Tutorials/Nether survival

This tutorial provides useful survival tips when going to the Nether, whether you want to just visit or make a more permanent base there. This tutorial also explains how to beat the game by starting in the nether with nothing.

Introduction
The Nether is a dangerous place for even experienced players. It is filled with a host of exclusive mobs not found in the Overworld: hostile ghasts, magma cubes, hoglins, piglins, and the neutral zombified piglin, as well as one passive mob, the strider.

The terrain is much harsher to navigate than in the Overworld: one false step could mean death by fiery lava. Nether fortresses and bastion remnants both spawn in the Nether. Nether fortresses are the homes of wither skeletons and blazes, and piglin brutes, piglins and hoglins all spawn in bastion remnants.

This guide is intended to help you increase your chances of survival in the Nether and opening up a lot of gameplay such as brewing, nether hubs, the End, the ender dragon and wither bosses

Making a nether portal


To make a nether portal, the player needs 10 obsidian blocks to build a 5 by 4 block portal frame (the corners do not have to be obsidian) and flint and steel to ignite the portal. Although it's quite expensive, a fire charge can also be used as a one-use portal lighter. However, the player must go to the Nether to get the material to make a fire charge or find a fire charge in a ruined portal chest.

Place the obsidian to make a hollow upright rectangle, with the inside measures being two wide by three high (at least, the portal can be larger) and one block thick. Use something other than obsidian for the corners unless you have an abundant supply of obsidian to conserve this resource. Once the player has made the frame of the portal, they can use the flint-and-steel to light one of the bottom pieces of obsidian. The inside of the frame should light up with an eerie purple glow, meaning that the portal is now active and ready for use.

Longer method
If the player does not have any obsidian, but has buckets and available lava (a small lake or many flows), it is possible to "cast" a portal in place. Note that this process does not work if the player is already in the Nether - if this is the case, plenty of lava is available, but no water. The only way to place water in the Nether is by putting it in a cauldron, using commands, placing a pure water block (accessible with cheats) or custom structures.
 * 1) The player needs at least 10 lava source blocks (carried in buckets), and a bucket of water. The lava is not needed all at once, but having at least 2 lava buckets at a time speeds up this task.
 * 2) Build a mold out of dirt for the bottom: a trench 1 wide and 2 or 4 long.
 * 3) Fill each block of the trench from a lava bucket, then place the water on a mold block to flood the lava and turn it into obsidian (if it turns into stone or cobblestone instead, then the player may have misplaced a source block. One can fix this problem by mining out the stone or cobblestone and trying again).
 * 4) Extend your frame upward and repeat the process to mold the next layers: three levels of two separated pits for the portal sides, then another trench for the top.
 * 5) Dig away the dirt frame, and light the new portal.

Simple method
You need at least 6 blocks, a water bucket, a lava pool, and a flint and steel(or other lighting method). A block breaking tool is recommended.


 * 1) As shown in the next gif, start by placing a block at the edge of a lava pool.
 * 2) Place water to the left of the block.
 * 3) Destroy the block.
 * 4) Pick up the water. If the bottom two blocks are made of obsidian (as shown in the image): Good, everything is going fine, as you will need all 4 of the obsidian so far. Continue to step 5. If the bottom two blocks are NOT made of obsidian: Because you are missing those bottom blocks, which are supposed to be obsidian, you need to destroy those blocks. After destroying those blocks, fill them with lava and use flowing water to solidify them with obsidian. Once you have all 4 obsidian blocks there, you can continue to step 5.
 * 5) Place those two blocks, as shown in the image.
 * 6) Place those four blocks, as shown in the image.
 * 7) Place water as shown in the image.
 * 8) Fill the left side, as shown in gif, with lava.
 * 9) Fill the right side, then top side, with lava to complete the portal, as shown in gif.
 * 10) Pick up the water, and light the portal.

Also, keep the portal housed in a lit building in the nether, but do not use beds because beds blow up in the Nether when the player tries to sleep in them. Instead, if you have enough materials, you can use a Respawn Anchor.

Preparation


Being well-equipped is essential for survival in the Nether. Lacking even a seemingly useless item in an unfortunate situation can. However, be sure not to bring any items that have little or no use for your objective, leaving room to carry the loot you came to the nether to find in the first place, as well as reduce the number of items lost if you die.

Carrying backup items to handle specific emergencies can take up more inventory space than carrying the minimum supplies to craft what you need as the situation arises, provided you take into account that you need to be in a safe place for the time it takes to place, or craft, a crafting table, then go through one or more steps of crafting to get what you need. For example, gravel is common in all Nether biomes except basalt deltas, so flint and steel can be crafted if that becomes necessary, provided you are carrying iron. It is unwise to bank on finding iron, as the only ways to find it are as rare loot in generated chests or by bartering. The same supply of iron serves in lieu of carrying replacement pickaxes, buckets, or weapons, but could take too long to craft into a bucket to scoop up unexpected lava. Huge fungus stems can provide logs, and thus make sticks, a crafting table, and so on, but they are not as versatile as logs from trees and could take a while to find if you're in the wrong biome. Similarly, you could rely on finding blackstone rather than carrying cobblestone, but it isn't quite as versatile and isn't as easily found as gravel. Always carry logs, cobblestone and iron, and possibly potions of Fire Resistance.

Tools and weapons
One of the most important tools in the Nether, especially in a structure, is your weapon. A melee weapon of iron or better is almost essential. A bow or crossbow, along with at least 64 arrows, is enough to dispose of any enemy, unless you have Infinity. Glowstone is common in the Nether and allows a dwindling supply of arrows to be extended by turning them into twice as many spectral arrows,[ Java Edition only] which are beneficial in their own right. While melee weapons work well in close quarters combat, consider bringing a crossbow or a bow in addition to your melee weapon, as ghasts and blazes can be troublesome without them. However, ghasts can still be dealt with even without a bow and arrow; punching their fireball to deflect it back to them can be an acceptable way to deal with them if bringing a ranged weapon is not an option.

An iron pickaxe or two (or a single diamond pickaxe) can be useful, as you can use it to clear a path, or to gather some blocks if you have run out. It can also be used to carve a staircase into the side of a nether fortress to gain access to it.

It may be prudent to bring along a flint and steel because even if you don't intend to build a new nether portal, a ghast fireball can easily break a portal block inside the portal frame, leaving you stranded until it is relit with fire from a flint and steel, fire charge, burning blocks adjacent to the portal frame, or even another ghast fireball.

Ensure your tools have enough durability to last long enough for you to achieve your goal.

Armor
Armor is also important. Even if you are not planning on doing much fighting, armor reduces the amount of damage you take from being submerged in lava, making it a potential life-saver should you accidentally fall in lava. A full set of iron armor should be enough to boost your chance of survival. Consider bringing diamond armor only if you are confident in your ability to survive, or else you may die and lose it. Shields can be useful for fighting the skeletons present in nether fortresses and soul sand valleys. Wear at least one piece of golden armor if you don't want to deal with piglins attacking you.

Transport
Striders can be the best means of travel in many situations. If you have a fishing rod and saddle, you need only locate some warped fungus and head down to a lava lake to lure a strider. Fishing rods are not found in the Nether, and string to make one appears only in some bastion remnant chests, so it's better to carry some rather than pulling off a dangerous heist or raid, hoping for lucky finds. You have better odds of coming across a saddle in a nether fortress or bastion remnant chest, but if your plan is to use a strider to find one of these structures, you need to have brought your own ahead of time. Killing striders in desperation as a source of dropped string could work, but it isn't the most practical or reliable means to do so.

If you don't have a saddle but by chance see a zombified piglin riding a strider, you can draw it close, and ideally onto land, by wounding the rider with an arrow (or even a thrown egg or snowball), then kill it and take the pre-saddled strider for yourself. They might even drop their warped fungus on a stick for you, but the odds of that are not high. Building some walls around yourself before trying this is probably necessary, since the zombified piglins in your area are likely to turn hostile when you attack the strider jockey.

Enchantments
Enchantments offer huge advantages for surviving in the nether, if you have access to an enchanting table with bookshelves. For your weaponry, you should consider damage-boosting enchantments on your weapons (e.g. Sharpness and Power). Be aware that all mobs in the Nether (except for regular skeletons, piglins, and hoglins) are immune to fire damage, so enchantments like Fire Aspect should not be a priority. For armor, a combination of both Protection and Fire Protection are helpful. Enchantments such as Aqua Affinity offer little to no use in the Nether. Enchanting your boots with Feather Falling can save your life, and allow you to drop down onto low terrain safely. You may also enchant your boots with Soul Speed to transverse soul sand valleys at higher speeds. Enchanting your pickaxe with Efficiency is not too useful, because most of the blocks you would mine are netherrack, which already mines quickly with even an unenchanted iron pickaxe. The only pickaxe enchantment with a real advantage in the Nether is Unbreaking, as it can save you bringing multiple pickaxes.

Blocks
In general, blocks are handy to bring along with you in the Nether. They can allow you to pillar jump to reach high places, block off mobs from reaching you, and allow you to bridge across to different masses of land over the lava oceans. Two or three stacks of cheap, non-flammable blocks (e.g. cobblestone) should be enough for a normal trip in the nether. Blocks that are affected by gravity (e.g. sand or gravel) can be useful to get down from a high place; for example, from the top of a nether fortress bridge. The Nether's terrain is tough to navigate, so bringing these blocks can prove highly useful. A pickaxe can be useful in the event you run out of blocks, as it can be used to mine some of the abundant netherrack.

Bringing 10-14 obsidian is a good idea too, in the event you get lost and lose your portal home. Bear in mind that you also need your flint and steel to light this emergency portal.

General supplies
Food is as important in the Nether as it is anywhere else in the game. If you run out of food, you lose your ability to sprint, and, more importantly, regenerate health. Running out of it can be fatal. Think about how long you are planning to be in the Nether, and how much fighting you might do, and bring an appropriate amount of food for it. Keep in mind that different foods provide different amounts of saturation, which is the most important thing for healing. The more saturation a food has, the more health you regenerate from eating it. Steak and porkchops are among the best foods for early gameplay, with bread, mutton, and baked potatoes being an acceptable alternative.

