Explosion

An explosion is a physical event, generally destructive, that occurs in several different circumstances. It can destroy nearby blocks, propel and damage nearby entities, and cause fires in some cases. Explosions produce a "shockwave" particle effect. Explosives include ghast fireballs, TNT, End crystals, and beds when not in the Overworld.

The propulsion effect of explosions is often used for TNT cannons.

Interaction with entities

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

 

Velocity

Each affected entity is accelerated by between 0 and 1 blocks per game tick (0 to 20 blocks per second), added to its current velocity. This effect can accumulate over multiple explosions, even within a single tick.

The magnitude of the velocity given to each entity in range of an explosion is calculated with the following code:

magnitude = (1 - distance/(2*power)) * exposure * knockbackMultiplier * (1 - EXPLOSION_KNOCKBACK_RESISTANCE)

Or in formula form, ${\displaystyle (1-\frac{\text{distance}}{2\cdot \text{power}})\cdot \text{exposure}\cdot \text{knockback multiplier}\cdot (1-\text{explosion knockback resistance})}$.

Distance is measured from the explosion center to the entity's feet position. A list of explosion powers can be found in the Causes section. Exposure is discussed in the Exposure section. Explosion knockback resistance refers to the attribute explosion_knockback_resistance. The knockback multiplier depends on the cause:

To calculate the final velocity, the game takes the vector pointing from the explosion center to the entity's eye position and sets its length to the previously calculated magnitude. TNT entities are the only exception, where the direction goes to the tnt's feet instead of its eyes.

Damage

The following code is used to calculate the damage inflicted on an entity:

impact = (1 - distance/(2*power)) * exposure;
damage = (float)((impact*impact + impact)/2 * 7*(2*power) + 1)

In formula form, this is:

${\displaystyle \text{impact}=(1-\frac{\text{distance}}{2\cdot \text{power}})\cdot \text{exposure}}$

${\displaystyle \text{damage}=7\cdot \text{power}\cdot ({\text{impact}}^2+\text{impact})+1}$.

Players are damaged differently depending on difficulty. The main damage value is used to calculate the final damage in other difficulties:

At the end of each game tick only the highest single explosion damage is chosen. Note that the main damage value has a +1 at the end, so all entities in range (within ${\displaystyle 2\cdot \text{power}}$) of an explosion receive at least 1 damage even when the explosion is fully blocked. The only exceptions are invulnerable entities, Nether stars, and Peaceful players.

The Blast Protection enchantment and the Resistance effect are handled separately.

Calculator

Exposure

The exposure is a measurement of how much of the explosion is blocked by blocks. It ranges from 0 (when the explosion is entirely blocked) to 1 (when there are no obstructions).

To calculate the exposure, the game picks a set of sample points in the entity and casts rays from the explosion center to each point.

For each ray, the game checks if it intersects with any block hitbox. If it does, it is considered obstructed. The exposure is then calculated by dividing the number of unobstructed rays by the total number of rays.

Sample points

The sample points are arranged in a $\lceil 2\cdot \mathsf{w}\mathsf{i}\mathsf{d}\mathsf{t}\mathsf{h}+1\rceil \times \lceil 2\cdot \mathsf{h}\mathsf{e}\mathsf{i}\mathsf{g}\mathsf{h}\mathsf{t}+1\rceil \times \lceil 2\cdot \mathsf{l}\mathsf{e}\mathsf{n}\mathsf{g}\mathsf{t}\mathsf{h}+1\rceil$ 3D grid. $\mathsf{w}\mathsf{i}\mathsf{d}\mathsf{t}\mathsf{h}$, $\mathsf{h}\mathsf{e}\mathsf{i}\mathsf{g}\mathsf{h}\mathsf{t}$, and $\mathsf{l}\mathsf{e}\mathsf{n}\mathsf{g}\mathsf{t}\mathsf{h}$ represent the X, Y, and Z dimension of the entity's bounding box respectively (measured in blocks).

