A view of the Nether.
The Nether is a molten, hell-like dimension, full of fire, lava, and dangerous mobs.
Accessing
Budget version (left), Full portal (right)
To access the Nether, the player must construct a nether portal in the Overworld (portals created in the End will not activate). To create the portal, one must first construct a rectangular obsidian frame, ranging in size from a minimum of 4×5 to a maximum of 23×23. Once the frame is constructed, it can then be activated by placing fire within the frame.
An activated portal will allow most entities (with the exception of the wither, the ender dragon, and entities riding or being ridden by another entity) to be transported to a corresponding portal in the Nether. If there is no corresponding portal, a new 4×5 portal will be created. The portal can be destroyed by breaking the obsidian frame, by a nearby explosion, or by placing water or lava into it with a bucket or dispenser. Any of the corner blocks can be destroyed without destroying the portal.
In the Old world type, it is impossible to construct a Nether portal, and the portal block can only be placed using cheats.
Environment
The terrain is largely composed of netherrack that forms complex platforms and niches, with frequent lava oceans, 'lavafalls', and rivers of lava. Lava sources hidden in the netherrack are also common, making large mining projects dangerous. Random fires across the netherrack are yet another hazard to the unwary player.
Bedrock comprises the top (below layer 127) and bottom 4 layers in a rough pattern. In the infinite worlds of the Java and Bedrock Editions, the Nether is also horizontally infinite. On the Legacy Console Edition, bedrock will be found at the world border. On the New Nintendo 3DS Edition, there is no bedrock wall, but an invisible bedrock wall past the border, and the same applies to Old worlds in the Bedrock Edition if cheats are used to access the Nether.
Glowstone clusters generate on ceilings, and mushrooms grow abundantly on the ground. There are patches of floating gravel and soul sand. Small caverns form in the netherrack, which contain random nether quartz deposits. Near the level of the lava oceans, patches of magma blocks generate within the netherrack, making travel difficult and potentially damaging to armor.
Nether fortresses, the Nether's only naturally occurring structures, provide valuable loot, and are the only places where blazes and wither skeletons will naturally spawn. Nether fortresses are also the only place where nether wart naturally generates (in the Legacy Console Edition, nether wart will naturally generate anywhere on soul sand).
The Nether has no day-night cycle and no weather. Natural sources of light include fire, lava, portals, and glowstone. Even with a light level of 0, the Nether has a dim ambient light (roughly equivalent to light level 8 in the Overworld). Light otherwise functions exactly the same as it does in the Overworld and the End.
If the player dies in the Nether, they will respawn in the Overworld; any surviving items will remain in the Nether where the death occurred.
Locations in the Nether correlate to Overworld coordinates, but horizontal Overworld distances are scaled down by a ratio of 8:1 for travel in the Nether. Therefore, traveling one block in the Nether means traveling eight blocks in the Overworld. For example, in a perfect scenario, if the player builds and enters a portal in the Overworld at x:0, z:0, travels to x:1000, z:1000 in the Nether, then returns to the Overworld, they will be at x:8000, z:8000. This makes portals a useful tool for traveling very long distances in the Overworld.
In Legacy Console Edition and New Nintendo 3DS Edition, the ratio is different. All worlds on New Nintendo 3DS, and Classic and Small worlds on Console, have a ratio of 3:1. On Console, Medium worlds have a ratio of 6:1, and Large worlds have the ratio of 8:1.
An image of the Nether with a nether fortress.
Most items and blocks in the Nether function the same as they do in the Overworld, with a few notable exceptions:
- Beds will explode and cause fires when a player attempts to sleep in one.
- The explosion is larger than that of TNT.
- There is no way to place liquid water in the Nether without the use of cheats, besides the usage of a cauldron.
- Using water buckets will only produce steam particles and a hissing sound, leaving the player with an empty bucket.
- Ice that is melted or smashed in the Nether will not produce water.
- Lava flows twice as far (8 blocks) and much faster in the Nether than in the Overworld.
- Grass blocks and leaves take a dead-looking brownish color, since the Nether is a warm biome.
- Maps will only generate a brown-gray static pattern.
- The player's direction indicator will spin randomly.
- Its location is still relative to the player's location in the Nether, except in the New Nintendo 3DS Edition, where it is always in the center of the map.
- The player's direction indicator will spin randomly.
- Compasses and clocks spin wildly, making it impossible to tell the time while in the Nether.
