How to use Respawn Anchor in Minecraft: Crying Obsidian details, and more

Minecraft - a respawn anchor made of crying obsidian sitting near a lava sea

(Image credit: Mojang)

What is a Minecraft Respawn Anchor, and how do you use it? It's just one of the many interesting new items to come to the game as part of update 1.16. As part of the Nether update, you'll find yourself plumbing the deep dark of Mojang's blocky underworld to take advantage of some of the new items found amid its murky depths.

One of the most useful new items is the Respawn Anchor, despite the fact it's got nothing to do with fishing. Anyway, here's everything you need to know about this handy new tool, and how to craft it by farming some Minecraft Crying Obsidian.

What does a Minecraft Respawn Anchor do?

A Respawn Anchor is a new kind of block that allows you to set your spawn point in the Nether. Now, that comes with a fair few risks, but you should already know just how dangerous this area is already, so it's seriously useful to have this backup.

Once you’ve crafted a Respawn Anchor block, you need to charge it with Glowstone. You can increase the charge up to a fourth level by using more of these crystalline clusters, too. Every time you use it to respawn it’ll go down a charge level, so keep it charged if you want to keep using it.

How to make a Respawn Anchor in Minecraft

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To craft a Respawn Anchor you’ll need a total of nine blocks. Three of those blocks need to be Glowstone, which you can find dotted around the Nether. The other six blocks all need to be Crying Obsidian, and while you think you might be able to get that throwing onions at normal Obsidian, you actually need to put in a bit more work to get hold of this rare block type—more on that below.

Minecraft Crying Obsidian: what it is and how to farm it

Crying Obsidian is also a glowing form of Obsidian. However, you can’t simply mash water and lava together to create it. Instead, you’ll need to track down either a Ruined Portal, or a Bastion Remnant in the Nether. The former will have some Crying Obsidian as part of the frame. The latter will require you to find chests within the Bastion Remnant and keep your fingers crossed that maybe RNG will bless you with this rare material.

There isn't strictly a way of farming Crying Obsidian in Minecraft, you just have to go on a lot of adventures. You’ll need to scour the Nether for the Ruined Portals and Bastion Remnants and either mine or grab it from chests. This is a time-consuming affair, but at the moment, there’s not a more efficient way to increase your stock of it. Keep in mind that you can only mine Crying Obsidian with a Minecraft Diamond Pickaxe or above, too.