Suspicious stew is a niche, often overlooked, food item. It is also relatively cheap, requiring only a bowl, a red mushroom, a brown mushroom and a flower of your choice. Suspicious stew crafted from oxeye daisies provides 7 seconds of Regeneration, which can save your life if you are low on health with enemies nearby, or if you have been afflicted with Wither from a fight with a wither skeleton. Suspicious stew crafted from dandelions or blue orchids provides much more saturation than regular foods, which can also be used to heal a lot of health in a short amount of time. However, it is worth noting that stew cannot be stacked, so bringing a lot of it quickly fills up your inventory. Consider bringing around half a stack of "regular" food, in addition to a handful of suspicious stew crafted with the aforementioned ingredients. Use the regular food for maintaining your hunger, and the stew as a method of quickly regenerating health in dangerous situations.

If you have already explored the Nether and gotten some blaze rods, and can thus brew potions, you should do so. Fire Resistance potions are extra valuable in the nether, as falling into lava is always a possibility. Splash potions of Healing can also save your life if you find yourself low on health in combat, like the suspicious stew (mentioned above). If you planned ahead and brought one or more buckets of water, enough iron to make a cauldron, some bottles, and some cobblestone, before searching out a nether fortress, you can find everything else you need there to begin brewing potions, putting you in a much stronger position.

A few stacks of torches can provide a means of leaving a trail, allowing you to find your portal again if you lose it. (Although, in this case, the use of coordinates is often a more practical solution.) Remember that compasses do not work in the Nether, so do not bring one intending to use it to find your way home unless it has been aligned to a lodestone. Torches are also useful for marking which parts of a nether fortress you have already visited, so less time is wasted exploring areas of the nether fortress you have already exhausted.

A small handful of empty buckets can be useful for removing lava in awkward places. They can also save your life if you run into one of the many single blocks of lava while digging through the netherrack.

Ender pearls can be extremely useful if you fall into lava. They are also useful for crossing lava pits, or reaching otherwise hard-to-access areas. However, you should consider that ender pearls are relatively hard to get, and you may want to save them for activating the end portal later (if you have not already done so). There are two easy ways to obtain ender pearl in the nether, which are via killing endermen that spawn abundantly in warped forests, or via bartering with piglins, which can give you almost a stack of ender pearls.

Gold ingots can be useful for bartering with piglins, if you visit the nether wastes or crimson forest. You can get useful items like fire resistance potions, ender pearls, obsidian, crying obsidian, netherite hoes [BE only until 1.16.100], etc. You can store gold ingots in gold blocks. Be careful not to drop gold blocks, as piglins pick them up.

Even if you give your ingots to a piglin, you can still get them back, provided that you know which piglin you have bartered with. A way of doing this is locking one piglin up, bartering with it until you run out of gold, then killing it to get the gold back.

In recent versions of Minecraft, netherrack can be acquired in the Overworld from ruined portals. This can be smelted, and the resulting nether bricks crafted into nether brick fence. Three stacks of netherrack yield 60 fences (nearly a full stack), with 12 netherrack or bricks left over. Since nether brick fences are blast-resistant and can also be seen through, they make a good option for windows and/or perimeters when building your first shelter around your portal. A quick way to do this recipe is as follows:


 * 1) Verify your count.  If you have 3 stacks even, set aside 12 pieces of your netherrack and put it back in your chest.   Alternatively, you can add 6 pieces to fill out one more recipe.
 * 2) Smelt your netherrack into bricks; using hoppers or multiple furnaces make this more convenient.
 * 3) Spread the bricks evenly across a crafting table's squares, thus making 9 stacks of 20 (or 22) bricks.  Take one of those nine stacks and put it back in your inventory, and combine the other 8 stacks pairwise into the 4x4 recipe for nether brick blocks.  Craft the lot of those (40 or 44 recipes) with a shift-click.
 * 4) Now you can just arrange the saved bricks and the blocks into 10 (or 11) recipes.  If you went for the 11th recipe, you end up with a full stack and 2 extra fences.

Entering the Nether
While the Nether's scenery is captivating, remember the Nether is a dangerous place. For the player's first visit, the main threats are falling, fire, getting lost, hoglins, and ghasts. The first two can be handled in the usual ways, but the most urgent threats are most likely ghasts and then hoglins on account of the fact that the other hazards don't move or shoot at the player, excluding piglins (although they do not attack a player wearing at least one piece of golden armor who is not attacking or opening containers.) That said, don't be careless; sudden drops and holes can be hard to spot in the confusing netherrack landscape. Fire in the Nether is more dangerous than in other dimensions, as water cannot exist or be placed there. Magma cubes are also a threat considering their natural armor and the fact that they multiply like slimes, although the little ones still deal damage.

When you first arrive at the Nether, stay in the portal until the chunks around you load so that you can see what the immediate surrounding area looks like. Often, a nether portal generates right next to a giant lake of lava or a high drop-off. If this is the case, then walking out of the nether portal upon arrival likely results in death.

Lag
With a slower computer, the player may encounter a massive lag spike upon entering the Nether. The workaround involves doing the following: after the player steps out of the portal, turn on the debug info, then  to pause the game. Note the "Chunks Updated" line—even while paused, the game is continuing to load chunks and update them. It is wise to also note down the coordinates of the portal. The player can then wait for the chunk updates drop to zero, meaning the game has finished loading the region around them. Then the player can resume play. This trick is also useful when the player changes their render distance.

Protecting the portal
Even though hunting, exploring, and mining may sound fun, it is unwise to start doing this as soon as the player steps into the Nether for the first time. The player's first order of business is to build a cobblestone shelter around the portal. Brick, stone, and other blast-resistant blocks also work, but cobblestone is cheapest in the Overworld. As noted above, nether brick fences can be crafted even before entering the Nether at all (by mining ruined portals for netherrack), and these are both transparent and blast-resistant.

Take the quickest possible look around, just enough to see what kind of ground the player is building on, then start building as fast as is practical.. Unfortunately, a first portal has a disproportionate chance of coming out next to an abyss, lava lake, or netherrack wall, and even if it spawns in the open, there may be multiple ghasts in view.


 * If the situation is clearly impossible, abandon the original portal, find someplace safer, and build a return portal! Lava flooding the portal or multiple ghasts waiting for you can force this. You also need to get the coordinates of your portal, the same as described for "Lag" above.
 * Firstly, if your portal spawned on soul sand, you have the immediate need for a floor that doesn't slow you down. Depending how much stone you brought, you may need to scant the walls, filling in with wooden fences which at least block mob vision.
 * Otherwise, you should start with the walls, throwing up enough stone to block ghast fireballs.
 * The player may find themselves under fire from ghasts immediately upon entering the Nether. Don't panic, just concentrate on building a wall between the player and the ghast, bouncing fireballs back to prevent too much damage. After you finish the fight or at least get a bit of shelter, relight the portal as needed, and then extend the wall around the portal.
 * If you are next to a sudden drop or lava, start with the wall protecting you from that.
 * If you are next to a netherrack wall, you can build an initial shelter against it, but expect to put cobblestone there too -- hopefully at a later visit, but if ghast fireballs get in, some of that wall may go away (not to mention being on fire).
 * If by ill chance the player wound up with a portal floating over lava, attach the bottom layer to the outside of the ledge blocks, and do just enough to shelter the player while they're starting a bridge to land where the player can make a return portal.
 * You need at least two stacks of cobblestone for the walls and ceiling, and the floor and other trimmings may well cost another stack. Because you are right next to the portal, feel free to go back to the Overworld for more cobblestone as needed.
 * If your portal gets blown out, don't panic. Flint and steel, or extra obsidian, are all you need to relight it.

Your shelter needs to be at least 5 blocks high, but the portal itself can be part of the roof. While it's tempting to do the same with a wall, it's probably safer to be able to walk around the portal on both sides. Use iron bars for windows. Make sure to leave enough space for a crafting table and a chest or two. The chests are important if the player does not want to lose too many of your items whenever you happen to die. Don't forget the door, either - wood suffices until you figure out where an outside button or lever could be placed where it is safe from fireballs. Note that if the player is building against a netherrack wall, you need a cobblestone back wall in front of that. If you want to dig there later, you can always put a door in. Once the player got the walls and ceiling up, likewise cover or replace the floor with cobblestone, extending it to under the walls. The walls should extend a block below floor level, and a little further under the doors. The shelter also needs a few blocks of cobblestone floor outside the doors, in case a ghast shoots the player while they're entering or leaving. You should end up with a space completely enclosed by cobblestone, iron, and perhaps a bit of obsidian.

Make sure you know which biome you're in:
 * Crimson Forest: Watch out for hoglins, the Nether's equivalent of pigs, because they deal high damage and high knockback, and can fling you into the air. However, like pigs, they drop porkchops when killed. Piglins are formidable enemies that frequently spawn here, and they attack players who are not wearing gold. They also become hostile toward those who open chests, ender chests, barrels or other containers, or gold-related items like blocks of gold, ores or gilded blackstone. These mobs barter, so from them you can get crying obsidian and potions of Fire Resistance.
 * Warped Forest: Endermen spawn often here, so make sure that you build with blocks they cannot pick up. Make ceilings two blocks high so that they cannot teleport or spawn inside. Because ghasts, magma cubes, piglins, hoglins and most other Nether mobs do not spawn here, this is possibly the safest biome to stay in.
 * Basalt Deltas: Building here is a real challenge thanks to the pockets of lava, magma blocks and basalt that spawn on the floor, and the uneven pillars and spikes. You also need to watch out for magma cubes, which deal high damage, even the little ones, and some knockback.
 * Soul Sand Valley: You need to change out the floor from soul sand and soil to avoid being slowed down. Watch out for ghasts and skeletons: they spawn most frequently here, and the natural terrain can slow you to a crawl.
 * Nether Wastes: Read the info above for protecting the portal. Piglins, magma cubes and ghasts spawn here, but it is a good place to find quartz as it is not obscured by any nylium.


 * Nether Fortress: While this is a lucky place to spawn, you must protect the portal well. Make sure the ceiling is 2 blocks high to avoid having wither skeletons spawn there. Make sure to light it up well, as blazes can spawn at higher light levels than most hostile mobs, and they send out alarm calls when attacked. However, you have immediate access to what most players come to the Nether for: blaze rods and wither skeleton heads, as well as naturally-generated fortress loot.
 * Bastion Remnant: While slightly less lucky a spawn, you have access to magma cube spawners and a partly laid-out base. Watch out for piglin brutes: they aren't fooled by gold armor, have high health and powerful attacks. Piglins attack you if you attack a brute. See Tutorials/Defeating a bastion remnant to learn how to get the large quantities of gold blocks that it contains.

