Potent Sulfur

Potent Sulfur

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	6
Hardness	1.5
Luminous	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color	30 GOLD
Note block instrument	Bass Drum

Potent sulfur is a block made from sulfur that produces noxious gas, which gives Nausea temporarily, if placed beneath shallow water. Placing a magma block below it in shallow water turns it into a geyser that occasionally erupts and launches entities upward. Placing lava below it causes a constant, non-stop eruption instead.

Obtaining

Breaking

Potent sulfur drops as an item if mined by any pickaxe. If mined without a pickaxe, it drops nothing.

Block	Potent Sulfur
Hardness	1.5
Tool
Breaking time (sec)[A]
Default	17.5 (JE) 7.5 (BE)
Wooden	11.15 (JE) 1.15 (BE)
Stone	10.6 (JE) 0.6 (BE)
Copper	10.45 (JE) 0.45 (BE)
Iron	10.4 (JE) 0.4 (BE)
Diamond	10.3 (JE) 0.3 (BE)
Netherite	10.25 (JE) 0.25 (BE)
Golden	10.2 (JE) 0.2 (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

Potent sulfur generates naturally in the sulfur caves biome in sulfur pools and on the surface in sulfur springs.

Crafting

Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Sulfur

Usage

Noxious gas

When placed under a water source, potent sulfur emits a column of decorative white bubbles, ending in noxious gas on the water's surface (indicated by yellow gas particles) if certain criteria are met. For noxious gas to be formed, all the water blocks above potent sulfur must be source blocks, potent sulfur must be placed no more than 4 blocks below the water's surface, and the block immediately above the surface must be air. Noxious gas is emitted on all water source blocks with air above in a 3 block radius centered on the surface water block directly above potent sulfur.

Players and mobs in this water are inflicted with 4 seconds of Nausea as an ambient effect, which is renewed as long as the entity is inside the water.

Geysers

"Geyser" redirects here. For the generated feature, see Sulfur Spring. For the hazard in Minecraft Legends, see Legends:Geyser.

When placed above lava or a magma block and below a water source with a height of 1 to 4 blocks, potent sulfur erupts into a geyser, either continuously or periodically depending on which block is underneath. When a potent sulfur block is erupting, particles forming a geyser appear at the surface of the water and push any entities within it (including underwater) upward. In Bedrock Edition, entities will only be launched if the point at their feet position is located inside the column of blocks above the geyser. This is different to the behavior of bubble columns, which only require that any part of the entity's collision box is touching the bubble column block in order to receive a force.

The height of the geyser depends on the height of the water column: (in blocks).

Continuous geysers

When placed above a lava source, potent sulfur erupts continuously.

Periodic geysers

When placed above a magma block, potent sulfur may occasionally erupt. A full cycle occurs every 300 to 1200 game ticks (15 to 60 seconds), while the eruption phase lasts between 20 and 100 game ticks (1 to 5 seconds).

When a block of potent sulfur is placed, two random values are assigned to it based on the position of the block in the world: a dormant value (between 15 and 30) and an eruption value (between 1 and 2). The intervals between the dormant state and the eruption state depend on the height of the water column above the potent sulfur and these two values:

• dormant phase duration (in seconds): ;
• eruption phase duration (in seconds): .

Geysers going through blocks

When a singular block is placed above a geyser, but not directly above its water source, some of the geyser particles pass through it and lose the ability to launch entities.

Generation

Geysers generate naturally on the surface as part of sulfur springs due to them featuring magma blocks. The sulfur pools within sulfur caves do not feature magma blocks underneath their potent sulfur, and thus geysers cannot be found naturally in sulfur caves.

Piston interactivity

Potent sulfur is a block entity and cannot be pushed by pistons. It also cannot be pushed nor pulled by sticky pistons.

Sounds

Generic

Java Edition:

potent_sulfur sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.potent_sulfur.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Block placed​[until: JE 26.4]	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.potent_sulfur.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.potent_sulfur.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block without fall damage	block.potent_sulfur.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	1.0	1.0	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.potent_sulfur.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	1.0	10	16

Bedrock Edition:

potent_sulfur sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.potent_sulfur.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.potent_sulfur.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.potent_sulfur.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.3	0.5
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.potent_sulfur.fall	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	1.0	0.75
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.potent_sulfur.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.3	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Jumping from the block	block.potent_sulfur.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	?	?
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	block.potent_sulfur.fall	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	?	?

Unique

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Potent Sulfur	potent_sulfur	Block & Item	block.minecraft.potent_sulfur

Name	Identifier
Block entity	potent_sulfur

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Block tags	Translation key
Potent Sulfur	potent_sulfur	1363	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3] (Numeric: -1108)	minecraft:is_pickaxe_item_destructible	tile.potent_sulfur.name

Name	Identifier
Block entity	PotentSulfurBlock

Block states

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Block data

Potent sulfur has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

History

Announcement

March 21, 2026							Potent sulfur is announced at Minecraft Live – March 2026.

Java Edition

Java Edition
26.2			snap1				Added potent sulfur.
							Potent sulfur can craft into sulfur. 4
			snap3				Potent sulfur can no longer be crafted into sulfur.
			snap5				Potent sulfur now forms a geyser if a magma block is beneath it.
							Potent sulfur blocks that generate as part of sulfur springs now form geysers.
			snap6				Geyser eruptions emit game events at the beginning and at the end of the eruption that can be detected by sculk sensors.
							Updated eruption sounds (from to ).
			snap7				Potent sulfur now forms a continuously erupting geyser if lava is beneath it.
							Eruption and cooldown times of geysers are now randomized based on the position of the block and do not change if the block is replaced.
							Noxious gas from potent sulfur can now rise through non-collidable waterlogged blocks and spread through other non-collidable blocks.
							Erupting potent sulfur can now emit its plume and boost entities through non-collidable blocks.
			pre1				Potent sulfur no longer forms a geyser if a non-source lava block is beneath it.

Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Edition
26.20 Experiment Drop 2 of 2026			Preview 26.20.23				Added potent sulfur.
26.30			Preview 26.30.20				Implemented all features from the "Drop 2 of 2026" experiment in vanilla gameplay.
			Preview 26.30.25				Potent sulfur now forms a geyser if a magma block is beneath it.
							Potent sulfur blocks that generate as part of sulfur springs now form geysers.
			Preview 26.30.27				Geysers now have sounds.
			Preview 26.30.28				Potent sulfur now forms a continuously erupting geyser if lava is beneath it.
							Eruption and cooldown times of geysers are now randomized based on the position of the block and do not change if the block is replaced.
							Noxious gas from potent sulfur can now rise through non-collidable waterlogged blocks and spread through other non-collidable blocks.
							Erupting potent sulfur can now emit its plume and boost entities through non-collidable blocks.

Issues

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

Trivia

• The block entity of potent sulfur in Bedrock Edition does nothing, because the counter function for geyser is performed by the block's own tick.
• Geysers were a feature long desired by Agnes Larsson prior to the block's inclusion.^[1]

References