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, Apr 24 '11 at 22:53
From my "testing" of TNT, I think you'll still take damage inside the shelter, but I haven't really tested this scenario. — Kevin Yap, Apr 24 '11 at 22:56
@Martin > That's all been prepared. I'm not too worried about that at the moment. This scenario was really just used as an example for the base question. — GnomeSlice, Apr 24 '11 at 22:57
I only hope you shoo'ed the sheep to safety before testing this. — Rapida, Apr 25 '11 at 02:34
I only hope you record this and post it to youtube while testing it. — SevenSidedDie, Apr 28 '11 at 03:46
@GnomeSlice Surely you have a backup… and the free time to indulge the idle curiosity of random people on the internet!? (j/k) — SevenSidedDie, Apr 28 '11 at 05:02
@SevenSidedDie > Unfortunately, I don't think the server owner has a backup from before this incident. — GnomeSlice, Apr 28 '11 at 06:35
Obviously that person was an op, and you should do-op them until they learn to ask before doing stuff that might crash the server. — Kzqai, Jun 19 '11 at 22:34
@KevinYap unless you put multiple layers of Obsidian, about 3-5 to protect yourself completely from the blast (2 will lower damage a bit because only the weaker part of the blast is hitting you), or wear full Blast Protection IV Netherite Armor (Netherite Armor is the strongest type of Armor, and Blast Prot IV makes it stronger (and if it was applied to Diamond armor before they removed Protection type stacking, it can have the other types of Protection as well!), so it will reduce the damage a lot). — EmCeeChupi the Undying, Apr 14 '22 at 18:32

GnomeSlice · Answer 1 · 2011-05-04T04:58:08.447

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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 04 '11 at 04:58

answered Apr 24 '11 at 23:41

GnomeSlice

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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 Apr 25 '11 at 02:29
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This has got to be the screenshot of the week. – Ullallulloo Apr 25 '11 at 17:00
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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 May 13 '11 at 16:49
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Were you wearing armor? – Zommuter Jul 29 '13 at 06:35
I don't believe so, but I don't remember. Whoops. – GnomeSlice Jul 29 '13 at 13:58
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I sure hope that sheep survived... – Zibbobz Mar 19 '14 at 14:03
Was this like that scene from Indiana Jones 4? – JesseTG Apr 04 '16 at 20:57

score 56 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 28 '23 at 15:01

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 '23 at 15:01

Community

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answered Apr 25 '11 at 03:07

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. Jan 14 '20 at 12:29

score 14 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 28 '23 at 14:52

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.

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

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 28 '23 at 14:52

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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 '23 at 14:52

Community

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answered Apr 25 '11 at 14:17

Ed Brannin

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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 Apr 25 '11 at 16:30
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A good tip, but this doesn't really answer the question about Obsidian. =] – GnomeSlice Jul 09 '11 at 22:55

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 27 '13 at 19:11

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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 '13 at 19:11