Later on, you can start to make nice houses and bigger bases in the Nether, but for now, a cobble shelter with the portal, a chest, and a crafting table is sufficient. The only necessities are iron armor, a pickaxe, sword, and shovel (all iron), food, bow and arrows, cobblestone for making quick shelters, dirt or gravel for pillar-jumping or stopping lava, and your trusty flint and steel. The rest of the items or extra supplies can be stored in the chests. If the player is going any distance, bring enough obsidian to make an emergency portal.)

To prevent mobs from spawning in the player's Nether home/base, one can use transparent items or half-blocks as the floor. However, be warned that mobs can spawn on the nether portal itself. Now that your nether portal is safe, the player can start doing what they came to the Nether for!

Special cases

 * If the player's portal emerges floating over a lava lake, the portal generates a few extra blocks of ledge at the bottom, but it is still recommended to build that out into a platform, then continue building a path to safety. Upon reaching a safer location, the player can build a shelter there, and a new return portal within it. Deactivate the old portal before the player starts using the new one so that the portal in the Overworld gets linked to the new one.
 * If you face an impossible situation and die without being able to deactivate the old portal or make a new one, you may need to go back and fix things the hard way.
 * Hopefully, you got the coordinates of the nether side of the portal. If your portal was in mid-air, against a cliff, or in some other awkward situation, it is likely that the coordinates that your original portal "should" have gone to was blocked by lava and/or large masses of netherrack. Multiply the coordinates of the Nether portal by 8 to see where its "natural" matching location in the Overworld is, and compare that to the actual coordinates of your original portal in the Overworld. If they're dramatically different, the space between probably represents the hazard that blocked you.
 * To get a portal to a new place in the Nether, you need to travel at least 1000 blocks from the matching location of where the portal actually came out, and make your new portal there. The next question is, which direction? If you go back toward and past your original portal, your new portal might come out on the other side of the hazard that blocked the original portal, and you need to get back there to decommission that. So, you're better off going away from your original portal, and 1000-plus blocks past where the Nether portal you got would have matched. With luck, that may get you to a better location in the Nether. Aside from replacing your old equipment, this jaunt requires much the same preparation as the first, including cobblestone and obsidian.
 * Once you're back in the Nether at a safer location: First, see if you can do a quick run to retrieve any surviving items, shuttling them back to your new portal if needed (If that looks dangerous or everything's gone into the lava, just forget that and start anew). Build a shelter for your new portal, go back to restock on cobblestone and then go back to where the old portal was. If the location turns out to be salvageable, you may be able to just build a shelter and continue, otherwise:
 * If the old portal hasn't been broken by ghasts, decommission it by mining a block. Now, scout out a Nether location which comes out someplace more reasonable, as close as possible to your base. You may even be able to make a better location, by building a platform over lava or tunneling into a netherrack mass to get within 16 blocks of your base portal's "natural" coordinates. Now, you can build your new shelter first, then put your return portal inside.

If the portal gets blasted
The player's first resource should be their flint and steel. If for some reason the player does not have one, relighting the obsidian portal frame becomes much more difficult. If the portal was exposed enough to get hit by a ghast fireball, the player could persuade a ghast to hit it with another fireball by getting into the line-of-sight long enough to shoot the fireball. If the player dodges the fireball quickly enough and it hits the obsidian of the portal, the portal gets re-lit.



Another possible method is to take any flammable block and place it on one side of the block. By getting lava close to the flammable blocks, the lava can eventually light the wood, thus lighting the portal frame. Having the lava right on the opposite side of the frame of the flammable block is the fastest method. Also, the higher the difficulty, the faster the blocks catch on fire, so this method is more difficult in Easy or Peaceful difficulties. If the player also lacks a bucket, one can channel lava past the portal, or even build a trail of flammable blocks (planks are cheap, but wooden slabs are cheaper) to the nearest fire. That last method is especially tricky, as fire doesn't always catch. If this happens, try making it wider than one block.

A new set of flint and steel can be acquired. Looking in nether fortresses or ruined portals, there is a chance of finding a flint and steel in a chest. Also, gravel occurs naturally in the Nether, so a player can collect flint from there. Iron nuggets can be then created by smelting down iron horse armor, armor, tools that the player has, and chainmail armor from skeletons. This process requires having a furnace and fuel source (such as a bucket of lava). Iron nuggets can also be obtained from bartering with piglins.

Another option is to create a fire charge. This is trickier as it requires gunpowder, coal, and blaze powder, so the player may have to kill a ghast, wither skeleton and blaze to collect all three of these items. Fire charges work just like flint and steel, except each use uses up one item. Fire charge may also be found in ruined portal chest. Fire charges can also be obtained from bartering with piglins.

As a last resort, if the player has (or can make) a chest or two (they appear in nether fortresses, so you might be able to locate one), the player can stuff all their equipment into the chests (not forgetting armor), and then commit suicide. However, you lose your XP levels if you do this. Assuming the player is not playing on hardcore and has not used a respawn anchor, they respawn in the Overworld, and can re-equip themselves at leisure (this time, not forgetting the flint and steel) before going back through the portal to collect their items. Note that this is more difficult on a multiplayer server because another player can come by and steal your items.

Fending off ghasts
Ghasts are one of the hardest and most annoying mobs to fight in Minecraft, mainly because of their floating ability and their long-ranged fireball, which does considerable damage to both players and the landscape. If you are bridge-building across a lava sea, they might shoot you off. (One direct hit can kill an unarmored player.) That said, they do have several weaknesses:
 * They do not actually chase the player (nor flee), even after being attacked. They just move randomly around the landscape, firing at any player who comes into the line of sight (and range).
 * Also, ghasts have 10 points of health (two fully charged shots with an unenchanted bow), so sniping them is not too difficult. A bow enchanted with even Power I or a critical hit can one-shot them.
 * The fireballs are fairly easy to dodge, but they also tear up the landscape, not to mention setting it afire. However, the player can also bounce a fireball away by hitting it (fist, weapon, tool, anything works) as comes near. The fireball usually goes in the direction of the player's gaze. If the player manages to hit the ghast with its own fireball, it dies instantly, and the player gains the "Return to Sender" achievement/advancement. Be forewarned that this takes practice, so don't expect to use this method as the sole defence against ghasts. The player can also deflect the fireball by hitting it with an arrow, a snowball or even an egg.
 * The classic defense is to build a mini-shelter out of cobblestone, 3 blocks high with a ladder to let the player poke their head (and bow) over the top, and preferably a 3&times;3 roof two squares above that for protection. Note that if the ghast can't see you, they don't fire.
 * If a ghast does come into reach the player can also hit them with a sword. This can happen when they spawn in a cave, or just randomly fly into one, or happen to fly close to the ground. Besides this being a rare opportunity, you may also need to dodge or bounce fireballs at close range.
 * If there is more than one ghast attacking the player, the best option is to run and/or hide. If the player sprints, fireballs cannot hit the player. If they can get out of sight from all but one, they can then focus on shooting down that one.
 * Ghasts don't spawn in crimson forest s and warped forest s. On the contrary, you may want to avoid soul sand valley biomes as ghast spawns are abundant there.

Fighting Hoglins
Hoglins have high health and a lot of knockback resistance. However they can be burned, and they fear warped fungi. Some ways to get away from them are:


 * Let the piglins kill it.
 * Use warped fungi to scare them, and hit them as they are retreating and don't attack you
 * Burn them for cooked porkchop.
 * Sprint/critical hit them.
 * Spam click to knock them back while damaging them.
 * Build a 3 block pillar to kill the Hoglins, since their range is two blocks. However, if you are not on a flat area, they can get up on another block enabling to hit them. Always examine where you are building up. You need to be crouching to hit the Hoglins easily if you are built up 3 blocks.

Resources found in the Nether

 * Netherrack, soul sand, gravel, lava, magma block, glowstone, nether quartz ore, soul soil, blackstone and its variants, nether gold ore, basalt, crimson stem, warped stem, are all freely available. Note that while the player can pillar-jump to mine a high glowstone formation, a little exploration may reveal more accessible veins of the stuff (look for places with low ceilings).
 * Crimson and warped fungus are found in crimson forests and warped forests
 * Red and brown mushrooms are likewise found scattered about.
 * Ghasts sometimes drop ghast tears and/or gunpowder.
 * Magma cubes can drop magma cream.
 * Zombified piglins sometimes drop rotten flesh and gold nuggets. They can drop golden swords and gold ingots. However, attacking these is unwise until the player is prepared to handle a lot of them.
 * The player can also mine nether quartz, used for advanced redstone components, and decorative purposes as well. Fortune is a true gift here.
 * Obsidian can be farmed with Nether portals. View the nether portal page for more details (the diamond pickaxes needed to mine these can rarely be traded for emeralds by some villagers, making them renewable).
 * Blackstone can be used as a substitution for cobblestone in the nether, or as a good building material.
 * Nether gold ore can be mined to get gold nuggets, which can then be crafted into gold ingots.
 * Ancient debris can be used to craft netherite items.

Once the player finds a nether fortress, they can obtain several other resources:
 * Nether bricks, nether brick fences, and nether brick stairs. These are ghast-resistant and non-flammable building materials. They can also be crafted from smelted netherrack, but that takes some time and effort. The nether fortress is made of nether brick, including those massive support pillars and all the decorative fencing.
 * Nether wart, which the player can grow on soul sand. The player can also grow it back in the Overworld, provided they brought back some soul sand.
 * Blazes drop blaze rods, and are the only source of them.
 * Wither skeletons occasionally drop their skulls, which can eventually be used to spawn the wither. They also provide coal, and bones (bone meal for plants).

