Block of the Month: Gilded Blackstone

This blog post will be the start of a series of posts that once a month will highlight a specific Minecraft block. We thought it could be fun to create these kinds of posts with an ongoing theme. Since blocks are an essential part of Minecraft we feel it would be the perfect item to highlight each month.

Even though all blocks are the same in the sense that it has four corners and flat surfaces. They do differ in a lot of ways. First of all, they can be found in a wide variety of colors, from plain gray all the way to multi-colored rare blocks.

However, what’s most interesting is probably the use case of each block. From simple dirt blocks to very rare blocks, they all have specific use cases. These specific use cases are exactly what we will be discovering in this series of blog posts.

Gilded Blackstone

As we already mentioned, this will be a recurring theme every month. The Gilded Blackstone is the first of many blocks to be highlighted in this series. The block is a rare and visually striking block that was introduced to Minecraft in version 1.16, also known as the Nether Update.

As its name suggests, this block is an enhanced version of Blackstone, boasting a stunning golden appearance. It can only be found in the Nether, which adds an element of adventure and excitement to the quest of acquiring it.

Finding

Gilded Blackstone can be found within Bastion Remnants structures in the Nether. These structures are often filled with loot, making them an enticing destination for daring adventurers. Keep an eye out for the chests and carefully mine the Gilded Blackstone blocks scattered throughout the bastion.

Engaging with Piglins in the Nether can yield surprising results. These peculiar creatures have a fondness for shiny objects and are known to offer Gilded Blackstone in exchange for specific items. Keep some gold ingots handy, as Piglins will happily trade with you if you present them with this currency.

Mining

This dark block with gold inlays is not only easy on the eyes, but it has a chance of dropping gold nuggets when mined. Though you would need to use a pickaxe for it to drop the gold nuggets.

Gilded Blackstone has a 10% chance to drop 2-5 gold nuggets if mined with any kind of pickaxe. If no gold nugget is dropped, it will drop a block of itself instead. Should you enchant your pickaxe with Silk Touch, it will always drop a block of itself.

You can increase the drop rate by using the Fortune enchantment. With Fortune I the drop rate increases to 14.29%. while Fortune II gives an increase of 25%. Should you want to be guaranteed a drop, then Fortune III is what you would need.

Using

So, you have amassed a collection of Gilded Blackstones in your inventory, and now you might be wondering what it can be used for. Just like any other block, it can be used to build structures, though we would not recommend this because of how rare it is.

However, if you still want to use it for building a palace or maybe decorating your house floor. Then you should know that by combining it with regular Blackstone in a crafting table will give you Gilded Blackstone Bricks. Though, these bricks are not present in Vanilla and you would need to a modded version of Minecraft.

These bricks can be used to decorate your structure’s finer details such as walls, floors, and other things. How about spending hours of your time and create a mosaic pattern on your floor? That would surely look good.

Conclusion

That is it for the first edition of our Block of the Month series, we hope you have gained some knowledge about the eye-catching Gilded Blackstone. Maybe you even found it useful as decoration in your buildings.

No matter what, we will keep on highlighting a new block each month until we have gone through all of them. So, stay tuned for the next installment of our Block of the Month series, where we will uncover another fascinating block that Minecraft has to offer. Happy gaming!