Block of the Month: Reinforced Deepslate

One of my favorite things to do in Minecraft is to mine obsidian. No, really! Nice and cozy down in the warmth of the lava layer at the bottom of the Overworld, holding down the “use” button waiting for the block to break, my mind is able to wander. I have the space and time to relax and plan out my next build or think about which biomes I want to explore. It’s a rare island of tranquility in a sea of responsibilities and to-dos.

But there’s another block, which takes even longer to break than obsidian. A block that could have been created by a Mojang developer past civilization that clearly had more advanced technology than remains in the Overworld today. It’s reinforced deepslate, and it’s our block of the month.

Reinforced deepslate began spawning in the Overworld in June 2022 as part of the Wild Update, which also added the frog, the allay, the mangrove swamp and the deep dark. It’s in this last spooky biome that you’ll find reinforced deepslate –  in the core of the ancient cities that intrepid explorers will occasionally stumble across.

No evidence remains of how the ancient city-builders made this block – the recipe seems to be lost to time. What we do know, however, is that it’s one of the hardest blocks in the game – you’ll need to hold down that use button for almost a minute and a half before it’ll finally break.

Yes, yes, I know you have a fancy enchanted diamond pickaxe – but that’s not going to help you here. Reinforced deepslate can’t be pushed by pistons, can’t be exploded, can’t be destroyed by withers, it can’t even be damaged by the ender dragon. When you do finally manage to break it, it’ll crumble into pieces – even if you have a silk touch enchantment.

Image credit: Benjah-bmm27 // Public Domain

Do you know what the hardest material on Earth is? If you said “diamond”, you’d be in the right ballpark. Diamonds are indeed among the hardest materials on our planet, but humans have discovered a few rare substances that are even harder. 

Diamonds are made out of carbon atoms arranged in a tight structure, but there’s another natural arrangement that’s theoretically even harder called Lonsdaleite. This substance was discovered in a crater in Arizona, and thought to have been created by the force of a meteorite impact. I say “theoretically” because all of the samples found so far have had flaws that made them weaker than diamond – but it’s absolutely possible that one day we’ll find one that’s stronger.

There’s another type of crystal called boron nitride, which is also extremely hard. In its cubic form, it’s often listed as only a tiny bit softer than diamond – but there’s an exotic form called wurtzite boron nitride that we’ve only ever found in tiny quantities following volcanic eruptions. This means we’ve not been able to experimentally test it, but simulations suggest it should be about 18% harder than diamonds.

As for reinforced deepslate, it’s possible that we’ll never know how the denizens of ancient cities made it. My guess is some combination of diamond and deepslate, forged by volcanic activity at the bottom of the Overworld. We’ve sent lots of geological teams down to ancient cities to find out more, but for some reason they never returned. I wonder why that could be?