Once player finds a bastion remnant, they can obtain several other resources:
 * Pigstep music disc
 * Nether wart (alternative way)
 * Gilded Blackstone, which generates only in such structures
 * Several blocks of gold

Exploring the Nether
When exploring the Nether, there are a few things to remember:
 * Hostile mobs are common, and can spawn anywhere there is space. Luckily, what are perhaps the two most dangerous Nether mobs - ghasts and blazes - have special spawning needs. Ghasts require a 4*4*4 space to spawn, free of transparent blocks and slabs and spawn rarely in nether wastes and basalt deltas, but quite commonly in soul sand valleys. Blazes spawn in only nether fortresses, and only below light level 12. Zombified Piglins are common as well—while they start out neutral, they can easily get in the player's way so that they accidentally attack them, and they spawn only in nether wastes and crimson forest.
 * Wear a piece of gold armor if possible, because if you don't wear gold armor, piglins attack you.
 * Be generous about laying down cobblestone paths and putting up ghast shelters preemptively. If you need more cobblestone, go back to the overworld and get more.
 * You can actually use the netherrack you mined to make nether bricks, smelt it with lava which is plentiful. This is time consuming, but nether bricks are as good building material as cobblestone, and it's plentiful. You could actually make an automatic smelting facility to cook your netherrack.
 * You can also use Blackstone for alternative block, especially if you're in basalt deltas.
 * If you die in the Nether, you respawn back in the Overworld (Unless you use a respawn anchor, which you can set your spawn there). As long as you stay in the Overworld, Nether time is frozen. In particular, you can take all the time you want to re-equip yourself and plan; when you do go back, if you can get from the portal to your death site within 5 minutes, you may well be able to retrieve anything not lost to fire, lava, explosions and (your own) cacti. If you're playing in multiplayer, this may not apply - if there are other players nearby in the Nether, they can keep the chunk loaded and the clock running. Also, they might save and/or steal your items!
 * If you use a respawn anchor to respawn in the nether, you need glowstone to charge it, and it requires rare crying obsidian to craft it. You can get crying obsidian from bartering or mining them from ruined portals.
 * Navigation is tough. Where the in-game methods below fail, the debug screen may be helpful, as it provides your coordinates and direction,or if you have a lodestone and a lodestone compass(normal compasses spin wildly), you can find you portal easily by putting the lodestone near the portal,then link the compass.
 * Normal compasses and clocks spin wildly (although the day/night cycle continues while in the Nether), and maps made in the overworld don't work either.
 * Use lodestone compasses for navigation in the nether, which require lodestone crafted from a netherite ingot and chiseled stone bricks.
 * You can activate a blank map in the Nether, and use a crafting table to zoom it out a bit. However, such a map shows only the bedrock "roof", and the direction indicator spins randomly, so it's not nearly as useful as an Overworld map. On the other hand, it does give some idea of where you've explored, and the marker is in the correct location on the map. While maps are no longer centered exactly at their creation, you can put framed clones of the map on your portals to make those green markers appear in the correct locations.
 * When exploring, try to keep going in one direction until you reach an impassable obstacle (wall, cliff, lava lake), and leave a trail of markers along the path from your base, so you can easily find your way back. Dirt and torches are recognizable, but jack o'lanterns let you point the direction to your base (all the above are vulnerable to ghast fireballs, but unlike torches, Jack o'lanterns remain if the netherrack supporting them is blown away.) Cobblestone arches (as well as any paths you've made) also work well as they resist Ghast fireballs, are easily distinguishable from surrounding Netherrack, and can be positioned so that passing through them orients you to the direction you came.
 * Tunneling through Netherrack: Making a 1×2 tunnel is a sure way to get killed by lava. Instead dig a 2-wide tunnel with the floor of the left side one block lower than the right, or vice-versa. This makes a trench for the lava, and if you're standing on the high ground, the lava does not touch you. Staircases are trickier: When digging down, lava can appear below or in front of you and can be bucketed or blocked off. When digging up, dig 2-wide, and regularly put 2-long areas with a one-block pit in front of the next step. This gives you someplace to dodge flowing lava, and the pits capture the flow. Also, watch out for lava "drips" when mining upward. Ladders or signs can also help block lava until you have a chance to do something about it.
 * And again, the debug screen provides your coordinates and facing—this is also helpful for choosing where to place a new gate back to the overworld.
 * This cannot be restated enough: be sure to build a base. This way, if you accidentally attack a mob of zombified piglin or have a ghast on your trail, your base must protect you, and consist of more than just an exposed Nether Portal. Again, as ghast fireballs can blow large holes in Netherrack walls, you should construct your base out of cobblestone, stone, or, for a decorative look, stone bricks. Not only do these blocks have the necessary blast resistance to withstand a ghast fireball, they also are not found naturally in the Nether. This makes it much easier to identify your base from a distance.

Nether fortresses
One of your main objectives in the Nether is to locate a nether fortress. To see all the features of the Nether fortresses visually, try this video. Basically, their straight walkways and tall pillars are unmistakable, but may be dimmed by distance. Be sure to look carefully into the abyss beyond the edges of the areas you explore; if you're not using Far render distance already, you can occasionally switch to it so as to see farther. If you do not see any, remember that the lava seas that generate in the nether allow the player to spot more land, and a saddled Strider can help in this regard. Be aware that sometimes most of the fortress is engulfed in netherrack. Therefore, open your eyes and look for signs of a fortress like nether bricks, blazes, and wither skeletons.

Even after spotting one, you may well need to find a way to get to it, or even build a bridge to it. (Suggestion: three-wide cobblestone, with two-high iron bars or nether brick fences for railings, and a roof. Those ghasts get really annoying when you're out on a bridge… you might even put in a couple of turrets for sniping at them, too.)

Once you do find one, it is a good idea to make sure you have the necessary supplies to gather its many resources. So, head back to your base, or even back to the Overworld, and get, at a minimum, a stone pickaxe, an iron sword and lots and lots of food. An enchanted golden apple is handy when it's time to take on a blaze spawner, but you may want to stash that nearby and go back for it when you actually find the spawner. Lots of walls of any nonflammable material or nether brick fences are handy too: safety railings on the walkways are really nice when a ghast starts taking potshots at you, and blocking off unused areas and broken bridges help cut down on fights.

There are a few things that are of the utmost importance when exploring a nether fortress:
 * Explore the nether fortress thoroughly. You might not find much, but every once in a while you can find nether wart plantations, which usually generate behind staircases, or a blaze spawner. These are your key prizes, as the only places you can find these are in the nether fortress, or in bastion remnants, which is both rarer and more dangerous. Details on nether wart farms can be found on the nether wart farming page.
 * Wither skeletons are scary, but slow and they can't go through a 2-block high passage.
 * 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. Jack o'lanterns make this even simpler — always face them toward the exit (or where you need to go to reach said exit).
 * If you come across a nether wart plantation, collect as many (if not all) of them as you can, as nether wart can be used to brew awkward potions——the base for most potions, then replant the plot (you'll have plenty leftover). Then go back to your base and create a nether wart farm by planting it on soul sand. Nether wart doesn't care about light or water and grows in the Overworld and The End, so you can take the farm back to your overworld base. Note that you don't use all that much, so four to six blocks of soul sand support a brewery and then some.
 * You may well want to build a portal leading back to the overworld from the nether fortress. Having an Overworld base handy provides all the supplies you need.
 * When you find a blaze spawner, you have a choice: turn it off, or farm it. There are usually at least two blaze spawners per nether fortress, and if multiple nether fortresses have joined together there may be more. So, don't assume the first one you find is your only option, but you do need to fight blazes at least once "the hard way" if you didn't get a fire resistance potion by bartering (enchanted golden apple notwithstanding). That first fight may be fairly tough, but together with the nether wart, you gain the means to make potions, including potions of fire resistance. Those make return engagements much easier.

Navigation through a nether fortress
The way to navigate through a Nether Fortress needs torches. When you finish a part of the Nether Fortress, put a torch at the entrance of the room to help you explore the Nether Fortress easily. Or you could block off the entrance with a certain block (like cobble). Wither skeletons can give you the Wither effect——a health draining status effect made by both a wither projectile or wither skeletons hitting you. Blazes are extremely dangerous and can be in the hallways and rooms, so make sure you are aware of that.

Closing a blaze spawner
While a blaze spawner can be destroyed as usual with a pickaxe, you probably shouldn't do that unless you're absolutely sure you'll never, ever, want to hunt there. Blazes can spawn up to light level 11, up to 4 blocks away from the spawner (and a block above or below it), so simply placing torches on the spawner doesn't stop them from spawning—you'll need to plaster the area with a mix of jack-o-lanterns (or glowstone).

This lighting pattern should suffice to squelch a Blaze spawner: (Top view, all on the same level.)

Farming a blaze spawner
There are many hints for fighting blazes on their page. Here are some useful ideas:
 * For your first fight, kill blazes that are not in the spawner room. This lesser number of blazes are easier to fight when you don't have a potion of fire resistance.
 * If you haven't brought out the enchanted armor, now's the time. Fire Protection and Protection are both helpful.
 * An enchanted golden apple is good to bring, but if you haven't acquired one yet potions can act as a substitute. Specifically, potions of fire resistance, strength, and regeneration can be a huge help. Although Potions of Fire Resistance make you immune to blaze fireballs, you are not immune to their touch attack. Armor and regeneration potions can help.
 * An iron golem may be helpful, especially once you've got the spawner contained. One big disadvantage is the golem's huge knockback, which can throw Blazes and their drops out of reach. The golem's distractibility is also an issue &mdash; between spawnings, they're liable to wander off after zombified piglins and wither skeletons. The zombified piglins don't mob you or the golem for the golem's attacks, but the repeated fights soon wear down the golem. (A splash potion of regeneration or repairing the iron golem with iron ingots can help with that)
 * A creative option is to mine under their platform to make a bolthole with a narrow opening up to their platform, perhaps 1&times;3. As they descend into the hole to reach you, you'll be able to get in several hits before they can respond. Nether fortress stairways (the narrow sort, not like the one leading to the Blazes) can provide a similar bolthole.
 * A fishing rod can be useful for pulling blazes into melee range so their drops aren't lost.
 * Create a "ceiling" above the spawner-this prevents blazes from flying out of reach and makes it easier to obtain their rods.
 * It takes 7 snowballs to kill a Blaze. Water can't be used in the Nether, as it simply fizzes and vanishes. You can try making a Snow Golem, but they'll quickly "melt" due to the Nether heat. (Again, splash potions of fire resistance can help.)
 * With fire resistance assured, you may want to seal yourself in the spawner room, so that wither skeletons, magma cubes, or other Blazes can't ambush you from behind.
 * Bring a Shield to block the fireballs.