Points on the grid are spaced by

$${\displaystyle \left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{\text{width}}{2\cdot \text{width}+1}\\ \frac{\text{height}}{2\cdot \text{height}+1}\\ \frac{\text{length}}{2\cdot \text{length}+1}\end{array}\right]}$$

With the negative corner at

$${\displaystyle \left[\begin{array}{c}\frac{1}{2}(1-\frac{\lfloor 2\cdot \text{width}+1\rfloor }{2\cdot \text{width}+1})\\ 0\\ \frac{1}{2}(1-\frac{\lfloor 2\cdot \text{length}+1\rfloor }{2\cdot \text{length}+1})\end{array}\right]}$$

Edge cases

• Exposure is directionally biased (and the ray targets can sometimes be outside the entity) due to bug MC-232355. This mostly affects small entities and entities that are far from a multiple of 0.5 wide.
• The top of scaffolding only obstructs exposure rays if the feet position of the affected entity is above it. This has the effect of explosions appearing to travel down through scaffolding but not up.
• For blocks whose collision box extends outside the full cube containing them (walls, fences, the back of piston arms, moving blocks, etc.), they only obstruct exposure rays if the rays intersect the full cube where the block is located.

Block destruction

On a small scale, explosions form a roughly spherical crater. The size of that crater is dependent on the power of the explosion and the blast resistance of the destroyed blocks.

Calculating which blocks to destroy

To calculate the blocks affected, "rays" are created from the explosion center to the outer points of a 16 by 16 by 16 grid. Each of those rays gets an intensity of $\text{power}\cdot (\text{random value from 0.7 to 1.3})$.

For each ray, with the position starting at the explosion center:

1. The game checks the block at the current position (this ignores block shape).
2. If the block isn't air, intensity is reduced by $(\text{blast resistance}+0.3)\cdot 0.3$.
3. If the remaining intensity is above 0 and the block can be blown up, it gets added to the list of blocks to blow up.
4. Position is moved 0.3 blocks along the ray.
5. Intensity is reduced by 0.22500001.
6. If the remaining intensity is above 0, repeat from step 1. Otherwise, continue with the next ray.

This typically results in the maximum sphere of block damage having a radius of approximately 4/3 times the explosion power. This can be experimentally verified by repeating an explosion of a set explosion power at some coordinate inside of blocks and measuring the radius of the resulting sphere of air.

After the process is done, the list of blocks to blow up is shuffled. For explosions that can cause fires, the game attempts to generate fire in ¹⁄₃ of the blocks in the list. This fire is successfully placed only when above an opaque block.

Due to the fact that the game ignores block shapes when checking blast resistance, explosions happening inside a non-full block get dampened heavily. Sufficiently weak explosions happening on ender chests, enchanting tables, or any height of water or lava do no block damage.

Dropping blocks

Blocks destroyed by explosions have a chance to drop items as if mined with an unenchanted diamond tool. Blocks destroyed by TNT have a 100% chance of dropping. Other explosions have a ¹⁄_power chance of dropping items. However, dragon eggs, beacons, conduits, heads, shulker boxes and decorated pots^[1] always drop from explosions.

The drop chance of blocks in explosions can be customized via three game rules: blockExplosionDropDecay‌^{[JE only]} (includes End crystals), mobExplosionDropDecay‌^{[JE only]} and tntExplosionDropDecay. Only tntExplosionDropDecay is set to false by default. If an explosion's drop decay is set to false, items have a 100% chance of dropping.

