The Nether

File:2011-05-19 16.36.14.png

A view of the Nether.

The Nether, also referred to as "the Nexus" in Notch's blog and previously known as Hell and the Slip, is a hell-like dimension accessible only by entering a Nether Portal from the Overworld.

The Nether can be used for traveling large distances on the above-ground map quickly. The Nether also contains block types not seen anywhere else (mainly netherrack, soul sand, Nether Quartz Ore, and glowstone) as well as supplies of block types found in the Overworld (mainly mushrooms, gravel and lava). The Nether is home to six mobs: Ghasts, Magma Cubes, Blazes, Wither Skeletons, Skeletons, and Zombie Pigmen. With the exception of Zombie Pigmen and Skeletons, these mobs are only found in the Nether.

The Nether functions as a second map in a player's world. When it is entered, the chunks from the Overworld map are unloaded and the Nether chunks begin to load. Terrain generates infinitely in the Nether just like in the Overworld. If the player dies in the Nether, the player will respawn in the Overworld, but the contents of their inventory will remain in the Nether, assuming that the items do not land in either fire or lava, and burn up.

See also: Tutorials/Nether Survival

Terrain

Nether 'biome' — An image of the Nether with a Nether fortress.

Its terrain is largely composed of Netherrack, which is arranged into large, smooth outcroppings and niches; it is essentially a cave. There are patches of gravel and soul sand, as well as stalactites of glowstone hanging from the ceiling. Mushrooms grow abundantly in the Nether, and natural fires are a common sight. Small tunnels form in the netherrack, which contain Nether Quartz (only in Snapshot 13w01a and above), but no hidden caverns. Nether fortresses can be found as well. These Nether fortresses are made up of Nether brick, Nether brick stairs, Nether brick fences and crops of Nether wart. At the very bottom, beneath an ocean of lava, is a layer of Netherrack and bedrock. The very top of the Nether is also bedrock.

Navigating the Nether can be very dangerous. The strange, dimly lit landscape conceals pits and sudden cliffs. Many lava streams flow from the ceilings, down the Netherrack and into a lava ocean. If one dies near this lava or a patch of fire, it is a safe assumption that some of one's items will fall in and be burned. In the 1.5 update, there is hidden lava which you might find if you dig randomly, and lava flows more quickly in the nether in the 1.5 update.

The sky and fog in the Nether are dull dark red. Thunderstorms can cause the shade to flicker quickly - a known bug.

In the Xbox 360 edition, world sizes are currently limited to 862x862 blocks. In the Overworld, the edge of a map generates an ocean and (mostly) smooth shores, whereas in the Nether this limit is formed by a wall of bedrock that abruptly cuts off the terrain. These bedrock walls aren't smooth at all, as they seem to be generated in the same way as the bedrock located at the bottom layers of a map.

Environment

The Nether has no day/night cycle and no weather. The only natural sources of light are fire, lava, and glowstone. A dim ambient light can be seen throughout the Nether, but this is purely a visual effect and does not affect game mechanics; this dim light is actually what light level 0 looks like in the Nether. Just as in the overworld, there are 16 levels of brightness in the Nether, the brightness granted by a light source is reduced by one level with every transparent block it radiates through, and each light source casts the same level of light it would cast in the overworld.

The Nether does have one special property relating to light: in the Nether, plants that usually require a minimum light level, such as flowers and Nether wart, can survive in complete darkness--or what passes for "complete darkness" in the Nether. However, due to a bug, this doesn't work below natural veins of glowstone or below lava source blocks that appear naturally in cave walls. Plants at any level below these formations, even if separated by other terrain, will uproot if not adequately lit.

Blocks and structures

Entries marked with a ^D require additional data to fully define the block in a Beta world. Entries marked with a ^T have tile entities associated with them to store additional data. Items with IDs in red cannot be legitimately obtained in the player's inventory in the game; they can only be obtained by the use of inventory editors or in multi player using the /give server command. Items available only in Creative mode are in blue.

Naturally generated

Naturally Generated includes blocks that are created through the world seed.

