Tutorials/Nether survival

The Nether is a dangerous hellscape filled with Zombie Pigmen, Ghasts, Blazes and Magma Cubes.

Preparing For The Nether
The first step of preparing for the Nether is to make sure you have enough materials to build, or dig out, a small home within the Nether. Digging out a home is much easier than building one, Netherrack can be mined quickly with any pickaxe, much faster than stone or cobble is mined.

You also want to bring a lot of Food - but not too much as dying in the Nether causes you to spawn back in the Overworld, and you will lose all your inventory items - and a full set of armour, preferably Iron. You will want at least a Stone Pickaxe/Shovel, or if you have loads of Iron to spare, use that. Swords aren't that useful in your first Nether visit. Most people won't attack Zombie Pigmen on their first visit, and you won't go searching for Nether Fortresses.

So your only real enemy in your first visit will be Ghasts. Ghasts are one of the hardest mobs to fight in Minecraft,except the Enderdragon, mainly because of their floating ability and their fireball, which does considerable damage (particularly in 1.9 pre5, where one direct hit will kill). Unless you're on a cliff and the Ghast is floating in front of you, the only way to take them out is with a bow and arrow or when their fireball nears you left click to hit it back, a direct hit from this will kill the ghast. However, aiming and hitting a Ghast can sometimes be challenging. Their hitbox is at the bottom half of their model (their tentacles, hitting the top of their head doesn't damage them). Once you have these tools, and enough arrows to take out a few Ghasts (a stack is usually good enough, less if you have experience with using a bow, more if you plan to stay longer and kill zombie pigmen safely) you will be ready to...

Enter The Nether
When you first enter the Nether, you may be awestruck by the amazing structure of it, however the Nether is a dangerous place, you will want to dig a small structure with a Crafting Table and a Chest. Once you have set up your base to your liking, you will be ready to explore.

Exploring The Nether
When exploring the Nether, there are a few things to remember,
 * Monsters can spawn anywhere there is space. Almost no place is truly safe. Ghasts require a 5*5*5 space to spawn, and Blazes only spawn from Blaze Spawners with light level < 13.
 * Compasses don't work, clocks don't work (although the day/night cycle continues while in the Nether) and maps made in the overworld don't work either, making navigation in the nether quite tricky. When exploring, try to keep going in one direction, and make sure you leave a trail of torches or dirt, something so you can find your way back.
 * If you encounter a blocked passage, a huge lava lake, or any other impassable obstacle, just follow your trail back to your base, and start off in another direction
 * Try to reinforce your base, if you attack a mob of Zombie Pigmen or have a Ghast on your trail, you don't want to run back to your base, only to realise that you don't have a door. Ghast fireballs can blow large holes in netherrack walls, so line your base with cobblestone, stone, stone bricks or any other block with a Blast Resistance of at least 20.17.

When exploring the Nether it is a good idea to take some food with you. Also, avoid sprinting as it may send you straight into a lava pool. There are only two sources of food in the Nether: Zombie Pigmen, and mushroom soup. Attacking one Zombie Pigman will send others nearby into a rage, so be ready to fight at least half a dozen at once. If you want to make mushroom soup, you need to have some wood and a crafting table at your disposal to make bowls. You can then harvest some of the many mushrooms in the nether and easily make some mushroom soup.

Nether Fortresses
If you happen to stumble upon a Nether Fortress while exploring, it is a good idea to head back to your base, or even back to the Overworld, to get more supplies. You will want at least an Iron Pickaxe, Iron Sword and lots, and lots of food. There are a few things that are of the most importance when exploring a Nether Fortress:
 * When exploring a Nether Fortress always place torches to your right, that way when you want to get out you just make sure that the torches are on your left.
 * If you find a Blaze Spawner, make sure you place a lot of torches unless you want to farm Blaze Rods, Blazes can't spawn with light level > 12, so simply placing torches on the spawner won't stop them from spawning.
 * If you come across a Nether Wart plantation, collect as many (if not all) of them as you can, and then leave, follow your torches out, go back to your base, then create a Nether Wart farm by planting it on top of Soul Sand. Placed Nether Wart does not grow in the Overworld, and you must be less than 150 blocks away in the Nether for it to grow.

Explore the Nether Fortress thoroughly. You might not find much, but every once in a while there will be a Nether Wart plantation, or a Blaze Spawner, these are great finds. You might even encounter a Magma Cube, however they do not drop anything.

Lava
Lava is most prevalent in the Nether, and is in huge lakes, rivers, and falls from the ceiling. You must be very careful around lava as Water buckets will not work in the Nether. A good way to get rid of lava is to use the Netherrack around you to direct lava away from you.

Cobblestone
Making a small base around your portal is a must, but making it out of Netherrack is not safe, as Ghasts can destroy Netherrack quite easily. Probably the best thing to use is Cobblestone. Cobble is very common in the Overworld and is completely Ghast-proof. Later on, you can start to make nice houses and bigger bases in the Nether, but for now, a cobble room with the portal and a chest is sufficient.

Zombie Pigmen
See Zombie Pigmen

Zombie Pigmen are very common in the Nether and roam in packs of 4-10. They are neutral mobs, meaning that they won't attack unless you attack them. However, Zombie Pigmen have an interesting characteristic that make them unique from other neutral mobs. If you attack one Zombie Pigmen, the whole group will swarm you, which spells certain death for you. There is a set distance, around 14 blocks around the Pigman that is attacked, that designates the area in which other Zombie Pigmen will become hostile to you, if you are in that area. It is recommended to leave them alone, but if you want Gold Nuggets, you can attack the Pigmen in various, safe ways.
 * 1. Bow and Arrows- Using a bow, you can pick off Zombie Pigmen one at a time at a safe distance.
 * 2. Separation- Isolate the pigmen and kill them, but make sure they are far away from any other pigmen, or else they will attack you. Time consuming, but safer than the bow-method.

Ghasts
See Ghast

As said before, they shoot deadly fireballs at you when you're in their sight of 100 blocks, so stay very far away from them. Cobble is effective in neutralizing their fireballs.

Blazes
See Blaze

A great way to farm them is to use the nether brick from the dungeon and build a casing over the spawner so you can see through a one block hole and either pick them off with your bow and arrows or use a sword, preferably a sword enchanted with knock back. Then you can use the blaze rods to craft a brewing stand or make blaze dust to make potions or eyes of enders.

Magma Cubes
See Magma Cube