Do Blasts Pass Through Obsidian?

Question

I'm in a bit of a pickle.

It seems someone playing on my friend's SMP server decided that it would be a good idea for him to do some testing with TNT.

Endless Sea of TNT

Now, he's conscientiously set this atrocity up a reasonable distance from the rest of the construction on the server, so I don't think that it will effect any damage in the other projects, but someone still has to get rid of it. Guess Who.

This is what I've come up with, as a means of surviving the cataclysm:

Obsidian Shelter

However, this shelter is of course, based on the assumption that since Obsidian cannot be destroyed by explosions, it will act as a barrier to their consequences. If I were to hide inside this shelter, would I emerge unscathed after detonating the TNT?

From my own experiments with large areas of TNT on multiplayer servers (my own! not griefing!) setting of that much much TNT is likely to cause a lot of lag, possiby even crash the server. So you may want to back up the save game file before trying, and have as few players as possible on the server at the time of detonation. — Martin, Commented Apr 24, 2011 at 22:53
I only hope you shoo'ed the sheep to safety before testing this. — Rapida, Commented Apr 25, 2011 at 2:34
I only hope you record this and post it to youtube while testing it. — SevenSidedDie, Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 3:46
@GnomeSlice Surely you have a backup… and the free time to indulge the idle curiosity of random people on the internet!? (j/k) — SevenSidedDie, Commented Apr 28, 2011 at 5:02

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-28 15:01:23Z

56

Anecdotally, from the explosion patterns on another question, I never saw a block that was further from the center being destroyed while another, closer block wasn't. All my target blocks (redstone) had 0 resistance, so anything touching them should have popped them (though they do have a sort of resistance when they get destroyed).

The mechanics as described on the Explosion page over on the Minecraft Wiki state that they are modeled as rays originating from the explosion center travelling out until they are fully attenuated. If they all meet an impenetrable wall (obsidian), they can all be absorbed and nothing gets through.

edited Nov 28, 2023 at 15:01

CommunityBot

1

answered Apr 25, 2011 at 3:07

Nick T

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Not sure about TNT but charged creeper explosions do pass through obsidian. My mob head farm is a tall open-top obsidian cage where I blow up charged creepers in company of other mobs. The rather neat dungeon around is now full of holes after several uses of the farm.
– SF.
Commented Jan 14, 2020 at 12:29

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GnomeSlice · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-04 04:58:08Z

146

I LIVED.

Based on this, it appears that yes, obsidian 'blocks' the effects of explosions. My health meter flashed, and my character said Oof! a bunch of times, but no damage was taken.

edited May 4, 2011 at 4:58

answered Apr 24, 2011 at 23:41

GnomeSlice

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2

I stand corrected. I guess the difference is that the obsidian doesn't get destroyed in the explosions (generally my informal experiences come from cobblestone or dirt walls). Nice evidence. :)
– Kevin Yap
Commented Apr 25, 2011 at 2:29
13

This has got to be the screenshot of the week.
– Ullallulloo
Commented Apr 25, 2011 at 17:00
1

I'd guess the flashing/'oof'ing was a byproduct of some sort of client-side prediction guessing that you were taking damage, but getting nullified by the server saying "no that player isn't getting hurt". Really awesome demo/test though!
– Doktor J
Commented May 13, 2011 at 16:49
2

Were you wearing armor?
– Zommuter
Commented Jul 29, 2013 at 6:35
15

I sure hope that sheep survived...
– Zibbobz
Commented Mar 19, 2014 at 14:03

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-28 14:52:10Z

14

Depending on how you define "passing through", because explosion has different effects on blocks and entities.

According to the Minecraft wiki article on explosion, entities (including you the player) will always get at least 1 point (half-heart) damage if they are within blast radius (TNT: 8, creepers: 6, fireballs: 2), regardless of explosion exposure (calculated with sophisticate algorithm, or simply how much you're covered by obsidian). And the damage can be absorbed by armor subsequently.

The above statement is reproducible for me with a 1.5_01 client. However, the main part of that article was written by me based on disassembled code, so I can't provide more verifiable sources than this.

edited Nov 28, 2023 at 14:52

CommunityBot

1

answered May 11, 2011 at 13:53

xfs

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4

Who doesn't love disassembled code? +1 :)
– GnomeSlice
Commented May 11, 2011 at 15:09

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-28 14:52:10Z

3

I don't know if this would work on large areas like yours, but according to the minecraft wiki, water will block terrain damage (but not player/mob damage).

edited Nov 28, 2023 at 14:52

CommunityBot

1

answered Apr 25, 2011 at 14:17

Ed Brannin

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1

Yeah, to do EOD in Minecraft all you need is a bucket of water. Douse an area, set a few off, and repeat. They won't chain if submerged, the only hazard is that if you activate multiple and the explosion from one knocks another out of the water, then problems can arise.
– Nick T
Commented Apr 25, 2011 at 16:30
2

A good tip, but this doesn't really answer the question about Obsidian. =]
– GnomeSlice
Commented Jul 9, 2011 at 22:55

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user52700 · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-27 19:11:47Z

2

I did a similar experiment with obsidian. I placed tnt all around an obsidian box. Then I put four chests in the obsidian box. After covering all the walls with obsidian and then setting off the tnt, 3 of the four chests that were in the obsidian were destroyed. My conclusion: even though explosions don't destroy obsidian, they still go through the obsidian block and can damage blocks inside the box.

answered Jul 27, 2013 at 19:11

user52700

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