Tutorials/Starting in the Nether

Obviously there are several ways to take on this challenge.


 * Start in the nether and build a portal to get out.
 * Start in the nether and bring stuff from the overworld.
 * Start in the nether and stay in the nether.

For the sake of completeness, this tutorial focuses on staying in the nether without any overworld help.

Check out Nether Survival Let's Play by wattles.

And if you're going to use creative mode to build the portal to start, give yourself a respawn anchor right away as well. I promise you it's not cheating. Nether survival is nearly unplayable otherwise, unless you're a really bold player or you get a really good starting location. You'll need diamond or netherite to break it though. You can make more respawn anchors once you get crying obsidian from piglins.

TL;DR: Points to keep in mind

 * Wear gold so piglins don't attack you! Makes a world of difference.
 * Immediately find a crimson (red) or warped (blue) fungus biome and convert the fungus stems to wood, then build a crafting bench and craft wooden tools. Now you can mine blackstone (for stone tools), gold ore (everything piglin), and basalt (ghasts can't break it), but not gold blocks (you'll need iron for that).
 * Don't forget about the blaze spawners, chests, and nether wart in nether fortresses.
 * Mushroom stew and hoglins are the only food sources (besides rotton flesh from zombie piglins).
 * If all you want to do is get to the overworld, just dig out gold and kill zombie piglins, then trade with piglins until you get 10 obsidian. I promise you it's the quickest way.

Biomes helpful in getting started

 * 1) The fungus biomes are essential for wood blocks to make a crafting table and wooden tools.
 * 2) The nether waste makes it easy to find exposed gold.
 * 3) Blackstone (to replace cobblestone for stone tools) can often be found around the lava lake level.
 * 4) Basalt biomes also have blackstone, and basalt is a nice building block that chasts can't blow up.
 * 5) Nether fortress chests have iron and other epic stuff.

Make gold armor. One piece is enough to convince pigmen you're a good guy. It will save you a lot of trouble, especially in the red fungus biome.

Nether biomes

 * Warped Forest biomes
 * Endermen spawn here, not piglins or hoglins. Don't look at them and they'll leave you alone.
 * Crimson Forest biomes
 * Piglins and hoglins spawn here, not endermen. Hoglins drop porkchops, an epic food source.
 * Piglins can be bartered with (or rather offerred gold to see what they'll give you). This gives you arrows, obsidian, crying obsidian (for respawn anchor), and fire resistance potions.
 * Nether Wastes
 * Large lava lakes with ghasts, pigmen, and zombie pigmen. Easy to find exposed gold here.
 * Basalt Deltas
 * Polished basalt is a nice, craftable building block which ghasts can't blow up.
 * Blackstone is often just under the surface.
 * The basalt columns protect you from ghasts while you're working around the area, but beware of magma cubes!
 * Nether Fortresses
 * Build a blaze spawner farm using blocks. Build it 9 blocks down then funnel in by one block each row until you get to a one block hole. Drop the hole down two or three blocks and then leave a one block gap at the bottom so you can kill them and collect the blaze rods. This gives you blaze rods and blaze powder (to make an ender chest with!).
 * The chests have epic loot, especially iron (required for mining gold blocks).

Nether fortress

 * Build a blaze spawner farm without redstone
 * Build in a diamond shape with 1 block of air above, 4 blocks on each side, and 9 blocks below the spawner, then (at the bottom) funnel in by one block each row down until you get to a one block hole. Drop the hole down two or three blocks and then leave a one block gap at the bottom so you can kill them and collect the blaze rods. This gives you blaze rods (craft blaze powder to make an ender chest with!).
 * Blaze Farm With ZERO REDSTONE by Prowl8413


 * Build crash bars across walk ways
 * Put blocks across the hall way the third block up to protect you from wither skelatons.


 * Take the chest too.
 * Break the chest. Sure you have unlimited wood, but at least you'll know which areas you've already been in.

Mob farm

 * On Java
 * Almost all the nether gold farms on Youtube only work on Java, so you're in luck. Bedrock doesn't have the same agro mechanics for zombie piglins as Java does, so they're not really possible on Bedrock. Definitely build yourself a nether gold farm. The insane rates are totally worth it.


 * On Bedrock

You can build a regular mob farm and the spawns will depend on the biome you're in. If you want to farm only zombie pigmen, build the spawning platforms out of magma blocks instead of regular blocks, but make sure you're in a biome that spawns zombie pigmen.


 * If you build the farm at the top of the nether (Y=120), you can just have the mobs drop off and die from fall damage, and then run around below them picking up the drops.
 * The list of air blocks that mobs think they can pathfind over tends to change over time, it seems, so make sure the method you're using actually works the way you expect. They still drop off without any fake blocks, it just might take longer.
 * If you build over a lava lake you'll need less spawn proofing. Lava lakes may sometimes extend into soul sand valleys, but check first to make sure skelatons actually spawn on the block you're intending to use as your spawning platform.
 * Your drop platform should be made of blackstone bottom slabs. That way ghasts can't blow it up and piglins and hoglins won't spawn on it.

Random tips

 * Ghasts drop gunpowder, which is used to make splash potions.
 * Once you get some coal from wither skeletons, you can use it to build a campfire. When you break it you should get two charcoal every time.
 * Use fence gates instead of doors. Magma cubes can't jump over them, but you can hit over them. Piglins can open doors but not fence gates, so put a trapdoor above the fence so you can flip it down if piglins are shooting at you over the gate.