Icon	Dec	Hex	Block type
	00	00	Air
	07	07	Bedrock
	11	0B	Lava (stationary) ^D
	13	0D	Gravel
	39	27	Brown Mushroom
	40	28	Red Mushroom
	51	33	Fire ^D
	87	57	Netherrack
	88	58	Soul Sand
File:Glowstone (Block).png	89	59	Glowstone Block
	153	99	Nether Quartz Ore

Naturally created

Naturally Created means a combination of events that cause a new block to be placed by natural causes, not the player.

Icon	Dec	Hex	Block type
	00	00	Air
	10	0A	Lava (flowing) ^D
	39	27	Brown Mushroom
	40	28	Red Mushroom
File:Portal.png	90	5A	Portal

Structures

These blocks are generated as part of Nether fortresses. Even if the "Generate Structures" option is turned off, Nether fortresses are still created.

Dec	Hex	Block type
00	00	Air
52	34	Monster Spawner ^T
88	58	Soul Sand
112	70	Nether Brick
113	71	Nether Brick Fence
114	72	Nether Brick Stairs^D
115	73	Nether Wart ^D

Nether-affected materials

When grass blocks are obtained using a tool, such as a shovel, with the "Silk Touch" enchantment and taken into the Nether, it becomes possible to have grass in the nether.

There is no way to place water in the Nether in a Survival game. Using water buckets will produce steam and an empty bucket. Ice can be picked up using Silk Touch, but will not produce water when broken or melted in the Nether. (Only water blocks given by command or edited into a player's inventory can be placed and produce water) This makes growing sugar cane impossible since the plant requires water to survive. Wheat farms are also affected by this. They can survive without water, although they will grow much more slowly.

Trees grow normally, and their leaves take a dead-looking brownish color like in desert biomes. Care should be taken when planting trees, since the abundance of fire and lava can ignite them very easily.

It is always a good idea to bring an empty map down into the Nether and activate it there, as getting lost is easy and can happen frequently. Note that maps do not work as expected in the Nether. Since maps plot down from the top of the region, the scenery will be covered by the Nether's ceiling. The player's direction will be spinning randomly and not provide any use. Nonetheless, maps can still be used to see where the player is in a specific area and can help them backtrack the way they came. Maps activated in The Overworld and The End will not show the player's position in the other dimension. For maps to display the Nether, they must be activated there.

Compasses and clocks can be brought in freely or crafted in the Nether, but they will not work correctly. As the Nether is in a totally different dimension from the Overworld, compasses will be unable to find the original spawn point, and clocks will not determine the position of the sun or the moon. Their arrows and dials will instead spin and flail madly. Beds will explode when a player attempts to sleep in one. This can be a useful strategy to quickly mine materials in the Nether, but only if the difficulty is set to peaceful. Lava flows twice as far in the Nether as it does in the Overworld (generally 8 blocks, instead of 4 blocks). Building Snow Golems will only cause them to melt due to the Nether having a very high temperature.

Mobs

The Nether is home to its own share of mobs. Nether mobs are completely fire-proof and can often be seen wandering into lava, where it will take them a while to get out due to the slowdown it causes on movement.

Ghasts, huge jellyfish-like creatures, will lazily hover around. They are 4×4×4 blocks large, and have 9 tentacles hanging from them. If they spot the player, they will shoot fireballs at them, which can be deflected by shooting arrows at them, punching them or hitting them with any tool. The reflected fireballs will instantly kill the Ghast, if it is hit. These will explode and often leave craters, if the blast-site is weak enough. They make screeching and whimpering noises, something like a purring kitten or an angry baby (actually taken from C418's cat), and can be heard from great distances. Also, they can be killed by firing 2 arrows and hitting the Ghast. If killed, they drop gunpowder and/or a ghast tear, which is used in potions.

Zombie Pigmen spawn in groups and wander aimlessly. They will not harm the player unless attacked. If they are, all the Pigmen within a 32 block radius rush the player, often causing ambushes from behind as the player attempts to attack while fleeing. If killed, they drop rotten flesh and sometimes a gold nugget, and even more rarely a golden sword that sometimes has one or two low enchantments, such as Knockback I or even Sharpness II. Other golden objects may also drop, like a helmet.