- Building snow golems is essentially useless, as they will rapidly take fire damage and die, due to the Nether being a warm biome. However, they will survive if they have the Fire Resistance status effect.
Mobs
The Nether is home to its own share of mobs, most of which are fire- and lava-proof. Skeletons, chickens, and endermen are the only Overworld mobs that can naturally spawn in the Nether; baby zombie pigmen may spawn as chicken jockeys.
Other Overworld mobs do not naturally spawn in the Nether, but can be teleported through portals (with the exception of withers and ender dragons).
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| Zombie Pigman | Ghast | Magma Cube | Blaze | Wither Skeleton | Skeleton | Chicken Jockey | Enderman |
Generation
Template:ID table/key
Naturally generated
Naturally generated blocks includes those that are created through the world seed.
| Name | Identifier |
|---|---|
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | quartz_ore |
| ? | ? |
Naturally created
Naturally created blocks are created through a combination of events that lead these blocks to be placed by natural causes, not by the player.
| Name | Identifier |
|---|---|
| ? | ? |
| ? | flowing_lava |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
Structures
These blocks are generated as part of nether fortresses, but only when the "generated structures" option is on.
| Name | Identifier |
|---|---|
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | mob_spawner |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
| ? | ? |
Biome
The Nether biome is used to generate the Nether. Within this biome, mobs such as ghasts, packs of zombie pigmen, the occasional magma cube and enderman spawn. Certain structures, such as nether quartz, glowstone veins and nether fortresses will only generate in the Nether. While water cannot be placed in the Nether dimension, ice can and water lakes (and other Overworld structures) can still generate, if the Nether is used in a superflat preset.
Technical information
ID
The Nether/ID
Folder
The Nether is saved in the same way normal worlds are, in the following locations by default:
Windows:
%APPDATA%\.minecraft\saves\worldname\DIM-1
Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves/worldname/DIM-1
Note: This Library folder is not the one in Macintosh HD, but the one inside your home folder. The only way to access this is to go to the Go menu, and select Go To..., and type ~/Library, or to go to the Go menu, hold the Option key, and select the "Library" option.
Linux:
~/.minecraft/saves/worldname/DIM-1
On all systems, be sure to replace "worldname" with the name of your world.
Note that DIM-1 does not contain its own level.dat; the level.dat in the parent folder is used for all dimensions. This means that even if a player changes the level data in the /world folder for a particular save, Nether portals will still take the player to the Nether world originally generated for that save and vice versa.
Deleting the DIM-1 file will reset the Nether, so that all player-made changes and buildings in that dimension will be undone.
Video
- Note: This video is outdated, as wither skeletons, nether brick slabs, nether quartz ore, and magma blocks were added in 1.4.2, 1.4.6, 1.5, and 1.10, respectively.
The Nether/video
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Into The Nether | Construct a Nether Portal. | Light a nether portal. | 30G | Bronze | ||
Advancements
There is a whole tab dedicated for the Nether in the advancement system, these advancements will involve visiting the Nether in some way in order to advance.
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Nether | Bring summer clothes | — | Enter the Nether dimension. | nether/root
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![]() | Return to Sender | Destroy a Ghast with a fireball | Nether | Kill a ghast by deflecting a ghast fireball back into it via hitting or shooting a projectile at the fireball. | nether/return_to_sender
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![]() | Subspace Bubble | Use the Nether to travel 7 km in the Overworld | Nether | Use the Nether to travel between 2 points in the Overworld with a minimum horizontal euclidean distance of 7000 blocks between each other, which is 875 blocks in the Nether. | nether/fast_travel
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![]() | A Terrible Fortress | Break your way into a Nether Fortress | Nether | Enter a nether fortress. | nether/find_fortress
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![]() | Uneasy Alliance | Rescue a Ghast from the Nether, bring it safely home to the Overworld... and then kill it | Return to Sender | Kill a ghast while the player is in the Overworld. | nether/uneasy_alliance
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![]() | Spooky Scary Skeleton | Obtain a Wither Skeleton's skull | A Terrible Fortress | Have a wither skeleton skull in your inventory. | nether/get_wither_skull
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![]() | Into Fire | Relieve a Blaze of its rod | A Terrible Fortress | Have a blaze rod in your inventory. | nether/obtain_blaze_rod
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![]() | Withering Heights | Summon the Wither | Spooky Scary Skeleton | Be within a 100.9×100.9×103.5 cuboid centered on the wither when it is spawned. | nether/summon_wither
