Players aren't likely to get bored in Minecraft anytime soon. After all, the game is continually updated with new content. So, there are always more things to grind for in a survival world.
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While Minecraft is a game where most items can be crafted from scratch, there are some items that are rarer than others. These are things that you aren't likely to see every time you turn on the game. In fact, you may never come across them organically. But they are out in the environment, and here is where you can find them.
Updated August 13, 2022 By Ben Jessey: Minecraft has been around for many years. Yet, the game continually remains relevant, due in part to the developers' constant updates. They regularly add new content to the game every year.
As such, lists written in 2020 can be out-of-date, such as this one about the rarest blocks in Minecraft. So, to make sure that this is still an accurate source of information, we've gone back to the piece and updated it. Now there are a few more blocks for you to find.
21 Dragon Head
There are plenty of decorative blocks in Minecraft, but if you want to be truly metal, you can place the head of a dragon in your house - alternatively, you can stick it onto your head. And it's not just any dragon head - it's the skull of the Ender Dragon. So, if you've killed the beast, you can use it as a reminder of your achievement.
However, you don't actually acquire it through killing the dragon. Instead, you can find it attached to an End Ship, which are sometimes near End cities. When you find it, you can simply break it with any tool, and it will drop.
20 Wither Skeleton Skull
If you see yourself as a Dr. Frankenstein figure, you can build your own Wither. It's unclear why you'd want to do this outside of getting the achievement or trophy, as they're one of the most dangerous mobs in the game. However, if that is your wish, you're going to need a few Wither Skeleton Skulls.
The concept of getting them is simple: you just kill Wither Skeletons. Yet, not only are they not that easy to kill, but they rarely drop their skulls when they do die. While the chances increase if you have a few levels of looting on your weapon, it's still a small percentage. When you do get them, you can just use them as decoration if you aren't fond of monster creation.
19 Lodestone
One block introduced in 1.16 is the lodestone, which finally allows players to never get lost, even when exploring places like the Nether or the End. Previously, compasses would not work in other dimensions.
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The lodestone can be crafted, but it can also be found in the Nether in places known as Bastion Remnants. These Piglin strongholds will usually have a bunch of chests which have a chance of spawning this super useful contraption.
18 Gilded Blackstone
Bastion Remnants aren't just really nice locations for great loot, they also naturally spawn a very cool variant of the blackstone: gilded blackstone. This stone basically drops a few gold nuggets when mined.
However, mining a block like this within the Bastion will usually turn any nearby Piglins hostile. Players who are in dire need of gold and want to trade should definitely go for this rare blackstone variant, but at their own risk.
17 Crying Obsidian
Obsidian in itself isn't that rare, but its more recent variant, the crying obsidian, is a rarity that any player should take advantage of and mine. The block is found both in the Nether and in the overworld, usually in ruined portals or even in Bastion Remnants.
When trading with piglins, it's also possible for them to drop crying obsidian for the player. This block is important because it allows the player to craft the respawn anchor blocks, which lets them determine a respawn point within the Nether.
16 Spawner
The good old spawner block is a very special block that players have been wanting to have altered for quite some time. This block can't be mined and harvested and will only drop experience orbs when broken with a pickaxe.
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Spawners are fairly uncommon, especially those that don't involve cave spiders which often appear in abandoned mineshafts or zombie ones. Skeleton spawners being the most useful ones, they tend to be difficult to find but can be a real treat for a player who wants to farm for experience points, as well as bone meal.
15 Ancient Debris
The highly coveted ancient debris is the gateway to making Netherite. It's the material that everyone wants after getting full diamond gear, and will completely change how armor and weapons look and feels in combat.
Ancient debris can only be found within the Nether, and unlike diamond, there's no set way to strip mine it. By using beds or other explosives, however, players have been able to mine the Y=11-15 elevation in the Nether and find the highest amount of this rare block. Since it's blast-resistant, explosives are so far the best method for mining it.
14 Prismarine Blocks
Through the introduction of ocean monuments to spice up the underwater experience of Minecraft, developers brought in this turquoise and green set of blocks known as Prismarine. These blocks are needed to construct a frame in order for a Conduit to activate underwater.
Prismarine is found in all ocean monuments, as it's the main construction block. It comes in a few different color and pattern varieties depending on the room of the monument.
13 Sea Lantern
Sea lanterns are another separate block that can be found in ocean monuments. These blocks are also turquoise and white in color, and they actually emit a pretty decent amount of light. Most ocean monuments have a few of them at their highest point, making them easy to detect at night time.
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Sea lanterns can be found exclusively in ocean monuments and some underwater ruins. They make for great decorative items but otherwise have no specific utility.
