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.

The Nether Update is an upcoming major update themed around revamping the Nether. It will add multiple new 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 might be released after May. It will be released as Bedrock Edition 1.16.0 and Java Edition 1.16.

Notable features

Main articles: Java Edition 1.16 and Bedrock Edition 1.16.0

Additions

An example of the biomes in the Nether as of the update, with a crimson forest to the far left, nether wastes up close, warped forest on the back, and basalt deltas to the far right.

• 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 only generates naturally on soul soil, a block found exclusively in the soul sand valley. Although it can be made manually by igniting soul soil or soul sand as with any other fire, for example with flint and steel.
    • Soul fire can only burn on the top of soul soil or soul sand.
  • Soul Torch
    • Has a luminance level of 10, whereas a normal torch has 14.
  • Soul Lantern
    • Has a luminance level of 10, whereas a normal lantern has 15.
  • Soul Campfire
    • A new soul variant of the campfire.
    • Has a light luminance of 10, whereas a normal campfire 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 on the roof.
    • Can be climbed
  • Crimson and Warped Nylium
    • Resemble grass blocks.
    • Can be spread to netherrack by using bone meal on netherrack next to nylium.
    • Name resembles mycelium.
  • Crying Obsidian
    • Generates naturally as part of ruined portal structures.
    • Can be found as loot in bastion chests.
    • Can also be obtained by bartering with piglins.
    • Same blast resistance as obsidian and cannot be pushed by pistons.
    • 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 also be found rarely in bastion chests.
    • 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.
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item.
  • Block of Netherite
    • Can be used as a beacon base.
    • Same blast resistance as obsidian, but is movable with pistons.
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item.
  • Crimson and Warped Planks
    • Does not burn.
    • Can be used to craft respective slabs, stairs, fences, fence gates, pressure plates, buttons, doors and trapdoors.
    • Unlike other types of wood, it cannot be used to craft boats.
  • 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.
    • Does not need a comparator.
    • Creates a signal when flown into with Elytra.
    • Redirects redstone towards itself.
  • Respawn Anchor
    • Used to respawn in the Nether.
    • Can be charged up to 4 times, by using glowstone.
    • Can be charged using a dispenser.
    • When you respawn, one charge is used, when all charges are used up, the player will respawn at the world spawn.
    • The top texture resembles the portal block (nether).
    • Crafted with crying obsidian and glowstone.
    • Using it in the End or Overworld causes it to explode.
    • The explosion is similar to trying to sleep in a bed in the nether or end, giving the same death message "<player> was killed by [Intentional Game Design]", it's explosion has a radius similar to that of an End crystal, as well as setting fire to surrounding blocks.
  • 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, sprouting from the ground.
    • This new vine can also be bonemealed, growing a random amount of blocks.
  • Lodestone
    • Block when right-clicked using a compass, sets the compass needle pointing towards the receptive lodestone, the compass also receives an enchanted effect.
  • Blackstone (and its variants).
    • A block that generates naturally in the basalt deltas and in small patches around the lava lakes, 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, similar to gravel having a small chance to drop flint.
    • Has smooth, brick, cracked brick, and chiseled variations, with regular, brick, cracked brick, and smooth all having stair and slab variations.
    • Can be used to craft stone tier weapons and tools, as well as furnaces, and as a replacement for cobblestone in nearly all recipes.
  • Chain.
    • New block found in bastions, hanging magma cube spawners and lanterns.
    • can be crafted with 2 iron nuggets and one iron ingot in a crafting table
    • Texture and color resembles the chain on top of lanterns
    • Acts similarly to end rods, but only being vertical, like iron bars.
    • can hang lanterns.

• New items:
  • Netherite Scrap
    • Used to craft netherite ingots,
      • When combined with gold ingots in a crafting table, it creates one netherite ingot .
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item
  • Netherite Ingot
    • Can be used to upgrade diamond tools and armor inside a smithing table.
    • Can be used as fuel for a beacon.
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item
  • Netherite Armor
    • 30% more durability than diamond armor
    • gives +1 defense compared to diamond armor, as well as added knockback resistance
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item
  • Netherite tools:
    • Added Netherite axes, pickaxes, swords, shovels and hoes
    • 30% more durability than diamond tools.
    • gives +1 damage compared to diamond tools.
    • Netherite hoes can also be obtained rarely by bartering with piglins.
    • Does not burn in Lava or Fire as a dropped item
  • Warped fungus on a stick
    • Carrot on a stick variant for striders.
  • Pigstep Music Disc
    • Only music disc not composed by C418.
    • Can only be found as loot in bastion chests.
• New mobs:
  • Piglins
    • Spawn in crimson forests, nether wastes, and bastions.
  • Striders
    • Spawn in all nether biomes on the lava lakes.
  • Zoglins
    • Do not naturally spawn, when hoglins are in the overworld or end, they will transform into zoglins after 15 seconds
  • Hoglins
    • Spawn in crimson forests, or rarely in bastions in hoglin stables.
  • Zombified piglin (used to be zombie pigmen).
    • Spawn in Nether wastes, And crimson forests as well as coming from piglins being in the overworld or end like zoglins.

• New generated structures:
  • Bastion remnants
    • Generates in all nether biomes except basalt deltas.
    • Is the only way to obtain the new music disc pigstep.
  • Basalt Pillars
  • Huge Fungus
  • Ruined Portals
    • Can be found in both the Overworld and the Nether.
• New biomes:
  • Soul Sand Valley
    • Spawns Ghasts, Skeletons and Striders.
    • Can spawn Nether fortresses, and bastions.
  • Crimson Forest
    • Spawns Piglins, Zombified piglins, striders, and hoglins.
    • Can spawn Nether fortresses, and bastions.
  • Warped Forest
    • Spawns Endermen, and striders.
    • Can spawn bastions.
  • Basalt Deltas
    • Spawns Magma cubes, and striders.
    • Can spawn Nether fortresses.
  • Nether wastes (Old nether "hell" _{{pre 1.16}})
    • Spawns Piglins, Zombified piglins, and striders.

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

Miscellaneous Changes

• Bartering, a type of trading with piglins added.
• Skeletons and Ghasts now spawn in soul sand valleys.
• Bone blocks now generate in soul sand valleys as fossils.
• Netherbricks now have chiseled and cracked variants.
• New piglin banner pattern added, only obtainable in bastion loot chests
• Quartz Blocks now have a brick variant.
• Lava now flows items and mobs like water.
• TNT can now be ignited by any projectile on fire.
• Magma Cubes now spawn in basalt deltas.
• 0 tick farms no longer work.
• Fishing mechanics changed, treasure can only be obtains in open bodies of water, removing the ability for afk fish farms to produce treasure.
• Farmer villagers now pick up seeds and compost extra seeds, and will be able to make and use bone meal on their crops.
• Walls have been changed to no longer have gaps or pillars when stacked on each other, as well as having the ability to have many more blocks on them.
• Mobs other than wither skeletons can no longer spawn on wither roses.
• new command : /attribute,
• Text font and color can be specified in commands such as /title, /say, etc.
• Gamerules can now be specified before creating world
• New setting: Entity Distance, this specifies at what distance entitys will no longer be visible.
• Patches of gravel and blackstone spawn near lava lakes in all biomes, and soul sand in soul sand valleys
• New Statistic: distance by strider
• Many bugs having to do with villages fixed.
• Mob cap counter added to debug screen
• compasses and clocks now have static textures in the crafting table.
• Redstone now places as a cross again

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.