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File:2011-05-19 16.36.14.png

A view of the Nether.

The Nether (also known as "the Nexus" in Notch's blog, and previously, Hell or the Slip) is a hell-like dimension, filled with fire, lakes and rivers of lava, and dangerous and powerful mobs.

Accessing

Main article: Nether Portal
File:2011-10-23 20.57.56.png

Budget version (left), Standard portal (right)

Minecraft Portal 23x23 Graduated

A maximum-sized portal (23x23) next to a "default" portal.

To access the Nether, the Player must construct a Nether portal in the Overworld (Nether portals created in the End will not activate). To create the portal, one must first construct an obsidian frame, ranging in size from 4x5 at minimum to 23x23 at maximum. Once the frame is constructed, it can then be activated by placing fire within the frame. When the portal has been activated, it will emit a purple mist.

An activated portal will allow any entity (which is not riding or being ridden by another entity / boss mobs) to be transported to a corresponding portal in the Nether. A new portal will be created in the Nether if necessary. 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.

Environment

Nether terrain is largely composed of netherrack that forms complex platforms and niches, with lava oceans, "lavafalls", and rivers of lava being frequent. 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. The Nether is horizontally infinite.

Bedrock comprises the top and bottom 4 layers in a rough pattern (in the console edition, it can also be found at the sides of the Nether, as world sizes are limited to 862x862). Glowstone clusters hang from ceilings, and mushrooms grow abundantly on the ground. There are patches of floating gravel and soul sand. Small caves form in the netherrack, which contain random nether quartz deposits.

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 console edition, nether wart will naturally generate anywhere on soul sand).

The Nether has no day-night cycle and no weather. The only natural sources of light are fire, lava, portals, and glowstone. A dim ambient light can be seen throughout the Nether, and is what light level 0 looks like. 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 inventory items will remain in the Nether.

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.

Nether 'biome'

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 in a Survival game without cheats, besides the usage of a cauldron.
    • Using water buckets will produce steam and an empty bucket.
    • Ice that is melted or smashed in the Nether will also 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 considered a warm biome.
  • Maps will only generate a brown-gray static pattern.
    • The player's direction indicator will spin randomly, although its location is still relative to the players location in the Nether.
  • Compasses are unable to find the original spawn point, as it cannot be set to a single point within the Nether.
  • Clocks are unable to determine the position of the Sun and Moon.
  • Building snow golems is essentially useless, as they will rapidly take fire damage and die, due to the Nether being a warm biome.

Mobs

The Nether is home to its own share of mobs, most of which are completely fire-proof and immune to lava. Skeletons and chickens are the only Overworld mobs that can naturally spawn in the Nether; wither skeletons have a small chance of spawning as a regular skeleton instead, and baby zombie pigmen can spawn as chicken jockeys. Other Overworld mobs like cows and creepers do not naturally spawn in the Nether, but they can wander or be shoved through a portal.

ZombiePigmanFace GhastFace Magma Cube Face Blaze Face WitherSkeletonHead SkeletonFace Chickenjockey
Zombie Pigman Ghast Magma Cube Blaze Wither Skeleton Skeleton Chicken Jockey

Generation

Template:ID table/key

Naturally generated

Naturally generated blocks includes those that are created through the world seed.

NameIdentifier
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
?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.

NameIdentifier
??
?flowing_lava
??
??
??
??

Structures

These blocks are generated as part of nether fortresses, but only when the "generated structures" option is on.

NameIdentifier
??
?mob_spawner
??
??
??
??
??
??

Technical information

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.

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, and all man-made buildings will be deleted.

Video

Note: This video is outdated, as wither skeletons, nether brick slabs, and nether quartz ore were added in 1.4.2, 1.4.6, and 1.5, respectively.

The Nether/video

Achievements

Template:Load achievements: Unknown achievement. Achievement title not found on page Achievement

History

a
1.2.0October 4, 2010The Nether was one of the key features to be added in the Halloween Update. This announcement stated that there would be a "hell world" that could be used for fast travel.[1] It hinted it would utilize portals and that distance traveled inside the Nether would be multiplied greatly on the map above ground.
October 10, 2010A screenshot was released by Notch depicting what the Nether would look like.
October 29, 2010When the preview was sent out 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.[2] It was finally changed to “the Nether” on the day of the Halloween update release.
Halloween UpdateWith the rest of the Halloween Update's features, such as ghasts, zombie pigmen, netherrack, soul sand, glowstone, portals, and pumpkins were added, the Nether was released, and the name - "The Nether" was also changed from the Slip.
1.2.2Lava was made to flow farther than it did on the Overworld.
b
1.6Portals were made to function properly in multiplayer, allowing players in servers to teleport between the Overworld and the Nether.[3]
A bug where the player could have menus open while inside portals. When teleporting, the text on screen would appear totally gray.
Beds in the Nether were made to explode if used.
release
1.0.0Beta 1.9-pre1Many new additions to the nether, including: Magma cubes, blazes (as well as blaze spawners and blaze rods), nether fortresses (including nether brick, nether brick stairs and Nether brick fences), nether wart, ghast tears dropped by ghasts and gold nuggets dropped by zombie pigmen.
Beta 1.9-pre4With the new "Silk Touch" enchantment, 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.
Beta 1.9-pre5The ability to pick up ice blocks with the enchantment was removed in this 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.
1.2.112w06aSnow golems now take damage in the Nether.
1.3.112w16aAdded the /give command. Using it to get water or flowing_water blocks allows another way to place water in the nether.
12w17aIce doesn't make water in the Nether anymore.
12w22aRarely, Nether portals will spawn zombie pigmen.
12w27aGrowing nether wart is no longer restricted to the Nether – it can be grown in the Overworld and The End.
12w30aMade the Nether less laggy.
1.4.212w32aZombie pigmen can wear armor, and the sword they are holding makes them deal more damage.
12w34aAny mobs and entities can travel through Nether portals.
12w36aAdded wither skeletons.
1.4.612w49aAdded nether brick slabs.
1.513w01aNether quartz ore is added to the Nether, which spawns around netherrack.
1.5.1Lava flows more quickly in the Nether, and hidden lava can be found in the Nether.
1.6.113w18aChests can now be found in nether fortresses.
2013 Music UpdateFour ambient music tracks added for the Nether.
1.814w03aAdded the /fill command which can place water in the Nether.
14w26awater and flowing_water removed from the /give command.
1.915w31aRemoved the Nether fog.
15w31cRe-added the Nether fog.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.12.1April 22, 2015Tommaso Checchi tweets a picture of the Nether, showing that it is officially in development.[4] He later tweets stating that he won't tell how finished it is or what version it will be in.[5]
build 1Added the Nether.
build 6Lava now spreads faster in the Nether.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1CU1 1.0 Patch 1Added the Nether.
TU9Added 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.

Issues

Issues relating to "The Nether" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

  • 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.[6] Notch also once said that Jake, his co-worker, was a big key to the Nether. It isn't clear exactly what that means.
  • 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.
  • Upon entering the Nether in singleplayer, the Overworld will essentially freeze, and resume when the player returns. This is due to chunks loading and unloading.
  • Pressing F3 in the Nether will display the biome as "Hell".
  • In the Console Edition, everything in the Nether is renewable due to the fact the Nether can be restarted infinitely.[verify]
  • 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.
  • The Nether — an endless cave filled with masses of air — appears to be an inversion of the End, an endless sky with a central mass of end stone.
  • In the Console Edition, the nether music in the festive mash-up pack is actually different from the original nether music, with some minor differences.

Gallery

See also

  • Tutorial for surviving in the Nether

References


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