Blazes are found in Nether fortresses and are primarily spawned through monster spawners found inside the fortresses. They are able to float and shoot 3 fireballs at the player in a quick succession. They appear to catch fire just before shooting fireballs, then "cool down" until they can shoot again. If killed, they drop Blaze rods.

Magma Cubes are spring-like mobs that look and behave similar to Slimes that slowly hop towards the player. If killed, they split into 2-3 smaller versions of the original one. Magma Cubes are moderately rare. If killed, they drop magma cream, which is used in Brewing.

Wither Skeletons are the Nether equivalent of Skeletons and spawn in Nether fortresses. Unlike skeletons, however, Wither Skeletons use stone swords and are over two blocks tall. When hit by a Wither Skeleton, the player may be inflicted with the "Wither" effect for a few seconds, darkening the health bar and further damaging the player. When killed, the mob may drop coal and bones, and very rarely drop their skull and the stone sword. The skulls are the key items to creating the Wither boss.

Skeletons rarely spawn in Nether Fortresses as of 12w36a.

Overworld mobs like pigs and zombies do not randomly spawn in the Nether, but as of 12w34a, they can wander or be shoved through a portal. Throwing chicken eggs and constructing golems works as normal (however, Snow Golems will die from the heat). Creative mode spawn eggs work normally in the Nether.

Portals and fast travel

File:2011-10-23 20.57.56.png

Standard portal (Left), budget version (Right)

Nether portals are made by creating a 4x5 (2x3 on inside) door frame out of obsidian and then lighting the inside of the frame on fire with flint and steel or a fire charge (fire charges can be launched at the portal frame with dispensers to activate it, preferably right next to it, allowing automatic ignition). When the player stands inside the portal for the first time, it will create a portal in its equivalent area of The Nether. A loading screen will appear during the change of worlds.

If the player creates a portal in the Nether and re-enters the normal world, any distance covered in The Nether is multiplied by 8, effectively making The Nether a fast travel zone that allows for greater distances to be covered in a short amount of time in the normal world (in the Xbox 360 edition, this factor is 3 instead of 8, probably because of the world size limit). Linking a network of portals between the Nether and the Overworld can be tricky though. See the Nether portal page for the precise details of how this can be done. This also means that building a new portal in the Nether and entering can cause unprepared players to become totally lost due to the distances traveled.

Due to Ghasts, it is recommended that players enclose their portals with a blast-resistant material (cobblestone is cheap and effective). This will prevent Ghasts from being able to hit the portal and shut it down. Optionally, the player can choose to carry a flint and steel with them in case this happens, or just trick a Ghast into shooting the portal again, thereby effectively re-activating the portal. If all portals in the Nether are closed and the player is unable to repair them, build a new one or reactivate one somehow, they will be trapped in the Nether. The only escape is death. (However, all ingredients for Fire Charges are available in the Nether.)

It is not possible to get to the Nether via The End without cheats. The portal will not form when a fire is lit. However, it will work if you give yourself a nether portal (90) with the /give command.

The Nether Reactor

For the moment, there is no kind of Nether in Pocket Edition. Mojang has announced that in 0.5.0 alpha there is a device called The Nether Reactor. It is built from 14 blocks of Cobblestone, 4 blocks of gold and 1 Nether Reactor Core. It can be seen here: http://www.twitch.tv/jbernhardsson/b/337680976. The Alternate Nether is very different from the regular dimension available in the Computer and XBOX 360 Edition. First The alternate nether is just an Netherrack room, and items randomly drop. There are Zombie Pigmen, although the hat layer on their texture is missing and they appear to be hostile. There is a chance that in the bugfix update they will have their texture and behaviour fixed.

Video

The Nether/video

Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Prerequisites	Actual requirements (if different)	Version restriction	Xbox points earned
	We Need to Go Deeper	Build a portal to the Nether	DIAMONDS!	Enter a Nether Portal.	PC	N/A
	Into The Nether	Build a portal to the Nether	DIAMONDS!	Enter a Nether Portal.	Xbox	40G

History

Halloween Update Screenshot — The first screenshot released by Notch showing what The Nether would look like.

