "Bastion Remnant", "container": "Hoglin stable chest" }
		Treasure chest	3–5	33.7% { "item": "Crying Obsidian", "stacksize": "3–5", "chance": 0.33668648071940255, "structure": "Bastion Remnant", "container": "Treasure chest" }
		Generic chest	1–5	19% { "item": "Crying Obsidian", "stacksize": "1–5", "chance": 0.18999999999999995, "structure": "Bastion Remnant", "container": "Generic chest" }
		Bridge chest	3–8	11.2% { "item": "Crying Obsidian", "stacksize": "3–8", "chance": 0.11242603550295849, "structure": "Bastion Remnant", "container": "Bridge chest" }

Bartering

Piglins have a ~8.53% chance (⁴⁰⁄₄₆₉) to barter 1–3 crying obsidian when given a gold ingot. This is both the most reliable way to obtain crying obsidian, and also the only renewable source of it.

Usage

Much like obsidian, crying obsidian is a resilient building block. It has a blast resistance of 1,200 and cannot be destroyed by the ender dragon. However, crying obsidian cannot be used to create a nether portal frame,^[1] and the End crystal is unable to be placed on it.^[2]

When placed, crying obsidian occasionally produces purple dripping particles, which are purely decorative.

Particles emitted from crying obsidian can pass through certain non-solid blocks, such as glow lichen and sculk veins.

Crafting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Respawn Anchor	Crying Obsidian + Glowstone

Light

Crying obsidian gives off a light level of 10, which does not melt snow or ice. Its blast resistance distinguishes it from other light-emitting blocks.

Piston interactivity

Crying obsidian cannot be pushed by pistons, and cannot be pulled by sticky pistons.

Sounds

Java Edition:

stone sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed​[until: JE 26.4]	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

stone sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	place.stone	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.37	0.5
	​Footsteps	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.4	1.0
	​Footsteps	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.3	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.12	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.22	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Translation key
Crying Obsidian	crying_obsidian	Block & Item	dragon_immune mineable/pickaxe needs_diamond_tool	block.minecraft.crying_obsidian

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Crying Obsidian	crying_obsidian	544	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3] (Numeric: -289)	tile.crying_obsidian.name

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Who is Cutting Onions?	Obtain Crying Obsidian	Have a block of crying obsidian in the inventory.

Videos

History

Development

Java Edition

Java Edition Beta
1.3							The texture of crying obsidian has been added to terrain.png.
1.5							The texture of crying obsidian has been removed.
Java Edition
1.16			20w09a				Added crying obsidian.
							Crying obsidian is currently obtainable only through bartering.
							Crying obsidian has no function.
							Crying obsidian produces a light level of 10.
							Crying obsidian can be harvested with any pickaxe.
			20w10a				Crying obsidian now uses its old texture when using Programmer Art.
			20w11a				Crying obsidian now requires a diamond or netherite pickaxe in order to be mined.[4]
							Crying obsidian can no longer be destroyed by the ender dragon.[5]
							Crying obsidian can no longer be moved by pistons.[6]
			20w12a				Crying obsidian is now used to craft respawn anchors.
			20w16a				Crying obsidian now generates in bastion remnants chests.
							Crying obsidian now generates as part of ruined portals.
			20w20a				Crying obsidian is now required for the "Who is Cutting Onions?" advancement.
26.2			snap1				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb crying obsidian, providing the football/regular effect to the mob.
			snap6				Changed effect from football/regular to slow bouncy.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.1.0							The texture of crying obsidian has been added to the game's files.
v0.2.0							The texture of crying obsidian has been removed.
Bedrock Edition
1.16.0			beta 1.16.0.57				Added crying obsidian.
			beta 1.16.0.63				Crying obsidian now requires a diamond or netherite pickaxe in order to be mined.[7]
1.19.20			Preview 1.19.20.22				Crying obsidian can no longer be destroyed by the ender dragon.
26.20 Experiment Drop 2 of 2026			Preview 26.20.23				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb crying obsidian, providing the football/regular effect to the mob.
26.30			Preview 26.30.20				Implemented all features from the "Drop 2 of 2026" experiment in vanilla gameplay.
			Preview 26.30.27				Crying obsidian's sulfur cube archetype has been changed from regular to slow bouncy.

Issues

Issues relating to "Crying Obsidian" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• When it was originally going to be added in Beta 1.3, it was going to act as a way to reset the player’s spawn point^[8] and would be crafted using lapis lazuli. When beds were added, they took this role instead. In 1.16, the respawn anchor was added, which is crafted with crying obsidian.
• According to Brandon Pearce, crying obsidian was added when they wanted to have cracked obsidian for the ruined nether portals.^[8]
• The team considered having crying obsidian be obtained by throwing obsidian through a nether portal, or by having regular obsidian be struck by lightning. However, they chose bartering with piglins as a way to make bartering useful.^[8]
• The earliest known instance of a developer referring to the original crying obsidian texture as "crying obsidian"^[9] significantly postdates the name's general adoption by the community. The earliest known usages of the name "crying obsidian"^[10][11] are from about two months earlier. As it had no given name, it was first referred to as a "mystery block" with crying obsidian being given as one potential name among others, such as "bleeding obsidian".^{[12][13][14][15]}

Gallery

Renders

• 
  A crying obsidian “crying”

Screenshots

• 
  A comparison between glowing obsidian (left), crying obsidian (middle), and regular obsidian (right)
• 
  A bunch of crying obsidian placed in the Nether
• 
  Obsidian and crying obsidian, as they appear in the Programmer Art resource pack. Note how it still produces purple particles.
• 
  A picture of crying obsidian part of a ruined portal
• 
  Crying obsidian in the Overworld
• 
  Crying obsidian with programmer art textures

In other media

• 
  Artwork of crying obsidian used in Block of the Week
• 
  Efe pointing at Kai's castle made of crying obsidian

See also

• Glowing Obsidian
• Obsidian

References

External links

• "Block of the Week: Crying Obsidian" by Duncan Geere – Minecraft.net, July 29, 2020.