Living in a nether fortress
If you've mastered the Nether, you can go in and start making a nether fortress more habitable. If you can have control of a Nether fortress on a multiplayer server, you can control who enters the area, and also control who gets blaze rods (as blazes spawn only in Nether fortresses). Mine down most (if not all) the netherrack covering the fortress. Make any surface where you don't want mobs with trapdoors or slabs. With the addition of nether quartz, the one who controls a fort can also control who gets nether quartz from the area.

First, you should repair any bridges, as this can prevent falling deaths in the nether, though it gives mobs more access to the nether fortress. In many places, lava may be leaking in, so it is advisable to close off the area.

Almost all forts have a single roofed, large building, which you can use as the main building, where you can store all the necessities. You should put doors on the building, to prevent destructive mobs from entering.

DO NOT make a bed, beds explode in the nether and the end if you sleep on them, though crafting tables are needed, and an ender chest might be useful (if one leaves the Nether in a hurry, they can get their items via another chest). Use a respawn anchor instead.

You should disable blaze spawners, so you can use them for mob grinding purposes later on, but also prevent blazes from overrunning the nether fortress, as they are extremely hazardous.

Some parts of a nether fortress have been filled in with netherrack and it can be a pain to dig it out. TNT is useful, though this risks damaging the fort, creating more hassle for the user. However, digging netherrack can give you a good source of nether bricks——a good source of building material back home in the overworld.

Nether Wart plantations are in most nether fortresses, with many warts in one plantation. They usually generate behind staircases, so keep an eye out when hunting for them. For more about Nether Wart, see Tutorials/Nether Wart Farming.

If one finds a nearby fort that is not attached to the first one, nether bricks can be looted to repair the nether fortress if in survival. Large parts of the fortress itself such as the pillars for bridges are solid and nether bricks can be looted from the inside of these pillars.

Killing the various mobs that spawn there is tricky. Blazes, zombified piglins, and ghasts pose a threat, though wither skeletons are a minor annoyance. Mobs spawn at a faster rate in a Nether Fortress, and trying to kill all the zombified piglins is impractical, so it is best to just leave them alone, as a large pack of zombified piglins could knock you off into a lava ocean. A few of these mobs can be prevented from spawning at all with proper light levels. Blazes spawn at light level 11 and under and wither skeletons at 7 and other, so lighting up the entire area with torches is recommended. Ghasts need a large space to spawn, 5x4x5 blocks with a solid block beneath them, so light sources should prevent all those mobs except zombified piglins from spawning. The zombified piglins are neutral, so avoid accidentally hitting them and you'll be fine.

If imported farming does not work, you should use the naturally growing mushrooms to make soup, so you have a bit to eat, though it is preferable to make better food, such as bread, with imported dirt and wheat seeds. This, however, may prove difficult, due to the inability to hydrate farmland in the Nether. Chickens can also be brought in using eggs to provide raw chicken.

Lava
Lava is pleantiful in the Nether, in huge lakes (a sea of lava is near the bottom) rivers, and falling from the ceiling. You must be careful around lava as water buckets do not work in the Nether, and ice disappears instead of melting into water. Also, lava spreads much faster and farther in the Nether than in the Overworld (7 blocks instead of 3). Two good ways of crossing lava are to make a potion of Fire Resistance or eat an enchanted golden apple; while this effect is active, you can swim through lava without taking damage. Fire Protection on your armor can at least reduce the damage from a brief contact. If any lava is in the way of your builds, simply clear it out using a bucket or fill it with blocks, and then continue on.

If you can find and reach a lava flow's source block, you can bucket it just like in the Overworld. Unfortunately, in the Nether, much of the lava is pouring down from great heights. Normally, use cobblestone, or iron bars to contain lava or direct it away from you (if you use flimsy blocks like dirt or netherrack, a ghast fireball can undo your work in a moment!) As always, if you mine upward, then watch for dripping red particles (if you have particles turned on). The drip itself does no damage, but if you mine a dripping block, lava pours down. If you wish to get rid of lava flowing from the ceiling (in your way, or immediate hazard), you must block jump up to the source (or simply aim at the ceiling), and cover the hole with any non-flammable block (if it's flowing straight down from a flat ceiling, you may need an extra block next to the flow to place the dam). One must be extremely careful about the placement of the block, however—if misplaced, the block can just spread the lava wider.

You can ride a saddled strider and control it with warped fungus on a stick to cross a lava ocean. Make sure you know how to get back, though. Lava oceans are sometimes big and easy to lose direction in. If you want, you can drink a combination of Night Vision and Fire Resistance potions while exploring lava seas, because you can swim across lava to the bottom to scan the ground for ancient debris (They can generate under lava seas, but rarely).

Zombified piglins
Zombified piglins are common in the Nether wastes and roam in packs of 4-10, and they also spawn in crimson forests. Before 1.16, Zombified Piglins were instead known as zombie pigmen. They are neutral mobs, meaning that they don't attack unless you attack them. However, if you attack one Zombified Piglin in a group, like wolves, the whole group (and any others in a wide range) swarms you, easily killing any unprepared player. When a Zombified Piglin is attacked, all others in a wide range (33 to 55 blocks horizontally and 10 blocks vertically) of the victim become hostile and give chase if you are within 40 blocks of them. This can be avoided if you kill the zombified piglin in one blow, but that's easier said than done. Do this by using a diamond sword enchanted with Smite IV or above and a critical hit. Note that they can see you only in a 40-block radius — any Zombified Piglins between those distances are turned hostile, but do not move toward you (instead of wandering as normal) until you come into sight. This can be a nasty gotcha: When you defend yourself, any zombified piglin within a new 33 to 55 block range become enraged. As of version 1.8, Zombified Piglins forgive you over time if you leave them alone for 20 to 39.95 seconds, although if you are still within their 40 block pursuit radius, they continue to attack. If you really need to get gold from them, stand on a two-block high pillar in an open space and then kill them. However, Piglins and Ghasts get really annoying on the platform.

It is usually better to leave these creatures alone, but if you want gold nuggets, or to increase your level (killing many zombified piglins gives you a lot of experience), you can attack the zombified piglins in various, safe ways. Also, if you have to fight Zombified Piglins, make sure there isn't much (or even better, no) lava or fire surrounding you. You may have to move around a lot to fight all of them at once, and distractions make it worse (also, you may need to collect your stuff after getting killed).

NOTE, Zombified Piglins wield and carry golden swords, which can sometimes be enchanted, but they usually drop only rotten flesh and gold nuggets, and rarely, gold ingots and their swords). Their swords can sometimes be enchanted, with the level of the enchantment varying depending on the difficulty.


 * 1) Build a killing ground- Near a large group, fence/wall off a controlled area, and set up gates, one-way doors, and suchlike so that you can limit them to approaching one or two at a time, and block them off altogether when needed. Don't forget an escape route! Note that this can be much more difficult as of 1.8 as they now have path-finding AI.
 * 2) Bow and arrows- Using a bow, you can pick off Zombified Piglins one at a time at a safe distance. Just make sure you have enough arrows and they don't get to you——Zombified Piglins run faster when provoked, so being in high ground is a good choice.
 * 3) Separation- Isolate the Zombified Piglin and kill them, but make sure they are far away from any other Zombified Piglin, or else they attack. Time-consuming, but safer than the bow-method. This is no longer as effective as of 1.8 since their anger radius has been vastly increased, though if you stay away long enough they forgive you.
 * 4) Nether Portal - Mobs can travel through portals. So, if you can push or lead them into a portal, you can follow and deal with one or two at a time in the Overworld. Some nether mobs, especially Zombified Piglins, can spawn inside portals, so they can be teleported into the overworld. If you attack a Zombified Piglin in the Overworld, it makes no impression on ones in the Nether.
 * 5) Diamond sword, diamond (or iron) armor, and full hunger bar- If you have a diamond sword (preferably enchanted with something like Knockback, which help for fighting groups), a full set of diamond or iron armor, and you are regenerating, you may be able to beat the whole group. NOTE, this is not recommended as, if you die, you could lose a diamond sword and a full set of armor. It helps if you staged the fight somewhere away from lava and close to your spawn portal. DON'T FORGET: they may pick up your armor and/or weapon if you die!
 * 6) Healing splash potions - One splash potion can heal you for  HP, and also damage the Zombified Piglin(s) by the same amount. So you need 3 potions to reduce them to  HP, or 4 potions to kill them.
 * 7) Cacti- It is possible to create a cacti fence in the nether by placing some sand and cacti blocks. You can then bump into zombified piglin to push them into the cacti until they die and drop items. If you are careful not to actually attack them (no clicking!), the nearby piglins stay neutral.
 * 8) Iron Golems- When an iron golem attacks a piglin, that piglin does not strike back. Also, they kill the piglins in 2-3 hits and usually aren't hurt at all. This tactic works better if you have a lead. If your Overworld portal is in a village, then you can easily drag golems into the Nether when need be.
 * 9) Tower- Just build a three-block high tower to stand on, and the piglins cannot jump to reach you. Don't do this near ghasts; they can blow you off your tower.
 * 10) Suicide Bed Bombing- If you actually died from engaging against them, you can use this method. It involves only one bed. Go into the nether with a bed only, so no weapons and no armor, and lead the Zombified Piglins faraway from your portal or your droppings——beds make quite big explosions. Then, place a bed and wait for them to surround the bed. Right-Click the bed and, if you have good timing, you can kill a large bundle of them in a single explosion.

Ghasts
As mentioned earlier, ghasts shoot deadly fireballs at you when you're in their sight of 100 blocks, so stay alert for incoming fire any time you're in the open, or exposed to open space. Their noises, which sound like crying babies, can give some warning, but their fireballs travel even farther than their sounds, in fact the fireballs travel for one minute before despawning (or until the ghast is dead)., so this isn't a reliable warning. Cobblestone resists the fireballs, which is why you should bring a lot.

However, ghasts can give you trouble with zombified piglins around! If you bounce back one of their fireballs, the fireball now counts as your attack, and if a zombified piglin so much as gets touched by the blast, it becomes provoked (along with all its buddies in and out of sight).

