What went off
Ground
One block of TNT. Damage reaches 8 blocks; blocks break much closer than that.
The blast you are watching is the server's own routine: 1,352 rays out of the centre, each losing strength per step and per block it passes through, with the same random roll the game uses. Blocks fall as the front reaches them, which is why the crater is ragged rather than round. Detonate again for a different roll, exactly as lighting a second TNT would.
Distance from the centre
Standing behind a block or in a doorway cuts the exposure, which is the single biggest thing you control. Armour and the Blast Protection enchantment cut the damage further, on top of this.
Damage by distance
What survives at 0 blocks
| Block | Blast resistance | At this distance | Blast digs through |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Crying Obsidian | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Ancient Debris | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Netherite Block | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Respawn Anchor | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Enchanting Table | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Anvil | 1200 | Survives | under a block |
| Ender Chest | 600 | Survives | under a block |
| Water | 100 | Survives | under a block |
| Lava | 100 | Survives | under a block |
| End Stone | 9 | Breaks | 0.4 blocks |
| Cobblestone | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Stone | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Deepslate | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Bricks | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Iron Block | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Diamond Block | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Gold Block | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Nether Bricks | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Blackstone | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Prismarine | 6 | Breaks | 0.6 blocks |
| Terracotta | 4.2 | Breaks | 0.8 blocks |
| Oak Planks | 3 | Breaks | 1.0 blocks |
| Wool | 1.5 | Breaks | 1.6 blocks |
| Quartz Block | 0.8 | Breaks | 2.2 blocks |
| Gravel | 0.6 | Breaks | 2.4 blocks |
| Sponge | 0.6 | Breaks | 2.4 blocks |
| Dirt | 0.5 | Breaks | 2.6 blocks |
| Sand | 0.5 | Breaks | 2.6 blocks |
| Hay Block | 0.5 | Breaks | 2.6 blocks |
| Packed Ice | 0.5 | Breaks | 2.6 blocks |
| Soul Sand | 0.5 | Breaks | 2.6 blocks |
| Magma Block | 0.5 | Breaks | 2.6 blocks |
| Netherrack | 0.4 | Breaks | 2.8 blocks |
| Glass | 0.3 | Breaks | 3.0 blocks |
| Sea Lantern | 0.3 | Breaks | 3.0 blocks |
Sometimes means the random roll decides: the same block in the same place survives one blast and not the next. The last column is how far a blast eats into a solid wall of that block on an average roll.
An explosion is not a sphere. The game fires rays out from the centre, and each one loses strength as it travels and again for every block it passes through, in proportion to the blast resistance of that block. When a ray runs out, everything beyond it survives.
Each ray also starts with a random multiplier between 0.7 and 1.3. That single detail explains the ragged edge of every crater, and it is why a block on the boundary is a coin flip rather than a rule. The table above says Sometimes for exactly those blocks.
Because the cost is per block passed through, a thin wall of a strong block beats a thick wall of a weak one. One layer of obsidian stops anything; four layers of dirt stop nothing.
Damage depends on distance and on how much of you the blast can see. Ducking behind a full block cuts the exposure to almost nothing, which beats backing away by several blocks. It is why fighting creepers in a doorway works.
Water is the other answer. It has a blast resistance of 100, so a layer of it absorbs the whole explosion, and being submerged removes the damage almost entirely.
Obsidian, crying obsidian, netherite blocks, ancient debris, ender chests, anvils, enchanting tables and respawn anchors all sit at 1200 blast resistance, which nothing in the game can break. Water and lava are 100, which is enough to stop every explosion too, and that is why flooding a base is such an effective defence. End stone at 9 and cobblestone at 6 hold up against distant blasts but not a point blank one.
Standing on top of it, over 40 damage, which is more than a full health bar with no armour. The damage falls off sharply: at 4 blocks it is a few hearts, and at 8 blocks, twice the power, it is down to half a heart. Cover matters more than distance, because the game measures how much of you the blast can actually see.
Every ray of the blast starts with a random multiplier between 0.7 and 1.3 of the power. That is why a crater is ragged rather than a clean sphere, and why a block right on the edge survives one blast and not the next. The table marks those blocks as Sometimes rather than pretending the answer is fixed.
Power 6, against 3 for an ordinary creeper and 4 for TNT, so it reaches twice as far as a normal creeper and does considerably more damage. It still cannot touch obsidian. The strongest vanilla explosion is the one when a wither is spawned, at power 7.
Yes, and so does the Blast Protection enchantment, on top of the numbers here. The figure this tool gives is the raw damage the explosion deals before your armour is taken into account, which is the number the game calculates first.
The game itself. Blast resistance is read from the block definitions in the unobfuscated client, and both formulas, the one that decides whether a block breaks and the one that decides your damage, are ports of the code the server runs. That is why the awkward details are right, such as the very edge of a blast still costing half a heart.
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