How to make an Obsidian generator in Minecraft

Obsidian is a great material block in Minecraft and is used in creating things such as Nether portals. Since Obsidian is such a quality and durable block, many players create structures such as Obsidian generators to keep their stockpile high. These builds vary in size, scope, and complexity, but they all achieve the same result: a sizable amount of Obsidian for players to mine and utilize at their leisure.

Obsidian generators can be formed both manually and automatically due to the mechanics that allow the collision of lava and water to create Obsidian. It all comes down to the Minecraft player's preference and the number of available materials.

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Creating a simple Obsidian farm in Minecraft

An early obsidian farm created during Minecraft's beta (Image via Planet Minecraft user zolo_skulldu)

While it may be tempting to immediately create a massive Obsidian farm, many Minecraft players will likely want to start small. This helps newer players or those unfamiliar with Obsidian generators understand how these designs work. This not only prevents hiccups with water and lava but also allows players to come up with creative designs of their own for a personalized Obsidian generator.

To create a simple baseline obsidian generator, Minecraft players can follow the steps below:

1. Begin by collecting a non-flammable stair block like one made of stone, a water bucket, a lava bucket, and eight trapdoors.
2. Place your stair block, then create a perimeter around it with your trapdoors by placing and activating them so they stand upward. The trapdoors should be flush with the stair block on the side, and there should be one block’s worth of space in front of and behind the stair block.
3. Place your water bucket in the front space of the stair block to waterlog it.
4. Lastly, place your lava bucket in the space behind the stair block. The waterlogged stair block will allow the water flow to clash with the lava and create an obsidian block.

Minecraft players can continue to mine obsidian if they continue to place their lava into the space behind the stair block. This method has been confirmed to work in version 1.20 for Java and Bedrock Editions of the game but may be patched out later.

The completed obsidian generator with a full obsidian block where the lava is normally placed (Image via Mojang)

Regardless, if Minecraft fans don’t mind making an infinite lava source, this compact obsidian farm can keep them taken care of for the foreseeable future.