Glowstone

Glowstone

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool	Any tool
Blast resistance	0.3
Hardness	0.3
Luminant	Yes (15)
Transparent	Yes
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

Glowstone is a light-emitting block that occurs in branching structures, found hanging from ceilings and overhangs in the Nether.

Obtaining

Natural generation

Glowstone occurs naturally only in the Nether, where it generates in crystalline blobs on the underside of ceilings or overhangs. They can be found in every Nether biome, although they are significantly rarer in soul sand valleys,^[1] because the ceiling of this biome is made of soul sand or soul soil below which glowstone blobs cannot generate; they can still occasionally generate in caves and canyons in this biome,^[2] because the ceiling is made of netherrack.

Glowstone can also generate as a part of hoglin stable bastion remnants.

Breaking

If glowstone is broken using a tool with Silk Touch, the block drops itself. If a tool with Fortune is used, it has a higher chance of dropping a large amount of glowstone dust—but never more than 4. When a glowstone block is broken using any other tool, it drops 2–4 glowstone dust.

Chest loot

Crafting

Trading and drops

Although glowstone can only be found in block form in the Nether, all renewable ways of obtaining glowstone are accessed through the Overworld.

Journeyman-level cleric villagers sell glowstone for four emeralds.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Wandering traders sell glowstone for two emeralds.

Witches may drop glowstone dust, which can be crafted into glowstone.

Usage

Analyzing glowstone in a material reducer, it turns out to be a 1:1:1:1:1 mixture of Argon, Neon and Krypton noble gases, Boron and an unknown element.‌^{[Bedrock and Education editions only]}

Light source

Glowstone blocks emit a light level of 15, the brightest possible light level in the game. They emit the same amount of light as lanterns, sea lanterns, jack o'lanterns, redstone lamps, conduits, beacons, shroomlights, and froglights.

Redstone circuits

When placing redstone dust on a glowstone block, being a transparent block, signals can pass from one block to another diagonally. Redstone wire, even though it may appear to connect up the side of a glowstone block and to the wire portion on top, does not send a redstone signal down the glowstone block. This makes glowstone effective for vertical diodes, logic gate designs, and space-efficient instant vertical redstone.

Note that upside-down slabs can be used for the same purpose, and are easier to obtain.

Crafting ingredient

Note blocks

Glowstone can be placed under note blocks to produce pling sounds.

Respawn anchors

Glowstone is used to charge respawn anchors.

If a dispenser containing glowstone is facing a respawn anchor, it can automatically charge the respawn anchor when powered.

Transparent block

Glowstone blocks all sunlight, players and mobs suffocate inside it, mobs are able to pathfind to it, and it blocks a beacon beam, preventing the beacon's activation. However, like transparent blocks, it does not prevent the opening of chests, monsters (including slimes) cannot spawn on it, and it does not transfer a redstone signal. This behavior also occurs in sea lanterns.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Not Quite "Nine" Lives	Charge a Respawn Anchor to the maximum	Who is Cutting Onions?	—	nether/charge_respawn_anchor

History

Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0		preview			Added glowstone.
					Glowstone is shown to drop itself when mined.
		release			The crafting recipe for glowstone is 3×3 glowstone dust. Recipe Ingredients Crafting recipe Glowstone Dust
					The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone is 1.
					The material type of glowstone is currently "glass".
Java Edition Beta
1.6.6					The crafting recipe of glowstone has changed to 2×2 glowstone dust.
					The drop rate of glowstone dust from mined glowstone has increased to 2–4.
					The material type of glowstone has changed to "stone", meaning a pickaxe is now needed to drop items, and block dependent blocks can now be placed on the block.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5			The texture of glowstone has changed, removing the border on the outside.
		RC1			The material type of glowstone has changed once again to "glass".
1.2.1		12w06a			Redstone can now be placed on glowstone. Redstone wire can now transmit only upward through it.
		12w07a			Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.
1.3.1		12w21a			Priest villagers now sell 2–3 glowstone for 1 emerald, making glowstone renewable.
1.5		13w02a			In texture packs, glowstone now use /textures/blocks/lightgem.png.
1.7.2		13w41a			Glowstone can typically no longer be used to see through blocks.
1.8		14w02a			Trading has changed: cleric villagers now sell 1–3 glowstone for 1 emerald.
		14w05b			Mobs now suffocate inside of glowstone.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 89.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of glowstone has changed.
		18w47a			The texture of glowstone has changed, once again.
		19w05a			Added wandering traders, which sell glowstone.
		19w09a			Glowstone now makes a "pling" sound when placed under a note block.
1.16		20w12a			Glowstone is now used to craft and power up respawn anchors.
		20w13a			Dispensers can now charge respawn anchors with glowstone.
		20w16a			Glowstone now generates in bastion remnants chests.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.5.0					Added glowstone.
v0.9.0		build 1			Smooth lighting has removed from glowstone.
v0.12.1		build 1			Glowstone can now be obtained by breaking it using the Silk Touch enchantment.
v0.13.0		build 1			Glowstone is now used to craft redstone lamps.
Pocket Edition
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			Glowstone is now sold by cleric villagers.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Glowstone is now sold by the new wandering trader.
					The texture of glowstone has changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.4			Trading has changed, cleric villagers no longer sell glowstone.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			Glowstone now causes a note block to make a "pling" sound when placed under it.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added glowstone.
		1.90			The texture of glowstone has changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added glowstone.

Issues

Issues relating to "Glowstone" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Because glowstone blocks become block entities when moved by pistons, this momentarily stops them from giving off light.^[3]
• Rarely, glowstone can be found touching the ground if the ceiling it was generated on was extremely low (2–3 blocks of clearance).

Gallery

• 

  The melting pattern of glowstone.

• 

  Purchasing glowstone from a cleric villager.

• 

  A diode made using glowstone.

• 

  An example of the glowstone redstone results.

• 

  A small glowstone blob.

• 

  A large glowstone blob.

References