The Nether was one of the key features to be added in the Halloween Update, and was announced on October 4^th, 2010. This announcement stated that there would be a "hell world" that could be used for fast travel. It hinted it would utilize Portals and that distance travelled inside the Nether would be multiplied greatly on the map above ground. On October 10, a screenshot was released by Notch depicting what the Nether would look like. With the rest of the Halloween Update's features, the Nether was released on October 30.

In the original announcement,^[1] Notch mentioned "a brand new Hell world." When the preview was sent out on 29 October 2010 to a couple of gaming websites, the new dimension was called the Slip to avoid offending religious people and to have a more original name. It was referred to as 'The Nexus' on his personal blog. It was finally changed to “the Nether” on the day of the Halloween update release.

Along with the Nether, Ghasts, Zombie Pigmen, Netherrack, soul sand, glowstone and portals were added on November 10^th, Lava was made to flow farther than it did on the Overworld.

There was a glitch where The Nether was a biome. This was fixed in an later update.^{(which one)}

In Beta 1.6, Portals were made to function properly in multiplayer, allowing players in servers to warp between the Overworld and the Nether.^[2] 1.6 also fixed a bug where the player could have menus open while inside portals. When warping, the text on screen would appear totally gray.

In Beta 1.6.2, beds in the Nether were made to explode if used. This can be used as a mining technique.

With the "Silk Touch" enchantment in the 1.9 pre-release 4, it was possible to legitimately obtain grass and water using ice in the Nether. Because passive mobs and squid spawn in the only place available, it was possible to use this to control the spawning, which allowed the player to make highly efficient passive mob grinder, something extremely difficult to do in the Overworld since passive mobs stopped despawning in Beta 1.8. The ability to pick up ice blocks with the enchantment was removed in the subsequent pre-release. Water also made Nether mob grinders easier as it can transport items without burning them as well as drown Nether mobs that are immune to lava, such as Magma Cubes and Zombie Pigmen.

In Minecraft 1.0, many new things were added to the Nether:

Magma Cubes
Blazes and Blaze spawners
Nether fortresses and the blocks they are made of
Nether wart
Ghast tears dropped by Ghasts

Most of these were added in Beta 1.9pre1.

In 1.2, Snow Golems now take damage in the Nether, and ice doesn't make water in the Nether anymore. (12w17a?) Also, you can build on top of the nether. (12w07a)

In Minecraft 1.4, several new features are added to the Nether:

New Mob: Wither Skeletons. They will spawn in the fortress. (12w36a)
Skeletons will rarely spawn in the fortress. (12w36a)
Any mobs and entities can travel through Portals. (12w34a)

In 1.5, there is Nether Quartz in the nether. (13w01a) However, there is also "hidden lava" in The Nether, and lava flows much more quickly. (unknown snapshot)

File save location

The Nether is saved in the same way normal worlds are, but instead of mixing the world files inside the save folder, the files for Nether are stored in %appdata%/.minecraft/saves/Worldname/DIM-1 (on Windows), whereas normal world files in %appdata%/.minecraft/saves/Worldname. Note that DIM-1 does not contain its own level.dat, as the same level.dat in the upper folder is used for both Overworld and Nether. 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.

Accessing the void on top of the Nether

Since 1.2, the max world height is now 256 instead of 128 blocks. This allows for mobs to spawn, mushrooms to grow, and blocks to be placed above the bedrock surface.

There are several ways to access this void:

1. One of the many ways to get to there is to stand just below the bedrock, using pistons to shove the player into the Netherrack, then disconnect from the game and reconnect. On reconnect, the player will be spawned in the next free space above, which is above the bedrock.

2. You can also use boats, in a different manner to go in game, and inexpensively, to the top. This requires just two boats and a bit of health. Place one boat on a block with one block of air between it and the ceiling, which needs to be one block thick, and place another boat on the one thick ceiling. Get in the boat, and hold right click to access the void. Sit in the boat on top and reconnect to go back down.