Pro tip: when the fireball is within the player's reach, aim at the Ghast and punch. As long as the fireball is in your FOV you can hit the ghast. NOTE: If surrounded by multiple ghasts, constantly hitting attack while aiming at a Ghast throws all fireballs in that direction, regardless of which direction they are coming from (they still need to be within reach). Do be careful, however, with bouncing fireballs back at Ghasts on the ground, as the explosion from the fireball can not only damage the vicinity, but provoke zombified piglins as above.

Remember that unlike shulker bullets, ghast fireballs do not follow the player. If you are in a difficult situation, just run to a safe place. You can always outrun the impact area.


 * 1) Bow And Arrows- Simply run to a safe place without other mob distractions and finish it off with a bow & arrows.
 * 2) Sniper Turrets- If you are crossing a bridge over a lava sea, build sniper turrets . They consist of walls with holes on them. Fire arrows or charges at ghasts from the turrets and quickly duck behind a two-block-tall wall when the ghast fires at you.

Blazes
Although they cannot be found in the "general" Nether, blazes can spawn in nether fortresses, both naturally and through spawners. For the first run, it is strongly recommended to find an enchanted golden apple. As of Minecraft 1.9, these can no longer be crafted but can be found in chests in various locations: dungeons, desert temples, abandoned mineshafts, and woodland mansions. Failing that, loading your armor up with Fire Protection and Protection enchantments can help; maximum protection comes with 10 levels total of Fire Protection, with each two levels of regular Protection counting as one of Fire Protection.

After that first run, your first two blaze rods (and some nether wart) let you brew potions of fire resistance; use the first one to make a brewing stand, then craft the second into blaze powder. The first piece of blaze powder fuels the brewing, the second can make magma cream if you haven't picked any up yet, but if you do have some it can be used to make Potions of Strength (with a bit of redstone, your potions last even longer). At this point, you can run away and come back with potions of Fire Resistance. This makes you completely immune to their fireballs, and if you keep a block or so distance, you can avoid their melee attack.

Once you've gotten more comfortable with the blazes, you can build one of the spawners into a farm, by casing over the spawner area with Nether Brick Fence, and digging a hole underneath for the blazes to slowly descend into.

Magma Cubes
Magma cubes are slime-like mobs that spawn in the Nether wastes and spawn abundantly in basalt deltas, generally near lava (hence the name magma cube). They look like burnt slimes with yellow eyes, and seem to have springs under them (they jump fairly high and the "springing" is visible). Their properties are much like slimes, as killing a large one results in it splitting into 2-4 medium-sized ones, which splits into 2-4 small ones. The large and medium Magma cubes have a chance of dropping magma cream and experience when killed. You can prevent magma cubes from spawning in your base by making the floor out of transparent blocks. As mentioned earlier, you can stand on a pillar to kill magma cubes, but any ghasts or crossbow-wielding piglins might really annoy you.

Wither Skeletons
Wither skeletons are tall, darkened skeletons, wielding stone swords. They inflict the wither effect for 10 seconds with a hit. They walk when idle, but sprint toward a player when they see one. However, they can't pass through a two-block-high space, which makes them somewhat easy to deal with. They drop bones, coal, and occasionally their stone sword. They also have a small chance to drop a wither skeleton skull, which are essential to summoning the wither boss. These types of skeletons are found only in nether fortresses. They can roam in groups in fortress hallways, so be careful of blazes and being withered in this situation. Knockback is good for packs where you want them as far away as possible.

Piglins
Piglins commonly spawn in Nether Wastes, Crimson Forests, and in Bastion Remnants and are armed with either golden swords or crossbows. The adults are by default hostile, but if you have at least one piece of gold armor on they become neutral toward you, and the babies are always passive. Throwing a golden item at them pacifies them for a moment. When killed, they have a small chance of dropping their golden sword or crossbow, any armor they naturally spawned with, and they drop any picked up items. If you barter with them by throwing or using a gold ingot on them, they throw something back, as seen on the bartering page. You can prevent them from spawning by thoroughly lighting up the area as they spawn at light levels 11 or below. They also run from soul fire items and zombified piglins. If they go into the overworld through a nether portal, they start to shake and turn into zombified piglins shortly after.

Hoglins
Hoglins are large pig-looking mobs, which drop raw porkchops, leather, and experience upon death. They spawn in Crimson Forests and Bastion Remnants. They are naturally hostile with 40 health points. They run from warped fungus, nether portals, and respawn anchors. They run toward players and fling the player into the air upon hitting. Unlike most hostile mobs, hoglins can be led with leads and bred with crimson fungi. If they go into the overworld through a nether portal, they start to shake and turn into a zoglin shortly after. Hoglins make good sources of food when you run out of them in the nether for long periods of time or if you get lost.

Brewing
Many resources in the Nether are essential for brewing potions:
 * Blaze rods, from killing blazes, are needed to make a brewing stand, where all potions are brewed. They are also required for making an eye of ender (making the rod into powder), which can locate an End portal.
 * Nether wart can be found in nether fortresses or bastion remant and is used to brew the awkward potion, the base for most potions.
 * Blaze rods can also be crafted into blaze powder, for strength potions, and fuel for the brewing stand.
 * Magma cream is dropped from killed magma cubes, and can also be crafted from blaze powder and slimeballs. It can be used to brew fire resistance potions.
 * Gold nuggets dropped by zombified piglins and also when mining gilded blackstone and nether gold ore, can be used to make glistering melon slices, for healing potions, and golden carrots, which is one of the best kinds of food in Minecraft and can also be used to brew night vision and invisibility potions.
 * Ghast tears drop from killed ghasts, and are used to brew regeneration potions.
 * Glowstone dust is mined in the nether, and used to increase potion potency (e.g., from poison to poison II).
 * Gunpowder is used for creating splash potions.

Settlement
Turns out it wasn't enough for you to explore the Nether. You've decided it looks like a nice place to live (or if you're in a multiplayer world, perhaps you seek strategic control of the rapid-travel capability). So, what do you need to survive here?

Crops
You can start by importing some dirt to grow plants. You can even use a hoe to till it into farmland, but there's a catch: With no water available, you need to till the ground, then plant your seed immediately, before the farmland reverts to dirt. Likewise when harvesting wheat, replant immediately and keep the hoe on your hotbar. This works for all the farmland crops: wheat, melons, pumpkins, carrots and potatoes and beetroot. Melons would be the most reliable as after the stem is fully grown, hydration does not affect the rate at which melons grow. Wither skeletons can provide bones for bone meal to speed this process. Cocoa plants are farmable on jungle logs as usual, so that gives you cookies too. You can also farm sweet berries. While you're at it, you can layout a few blocks of soul sand for a nether wart farm.

Mushrooms
It is also possible to build an 8 by 8 platform, plant mushrooms on two opposite edges, and then use bone meal. This can provide you with a steady source of Mushroom Stew, and you can put torches or saplings in the other corners. On dirt or grass, mushrooms need a light level of 7 or below, but on podzol, mycelium, or nylium they can be bonemealed into their respective huge mushroom type at any light level. Nylium is also the only block in the nether which you can far mushrooms on, and that is crucial

Generated Structures
Once you've gotten used to nether dangers, you can invade and repair a nether fortress, as it provides many Nether commodities, such as blazes and nether wart. However, falling is a real danger, as there might be a lava ocean below you. If you're in survival, and you've found multiple nether fortresses (not connected but nearby) you can loot nether bricks to repair your favorite nether fortress. You can smelt netherrack into individual nether bricks, then craft your own walls, stairs, and fences. You can also transform bastion remnants in similar ways. For bastion renmants, block off any lava, and fill in any gaps. Try to fix up the jagged edges of the bridges/walkways. Make the bastion into an bartering farm/ magma cream farm. Add decorations and fix up the bastion.

Wood
You'll want wood for tools and torches (and perhaps to smelt into charcoal), so make a tree farm as well. Wood also provide charcoal for torches and smelting. Oak trees also provide the occasional apple for golding, but that's not really a food supply. If you want nether woods variants, you can grow Huge fungus as they don't need dirt, but nylium to grow. Also nether wood is inflammable.

Another catch: Trees need space to grow - and ghasts need space to spawn. Happily (and contrary to popular belief), ghasts do spawn on blocks, and they need a 5×5 space free of transparent blocks and slabs. You can scatter slabs, glass and glowstone around the floor of your tree farm. You can plant saplings with glowstone adjacent, and slabs on top of the diagonal blocks. You can do this in rows for max efficiency. If you're low on glowstone, jack o'lanterns and torches suffice. You also need at least 4 blocks of air above the sapling. Using this method of tree farming, you can have a large enclosure for mass wood farming without ghasts! If not too densely lit, your tree farm also serves for bone-meal assisted huge mushrooms, which is useful for Mushroom Stew. The most basic way to safely farm trees is to have a 5×5×7 room with a floor made out of glowstone or glass (if you are using glass, make sure to put torches next to the sapling) and have 1 dirt in the middle of the floor.

Animals and Villagers
Chickens can also be farmed in the Nether (by bringing in eggs), but likewise, take space, and warrant anti-ghast measures. There is gravel around for flint and Nether wood for sticks, so with the chickens for feathers, you can make arrows.

Cows, pigs and sheep can be brought through the portal, which can provide you with wool, leather, and meat. Sheep require special measures: You'll need to get a grass block with a Silk touch tool or killing an Enderman holding one and use that to start grass on a well-lit dirt floor, so they can regrow their wool. You can also just breed the sheep until you have a lot, and then shear some of them and kill the sheared ones. However, the sheep do not re-grow their wool.

Villagers can be brought into the nether through a portal, either using a boat or minecart. Make sure the portal is protected, so ghasts don't fireball you or damage the villager. Villagers can use beds without blowing them up, allowing for artificial villages and iron golem farms to function properly. They do run away from zombified piglins even though zombie piglins don't attack them.

Other
Some things can't be produced in the Nether, and need to be brought in from the Overworld: There are no ores, besides nether quartz ore, ancient debris, and nether gold ore. There is no diamond unless you import it from the overworld or you find it in nether fortress chests. Emerald, iron, redstone and lapis lazuli are renewable through villagers, and gold is renewable through zombified piglins. Iron is also renewable from bartering, as well as water, though it has to be stored in cauldrons. Coal is renewable from wither skeletons or smelting overworld wood. Blackstone can be used as an alternative to cobblestone. You can get pigstep disc and snount banner from bastion renmant, and diamond and horse armor can be obtained through a nether fortress.