12 Purpur Blocks
Thanks to End Cities, players have access to an even wider variety of strange and beautiful decorative blocks. The Purpur blocks, in particular, are very peculiar and appear as detailed purple-colored stone blocks. They only come in one variety, but the texture changes slightly from one block to another.
Purpur blocks are found in End Cities and Ships only. They're mainly used as decorative blocks and have no other purpose in the game.
11 Coral Blocks
With the 1.13 aquatic updated, players got a ton of new ocean-themed content into the game. One of the biomes included was the underwater Coral Reef biome. This biome isn't super rare, but it's not very common either.
The player will need to spawn into a seed that has plenty of ocean around spawn to get even close to one. In order to mine coral without it dying and turning grey, it's also vital to have a Silk Touch enchanted tool at hand. Coral blocks are purely decorative.
10 Mycelium
Another fairly rare biome included in Minecraft since the earliest days of the game is the Mushroom biome. This biome is basically filled with Mooshroom cows and giant mushrooms, and mobs never spawn in this biome.
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The dirt here is also different. If mined with Silk Touch, it will produce a Mycelium block, which is a fairly rare block to find since it only spawns in this biome as a replacement for grass and dirt.
9 Sponge
Back to the ocean monuments, there's another type of block here that existed in the game for the longest time but wasn't available in survival mode without the inclusion of cheats. Sponges can actually be found in abundance in the sponge rooms of ocean monuments.
Sponges are a great utility block. Once dried in the furnace and placed in water, they suck up the moisture around them and drain out water. It's a must-have block for anyone wanting to build underwater, but definitely one of the hardest ones to find, as it requires an ocean monument. Even then, sponges aren't always in abundance.
8 Blue Ice
In Minecraft, there are several types of ice since icebergs, and frozen oceans were introduced into the game. There's regular ice, packed ice and then there's blue ice, which is the rarest of them all. To get blue ice, the player needs a Silk Touch tool.
Blue ice is only found around icebergs in frozen oceans. It usually spawns underwater, but on rare occasions, it can be spotted overground. Blue ice is useful due to how slippery it is, and can be used to make quick highways in Minecraft.
7 Bone Block
Many players may have never known this, but there are actually fossils in Minecraft. When mining in a desert or a swamp, players might come across these types of structures underground made entirely out of bone blocks.
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While the block can be made from just regular bones, actually finding the blocks themselves in the overworld is pretty rare. However, thanks to the 1.16 update, they've become much more common in the Nether in soul sand valley biomes.
6 Gold Block
In Minecraft, it's fairly rare to find solid ore blocks, but there's one exception, which is the gold block. For anyone with a dire need for gold, this is basically the jackpot.
Gold blocks generate naturally in the treasure room of an ocean monument. They'll usually be enclosed in a dark prismarine block, and the player needs to mine into the center to get their hands on the blocks.
5 Bee Nest
The 1.15 update gave Minecraft players bees and bee nests, as well as hives as a brand new gameplay feature. However, these are actually somewhat rare features to come across when the odds are considered: there's a 5% chance they appear in the plains biome, 2% in the flower forest biome, and 0,2% in any of the forest biomes.
Bee nests can be mined with a Silk Touch tool, which prevents the bees from attacking the player. Setting up a beehive somewhere nearby will yield the player some honey provided there are flowers around as well.
4 Pink Wool
Wool in itself isn't a rare block at all. Killing a sheep will usually drop a few wool blocks, and some villages that have shepherds will usually have a few different color varieties of wool in the village chests. However, pink wool is a rarity.
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It's possible to encounter a sheep in the wild which is fully pink and will produce pink wool. While it's not exactly realistic, it's a rare possibility which just happens randomly, making it one of the rarest blocks to find naturally in the game.
3 Emerald Ore
Emeralds are the prime way of trading with villagers. The most efficient way is of course to trade with villagers to get a few emeralds going first, rather than trying to go out and mine some. However, it is possible to find an emerald ore block in mountain biomes.
The emerald ore block tends to only appear very rarely, and only as a singular block. Because of its rarity, it's best to use a Fortune enchanted pickaxe to maximize the yield from the ore block.
2 Diamond Ore
Every Minecraft player knows the sheer joy of finding diamonds. This ore block is as highly coveted as it is useful, because all good tools and gear are made from diamonds. Diamonds can be found in any biome, but what makes them difficult to find is their elevation and rarity.
An efficient way to finding diamonds early in the game is to tunnel to level 11 elevation and start a strip mine. Mine out one long hallway and then every two blocks on each side mine several other hallways. This allows the player to cover as much ground as possible.
