You've finally found it. You’re standing in the middle of a jagged, purple-stained Ruined Portal, heart racing because you found a block that looks way cooler than the standard, boring obsidian. It’s got those glowing purple veins. It literally drips "tears" of energy. Naturally, you think: this is the upgrade. You fill in the gaps of the frame with more crying obsidian, pull out your flint and steel, and strike.
Nothing happens.
It’s frustrating. You’ve probably spent twenty minutes mining it with a diamond pickaxe, or maybe you spent a stack of gold bartering with Piglins just to get enough. But no matter how many times you click that flint and steel, the portal frame stays cold and empty.
Do Crying Obsidian Portals Work?
The short answer is no. Honestly, it’s one of the biggest letdowns in Minecraft’s survival mode. Despite being a variant of obsidian and looking like it’s literally pulsing with Nether energy, crying obsidian does not work for portals. You cannot use it to light a Nether portal, and you cannot mix it with regular obsidian to complete a frame.
If even one block in that 2x3 (or larger) rectangular frame is crying obsidian, the portal will not ignite.
Minecraft is usually pretty logical with its block variants, but this one feels like a bait-and-switch. You find these blocks at ruined portals. The game basically places them there as if to say, "Hey, look at this broken doorway!" but then forbids you from using the very material the doorway is made of to fix it.
Why Mojang made it this way
From a game design perspective, it’s mostly about technical limitations and clear progression. Regular obsidian is a "dumb" block. It’s a solid, immovable object that acts as a container for the portal entity. Crying obsidian, however, is a light source. It emits a light level of 10.
It also has a very specific purpose that has nothing to do with travel.
💡 You might also like: Play Jewel Quest Online: What Most People Get Wrong
It’s the primary ingredient for the Respawn Anchor. If Mojang allowed crying obsidian to function as a portal frame, it would confuse the block's "identity." In their eyes, regular obsidian is for the door, and crying obsidian is for the bed (sorta).
What happens if you try to light it?
When you use flint and steel on a frame containing crying obsidian, you just get a regular fire on top of the block. It’s exactly what happens when you try to light a portal frame made of dirt or wood. The game check for a valid frame fails because "crying_obsidian" isn't on the "valid_portal_frame" list in the game's code.
I've seen players try to get around this by using fire charges or even lighting TNT nearby. It won't help. You’re fighting the code, not the mechanics.
The real uses for crying obsidian
Since you can't use it for your trans-dimensional commute, what is it actually good for? Don't throw it in the lava just yet. It’s actually one of the most valuable blocks for late-game Nether survival.
- The Respawn Anchor: This is the big one. By combining six pieces of crying obsidian with three pieces of glowstone, you can craft a Respawn Anchor. This allows you to set your spawn point in the Nether. If you die, you don't go back to your bed in the Overworld; you pop right back at the anchor.
- Decoration and Lighting: Because it gives off light, it’s great for builds where you want a "corrupted" or magical look without using torches. It doesn’t melt ice or snow, which makes it a weirdly specific but useful choice for Tundra bases.
- Blast Resistance: Like its non-crying cousin, it has a blast resistance of 1,200. Ghasts can’t blow it up. Withers will have a hard time with it. It’s a tanky block.
How to actually get it
If you're looking to stock up (maybe for a massive decorative project since the portal dream is dead), you have three main ways:
- Ruined Portals: They naturally generate with a mix of regular and crying obsidian.
- Bastion Remnants: Check the chests. Piglins love hoarding this stuff.
- Piglins Bartering: Toss a gold ingot at a Piglin. You have about an 8.7% chance of getting 1–3 pieces of crying obsidian in return. It’s the most efficient way to farm it if you have a gold farm.
Can you make it work with mods?
If you're on PC (Java Edition), the "no" becomes a "maybe." The Minecraft community felt the same disappointment you did, so they did what they always do: they modded it.
There are several data packs and mods, like Enhanced Nether Portals or various Vanilla Tweaks scripts, that add crying obsidian to the list of valid frame blocks. Some mods even add special properties to these portals, like making them "one-way" or allowing them to link to the End instead of the Nether. But in the vanilla game? No dice.
Common misconceptions about "Crying Portals"
You might have seen videos or TikToks of people jumping through glowing purple portals made entirely of crying obsidian. Usually, these are one of three things:
- Creative Mode /setblock commands: You can manually place the "portal" block inside any frame using commands.
- The 20w14infinite Snapshot: This was an April Fools update where almost anything could be a portal. People still use footage from this to trick newer players.
- Texture Packs: Some people just re-skin regular obsidian to look like crying obsidian so they can have the aesthetic without the heartbreak.
What you should do next
If you're standing in front of a ruined portal right now with a handful of crying obsidian and a dream, here’s the plan.
First, use a Diamond or Netherite pickaxe to mine those crying blocks. Do not use iron. You’ll just break the block and get nothing.
Second, replace those spots with regular obsidian. You can make regular obsidian easily by pouring a water bucket over source blocks of lava. Once the frame is 100% regular obsidian, light it up.
Save that crying obsidian for a Respawn Anchor. Trust me, the first time you get knocked into a lava lake by a Hoglin, you’ll be glad you had a spawn point nearby instead of a fancy-looking (but broken) door.
Actionable Insight:
If you really want the "crying" look for your portal, build the frame out of regular obsidian first and light it. Then, place the crying obsidian blocks around the frame as a secondary decorative layer. The portal will stay lit as long as the internal regular obsidian frame remains intact.