Paper and sugar need sugarcane, which can't grow without water. You can get string from killing striders. Fishing rods cannot be used for fishing as there no water, but can be used to craft warped fungus on a stick to ride striders or reel in mobs. The same applies to some ingredients for brewing: Besides sugar, there's no spider eyes. They must be brought in from the Overworld.

Tips

 * A player can crouch when near lava as a safeguard to avoid falling in. However, you still get knockback from being hit.
 * Mobs such as the ghast can surprise the player, so the player should be watchful of their environment, especially when in bad positions, such as bridging a gap.
 * A zombified piglin farm can be created by walling the player off, then killing the piglins through a small hole.
 * Killing magma cubes can help the player collect magma cream, which is used for brewing potion of fire resistance, an extremely useful potion in the nether. One can also get Potion of fire resistance from piglin barter.
 * Avoid getting lost in the Nether's low visibility by placing markers, such as torches or jack o'lanterns. Any markings suffice, but make sure they are not native to the nether.
 * The player should be careful on gravel, as gravel can generate with no supporting blocks, making it fall when it receives an update.
 * Glass and string block a ghast's vision, allowing the player to see ghast filled areas without being shot at. This is useful for bases in the Nether.
 * Bringing 10 obsidian, a flint and steel (or fire charge), and compass allow the player to return to the Overworld if they become lost. The compass adds an easy way in the overworld to find the player's spawn.
 * Bring a pumpkin or a jack o'lantern. They can help you find your direction, as the stem on the top of the pumpkin always faces Northwest even in the Nether, no matter what direction the Pumpkin itself is facing.
 * As long as there are no ghasts or blazes present, traversing the Nether by mining along the edge of a wall is fast, safe, and efficient, unlike tunneling through said wall, which requires a fast reaction time and/or the constant digging of pits for lava to drain to.
 * Wear a piece of golden armor (possibly enchanted) when traversing through the nether to avoid piglin attacks.
 * Or place a soul fire based block to scare them away.
 * Bring some warped fungus as a defense toward hoglins.
 * Know your biome: Knowing the threats of the biome you're in can be invaluable. In Nether Wastes, zombified piglins, piglins, and magma cubes roam, with the occasional ghast or enderman. In Crimson Forests, Piglins, Hoglins, and Zombified Piglins roam. In a warped forest, only endermen spawn. In Soul Sand Valleys, ghasts are abundant, along with skeletons and the occasional enderman. In basalt deltas, Magma Cubes spawn abundantly, along with some ghasts. The lava oceans are home to the striders.

Nether survival challenge
If you think surviving in the nether is too easy, you may want to try this challenge. This section assumes you play in a release of the nether update. Both Java and Bedrock editions use the same mechanics.

Starting
Create a world with cheats, and start the world with creative. Build a nether portal and go to the nether. Break the nether portal. Most people give themselves a respawn anchor and 4 glowstone for recharges, but most people don't.

In either a crimson forest or a warped forest, obtain around 20 logs. Make wooden pickaxes and start mining right away. Blackstone can be found in large veins from levels 5-28. While you are mining, look for some nether gold ore. It gives you gold nuggets, which you should turn into gold ingots. It can be found in any biomes from levels 10-117. Blackstone can be used as a substitute for stone, so upgrade all of your tools to stone. Make sure that you do not run into any lava, as there are small lava pockets everywhere underground in the nether. If you are in a basalt deltas, basalt generates on the surface. Don't confuse it with the Blackstone. With Blackstone, make stone tools, and a furnace. After crafting many bowls, look for brown and red mushrooms and craft mushroom stew. Your priority is to mine any nether gold ore you see, so that you can get one piece of gold armor (most easily boots), so that the Piglins don't attack you. Mine a lot of wood in forests, and you can collect ender pearls if you are in a warped forests. If you are in a crimson forest, you can kill Hoglins (tutorial below in "Establishing a Stable Food Source"). Now you are done with early game.

Finding a good place to settle
There are five different biomes, each with their advantages and disadvantages. Find one to base up in.

Warped forest: The safest of all nether biomes. Nothing spawns there except for enderman and striders. This is probably the best place to base up in. You need to be careful about the endermen, and make the entrance to your house only two blocks high so that you can run inside and kill endermen if you want to/have to.

Crimson forest: One of the most dangerous nether biomes. It's inhabited by Hoglins, Piglins, and Zombified Piglins. Hoglins are the best way to get food in the nether, and Piglins are rarely an issue if you have gold armor. Zombified Piglins are neutral, and don't attack them. Because the main use of this biome is to get wood and Hoglins pork chops, it's better to base up on the edge of the biome, since there is no need at all to be inside it. Put warped fungus near your house to scare away Hoglins, and put soul fires (fires lit on soul sand or soul soil), soul torches, soul lanterns, or soul campfires to scare away Piglins. Idle Piglins are scared by soul things, and if they are attacking you they do not ignore the soul things. No matter what, whether idle or hostile, they are scared of Zombified Piglins however.

Basalta delta: This is the most dangerous biome. It is definitely not recommended to base up here. Because of the jagged terrain, magma cubes, and lava, it is easily the most dangerous biome to be in. The only benefit of this biome is easy access to magma cubes for magma cream (for brewing fire resistance potions), and easy access to Blackstone (used as a substitute to cobblestone), and an easy access to basalt (no usage other than building). Do not build your house inside this biome, but building it close would do no harm

Soul sand valley: This is the second most dangerous biome. Mobs that spawn there include skeletons and ghasts, at a much higher rate. Soul fire does twice the normal damage, and skeletons and ghasts can easily overwhelm you, it is not recommended to do this. Soul sand also slows you down a lot, which is terrible paired with skeletons and ghasts. However, if you have soul speed boots (iron boots enchanted with a random soul speed level that can be obtained from bartering with Piglins), you can traverse this biome a lot easier. The benefits include easy access to fossils, which provide a large quantity of bone locks, and skeletons which you can get bones from. You can also obtain soul sand and soul soil, however those can generate near lava in other places and is obtained from bartering.

Nether wastes: This biome is inhabited by Piglins, more rarely, but is mainly inhabited by a mass of Zombified Piglins. The Piglins are scared of the Zombified Piglins so the Piglins should not be an issue at all. This biome is known to be flat and easy to explore, which makes it perfect for building. Since this biome is barren, there are not any benefits, but you can build a gold farm, which is extremely useful.

No matter which biome you're in, make sure your house has protection from mobs (warped fungus for Hoglins and soul fire products for Piglins), and you have easy access to other biomes.

Bonemeal farming
A bonemeal farm is essential to obtaining mushroom stew through a mushroom farm, and farming trees and fungi. Most vegetation items in the nether can be composted in a composter, including nether wart, shrooslights, nether wart blocks, warped wart blocks, weeping vines, twisting vines, warped roots, crimson roots, nether sprouts, crimson fungi, and warped fungi. However, weeping vines and twisting vines are the best, preferable twisting vines. Twisting vines and weeping vines can be farmed in a similar manner to sugarcane, with the whole plant growing from a single block. However, twisting vines grow upward and weeping vines grow downward. There is no tutorial needed on how to make a farm for these, since farming it is so simple. For twisting vines, plant a lot on the ground. When you need to harvest it, harvest the second block off the ground, to destroy all blocks but the one which the plant is growing from, to save a lot of vines. For weeping vines, it is a lot harder to farm. Ideally, you plant them on the top of wherever you are, and make a platform for you to go up and harvest them (second block from the source block which the whole plant is growing from), and then the plants fall on the ground. You can then use a composter to turn it into bonemeal by using it. Most importantly, allow your plants space to grow. They can both grow to a maximum height of 25 blocks.

Tree/wood farming
Without a wood farm, a player runs out out of wood despite the expanse of the forests. There are two types of fungi, warped fungi (blue), and crimson fungi (red), and they can each grow into their corresponding trees if bonemealed. To grow onto their corresponding trees, they must be placed on their corresponding nylium. For example, Blue/warped fungi has to be placed on Blue nylium (warped nylium) to be bonemealed into a huge fungus. However, there is also a limited amount of fungi. When you apply bonemeal to a nylium block, it generates vegetation of that biome, which includes roots and fungi in a radius on nylium. Since different vegetation occurs in other biomes (warped fungus still occurs in crimson forest, and vice versa), you can still get all types of vegetation from nylium, but less commonly. So the easiest place to do this is in the forest. If you don't want to put it in a forest, you can extend it. Netherrack next to nylium that is bonemealed turns into nylium. Also, make sure there is a lot of nylium around your block that you bonemeal to generate fungus, and bonemeal the netherrack blocks that are not nylium. After applying bonemeal to it, you obtain the fungi that generates on the ground, and then you can bonemeal it into a huge fungi. There is really no special setup, but just make sure that there is the most amount of space for the nylium to generate vegetation, and there is enough space to grow the huge fungus.

Establishing a stable food source
Food is essential for exploring and fighting dangerous mobs. There are a few different food options in the nether, all which are completely and infinitely renewable.

Mushroom stew - This is the safest food option, but a moderately good food limited by the fact that is not stackable. Mushrooms can generate in the nether, but making a farm is preferred. An easy farm is a room with a low light level, where mushrooms can spread (to a limited amount, so farm must be taken care of manually). The best way to establish a food source with mushrooms is to farm them with giant mushrooms. Giant mushrooms can be grown only on grass, dirt, coarse dirt, nylium, podzol, and mycelium. Nylium is the only block available to do this on in the nether, and conveniently, mushrooms can make giant mushrooms on any light level on those. (Grass, dirt, or coarse dirt must be at a light level of 12 below). Nylium generates naturally in crimson forest and warped forests in two variants, but both work equally well. You can spread nylium to a netherrack block by bonemealing it. Make a simple setup where a mushroom is placed, and you bonemeal it, and then you can easily break it from a platform, and then it falls onto a platform where it is easily collectible. Building a platform to break the blocks can be difficult since the mushrooms require a certain amount of space to grow into giant mushrooms. A recommended idea is to just build a platform that allows you to get on top of the mushroom. Now you just bone meal and mushrooms to get the farm started, and because you still have your bowl when you finish eating, you do not need many bowls. When exploring with this food, don't craft it until you need to eat it, because it takes up inventory space.

