Do this before you read.
Craft a respawn anchor. Charge it with glowstone. Set your Nether spawn. That is the goal. Here is how.
TL;DR:
- Crying obsidian comes from ruined portals or Piglin bartering — you cannot mine it yourself early on
- Respawn anchor recipe: 6 crying obsidian + 3 glowstone blocks in a crafting table
- Charge it by right-clicking with glowstone blocks — 4 charges maximum
- Each death uses one charge; 4 glowstone blocks = 4 Nether respawns
- Never place a respawn anchor in the Overworld or the End — it explodes like a bed
- For family servers, one anchor per player at a known safe location works well
Most players figure out the bed situation the hard way. You build a cozy base in the Nether. You place a bed to sleep. The bed explodes and takes half your base with it. Now you know.
The respawn anchor is the answer to that problem. It is the only object in the game that lets you set a spawn point in the Nether without losing your base to an explosion. Here is where it comes from and how to use it right.
Where Crying Obsidian Comes From
You cannot craft crying obsidian. You have to find it or trade for it.
The two sources are ruined portals and Piglin bartering.
Ruined portals spawn in both the Overworld and the Nether. They are partially destroyed portal frames with crying obsidian mixed in among the regular obsidian blocks. You can mine crying obsidian with a diamond or netherite pickaxe — the same tool requirement as regular obsidian. Each ruined portal usually has between 2 and 8 crying obsidian blocks depending on its size.
Piglin bartering is the other option. Throw a gold ingot at a Piglin (or right-click them with it) and they will toss something back. The possible loot table includes crying obsidian, but the drop chance is only about 9 percent per trade. If you have a lot of gold and patience, this works. If you need crying obsidian fast, ruined portals are more reliable.
You need 6 crying obsidian for one respawn anchor. A single ruined portal might give you enough. It might give you 2. Plan to check a few.
The Crafting Recipe
The respawn anchor uses 6 crying obsidian and 3 glowstone blocks.
Arrange them in a crafting table like this:
[Crying] [Crying] [Crying]
[Glow ] [Glow ] [Glow ]
[Crying] [Crying] [Crying]
Three glowstone blocks in the middle row, crying obsidian filling the top and bottom rows. That makes one respawn anchor.
You get glowstone from Nether glowstone clusters — the yellowish blobs that hang from ceilings in the nether wastes. Break them with any tool (or your fist) and they drop glowstone dust. Four glowstone dust craft into one glowstone block. So 12 glowstone dust makes the 3 blocks you need.
Charging the Anchor
A freshly crafted respawn anchor has 0 charges. It does nothing until you charge it.
Right-click the placed anchor while holding a glowstone block. It absorbs the block and gains one charge. The anchor glows brighter with each charge. Maximum is 4 charges.
Each death in the Nether uses one charge. Zero charges means no respawn — you will wake up at your Overworld spawn point instead, which is usually a long walk back.
Keep a small stockpile of glowstone near your anchor. Recharging is quick. Running out of charges while deep in the Nether is not a crisis, but it means your next death sends you a long way from where you were working.
The Overworld Problem
This is important. Do not skip this part.
A respawn anchor placed in the Overworld or the End will explode if you try to use it. The explosion is roughly the same scale as a bed exploding in the Nether — meaningful blast radius, sets fires, destroys blocks nearby.
This is not a glitch. It is intentional. Beds and respawn anchors are dimension-specific. Beds work in the Overworld but explode in the Nether. Respawn anchors work in the Nether but explode anywhere else. They are built for opposite purposes in opposite places.
If you are transporting crying obsidian or a crafted anchor back to the Overworld for storage, that is fine — just do not place and activate it there.
Using It on a Family Server
On servers where multiple people play, each person should have their own anchor at a location they know and can navigate back to safely.
The anchor only sets spawn for the player who right-clicks it to activate it. Other players can charge it (by giving it glowstone) but it will not move their spawn point unless they interact with it directly.
A good setup: pick a location near your main Nether base, away from lava and mob spawn areas, build a small 3x3 room around the anchor with a chest holding extra glowstone and spare gear. When someone dies in the Nether, they respawn in that room, regroup, and head back out.
Versus just dying and spawning in the Overworld: the Nether is large and portals are spread out. Dying and respawning at your Overworld bed means a portal trip, then a walk, then trying to remember where you were. An anchor in the Nether saves a lot of that time.
Common Mistakes
- Forgetting to activate the anchor. Crafting and placing it is not enough — you have to right-click it with nothing in your hand (or with a glowstone to charge and then activate). Watch for the visual change showing charges.
- Running the anchor to zero charges. Keep 4 glowstone blocks in the chest next to it as a standing reserve.
- Placing the anchor in the Overworld. It explodes. Do not do this even once.
- Building the anchor room in a mob-heavy area. If zombified piglins are wandering through, respawning there is stressful. Pick a corner.
- Mining crying obsidian with an iron pickaxe. It requires diamond or netherite — iron pickaxe gives you nothing.
- Trying to sleep in the Nether with a bed. If you do not have an anchor yet and you place a bed in the Nether: run. The explosion gives you half a second warning.
A Closing Thought
The respawn anchor is one of those items that seems complicated until you understand the one rule it lives by — Nether objects work in the Nether, Overworld objects work in the Overworld. Beds and anchors are mirrors of each other. Once you see that symmetry, the whole system makes sense and you stop accidentally blowing things up.
The fact that you need to farm crying obsidian, craft glowstone, and actively maintain the charges means it costs something. That cost is what makes the Nether feel like a real place you inhabit, not just a biome you visit and leave.
Pair this guide with Why Beds Explode in the Nether, Nether Navigation, and Your First Minute in the Nether.
Listen to the audio version above. Send corrections to [email protected] — we read everything.
← BACK TO NETHER WASTES