Worlds created before 1.21 retain their old tntExplosionDropDecay settings. Upgraded worlds need to use /gamerule tntExplosionDropDecay false to get the new behavior.‌^{[BE only][2]}

Causes

Cause	Power	Max. blast resistance	Max. range	Fire	Affected by mobGriefing	Notes
Fireball (ghast projectile)	1	3	Entity: 2 Block: 1.5	Yes	Yes	Can have its explosion power modified by editing its Entity data.
Black wither skull Dangerous wither skull	1	3	Entity: 2 Block: 1.5	No	Yes	Dangerous wither skull: Treats blocks breakable in Survival as having ≤ 0.8 blast resistance.
Creeper	3	9	Entity: 6 Block: 5.1	No	Yes	Can have its explosion power modified by editing its Entity data.
TNT Minecart with TNT Underwater TNT‌[BE & edu only]	4	9	Entity: 8 Block: 6.9	No	No	Minecart with TNT: Gets up to an extra 7.5 explosion power (up to 11.5 total) based on the conditions under which it exploded. Underwater TNT‌[BE & edu only]: Ignores water The explosion center is approximately 0.06125 blocks above the TNT's position.
Beds Respawn anchor (when used in a wrong dimension)	5	9	Entity: 10 Block: 8.4	Yes	No	Death message: "(player) was killed by [Intentional Game Design]"
End crystal (when destroyed)	6	9	Entity: 12 Block: 10.2	No	No
Charged creeper	6	9	Entity: 12 Block: 10.2	No	Yes	Drops heads or skulls of mobs killed by explosion. Can have its explosion power modified by editing its Entity data.
Wither (when spawned, or when killed‌[BE only])	7	9	Entity: 14 Block: 12	No	Yes
Wither (half health charge move)‌[BE only]	8	--	Entity: 16 Block: 13.8	No	Yes	Breaks any block breakable in Survival (except reinforced deepslate), ignoring blast resistance.

Despite doing damage to entities, fireworks do not destroy terrain and as such are not counted as conventional explosions.

Lab tables sometimes perform a non-terrain-damaging explosion when creating garbage item.‌^{[BE & edu only]}

Blast resistance

The following table shows the blast resistance values used in Minecraft's code for all blocks. In add-on documentation for Bedrock Edition, these values are multiplied by 5 when used for the explosion_resistance value in the minecraft:destructible_by_explosion component. For example, cobblestone has a blast resistance of 6, so to make a custom block with the same blast resistance as cobblestone, quintuple that (which is 30) must be stored in its explosion_resistance value.

[edit values]

Block name	Blast resistance
Barrier	3,600,000.75
Light	3,600,000.75
Bedrock	3,600,000
Client_request_placeholder_block	3,600,000‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Command Blocks	3,600,000
End Gateway	3,600,000
End Portal	3,600,000
End Portal Frame	3,600,000
Invisible Bedrock	3,600,000‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Jigsaw Block	3,600,000
Structure Block	3,600,000
Test Block	3,600,000‌[Java Edition only]
Test Instance Block	3,600,000‌[Java Edition only]
Ancient Debris	1,200
Anvil	1,200
Block of Netherite	1,200
Crying Obsidian	1,200
Deprecated Anvil	1,200‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Enchanting Table	1,200
Glowing Obsidian	1,200‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Heavy Core	1,200
Obsidian	1,200
Reinforced Deepslate	1,200
Respawn Anchor	1,200
Ender Chest	600
Bubble Column	100
Lava	100
Water	100
Ominous Trial Spawner	50
Ominous Vault	50
Trial Spawner	50
Vault	50
Creaking Heart	10
Dragon Egg	9
End Stone	9
End Stone Bricks	9
End Stone Brick Wall	9
Andesite	6
Blackstone	6
Block of Coal	6
Block of Copper	6
Block of Diamond	6
Block of Emerald	6
Block of Gold	6
Block of Iron	6
Block of Raw Copper	6
Block of Raw Gold	6
Block of Raw Iron	6
Block of Redstone	6
Bricks	6
Brick Stairs	6
Chiseled Deepslate	6
Chiseled Purpur	6‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Cobbled Deepslate	6
Cobblestone	6
Cobblestone Stairs	6
Copper Chain	6
Copper Door	6
Copper Trapdoor	6
Coral Blocks	6
Deepslate	6
Deepslate Bricks	6
Deepslate Tiles	6
Deprecated_purpur_block_2	6‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Diorite	6
Gilded Blackstone	6
Granite	6
Grindstone	6
Iron Bars	6
Iron Chain	6
Jukebox	6
Lightning Rod	6
Mossy Cobblestone	6
Nether Bricks	6
Nether Brick Fence	6
Nether Brick Stairs	6
Nether Reactor Core	6‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Petrified Oak Slab	6
Polished Deepslate	6
Prismarine	6
Purpur Block	6
Purpur Pillar	6
Purpur Slab	6
Purpur Stairs	6
Red Nether Bricks	6
Smooth Quartz Block	6
Smooth Quartz Slab	6
Smooth Quartz Stairs	6
Smooth Stone	6
Smooth Stone Bricks	6‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Stone	6
Stone Bricks	6
Stone Brick Stairs	6
Stone Slab	6
Stone Walls (except End, Sandstone)	6
Tuff	6
Bell	5
Iron Door	5
Iron Trapdoor	5
Monster Spawner	5
Hopper	4.8
Basalt	4.2
Polished Basalt	4.2
Smooth Basalt	4.2
Stained Terracotta	4.2
Terracotta	4.2
Cobweb	4
Lodestone	3.5
Blast Furnace	3.5
Dispenser	3.5
Dropper	3.5
Furnace	3.5
Lantern	3.5
Soul Lantern	3.5
Smoker	3.5
Stonecutter	3.5