Hoglins - Cooked pork chops are the best food in the game, tied with steak and golden carrots. With a high amount of saturation and hunger restored, this is the best food for not only exploration but fighting mobs as it allows you to heal the most amount of health from food other than golden carrots. Hoglins are difficult to farm, but there are a few ways to do this.


 * 1) Hoglins can fit through 2 blocks to the side, because they are wide, meaning a one block gap to the side prevents Hoglins from coming through. A simple setup with a "wall" of blocks like this on the edge of a crimson forest allow you to run in, lure them out, and kill them easily. You could also build a wall, in the middle of the forest with 1 block wide gaps between the walls. If you are building this in the middle of the forest, using nether wart blocks (the red ones), not to be confused with warped wart blocks (the blue blocks), prevents Hoglins, Piglins, and zombified Piglins from spawning on them.
 * 2) Letting the Piglins hunt them. Piglins hunt Hoglins in groups, but they are not directly hostile toward Hoglins and have a chance to decide to hunt the Hoglins. If Piglins are outnumbered in a certain radius, they do not hunt the Hoglins. The Hoglins can attack the Piglins back and even kill them. It is best to help the Piglins hunt the Hoglins, but be careful not to hit them. Most importantly, Piglins pick up raw pork chops and cooked pork chops (if a Hoglins dies while on fire) within one block of them. Make sure the Piglins don't take your pork chops.
 * 3) Using warped fungus. Hoglins are scared of warped fungus, and even when pursuing a player, once close enough to warped fungus, they retreat. They are also afraid of charged respawn anchors (charged at max), and lit nether portals. A player can easily hit a Hoglins when it is retreating from the player, since during that time it does not pursue the player to attack, however if the player gets within two blocks, it automatically attacks.
 * 4) Building up. The range of Hoglins is 2 blocks, which means that if you build up 3 blocks, then you can attack the Hoglins while crouching without it being able to attack you. This is the easiest method of all to kill Hoglins. Be careful, because if the Hoglins can get up onto any blocks nearby it might be able to hit you.

If you You can cook the raw pork chops with a soul campfire or a normal campfire. For making soul campfire you need three warped or crimson stems, three sticks, and soul sand or soul soil. You can't obtain normal campfires easily because you need charcoal or coal, which is obtained only from wither skeletons, because you can't smelt stems into charcoal. Make sure you have your campfires in a permanent spot, because they'll drop 1 soul soil when you break them, meaning you lose the wood and sticks you used to craft it. You can an also use a furnace to cook the food, made from Blackstone. However, fuel is scarce. You can't use warped or crimson planks, but if you turn them into sticks, then they can be used. The only other fuel is coal, from killing wither skeletons, or charcoal, or a lava bucket (a great fuel if you have a bucket, smelts 100 items!). Because of this, campfires are rather the ideal way to cook food, since they require no fuel at all, and you can cook all of your food at once. As an additional benefit, soul campfires (and all other soul items) scare away idle Piglins. They don't scare away hostile Piglins.

'''The only other decent food option is rotten flesh, which is definitely not ideal. Killing zombified Piglins is better for the gold rather than the rotten flesh.'''


 * Unviable food options that are still possible:

Spider eyes (terrible food, give you poison effect), because skeletons have a chance to spawn on spiders

Chickens (cannot be farmed), zombified Piglins have a chance of being a baby and spawning on a chicken. These do not lay eggs, and there is no way of obtaining wheat seeds, so using this for food is not possible

The iron age/After the Stone Age
After the establishing food and wood farms, you can begin the next stage of progression. Next, you need to do exploring. Exploring is the most essential part to the next step of your progression. While exploring, you need to


 * 1) Find a Nether Fortress. You can find 1-3 diamonds as loot for a 19% chance in both Java and Bedrock, You can also find other loot including saddles, and golden armor, golden swords, golden and iron horse armor. The armor you can wear to be protected against Piglins. You can also smelt it into gold nuggets, and you can smelt the iron horse armor into iron nuggets too. You want to also find nether wart, and in the future, blaze rods
 * 2) Mine a lot of nether gold ore. Since this can be found through the nether, it is definitely worth it to get all of the gold that you can, since it is valuable in bartering. Get any in sight.
 * 3) Find a Bastion. There are four variants, and each one has different treasure. Though not essential to gameplay, Bastions can provide a large amount of gold and various items in treasure, including large quantities of iron, arrows, gold, and even diamonds, diamond armor, or diamond tools which can be enchanted. This is definitely worth the exploration since it speeds everything up by a lot
 * 4) Find a ruined portal. If you are planning one escaping the nether, having a nearly finished portal is helpful. The treasure can also be good, including obsidian, gold armor for Piglins, enchanted gold tools, and iron nuggets sometimes. They also have gold blocks near them, which you can't mine with a stone pickaxe.
 * 5) Discover the rest of the biomes. Each biome has helpful things about it, and having access to all of the biomes is extremely helpful

Next, you want to do bartering with the Piglins. Hopefully, you have around two stacks of gold ingots, which can be a grind to get. You can drop a gold ingot near Piglins or use it on them. They'll pick it up and drop you a random item.

You are looking for several items in particular:


 * 1) Iron. There is a 2.18% chance of Piglins giving you 10-36 iron nuggets, which you can craft into ingots). Since you cannot afford the luxury of making iron tools, your first priority would be to make a shield. Next you need to make an iron pickaxe. The reason for this is that gold blocks generate in bastion remnants, and you cannot obtain them with a stone pickaxe. You cannot afford to make any other tools, but if you have enough you can make a hopper. That makes your total iron to explore a bastion remnant 9 iron
 * 2) String. Piglins have a 4.36% chance of giving you 3-9 string). You need string to craft a bow, which you need for taking down a bastion. You also need it to craft wool for beds for Netherite mining, however that is late-game.
 * 3) Spectral arrows. Piglins have an 8.71% chance of giving you 6-12 spectral arrows. These function like normal arrows, and do the same damage, however they give entities the glowing effect for 10 seconds. That causes there to be a white outline of it that can show up through obstructions, which is effective in bastion remnants
 * 4) Potions of fire resistance/splash potions of fire resistance. Piglins have a 1.74% chance of giving you a 3:00 Potion of Fire Resistance or a 3:00 Splash Potion of Fire Resistance. These are useful for fighting blazes, and useful for lava and fire if you slip by accident.

That's all you should need for exploring the bastion remnant or the nether fortress. However, you can receive many more good things. Visit the bartering page for more information.

1. Nether Fortress
Find a nether fortress and break in. Use the right hand torch rule for exploring. Take the loot from the chests and try to find diamonds. Get nether wart and blaze powder. Make some ender chests and put your loot inside. Have some spare eyes of ender if you don't yet have silk touch. Avoid blaze spawners, as you don't have a lot of armor. Kill lone blazes and as many wither skeletons as possible. You need 3 skulls. There is no enchanting, so you cannot get looting. When fighting, make sure piglins, other skeletons, other blazes, and endermen cannot get to you when you are fighting.

2. Bastion Remnant
Find a bastion remnant. Be careful with piglins. For looting chests, block yourself in or place hoppers under the chests. If you have one, put the loot in an ender chest. Kill the piglin brutes so they can't kill you. If the bastion is a treasure bastion, you can get diamond armor, tools and diamonds. Keep raiding bastions until you get enough diamonds.

Once you get enough diamonds, make only a diamond sword and pickaxe. Don't make the other tools. If you can, make some diamond armor. The next step is upgrading your items to netherite. Make a smithing table and start mining. If you have a strider farm, breed striders and kill them for string. Make as much wool as possible and prepare beds. Go underground, and use beds to blow up areas. 4 ancient debris yield 4 netherite scraps. 4 netherite scraps + 4 gold ingots makes an netherite ingot. Using the smithing table, upgrade your equipment to netherite. Next, find a good place to spawn the wither. It is recommended to spawn it in a large flat area. Reinforce the area with obsidian, as many layers as you want. You should reinforce the base with as much obsidian as possible, just in case the wither flies away and hits your buildings.

Potion Brewing
Potions are not necessary but vital if you are taking the Wither. Craft a brewing stand with a Blaze Rod and 3 Blackstone. You will need nether wart to brew potions, so set up a farm with soul sand. You also need blaze powder to fuel it. Now, Water Bottles are obtained through Bartering with the piglins. The only way to obtain water bottles in the nether is through bartering. Piglins have a 2.18% chance to give you a water bottle when bartered with a gold ingot. Using Water Bottles, you could make potions with the ingredients limited to only occurring in the nether, which include blaze powder for potion of strength, ghast tears for potion of regeneration, glistering melon slice for potion of healing, golden carrots (from various loot) for potion of night vision, and magma cream for potion of fire resistance. You can use glowstone dust to to increase your potions to the next level, however reducing the duration.

Wither
After you got the skulls and soul sand needed, and have picked the place to spawn the wither, place the soul sand T, and place 2 skulls, but don't place the 3rd one until you are ready to fight. Prepare at least a full set of iron/diamond armor with a piece of gold armor. Bring fire resistance, and a netherite sword/pickaxe. Bring a bow with as many arrows as possible. (You can get arrow from bastion, or you can barter for spectral arrows.)

Go to the wither spawning location, and block up dangerous areas with obsidian, including the floor. If you can, fight in a warped forest, as withers attack endermen.

At the start of the fight, fire fully charged arrows at it. Watch out for the skulls and hide to restore hunger/health. If the wither breaks the obsidian, reinforce it. At half health, use your sword to hit the wither until it is dead. Do critical hits to kill faster. Once the wither is dead, pick up the nether star, and prepare the beacon base. (You cannot make the beacon because of no glass). Once you have all the mineral blocks you need, build the portal to the overworld. Set up your beacon to show you beat the nether survival challenge. You can continue on this world and do what you want.

Watch the nether survival challenge on Pixlriffs' channel on youtube. Pixlriffs

Tutoriels/Survie dans le Nether チュートリアル/ネザーでのサバイバル Выживание в Нижнем мире 教程/下界生存