Potent Sulfur

Potent Sulfur is a naturally occurring block found within sulfur cave biomes, where it forms part of sulfur pools beneath the surface. It also appears above ground inside sulfur springs. To collect it, players need at least a wooden pickaxe — mining Potent Sulfur with bare hands or an incompatible tool yields nothing. Nine sulfur items arranged across every slot of a 3×3 crafting grid will produce a single Potent Sulfur block.

When Potent Sulfur is submerged under shallow water no deeper than four blocks, with open air sitting directly above the water's surface, it becomes chemically active. A column of white bubbles rises upward, and noxious yellow gas spreads outward roughly three blocks from the waterline. Any player or mob caught within that water is repeatedly afflicted with four seconds of the Nausea effect, which refreshes continuously as long as they remain in contact with the water.

Potent Sulfur also has geyser-forming properties when a heat source is placed beneath it and a water column sits above. A lava source block triggers a constant, uninterrupted eruption that launches entities upward, while a magma block instead causes periodic eruptions alternating between dormant and active phases. The height of the geyser scales with the depth of the water column — specifically five times that depth in blocks. Sulfur springs naturally form geysers because magma blocks sit underneath them, whereas sulfur cave pools do not.

As a block entity, Potent Sulfur cannot be displaced by pistons or sticky pistons. It has a hardness of 1.5 and a blast resistance of 6, comparable to ore blocks in terms of toughness.