Block name	Blast resistance
Observer	3
Beacon	3
Block of Lapis Lazuli	3
Coal Ore	3
Cocoa Beans	3
Conduit	3
Copper Ore	3
Deepslate Coal Ore	3
Deepslate Copper Ore	3
Deepslate Diamond Ore	3
Deepslate Emerald Ore	3
Deepslate Gold Ore	3
Deepslate Iron Ore	3
Deepslate Lapis Lazuli Ore	3
Deepslate Redstone Ore	3
Diamond Ore	3
Emerald Ore	3
Gold Ore	3
Iron Ore	3
Lab Table	3‌[BE & edu only]
Lapis Lazuli Ore	3
Mud Bricks	3
Nether Quartz Ore	3
Packed Mud	3
Planks	3
Pointed Dripstone	3
Redstone Ore	3
Sculk Catalyst	3
Sculk Shrieker	3
Wooden Fences	3
Fence Gates	3
Wooden Doors	3
Wooden Slabs	3
Wooden Stairs	3
Wooden Trapdoors	3
Blue Ice	2.8
Barrel	2.5
Cartography Table	2.5
Chest	2.5
Crafting Table	2.5
Dried Kelp Block	2.5
Fletching Table	2.5
Heat Block	2.5‌[BE & edu only]
Lectern	2.5
Loom	2.5
Smithing Table	2.5
Trapped Chest	2.5
Bone Block	2
Campfire	2
Cauldron	2
Compound Creator	2‌[BE & edu only]
Dyed Shulker Box	2
Element Constructor	2‌[BE & edu only]
Material Reducer	2‌[BE & edu only]
Shulker Box	2
Soul Campfire	2
Wood	2
Concrete	1.8
Amethyst Bud	1.5
Amethyst Cluster	1.5
Block of Amethyst	1.5
Bookshelf	1.5
Budding Amethyst	1.5
Sculk Sensor	1.5
Glazed Terracotta	1.4
Bamboo	1
Banners	1
Chalkboard	1‌[BE & edu only]
Dripstone Block	1
Jack o'Lantern	1
Heads	1
Nether Wart Block	1
Pumpkin	1
Shroomlight	1
Signs	1
Warped Wart Block	1
Block of Quartz	0.8
Note Block	0.8
Quartz Stairs	0.8
Red Sandstone	0.8
Red Sandstone Stairs	0.8
Sandstone	0.8
Sandstone Stairs	0.8
Sandstone Wall	0.8
Wool	0.8
Calcite	0.75
Infested Blocks	0.75
Activator Rail	0.7
Detector Rail	0.7
Powered Rail	0.7
Rail	0.7
Mangrove Roots	0.7
Muddy Mangrove Roots	0.7
Dirt Path	0.65
Beehive	0.6
Clay	0.6
Composter	0.6
Farmland	0.6
Grass Block	0.6
Gravel	0.6
Honeycomb Block	0.6
Sponge	0.6
Wet Sponge	0.6
Mycelium	0.6

