Glowstone

For other uses, see Glowstone (disambiguation).

Glowstone

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool	Any tool
Blast resistance	0.3
Hardness	0.3
Luminous	Yes (15)
Transparent	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color	2 SAND
Note block instrument	Pling
Sulfur cube archetype	Slow Bouncy

Glowstone is a light-emitting block found hanging from ceilings and overhangs in the Nether. It can be used as a crafting material, broken into glowstone dust, and is required to fuel respawn anchors.

Obtaining

Breaking

If glowstone is broken using a tool with Silk Touch, the block drops itself. When a glowstone block is broken using any other tool, it drops 2–4 glowstone dust. If a tool with Fortune is used, it has a higher chance of dropping a large amount of glowstone dust—but never more than 4.

Block	Glowstone
Hardness	0.3
Breaking time (secs)
Default	10.45 (JE) 0.45 (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

Natural generation

Glowstone only occurs naturally in the Nether, where it generates in crystalline blobs on the underside of ceilings or overhangs. They can be found in every Nether biome, although they are significantly rarer in soul sand valleys,^[1] because the ceiling of this biome is made of soul sand or soul soil below which glowstone blobs cannot generate. They can still occasionally generate in caves and canyons in this biome,^[2] because the ceiling is made of netherrack.

Glowstone can also generate as a part of hoglin stable bastion remnants.

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	Chance
Java Edition and Bedrock Edition
Glowstone	Bastion Remnant	Hoglin stable chest	3–6	22.8% { "item": "Glowstone", "stacksize": "3–6", "chance": 0.22793887963348602, "structure": "Bastion Remnant", "container": "Hoglin stable chest" }

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Glowstone Dust

Trading

Journeyman Clerics always sell one glowstone for 4 emeralds, and wandering traders occasionally sell one glowstone for 2 emeralds.

Villager		Probability		Villager wants	Player receives	Trades in stock	Villager experience	Price multiplier
		JE	BE
Cleric	Journeyman	100%	100%	4 × Emerald	Glowstone	12	10	0.05
Wandering Trader	Ordinary	6%	6%	2 × Emerald	Glowstone	5	—	—

Mob loot

In Bedrock Edition, wandering traders have a chance of 25% (increased by 1% per level of Looting) to drop 1 glowstone when killed while showing the item as trade offer, if the player holds an emerald.

Usage

Light source

Glowstone blocks emit a light level of 15, the brightest possible light level in the game. They emit the same amount of light as sea lanterns, jack o'lanterns and shroomlights.

Redstone circuits

			A
			B

A glowstone block can transmit power up, but not down. Lamp A is powered because the redstone signal travels up the glowstone block. Lamp B is off as the signal would have to go down the glowstone, which is not possible.

When placing redstone dust on a glowstone block, being a transparent block, signals can pass from one block to another diagonally. Redstone wire, even though it may appear to connect up the side of a glowstone block and to the wire portion on top, does not send a redstone signal down the glowstone block. This makes glowstone effective for vertical diodes, logic gate designs, and space-efficient instant vertical redstone.

Note that upside-down slabs can be used for the same purpose, and are easier to obtain.

Piston interactivity

Glowstone, like other pushable blocks, becomes a block of moving piston when moved by a piston; this momentarily stops it from giving off light.^[3]

Crafting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Redstone Lamp	Redstone Dust + Glowstone
Respawn Anchor	Crying Obsidian + Glowstone

Respawn anchors

Glowstone is used to charge respawn anchors.

If a dispenser containing glowstone is facing a respawn anchor, it can automatically charge the respawn anchor when powered.

Transparent block

Glowstone blocks all sunlight, players and mobs suffocate inside it, mobs are able to pathfind to it, and it blocks a beacon beam, preventing the beacon's activation. However, like transparent blocks, it does not prevent the opening of chests, monsters (including slimes) cannot spawn on it,‌^{[Java Edition only]} and it does not transfer a redstone signal. This behavior also occurs in sea lanterns.

