What is reinforced deepslate?
Reinforced deepslate is a dark, dense block that only appears in ancient cities, the huge underground structures hidden in the deep dark biome. It looks like deepslate with a stamped metal pattern pressed into each face, with faint copper-colored detailing that sets it apart from plain deepslate and from the tile and brick variants.
What makes reinforced deepslate stand out is how it behaves. It shrugs off explosions, takes a long time to break, and gives you nothing when you finally break it. If you have explored an ancient city, you have walked past plenty of it without being able to take any home.
This guide covers where reinforced deepslate generates, why you can’t mine it for keeps, how tough it actually is, and the only real ways to get it into your inventory.
Reinforced deepslate vs other deepslate blocks
The deepslate family is large, and reinforced deepslate is the odd one out. Regular deepslate, cobbled deepslate, polished deepslate, deepslate bricks, and deepslate tiles all come from mining or crafting, stack in your inventory, and can be used freely in Survival. Reinforced deepslate shares none of that. It cannot be mined for a drop, it cannot be crafted, and it has no slab, stair, or wall version. The only thing it has in common with its relatives is the word “deepslate” and a similar dark color. If you want a dark stone you can actually gather and build with, deepslate tiles or polished deepslate are the blocks to reach for.
Where to find reinforced deepslate
Reinforced deepslate generates in exactly one place: ancient cities. These structures spawn in the deep dark biome, an underground biome that forms below mountains and other high-altitude terrain in the Overworld. The deep dark sits low in the world, and ancient cities generate within it around Y -52, well below sea level and close to bedrock.
To reach one, dig or cave your way down toward Y -50 and watch for the deep dark’s signs: sculk blocks, sculk veins spreading across the stone, sculk sensors, and sculk shriekers. When you see sculk covering a large area, an ancient city is usually nearby.
Inside the city, reinforced deepslate is a building material. It outlines the raised central platform, reinforces the main structure, and forms the large frame near the middle of the city. You will not find reinforced deepslate anywhere else. It does not appear in normal deepslate layers, in caves, or in any other structure in the game.
Ancient cities are worth the trip for more than the scenery. They hold loot chests with rare items, including the Swift Sneak enchantment found almost nowhere else. The trade-off is danger: the deep dark is the home of the Warden, a blind but deadly mob that the city’s sculk shriekers can summon if you make too much noise.
The ancient city frame
The central structure of an ancient city includes a large frame shape built partly from reinforced deepslate. It is a fixed part of the generated structure and has no function in the current game. You cannot activate it, light it, or travel through it. For now it is purely architectural, and breaking it changes nothing.
Can you mine reinforced deepslate in survival?
You can break reinforced deepslate in Survival, but you cannot keep it. The block has no drop. Mine it with a netherite pickaxe, mine it with Silk Touch, mine it with Fortune III, and the result is identical every time: the block breaks and nothing lands at your feet.
This is on purpose. Reinforced deepslate is meant to stay part of the ancient city. Silk Touch normally lets you collect blocks that would otherwise break into something else, such as grass blocks or ore, but it does nothing here because reinforced deepslate has no item form available in Survival at all.
So while you can clear it out of a doorway or tunnel through it, you cannot stockpile the block from an ancient city. If you want reinforced deepslate for building, you need Creative mode or commands, both covered below.
Reinforced deepslate mechanics
Hardness and mining time
Reinforced deepslate has a hardness of 55, slightly higher than obsidian’s 50. That makes it one of the slowest blocks in the game to break. A single block takes several seconds to clear even with a netherite pickaxe, and far longer with a weaker tool or with your bare hand. Any tool will break it, and no tool is the “correct” one, since the block drops nothing regardless of what you use.
Blast resistance
Reinforced deepslate has a blast resistance of 1200, the same value as obsidian. That places it far beyond the reach of TNT, creeper explosions, ghast fireballs, and end crystals. You can set off explosives right against it and the block will not move. This toughness is part of why ancient cities feel so solid: their core material simply does not blow up.
Pistons and movement
Pistons cannot push or pull reinforced deepslate. It behaves like obsidian here, so there is no piston trick that lets you slide the ancient city frame somewhere else or pop the block loose. Reinforced deepslate is also unaffected by gravity. Remove the blocks beneath it and it stays floating in place.