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![]() | Local Brewery | Brew a Potion | Into Fire | Pick up an item from a brewing stand potion slot. This does not need to be a potion. Water bottles or even glass bottles can also trigger this advancement.[1] | nether/brew_potion
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![]() | Bring Home the Beacon | Construct and place a Beacon | Withering Heights | Be within a 20×20×14 cuboid centered on a beacon block when it realizes it has become powered. | nether/create_beacon
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![]() | A Furious Cocktail | Have every potion effect applied at the same time | Local Brewery | Have all of these 13 status effects applied to the player at the same time: The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored for this advancement. | nether/all_potions
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![]() | Beaconator | Bring a Beacon to full power | Bring Home the Beacon | Be within a 20×20×14 cuboid centered on a beacon block when it realizes it is being powered by a size 4 pyramid. | nether/create_full_beacon
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![]() | How Did We Get Here? | Have every effect applied at the same time | A Furious Cocktail | Have all of these 27 status effects applied to the player at the same time:
This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed. | nether/all_effects
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History
| indev | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.31 (January 6, 2010) | Added a map theme named "Hell". It was a normal map, but with a lava ocean, perpetually dim lighting, and a black sky with dull red clouds. Map themes were later removed in Infdev. | ||||
| alpha | |||||
| September 18, 2010 | Notch mentions the return of the hell biome, and that it will be used for fast travel, based on a transportation method used in the novel series The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Within a dangerous transportation system, "the Ways", people could travel a massive amount of distance in a few days instead of weeks. | ||||
| v1.2.0 | October 4, 2010 | This announcement poster hinted that the hell world would utilize portals and that distance traveled inside the hell world would be multiplied greatly on the map above ground. | |||
| October 8, 2010 | Notch reveals a new block type, now known as soul sand, that would be included in the new dimension. | ||||
| October 10, 2010 | A screenshot was released by Notch depicting what the Nether would look like. | ||||
| October 11, 2010 | Notch makes mention of the first mob to be added to the Nether, saying "You will hate the Ghast." | ||||
| October 25, 2010 | Notch tweets that he is working on the second new Nether mob, and says that they are less dangerous but are otherwise "pointless." | ||||
| October 29, 2010 | Notch was conflicted on naming the new dimension; he wanted to avoid "re-using existing religious names", and wanted to use a more creative and original name. He considered both "the Slip" and "the Nexus" but felt that neither felt "minecrafty enough." It was eventually changed to “the Nether” on the day of the Halloween Update release. | ||||
| preview | A preview of the Halloween Update was sent out to two gaming websites later that day.[2] Interestingly, the name "the Slip" was used in this release. | ||||
| v1.2.0 | Added the Nether, including ghasts, zombie pigmen, netherrack, soul sand, glowstone, and nether portals. | ||||
| v1.2.2 | Lava was made to flow farther than it did on the Overworld. | ||||
| beta | |||||
| May 2, 2011 | Portals were made to function properly in multiplayer, allowing players in servers to teleport between the Overworld and the Nether. | ||||
| 1.6 | Test Build 3 | Beds in the Nether were made to explode if used. | |||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | September 16, 2011 | Jens Bergensten tweets a teaser screenshot of changes to the Nether terrain generation, including nether fortresses. | |||
| September 19, 2011 | Jens releases a second teaser screenshot, showcasing the structure of the upcoming nether fortresses. | ||||
| September 21, 2011 | Jens mentions that he is finished with most of the new Nether features, including two new mobs, one of which is a "retexturing attempt". | ||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease | Many new additions to the nether, including: magma cubes, blazes (as well as blaze spawners and blaze rods), nether fortresses (including nether bricks, nether brick stairs and Nether brick fences), nether wart, ghast tears dropped by ghasts and gold nuggets dropped by zombie pigmen. | ||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 | With the addition of the Silk Touch enchantment, it was possible to legitimately obtain water using ice in the Nether. | ||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5 | The ability to pick up ice blocks with the Silk Touch enchantment was removed. | ||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w06a | Snow golems now take damage in the Nether. | |||
| 1.3.1 | 12w16a | Added the /give command. Using it to get water or flowing_water blocks allows another way to place water in the nether. | |||
| 12w17a | Ice can now be obtained with Silk Touch again, but ice no longer melts into water in the Nether. | ||||
