Why lava is one of the most annoying Minecraft features

Two kinds of liquids are generated in a Minecraft world: lava and water. While water is most commonly found as massive water bodies, like oceans and rivers in the Overworld, lava is typically found as massive lakes and in small pockets in the Nether. Lava also generates deep underground in the Overworld.

While water cannot hurt players, destroy items, or kill entities, lava damages most entities, items, and players. An argument can be made that lava can sometimes feel like one of the most frustrating features in Minecraft.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.

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Ways in which lava can be extremely annoying in Minecraft

Lava makes it difficult to travel in the Nether

Traveling in the Nether is tricky because of lava (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

When players first enter the Nether, the first major feature they will notice is that the dimension is filled with lots of lava. Many Nether biomes have massive lavafalls and lava lakes. If players try to dig around in the hellish realm, they can discover small lava pockets suddenly open and flow rapidly.

Because of large amounts of lava in the Nether, traveling around the dimension is a massive issue. Players usually need to build long bridges over lava lakes, which can be quite tricky and nerve-wracking. Additionally, while digging in the Nether, they need to keep a distance from where they dig. This is because of sudden lava pockets that can get exposed and burn players.

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Most items burn away in lava

Every item apart from netherite burns away in lava (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

Another annoying detail about lava is that if any item drops in it, it will instantly burn and vanish. The only exceptions are the netherite ingot and netherite-made gears. This can be particularly annoying if players accidentally die near lava.

When players die, all the items in their inventory drop to the nearby blocks. Hence, there is a strong chance that many of their items might fall into lava and simply burn away.

Because of this, they will lose most of the items just because they died near lava. What's worse is that if they die in lava by burning, they will lose every single item they had on them, except netherite.

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Lava burns surrounding areas

Lava burns most blocks that are placed around it (Image via Sportskeeda Gaming || Mojang Studios)

While lava is most commonly generated in the Nether and in Overworld's underground levels, it can also occasionally be generated on the surface as small lava ponds.

Lava has a tendency to massively increase the heat level of the surrounding areas, so much so that natural flora, like trees, grass, and other blocks, start burning up. After a point, even a small lava pond can create a large forest fire.

This feature of lava creating a hot area around it and burning certain blocks can also affect specific builds, where players try to place lava as a form of decoration and light source. If the lava is not covered properly, players might return to find half of their base burnt down.

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