Other properties
Reinforced deepslate is a full, solid, opaque block. Hostile mobs can spawn on top of it in the dark, it blocks light, and it is not flammable, so lava and fire next to it carry no spread risk. It cannot be waterlogged. Apart from its toughness and its missing drop, it acts like an ordinary building block.
How to get reinforced deepslate in creative and with commands
If you want reinforced deepslate to build with, you have two routes, and both sit outside Survival.
The first is Creative mode. Reinforced deepslate appears in the Creative inventory in both Java and Bedrock Edition. Open the inventory, search “reinforced,” and drag the block to your hotbar. You can place as many copies as you want.
The second is commands. In any world with cheats turned on, you can run /give to add the block to your inventory, or /setblock and /fill to place it directly into the world. The block’s ID is reinforced_deepslate in both editions. For example, /give @s reinforced_deepslate 64 hands you a full stack.
In Creative mode you can also point at any reinforced deepslate block and use pick block (the middle mouse button on Java Edition) to drop a copy straight into your hotbar. That is the fastest way to grab the exact block while you are standing inside an ancient city.
There is no crafting recipe for reinforced deepslate, and no way to convert regular deepslate into it. A stonecutter will not cut it, a smithing table will not upgrade into it, and no furnace recipe produces it. The Creative inventory and commands are the only sources.
Tips and common mistakes
The most common mistake is carrying a Silk Touch pickaxe into an ancient city expecting to mine the frame for souvenirs. It will not work. Save the durability and the effort, because the block has no Survival drop under any enchantment.
If reinforced deepslate is blocking a path you want to open inside an ancient city, breaking it by hand is slow but possible. Bring a netherite pickaxe with Efficiency to cut the time down. Keep in mind that the deep dark is full of sculk sensors and shriekers, so the noise and movement from mining can build toward a Warden spawn. Lay down wool to muffle vibrations, or crouch-walk to stay quiet.
For builders, decide early whether your project needs to work in Survival. A wall or vault made from command-placed reinforced deepslate stays explosion-proof, which is useful for protecting a base or a spawn area from creepers and TNT. The catch is that anyone playing in Survival cannot mine that wall back out for materials, so settle the design before you place hundreds of blocks.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get reinforced deepslate with Silk Touch?
No. Silk Touch has no effect on reinforced deepslate. The block has no drop in Survival no matter what enchantments you use, so a Silk Touch pickaxe returns nothing.
What is the fastest way to break reinforced deepslate?
A netherite pickaxe with a high level of Efficiency, ideally paired with the Haste effect from a beacon or potion. Even then each block takes a few seconds, and you still get no item from it.
Is reinforced deepslate blast resistant?
Yes. Its blast resistance of 1200 matches obsidian, so TNT, creepers, and other explosions cannot destroy it.
Can reinforced deepslate be pushed by pistons?
No. Pistons cannot move reinforced deepslate, the same as obsidian, bedrock, and other immovable blocks.
Does the reinforced deepslate frame in the ancient city do anything?
Not currently. The frame is a built-in part of the structure with no function. It cannot be activated and does not behave like a portal.
What version added reinforced deepslate?
Reinforced deepslate arrived in the 1.19 Wild Update, the same release that added the deep dark biome, ancient cities, and the Warden.
Can you craft reinforced deepslate?
No. There is no crafting recipe and no way to make it from deepslate. The only sources are the Creative inventory and commands.
Can the Warden break reinforced deepslate?
No. The Warden cannot break blocks of any kind, including reinforced deepslate. It hunts players by vibration and smell and attacks them directly, so the ancient city’s structure stays intact no matter how long a fight lasts.
Is reinforced deepslate the same in Java and Bedrock?
Yes. It generates in ancient cities, resists explosions, and lacks a Survival drop the same way in both editions, and it uses the same reinforced_deepslate ID.
Worth knowing before your next ancient city run
Reinforced deepslate is one of the rare blocks that exists as set dressing for a structure rather than a resource to chase. Treat an ancient city visit as a chance to grab loot and study the layout, not to mine the walls. When you do want the block for a build, switch to Creative or open the console, and remember that anything you make from it will outlast almost everything around it.