| 12w22a | Rarely, Nether portals will spawn zombie pigmen. | ||||
| 12w27a | Growing nether wart is no longer restricted to the Nether – it can be grown in the Overworld and The End. | ||||
| 12w30a | Made the Nether less laggy. | ||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w32a | Zombie pigmen can wear armor, and the sword they are holding makes them deal more damage. | |||
| 12w34a | Any mobs and entities can travel through Nether portals. | ||||
| 12w36a | Added wither skeletons. | ||||
| 1.4.6 | 12w49a | Added nether brick slabs. | |||
| 1.5 | 13w01a | Nether quartz ore is added to the Nether, which spawns around netherrack. | |||
| 1.5.1 | Lava flows more quickly in the Nether, and hidden lava can be found in the Nether. | ||||
| 1.6.1 | 13w18a | Chests can now be found in nether fortresses. | |||
| 2013 Music Update | Four ambient music tracks added for the Nether. | ||||
| 1.7 | 13w37a | Added the /setblock command which can place water in the Nether. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w03a | Added the /fill command which can place water in the Nether. | |||
| 14w25a | Removed the item forms of water. The /give command can no longer be used to get water in the nether because water can no longer exist in inventories (just as a placed block). /setblock or /fill should be used in place of /give. | ||||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Removed the Nether fog. | |||
| 15w31c | Re-added the Nether fog. | ||||
| 15w49a | The wither and ender dragon no longer travel through portals. | ||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Endermen now rarely spawn in the Nether, and can now pick up netherrack. | |||
| Added magma blocks. | |||||
| Added red nether bricks and nether wart blocks, which can be crafted but do not otherwise generate naturally in the Nether. | |||||
| 1.13 | 18w07a | Vertical air cavities, stretching from bedrock level as far as Y=35 and filled with lava to Y=10, now occur in chains across the bottom of the Nether, often forming extensive ravines. | |||
| 18w19a | Renamed the biome Hell to Nether. | ||||
| pre5 | Changed the biome ID hell to nether. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.12.1 | April 22, 2015 | Tommaso Checchi tweets a picture of the Nether, showing that it is officially in development. | |||
| He later tweets stating that he won't tell how finished it is or what version it will be in.[3] | |||||
| build 1 | Added the Nether. | ||||
| You can place water in nether breaking ice. | |||||
| build 6 | Lava now spreads faster in the Nether. | ||||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Endermen can now spawn in the Nether, and can now pick up netherrack. | |||
| 0.16.0 | build 1 | Water cannot be placed in nether without inventory editing or using commands. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.3 | build 1 | Added magma blocks. | |||
| Added red nether bricks and nether wart blocks, which can be crafted but do not otherwise generate naturally in the nether. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Added the Nether. | |
| TU9 | Added new music to the Nether. | ||||
| Added nether fortresses. | |||||
| Added Reset Nether option to force regeneration of the Nether. This is helpful for older saves that didn't have a nether fortress. | |||||
| TU43 | CU33 | 1.36 | Patch 13 | Endermen can now spawn in the Nether, and can now pick up netherrack. | |
| Added magma blocks. | |||||
| Added red nether bricks and nether wart blocks, which can be crafted, but do not otherwise generate naturally in the Nether. | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added The Nether. | ||||
| 1.3.12 | Improved view distance. | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "The Nether" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- Upon entering the Nether in singleplayer, the Overworld will essentially freeze, and resume when the player returns unless the
/forceloadcommand is used. This is due to the spawn chunks no longer being ticked, and not chunks loading and unloading as some players believe. The spawn chunks are kept loaded when there are no players in the overworld, but most stuff other than basic redstone stops working. - In the Legacy Console Edition, everything in the Nether is renewable due to the fact the Nether can be restarted any number of times from the main menu using the "Reset Nether" button. This can be done on Java Edition only by deleting the save folder's DIM-1 file, which resets the Nether.
- The numbers for the 3 dimensions are: -1=The Nether, 0=The Overworld, 1=The End. This implies that the Nether is the next dimension over from the Overworld in the "down" direction and The End is the next dimension over in the "up" direction.
- In the Legacy Console Edition, the nether music in the festive mash-up pack is actually different from the original nether music, with some minor differences.
Gallery
The first screenshot released by Notch showing what the Nether would look like.
The first screenshot released by Jeb in September 2011 of nether fortresses.
The Nether as it appeared prior to Beta 1.8.
View of Nether fortresses with a blaze spawner.
The magma block naturally generated in the Nether.
A nether ravine.
The Nether in the Overworld, generated using Buffet.
See also
References




























