Nether Update

This article is about an upcoming major update which is themed around revamping the Nether. For the update which added the Nether to the game, see Halloween Update.

For a guide about all content in this update for Java Edition, see Java Edition guides/Nether Update, the Bedrock Edition guide, and Bedrock Edition guides/Nether Update.

Official logo for the Nether Update.

Nether Update Additions

All new blocks and items, and spawn eggs for new entities.

The Nether Update is an upcoming major update themed around revamping the Nether. It will add multiple new interesting and delightful features to this dimension, such as new biomes and mobs. The update was announced at MINECON Live 2019. This update has no set release date but will be released on Java and Bedrock editions as versions 1.16 and 1.16.0, respectively.

Notable features

Main articles: Java Edition 1.16 and Bedrock Edition 1.16.0

Additions

• New blocks:
  • Soul Fire
    • Generates naturally in the soul sand valley biome in the Nether. It has a blue texture.
    • Deals damage at a rate of 2 per second as opposed to the 1 per second of regular fire. Soul fire generates only on soul soil, a block found exclusively in the soul sand valley. It can be made by igniting soul soil as with any other fire, for example with flint and steel.
  • Soul Fire Torch
    • Has a luminance level of 10, whereas a normal torch has 14. Also the flame and particles of the torch are blue.
  • Soul Fire Lantern
    • Has a luminance level of 10, whereas a normal lantern has 15.
  • Crimson and Warped fungi
    • Generate in crimson and warped forests, respectively.
  • Crimson and warped stems
    • Blocks that comprise the trunks of huge fungi.
    • Has a top texture similar to regular log blocks.
    • Does not burn.
    • Have respective stripped variants.
  • Soul Soil
    • Generates in soul sand valley biomes.
  • Basalt
    • Makes up basalt pillars.
    • Generates in soul sand valleys and basalt deltas.
  • Warped Wart Block
    • A variation of the nether wart block. Can be found in Warped Forests (ordinary nether wart blocks can be found in Crimson Forests).
  • Shroomlight
    • Generates naturally on huge crimson fungi and huge warped fungi or by growing fungi on nylium with bone meal.
  • Weeping Vines
    • Generates in the crimson forest.
    • Can be climbed
  • Crimson and Warped Nylium
    • Resembles grass blocks.
    • Can be spread to netherrack by using bone meal on netherrack next to nylium.
    • Name resembles mycelium
  • Crying Obsidian
    • Can be obtained by bartering with piglins.
    • Same blast resistance as obsidian.
    • Used to make Respawn Anchors.
  • Ancient Debris
    • Can be found throughout the Nether at any altitude, though it is much more common at lower levels.
    • Can be refined into a netherite scrap by smelting in a furnace or blast furnace.
    • Always generates covered by lava or blocks on all sides.
    • High blast resistance, but is movable with pistons.
  • Block of Netherite
    • Can be used in a beacon base.
    • Cannot burn in lava or fire.
    • Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.
  • Crimson and warped planks
    • Does not burn.
    • Can be used to craft respective slabs, stairs, fences, fence gates, pressure plates, buttons, doors and trapdoors.
  • Crimson and warped roots
    • Non-solid plant block similar to grass, however they do not require shears to obtain.
  • Crimson and warped signs
    • Can be crafted.
  • Nether sprouts
    • Foliage that generates in warped forests.
  • Target
    • Creates a redstone signal when hit by a projectile.
    • Doesn't need a comparator.
    • Creates a signal when flown into with Elytra.
  • Respawn Anchor
    • Used to respawn in the Nether.
    • Can be charged up to 4 times, by using glowstone.
    • Can be charged using a dispenser.
    • The top texture is of the portal block (nether).
    • Crafted with crying obsidian and glowstone.
    • Using it in the End or Overworld causes it to explode.
    • Explosion radius is similar to that of an end crystal, also setting fire.
  • Nether Gold Ore
    • Drops 1 to 5 gold nuggets mined with any pickaxe.
    • Is affected by Fortune and drops up to 24 gold nuggets.
    • Can be smelted to get 1 gold ingot.
    • Drops XP orbs.
  • Twisting Vines
    • A climbable plant that spawns in the warped forest.
    • This new vine can also be bonemealed, growing a random amount of blocks.
  • Lodestone
    • Block when right click using a compass, sets the compass needle pointing towards the receptive lodestone
  • Blackstone (and its variants)
    • A block that generates naturally in the Basalt Deltas, it has a number of variations that can be used for decoration purposes, it also has a gilded variant that has a chance to drop Gold Nuggets when mined.
    • Can be used to craft stone tier weapons and tools, as well as furnaces.
  • Soul Campfire A new soul variant of the Campfire.
• New items:
  • Netherite Scrap
    • Used to craft netherite ingots.
  • Netherite Ingot
    • Can be used to upgrade diamond tools and armor inside smithing table.
    • Can be used as fuel for a beacon.
  • Netherite Armor
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item
  • Netherite tools:
    • Added Netherite axes, pickaxes, swords, shovels and hoes
    • Netherite hoes can also be obtained rarely by bartering with piglins.
  • Warped fungus on a stick
    • Carrot on a stick variant for striders
• New mobs:
  • Piglins
  • Striders
  • Zoglins
  • Hoglins
    • Spawn in crimson forests.

• New generated structures:
  • Bastions
  • Speleothems
  • Huge Fungi
  • Ruined Portals
• New biomes:
  • Soul Sand Valley
  • Crimson Forest
  • Warped Forest
  • Basalt Deltas

• New enchantments:
  • Soul Speed
• Hoes can now have a use for enchantments

Changes

• Skeletons now spawn in Soul Sand Valleys.
• Bone blocks now generate in Soul Sand Valleys as fossils.
• Lava now flows items and mobs like water.
• TNT can now be ignited by any projectile on fire.
• Nether Brick now has chiseled and cracked variants.
• Magma Cubes now spawn in Basalt Deltas.

Videos

Videos made by slicedlime:

Note: The footage from the videos below are taken from the Java Edition.

Trivia

• Similarly to the announcement of Update Aquatic, this update was announced during the development of the previous release, and before the features of that version were included in a full release.
• Version numbers are the same for both Java Edition, starting with this update.