What Does Crying Obsidian Do in Minecraft

Crying Obsidian is a material that was first introduced in the Nether Update. Unlike regular Obsidian, Crying Obsidian cannot be used to create a Nether Portal.

In fact, according to the material’s description, Obsidian in a Nether Portal eventually loses its power, becoming Crying Obsidian in the process. So, if it can’t be used to create a portal, what does Crying Obsidian do in Minecraft?

What Does Crying Obsidian Do in Minecraft?

Crying Obsidian is a luminous, purple-veined variant of regular Obsidian. It emanates a light level of 10 but doesn’t melt snow or ice as fire does.

Crying Obsidian occasionally produces purple particles that fall off the block like “tears,” thus its name.

So, what does it do?

On its own? Nothing at all. According to official Minecraft lore, Crying Obsidian is what you get when the Obsidian in a Nether Portal loses its juice. As a result, Crying Obsidian can’t be used to teleport to the Nether.

In the game, players use Crying Obsidian primarily for two things: as material for crafting Respawn Anchors, and to produce bass drum sounds when used in conjunction with note blocks.

What is a Respawn Anchor?

	Ingredient	Total
	Crying Obsidian	6
	Glowstone	3

As its name suggests, the Respawn Anchor lets you anchor your spawn point to a location in the Nether. Just like a bed, you must click on a Respawn Anchor to set your spawn location. The Respawn Anchor must have at least a single charge, too.

Multiple players can set their respawn point to the same Anchor. Each time a player respawns next to the Respawn Anchor, its total charge is reduced by one.

Once Anchor’s charges are reduced to zero, it will stop functioning, and players can no longer spawn there. In this case, the players will spawn back at the world spawn point.

To craft a Respawn Anchor, you need 3 Glowstones and 6 Crying Obsidian.