Minecraft Crying Obsidian Guide: How to Get and Use It

Crying obsidian is a new type of block that was been added in the Minecraft 1.16 Nether Update. This new material looks similar to the normal obsidian, but it is a slightly lighter purple color.

Crying obsidian is mainly used as a crafting material for respawn anchors, which allow you to set respawn points in the updated nether. Below, we show you how to find crying obsidian, as well as how to use it. 

Minecraft: How to Get and Use Crying Obsidian

How to Get Crying Obsidian in Minecraft

Ruined Portals

The only naturally occurring source of crying obsidian in Minecraft 1.16 is ruined portals, which appear in both the overworld and the nether. Usually, ruined portals are often a mix of crying obsidian and regular obsidia blocks. 

A portal will not activate if at least one of the blocks is made of crying obsidian. You will have to break it down by using either a diamond or a netherite pickaxe.

Bastion Remnants

Another way of getting crying obsidian is to find it in a treasure chest in bastion remnant structures, which can be found in the nether.

Crying obsidian blocks spawn completely randomly inside chests, so you just have to be lucky to find one using this method.

Piglins

Lastly, you can trade gold ingots with piglins, new mobs in the nether. There’s a 10% chance that a piglin will give you crying obsidian in exchange for gold ingots. But if you’re lucky, you can get 3 blocks of crying obsidian for just a single golden ingot.

How to Use Crying Obsidian

Crying obsidian’s primary use is in crafting respawn anchors. You can read all about respawn anchors right here.

But crying obsidian is also an excellent building block because it is highly resilient. It cannot be pushed by pistons, and elder dragons cannot destroy it.

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That’s all you need to know about crying obsidian in Minecraft. When you obtain crying obsidian for the first time, you will also achieve the “Who is Cutting Onions?” advancement. Check out the links above for more on Minecraft 1.16, our other Minecraft guides, or our extensive seed lists, including those intended for 1.16 play.