Tutorials/Defeating a Nether fortress

Nether fortresses are dangerous for unprepared players, as they have many dangers, including blazes, wither skeletons, dangerous falls, and many rooms that are easy to get lost in.

Reasons for defeating a nether fortress
There are several benefits of defeating a nether fortress:
 * To get blaze rods, essential for brewing and crafting several interesting things, including Eyes of Ender and Ender Chests.
 * To set up a blaze farm or/and a wither skeleton farm.
 * To get wither skeleton skulls to summon the wither or for decoration.
 * To gather nether wart, also essential for brewing.

Preparations
Preparing before you even enter a nether fortress is essential. Some recommended items are listed below:


 * At least an iron sword. Your melee weapon is absolutely essential while exploring a nether fortress. An iron sword will do, although a diamond sword is recommended. If you have access to enchanting, try to get Sharpness or Smite, Unbreaking, and Looting (for more wither skeleton skulls or blaze rods). Knockback is mediocre and Fire Aspect will be (almost) useless in the nether due to widespread fire immunity.
 * A bow. A bow allows you to take out enemies above the ground or inaccessible from your current position. Blazes and Ghasts fly quite often above the ground. For enchantments, get Power and Unbreaking. Infinity is also good to bring. Punch is much less uesful as most mobs you will be shooting at are far away and a small knockback makes little difference. Flame will see almost no use.
 * At least a stack of arrows. The bow is useless without arrows to fire from it! If you can collect some glowstone (hanging in clusters from the nether ceiling) you can use the glowstone dust to craft spectral arrows, to double your arrow count and make mobs glow!
 * At least a full set of iron armor with at least one piece of gold armor, the boots are recommended. Armor is essential as well in a nether fortress, and the best armor you can get is highly recommended. Wearing at least one piece of gold armor will avoid piglin attacks as you traverse nether wastes and crimson forest biomes, and even while walking in exposed parts of a nether fortress from their crossbows! As for enchantments, Protection and Fire Protection are invaluable, along with Feather Falling on your boots to drop down to lower areas. Soul Speed is moderately useful, as in Unbreaking.
 * A stone pickaxe and (optionally) a diamond pickaxe. The stone pickaxe is for breaking netherrack because the diamond pickaxe carves netherrack alarmingly fast and might expose a lava stream you cant react to. The diamond pickaxe is for breaking up parts of the nether fortress. An iron pickaxe could also work here. Pretty much the only good pickaxe enchantment in the nether is Unbreaking, but Efficiency can be useful on a diamond pick for mining a hole through which to quickly escape.
 * At least 1 golden apple (optional) Although not required, golden apples could be a lifesaver at some point, and if you have a hold of an enchanted golden apple, that will be useful later on.
 * Highly nutritious food, such as cooked porkchop or steak, at least a stack of this. You will need to heal from combat a lot, and foods like these restore tons of health/hunger.
 * At least two stacks of cobblestone or other ghast-resistance block (blast resistance 4.2 or more). Blocking off explored (or unexplored!) parts of a fortress will cut down on fights.
 * At least two stacks of torches, a third is recommended. Blazes and wither skeletons can spawn in any part of the fortress, not just from spawners, on nether bricks with a low enough light level (11 or less for blazes and 7 or less for wither skeletons) and placing these around prevents them from spawning.
 * A crafting table, a chest and  a furnace to set up a temporary base.
 * 16 logs of wood for general crafting.