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You can create an infinite well using two buckets of water and a hole that is one block deep and two blocks by two blocks wide. I'm wondering if it's possible to do a similar thing with lava, now that obsidian is so valuable for making portals. I have an idea for making it easier for creating portals, but it's dependent on having an effectively infinite source of lava very close to where I want to create the portal. So is this possible? If so, how?

MBraedley
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  • Possibly related: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/8295/creating-a-lava-spring-or-flow-in-minecraft – Raven Dreamer Oct 31 '10 at 20:55
  • @ Raven Dreamer Yeah, I saw that, but since that's multiplayer, it isn't relevant. I probably should have mentioned this was alpha single player. – MBraedley Oct 31 '10 at 22:04
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    FYI: You might need to change the accepted answer again - the behavior espoused by Fredley has been confirmed to be a bug. – Raven Dreamer Nov 02 '11 at 21:39
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    Will there ever be an acceptable answer? I, for one, would like to see this bug become a feature. – MBraedley Nov 03 '11 at 02:16
  • One can hope! :) – Raven Dreamer Nov 03 '11 at 02:53
  • As a future feature that is not yet included but may be planned (I can't "confirm" but I can say the 'features' to make it happen are already in the code and there was a discussion about it) datapacks may allow you to define water and lava behavior/physics possibly including interaction results. So you could say water source plus water source = water source and lava + lava = new lava. (actually if would be water:flow_distance <= 1 + water:flow_distance <=1 :: water source. There are strong indicators this will be in 1.14 or a patch to it, but it's part of the mod update, so maybe not. – ydobonebi Apr 09 '19 at 16:44

7 Answers7

26

Note: This answer exploits an old bug which has been patched in the current version of Minecraft.

No, lava can't replicate, but you can create unlimited obsidian from one lava block using a glitch involving lava flow onto redstone wire:

IQAndreas
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Joe Dovahkiin
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  • Whoa, that's a neat tileset. Any idea what it is? – Raven Dreamer Sep 02 '11 at 16:04
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    Gerudoku. – Joe Dovahkiin Sep 03 '11 at 22:27
  • Thanks, mate. I really like the water textures. Might have to steal that and hack it into my currently used texture pack. – Raven Dreamer Sep 03 '11 at 22:30
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    This answer exploits a bug which has since been fixed. This trick to generate Obsidian no longer works in MineCraft. – IQAndreas Jul 15 '13 at 06:14
  • The lava+redstone trick still works to create infinite obsidian. You need to get lava to flow downward on redstone which is next to flowing water. Here's an imgur album showing step by step how to build my version of the farm. When you've harvested the obsidian all you need to do is replace the redstone and you can open the pistons again and make more obsidian. Just make sure you don't open the pistons when there is no redstone!! – Johonn Apr 29 '14 at 16:49
  • @Johonn does this still work as of 1.12.2? – Doktor J Jan 10 '18 at 21:36
  • No, see the note at the top of this answer - it was patched a number of versions ago. – Johonn Jan 11 '18 at 01:07
  • @Johonn ahh okay. Your comment was dated April '14 and the last edit was December '13 so I was hoping :( – Doktor J Jan 11 '18 at 03:46
  • Hmm good point. Unfortunately they patched the bug with redstone as well. You can still get infinite obsidian though, just go to the end! Mine it all, then fight the dragon again and the pillars reappear! :) – Johonn Jan 11 '18 at 08:25
6

Not Any More

In Minecraft Beta 1.9 pre-5, you could make infinite quantities of lava by placing 4 lava sources around a central block as so:

As pointed out by Ben Blank, this behavior was scheduled to be reverted, and no longer works.

Oblivious Sage
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fredley
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4

There is, though it looks vastly different from the infinite water source. Put a lava source above a solid block. Then put a dripstone and cauldron under that, in that order. Note that this is slow.

Wiki: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Tutorials/Lava_farming

Image:Example of a lava farm.

Aiden L
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3

Both top answers rely on bugs that existed in previous versions of MineCraft, but have since then been fixed.

In the MineCraft 1.7.4, there is no way to get infinite lava source blocks or lava buckets.

However, you can get infinite obsidian by exploiting the fact that portals between the nether and the overworld are re-created (offering "free" obsidian) if no existing portals are in range. This mechanic is described about half way through this video, and still works in 1.7.4:

pppery
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IQAndreas
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1

There is no way to replicate lava, like water, in actual Minecraft.

However, I found a way to get lava infinetly. In the Nether, the netherrack walls contain lava patches. I also noticed that netherrack walls regenerate if you go too far away from the mined channels. So, lava might also re-generate in them.

John
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  • HI, John! Kudos for the suggestion. Have you confirmed that it works? – jpaugh Sep 20 '18 at 01:16
  • @jpaugh Well, I think it was probably a client-sided glitch, from what I found out in the meantime. – John Oct 18 '18 at 20:20
  • Okay, thanks! I don't think I'll miss it, though. I've gotten tired of dying in lava since I asked, and have resorted to walking across obsidian, instead of bridges. – jpaugh Oct 18 '18 at 23:04
0

I'm playing the newest update in multiplayer and I've noticed that while farming cobblestone, sometimes a lava flow block turns into a source block when the surrounding flow blocks turn into cobblestone.

My hypothesis is that this has something to due with the lag (I play on a very busy server). I play on a Skyblock server so being able to duplicate lava source blocks (even if the result is uncommon and unpredictable) is very useful because of the limited resource availability.

A top view diagram of my cobblestone farm: 

   X   
 XX#XX     
Xx   xX       
Xx   xX   
 XX@XX     
   X

Key:

  • x - 1 stone block
  • X - 2 stone blocks (stacked);
  • @ - Water placed on a stone block (after farm is filled with flowing lava);
  • # - Lava source placed on a stone block
MinorCrafter
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  • I forgot to mention something. The lava source block turns up in the O space just below the Lava space. If you try it out, that space normally has a cobblestone block on top of nothing (air) after you add the water, but every-so-often the empty space under the cobblestone block will instead be a lava source block. – MinorCrafter Apr 26 '13 at 05:09
  • Can that lava source block that is produced be picked up with a bucket, or is it just some sort of "ghost block". If it is a lag issue, it should "correct itself" after logging back in, meaning you don't end up with any "free lava" anyway. – IQAndreas Jul 14 '13 at 07:51
  • Also, do you have any video that shows this mechanic in action? Both to prove that it really works, but also the answer provided might be clearer with a video instead. – IQAndreas Jul 14 '13 at 07:52
  • @IQAndreas I experienced this too playing SMP Skyblock. The lava was real, persisted across many days of logins, and could be collected with a bucket. (It's not a lag bug—that's just someone wildly guessing.) That was 1.5.2 though. – SevenSidedDie Jul 14 '13 at 14:27
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It's not actually possible to recreate lava with other lava. There is no real reason to worry about getting lava sources if you have a lot of iron and a nether portal, although getting it is a hard job and I recommend to get potions before you start collecting lava in the nether.

TheGalacticBlaze
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