Sounds

Java Edition:

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

Bedrock Edition:

glass sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	random.glass	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​	0.4	0.6
	​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	Translation key
Glowstone	glowstone	Block & Item	block.minecraft.glowstone

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Glowstone	glowstone	89	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.glowstone.name

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Not Quite "Nine" Lives	Charge a Respawn Anchor to the maximum	—

Videos

History

Java Edition

Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0			preview				Added glowstone.
							Glowstone is shown to drop itself when mined.
			release				The crafting recipe for glowstone is 3×3 glowstone dust. Ingredients Crafting recipe Glowstone Dust
							The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone is 1.
							The material type of glowstone is currently "glass".
Java Edition Beta
1.6.6							The crafting recipe of glowstone has changed to 2×2 glowstone dust.
							The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone has increased to 2–4.
							The material type of glowstone has changed to "stone", meaning a pickaxe is now needed to drop items, and block-dependent blocks can now be placed on it.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5				The texture of glowstone has changed, removing the border on the outside.
			RC1				The material type of glowstone has changed once again to "glass".
1.2.1			12w06a				Redstone can now be placed on glowstone. Redstone wire can now transmit only upward through it.
			12w07a				Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.
1.3.1			12w21a				Priest villagers now sell 2–3 glowstone for 1 emerald, making glowstone renewable.
1.5			13w02a				In texture packs, glowstone now use /textures/blocks/lightgem.png.
1.7.2			13w41a				Glowstone can typically no longer be used to see through blocks.
1.8			14w02a				Trading has changed: cleric villagers now sell 1–3 glowstone for 1 emerald.
			14w05b				Mobs now suffocate inside of glowstone.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of glowstone has changed.
			18w47a				The texture of glowstone has changed again.
			19w05a				Added wandering traders, which sell glowstone.
			19w09a				Glowstone now makes a "pling" sound when placed under a note block.
			19w11a				Cleric villagers now sell glowstone for 4 emeralds.
1.16			20w12a				Glowstone is now used to craft and power up respawn anchors.
			20w13a				Dispensers can now charge respawn anchors with glowstone.
			20w16a				Glowstone now generates in bastion remnant chests.
26.2			snap1				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb glowstone, providing the football/regular effect to the mob.
			snap6				Changed effect from football/regular to slow bouncy.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.5.0							Added glowstone.
v0.9.0			build 1				Smooth lighting has been removed from glowstone.
v0.12.1			build 1				Glowstone can now be obtained by breaking it using the Silk Touch enchantment.
v0.13.0			build 1				Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.
Pocket Edition
1.0.4			alpha 1.0.4.0				Glowstone is now sold by cleric villagers.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				Glowstone is now sold by the new wandering trader.
							The texture of glowstone has changed.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.4				Trading has changed, and cleric villagers no longer sell glowstone.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.9				Glowstone now causes a note block to make a "pling" sound when placed under it.
1.16.0			beta 1.16.0.57				Glowstone is now used to craft and power up respawn anchors.
26.20 Experiment Drop 2 of 2026			Preview 26.20.23				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb glowstone, 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				Glowstone's sulfur cube archetype has been changed from regular to slow bouncy.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added glowstone.
TU3							The texture of glowstone has changed, removing the border on the outside.
TU12							Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.
TU14		1.04					Priest villagers now sell 2–3 glowstone for 1 emerald.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Trading has changed: cleric villagers now sell 1–3 glowstone for 1 emerald.
			1.90				The texture of glowstone has changed.
			1.91				Trading has changed, and cleric villagers no longer sell glowstone.
							Added wandering traders, which sell glowstone.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added glowstone.

Data history

Issues

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

Trivia

• Rarely, glowstone can be found touching the ground if the ceiling it was generated on was extremely low (2–3 blocks of clearance).
• Analyzing glowstone in a material reducer, it turns out to be a 1:1:1:1:1 mixture of argon, neon and krypton noble gases, boron and an unknown element.‌^{[Bedrock Edition and Minecraft Education only]}
• Despite its name, glowstone does not mine faster with a pickaxe.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  The melting power of glowstone
• 
  Purchasing glowstone from a wandering trader
• 
  A diode made using glowstone
• 
  An example of the glowstone redstone results
• 
  A small glowstone blob
• 
  A large glowstone blob

References

External links

• Block of the Week: Glowstone – Minecraft.net on April 20, 2018