Tutorials/Defeating a Nether fortress

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

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

Preparation Checklist
Preparing before you even enter a nether fortress is essential. As always, the items you should being depend heavily on your skill level, but some recommended items to bring:


 * At least an iron sword
 * A bow
 * At least a stack of arrows
 * At least a full set of iron armor with one piece of gold armor
 * A stone pickaxe and a  diamond pickaxe (optional)
 * At least 1 golden apple (optional but recommended)
 * Highly nutritious food, such as cooked porkchop or steak, at least a stack.
 * At least two stacks of cobblestone
 * At least two stacks of torches, a third if you can get it
 * A crafting table, a chest and  a furnace to set up a temporary base
 * At least 16 logs

Sword
Your sword (preferably iron or diamond) is useful for taking out mobs within melee reach, oftentimes wither skeletons, magma cubes, and blazes that haven't flown up. If you have access to enchantments (which you should if you're defeating a nether fortress) the most important enchantment will be either Sharpness or Smite. Sharpness adds a slight but noticeable damage increase against all mobs. A case can be made for Smite as well, since it deals far more damage although it can only be used against undead mobs. Most of the mobs you will be fighting in melee anyway are wither skeletons, an undead mob. Unbreaking and Looting are optional but recommended.

Bow
Your bow is invaluable in the nether in general, doubly so in a nether fortress. This will be used for taking out high-flying blazes (a common threat) along with ghasts as you roam on bridges. For enchantments, Power is always useful, along with Unbreaking. Infinity is good although not required, Punch will have little effect since most mobs you shoot at will be far enough away for a slight amount of knockback to have no effect, and Flame has little-to-no effect except against a few mobs like piglins and hoglins.

Arrows
Your bow is useless without arrows! If you have picked up some glowstone yet or find some within easy reach, go ahead and mine it because it will be useful for brewing, powerful lighting, and spectral arrows! Four glowstone dust and an arrow makes two spectral arrows. A spectral arrow, when it hits an entity, makes it glow for a brief time which can help with visibility. If you are low on arrows, using spectral arrows can double your arrow count.

Armor
You will not survive long in a fortress (indeed, in the nether) without armor. The most powerful armor is always needed, so if you have spare diamonds, try to make a piece of diamond armor. Also, you will want to have at least one piece of gold armor (the boots preferably to leave the other armor slots for more powerful armor) on, to ward off piglin attacks. While they don't directly spawn in a nether fortress, if the nether fortress is near a nether wastes or crimson forests, a pack can come attack you without provocation while you traverse the exposed bridges! Even if they can't get near you, some are armed with crossbows which will try to shoot at you. For enchantments, stock up on Fire Protection and Protection. Feather Falling can be useful on the boots as nether fortresses often tower high above the nearby ground and a mob's attacks or a ghast's fireball could knock you right off on an exposed bridge. Unbreaking (especially on that gold armor) and Thorns are useful.

Pickaxes
You should bring both a stone pickaxe and a diamond/iron pickaxe. Diamond/Iron pickaxes can tear through netherrack fast enough to possibly not give you time to react if you hit a hidden lava stream, but you can use a stone pickaxe to break it slower instead. The Diamond/Iron pickaxe is for breaking up parts of the nether fortress, made up of the much more sturdy nether bricks. For enchantments, pickaxes don't actually need many enchantments in the nether. It's not recommended to enchant the stone one because if it breaks, you can just make a new one with your cobblestone/logs. But for the iron/diamond pickaxe, Unbreaking is useful, along with Efficiency for quickly mining through the nether fortress if you must escape.

Golden Apples
If you have one or more golden apples, it is recommended to bring at least one of them. These can be lifesavers in a difficult combat. If you have a epic-rarity enchanted golden apple, stash that back home and go back for it later. It will be useful in closing a blaze spawner, as seen below.

Food
Your other healing item besides golden apples. Highly nutritious food is necessary, such as cooked porkchop or steak. Bringing at least a stack of this ensures you won't run out at a critical moment.

Cobblestone
Cobblestone is useful for so many purposes, like making stone tools, staircases, blocking passages off, etc. Bring at least two stacks of it, but a third stack is good to have.

Torches
Torches are good for navigation, marking explored areas, and extensively cutting down on mob spawns in areas you've already gone through. Try to bring three or more stacks, at least two.

Crafting Table, Chest, and Furnace
At some point in the fortress you will want to set up a small base containing several important items and the ability to make more. When you set up camp with these items, try to use a bit of spare logs and cobble to create another set so this place is a safe space.

Logs
Wood is eternally useful, not just in a nether fortress but indeed throughout your Minecraft career. Bring at least 16 (32 is a good number) logs for crafting more tools and minibases and such.