Block name	Blast resistance
Brewing Stand	0.5
Buttons	0.5
Cake	0.5
Coarse Dirt	0.5
Concrete Powder	0.5
Dirt	0.5
Frosted Ice	0.5
Hay Bale	0.5
Ice	0.5
Lever	0.5
Magma Block	0.5
Mud	0.5
Packed Ice	0.5
Piston	0.5
Piston Head	0.5
Podzol	0.5
Pressure Plates	0.5
Rooted Dirt	0.5
Sand	0.5
Soul Sand	0.5
Soul Soil	0.5
Sticky Piston	0.5
Target	0.5
Turtle Egg	0.5
Cactus	0.4
Chorus Flower	0.4
Chorus Plant	0.4
Ladder	0.4
Netherrack	0.4
Nylium	0.4
Bee Nest	0.3
Froglight	0.3
Glass	0.3
Glass Pane	0.3
Glowstone	0.3
Redstone Lamp	0.3
Sea Lantern	0.3
Stained Glass	0.3
Stained Glass Panes	0.3
Tinted Glass	0.3
Glow Item Frame	0.25‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Item Frame	0.25‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Powder Snow	0.25
Beds	0.2
Daylight Detector	0.2
Glow Lichen	0.2
Leaves	0.2
Mushroom Blocks	0.2
Sculk	0.2
Sculk Vein	0.2
Snow Block	0.2
Vines	0.2
Candle	0.1
Dyed Candle	0.1
Carpets	0.1
Big Dripleaf	0.1
Moss Block	0.1
Moss Carpet	0.1
Snow	0.1
Air	0
Azalea	0
Beetroots	0
Block of Resin	0
Carrots	0
Cave Air	0‌[Java Edition only]
Cave Vines	0
Colored Torch	0
Corals	0
Coral Fans	0
Dead Bush	0
Dried Ghast	0
Element	0‌[BE & edu only]
End Rod	0
Fire	0
Flowers	0
Flower Pot	0
Frogspawn	0
Grass	0
Hanging Roots	0
Honey Block	0
Info_update	0‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Info_update2	0‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Kelp	0
Lily Pad	0
Locked Chest	0‌[Java Edition only]
Melon Stem	0
Moving Piston	0
Mushrooms	0
Nether Fungus	0
Nether Sprouts	0
Nether Portal	0
Nether Wart	0
Potatoes	0
Pumpkin Stem	0
Redstone Dust	0
Redstone Comparator	0
Redstone Repeater	0
Redstone Torch	0
Reserved6	0‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Crimson Roots	0
Warped Roots	0
Saplings	0
Scaffolding	0
Seagrass	0
Sea Pickle	0
Slime Block	0
Small Dripleaf	0
Soul Fire	0
Soul Torch	0
Spore Blossom	0
String	0
Structure Void	0
Sugar Cane	0
Sweet Berry Bush	0
TNT	0
Torch	0
Tripwire Hook	0
Twisting Vines	0
Underwater Torch	0
Underwater TNT	0
Unknown	0‌[Bedrock Edition only]
Void Air	0‌[Java Edition only]
Weeping Vines	0
Wheat	0

Sounds

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition:

History

This section is missing information about: New Nintendo 3DS Edition

 

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

Development

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Explosion" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• Explosions with a power greater than 100 look mostly the same from the outside, as only certain lines are used to determine if a block breaks. However, some of those lines continue underground.
• Explosions that occur in flowing water or lava apply propulsion and damage to entities, but don't affect any blocks, regardless of the blocks' blast resistance.
• Underwater explosions don't emit smoke particles.
• Explosions can redirect projectiles, including ender pearls.
• An explosion just after a mob's death can propel the mob's body.
• If a falling sand entity falls into primed TNT when in water, it deals block damage.

References

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