3. Another way is to throw ender pearls at the bedrock, throwing fast enough to get through. The ender pearls apply a slight y boost and repeating this can be used to go up through a block, but does not work sideways or downwards. The "Limbo" area above the Nether is an extremely efficient place to travel since there are no pigmen to block rails, or netherrack to block Ender Pearl teleportation.

4. A less reusable, but simpler, method of glitching up is to drop gravel on the player. While portal networks are very efficient in "limbo", there is no way to connect any portal in the Overworld to a portal in limbo. The only access is by glitching up or admin deletion of bedrock (or a rare chance of an SMP nether spawn being there. This is probably a Bukkit bug however). Typically portals created in the Nether spawn an Overworld portal at about the same height as the Nether portal.

5. The easiest method is of course to switch to Creative mode. It is then possible to break the bedrock like any other block. This, however, does not work on SMP servers (for obvious reasons) unless you're an op.

Note: There is no legitimate way to break bedrock in survival mode other than glitch involving Wheat that was fixed well over a year ago. Bedrock is a non-spawnable block like glass, as such mobs will not spawn above the nether unless other spawnable blocks are placed there.

Bugs

File:Nether Random Blocks.png

Existent bug in snapshot 12w49a, a random block formation of melons, piston, pumpkins, and other things.

(Xbox 360 edition) Saving in the Nether can cause the Overworld to become unavailable, and the game will crash upon trying to return.
In 1.3.1 on SMP, sometimes the player will appear in a void when crossing over to the Nether. Unsupported, they will fall until they die from falling out of the world, this has been fixed in 1.3.2
In SMP, although extremely rare, The Nether and the Overworld may merge while generating new chunks.
- An example of this can be seen here. [1] this effect can also be reproduced by replacing one's overworld data with their nether data. This works in reverse too.
Fire can sometimes be found in the base of a Nether fortress's support, having replaced the Nether brick.
On extremely rare occasions in SSP, when going back to the Overworld from the Nether, Minecraft may crash. Upon logging back into the world, the player spawns in an area far from the Portal in the Overworld, and all of the items in the inventory are lost.
When the player builds a Nether portal at the overworld bedrock layer, enters the Nether, and saves, the player can become stuck in the Void on top of the Nether and has to delete the world, or find a way back, such as dying, teleporting, reconnecting in a boat with one block underneath, move themselves with a mod or third party editor, etc.
(Xbox 360 edition) on occasion entering the nether and tossing out an object will cause the game to crash. And will happen every time when using the portal from that time onwards.
In 1.3.2, sometimes after you enter the nether, you can get stuck in the portal and not get teleported.
If you ride a minecart/pig into a Nether portal, when you teleport to the Nether, you will see a huge purple swirl. If this swirl is removed, your head will be sharply be jigging in random directions.
When obtaining Nether portal block with the "/give" command, sometimes walking through it will cause you to teleport to a dark red space.
On extremely rare occasions, the player will get the "The End?" achievement when entering the nether.
Occasionally, Zombie Pigmen floating in lava will abruptly die, sometimes upon coming out of the lava. This is because when bobbing up and down in lava, their downward motion is accumulating as "fall distance", until they set foot on solid ground (possibly the floor of the lava pool). Once they do touch solid ground, they take damage from the "fall", which may well kill them. In theory, Wither Skeletons could be affected by this (if they hung around lava lakes), but it happens that the other Nether mobs are each immune to fall damage.

Trivia

Needs Update

Many of these items seem to represent old bugs. Please verify items and delete outdated items

