The Respawn Anchor in Minecraft is a pretty useful tool. It was added in the recent nether updates, adding new methods for adventurers to survive. Normally, when you place a bed in the Nether, it blows up. The Respawn Anchor now makes it possible to bypass a Portal by setting your spawn point in the Nether. This makes hunting down Ancient Debris used for making Netherite much easier.
To craft a Respawn Anchor in Minecraft you will need a few things though. Primarily you need two resources, Glowstone and Crying Obsidian. The Glowstone can be found all over the Nether, that’s the easy part though.
Gathering the Crying Obsidian is pretty tough, as it can literally spawn in any biome in the Overworld or Nether. You can also find it via Piglins bartering or chests in Remnant Bastions. These latter sources are usually quicker than hunting the entire game world for Ruined Portals. Because you need 6 pieces of Crying Obsidian to craft a Respawn Anchor in Minecraft, you would need to find multiple Ruined Portals. You also need either a Diamond or Netherite pickaxe to be able to mine it.
You need 6x Crying Obsidian and 3x Glowstone blocks. Arrange the top and bottom row with the Crying Obsidian in a line. The middle row should be Glowstone. To make a respawn anchor, you need to have this layout or it won’t work at all.
Here’s the layout within the crating table shown visually:
The Respawn Anchor allows you to respawn inside the Nether, but you need to charge it. The item can hold up to 15 charges once placed. It can only be recharged via feeding it full Glowstone blocks. Each Glowstone block adds 1 charge. Having a player respawn on an anchor uses 1 charge.
Respawn Anchors need clear space around them to respawn the player, so it can become impossible to use one if it were to become blocked. Players can also potentially grief each other by blocking the Respawn Anchor with lava or other traps. Generally, it seems that about 1-3 blocks in all directions need to be cleared before it will function, so it’s best to suspend the Anchor in the air when placing it, then destroying the support.