The idea for the Nether came from a transportation method used in the novel series The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Within this transportation system, the Ways, people could travel a massive amount of distance in a few days instead of weeks. Like the Nether, the Ways has many dangers.^[3] Notch also once said that Jake, his co-worker, was a big key to the Nether. It isn't clear exactly what that means.
The bedrock ceiling of the Nether created a rumor that the Nether is underneath the bedrock barrier on the above ground map. This is supported due to the fact that one of Minecraft's merchandise is a shirt that has the Nether below a Cavern, presumably below Bedrock level. This has been dismissed as creative mode/mods let players get above the Bedrock to find the Nether's Void. Notch has stated that the Nether and the above ground map are in entirely different dimensions.^{[citation needed]}
The ceiling of the main Nether Cave reaches a maximum y value of 109 at eye-level. (111 when standing on the ceiling) This makes levels 115-125 great for making minecart rails connecting different destinations in the Nether that are free from Ghasts. However, in 1.5, there will occasionally be lava there.
When the player warps from worlds, the direction the player is facing is maintained (e.g., if the player is facing east in the Overworld when the players warp to the Nether, the player will still be facing east).
While inside the Nether, furnaces will stop smelting and plants will stop growing/decaying in the Overworld. However, the day/night cycle continues and all the Mobs present are maintained. This is due to chunks loading and unloading.
Gravel is one of the only three solid blocks found in the Nether and also in the Overworld (the others being obsidian and bedrock)
One of the Level themes in Indev was Hell. It was a normal map, but with a lava ocean, perpetually dim lighting, and a black sky with dull red clouds.
If the player stands on soul sand with lava at the same level adjacent to the soul sand, the player will take damage if he/she steps near the edges of the soul sand. This is due to soul sand being slightly smaller than other blocks.
In SMP, if the player disconnects and someone places blocks where he/she was, when the player logs in, he/she will spawn on top of the blocks. If there isn't any room above the blocks, the player can spawn above the bedrock layer and will be trapped. Dropping sand or gravel achieves the same affect.
There may be some areas where the ocean/lake of lava may go under an overhang and the lava will not illuminate that area. Going in there and creating light (placing a torch, lighting a fire, etc.) will fix this.
Pointing at entities (Minecart, Painting, etc.) in the Nether causes the inventory to become 'brighter'.
There is no naturally spawning passive mob that has been announced in the Nether as of now, but chickens can be spawned from eggs.
Even with no light sources around, the player can see in the Nether, due to apparent "background light". However, this doesn't count as light for other game purposes—lighting up areas is still useful to prevent mob spawning.
As of the shift to the Anvil file format in 1.2, it is now possible to build on and above the bedrock ceiling of the Nether, however it is normally inaccessible anyway outside of Creative.
Pressing F3 in the Nether will display the biome as "Hell".
For the Xbox 360 Edition, there is a wall of bedrock surrounding the map to stop the player from crossing the map limit as shown here.
When leaving the Nether and entering the Overworld, any nighttime mobs that were present the last time a player was within update radius of the portal will still be present, even if it is now daytime. Undead will begin burning as usual, but spiders which were already targeting players will continue to do so.
Mushrooms can spawn on top of the top layer of bedrock in the Nether.
After using a Nether portal, you will be wielding the first item on your hotbar.
On the Minecon livestream, Dinnerbone stated he may add new ores to the Nether, such as the "Nether Quartz" seen in the 1.5 snapshots.^[4]
The Nether, as a biome, spawns ghasts and zombie pigmen. However, the world itself stops water, compasses, clocks, and beds from working, even if it's edited to become a different biome. ^{[citation needed]}
In the Xbox 360 edition of minecraft, Wolves cannot enter the Nether.

Gallery

2011-02-05 11.46.18.jpg

Ghasts are not harmed by lava (only direct fire damage hurts them).
Water placed through inventory editing and squid spawning in it.
The new Nether feature that Jeb released in September, 2011.
Another new feature that Jeb released in September.
2011-09-22 18.26.31.png

View of Nether fortresses in 1.9 Pre-release.
2011-09-22 18.28.49.png

View of Nether fortresses with a Blaze Spawner.
A large, spreading stream of lava in the Nether.
Bedrock naturally exposed in the Nether.
As of recent updates, if you use a map in the nether your position indicator will rotate, but any markers will not.

References

Environment

[1] ttp://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9s1a28Sq81qzd3eyo1_500.png

[2] ttp://notch.tumblr.com/post/5136312534/fixing-bugs-enabling-nether

[3] ttp://notch.tumblr.com/post/1144331509/seecret-saturday-1-but-i-failed-biomes-again

[4] Minecon livestream, about 5:19

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]