You’ve conquered territory near and far, built a home, and discovered remote Overworld villages. You were taken in by the beautiful scenery and won over by Minecraft’s adorable animals. But there are times when you wonder if this is all there is to life.
Maybe you’re looking for that special spark once more. Danger is calling your name. Do you dare answer its summons?
Enter the Nether to see if you have what it takes to brave the Nether’s fire pits and storm its castles, or “fortresses.”
But before you go play, keep reading to learn how to locate a Nether Fortress and what you need to do to prepare for one. The Nether is not for the faint of heart, so prepare for the ultimate adventure.
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How to Get Ready to Enter a Nether Fortress in Minecraft
Many brave adventurers have gone into the Nether unprepared and perished. Don’t let arrogance be your undoing. Check out the list below to get your adventure started right.
Create a Portal
The Nether is a realm that exists beneath Minecraft’s regular map’s idyllic scenery and rolling hills. It’s not as simple as flying or riding a horse to get there. To visit this extraordinary world, you’ll have to do something extraordinary. You will require a portal.
Fortunately, creating a portal is relatively simple, requiring only obsidian (a lot of it), steel, and flint. Obsidian can be found in a variety of locations throughout the Overworld, including the following:
- Explore woodland mansions, including secret rooms on the second and third floors.
- Explore deep ravines and caves, as well as areas where water and lava meet. A diamond pickax is required to mine obsidian.
- Investigate ruined portals.
Obsidian blocks can also be found while looting or bartering with Piglins. You have an 8.71% chance of receiving one obsidian block if you take the latter route.
Whatever method you use to gather your obsidian resources, keep in mind that a basic portal requires 10 blocks. To light it, you’ll also need steel and flint.
Once you have the obsidian blocks, find a suitable location to construct your portal frame. You can look at other players’ fancy portal setups online, but you don’t need one to get to the Nether. Place two blocks on top and bottom, and three blocks on the sides. When you’re finished, it should resemble a “door.”
When you’re ready, take the flint and steel and light it on fire. When you see a purple, translucent, and vaguely liquid-like goo filling the doorway, you’ll know you’re ready for interdimensional travel.
Collect/Make Armor and Weapons
Before entering the Nether, make sure you have the necessary equipment to combat its hostile environment, such as swords, bows, arrows, pickaxes, armor, torches, cobblestones, water buckets, and more. Your equipment will vary depending on your character level and available resources, but the following items should be in your inventory.
Swords in Minecraft
Minecraft swords are necessary when facing fearless foes. Deflect Blaze flames, fight Wither Skeletons, and more with your sword.
Sword materials include wood, stone, iron, diamond, and netherrite.
Smite (increases damage to Zombie Piglins, Wither Skeletons, and so on), Sharpness (increases attack damage to mobs), Looting (gives more loot from mobs), Unbreaking (increases sword durability), and Sweeping Edge are all essential sword enchantments (increases sweeping damage)
Bows in Minecraft
Bows are the ideal weapon for dealing with enemies at a distance. The bow’s material has a significant impact on its effectiveness against enemies such as Ghasts and Wither Skeletons. Make sure to enchant your bows for more powerful attacks.
Sticks and strings are required bow materials.
Power (increases arrow damage), Infinity (unlimited “standard” arrows), Unbreaking (increases bow life), and Curse of Vanishing (arrows vanish upon enemy death) are all necessary bow enchantments.
Arrow Types in Minecraft
Arrow Types in Minecraft: Standard, Spectral (makes enemy glow briefly), Tipped (gains status effect from lingering potions)
Arrow Potions: Poison, Weakness, Slowing, and Harming
Pickaxes come in a variety of materials, including wood, stone, iron, diamond, gold, and netherrite.
Unbreaking and Efficiency (for diamond/iron axes) are essential pickaxe enchantments.
Armor Types in Minecraft: diamond or gold (if possible)
Protection, Fire Protection, Feather Falling (boots), Unbreaking (armor), Thorns are all necessary armor enchantments.
Other Resources
You should also bring along a variety of resources, such as cobblestones for constructing staircases, stone tools, or blocking off passages. Bring at least a couple of sacks of cobblestones, preferably more.
In your Nether adventure, you’ll also need a lot of torches or torch crafting materials. You can use them for a variety of purposes, such as limiting mob spawns in previously cleared areas or marking explored areas.
If you have some water buckets and a cauldron, include them in your inventory. They’re useful for killing Blazes, clearing lava, and extinguishing a fire.
Get Some Lunch
You can probably include “food” in the checklist’s “miscellaneous resources” section, but it’s an important part of any adventure and deserves its own section.
Because it is your primary healing item, you should include as many high-nutritional food items as possible. Consider including steak and cooked pork chops in your inventory arsenal.
If you have golden apples, you should bring them along as well. They aren’t required, but they can come in handy during difficult battles.
Make a Temp Base Kit.
Making a temporary base in the Nether is an excellent way to ensure that you can make more important resources if necessary. Consider bringing along key components such as a furnace, chest, and even a crafting table. Bring a few extra logs as well if you have them. Nether has wood, but it can’t be used as fuel or turned into charcoal.
You can also bring extra supplies with you to create another portal, especially if you are in a fortress far from your base. The supplies for making portals are optional, but they may save you a long journey back to your original portal to the Overworld.
Bring Fire-Resistant Potions
Are you ready to light your world on fire? If not, you may require some fire resistance potions or splash potions to combat the Nether’s fiery hazards. You can either barter for potions or make your own.
Because brewing these potions requires an ingredient found in the Nether, you won’t be able to make them on your first trip. However, once in the realm, you can bring all of the necessary ingredients to brew them.
How Do You Locate Nether Fortresses in Minecraft?
Finding a Nether Fortress is more difficult than it appears, even with commands. You could walk for thousands of miles in all directions and never see one. It’s even worse if you’re using the 1.16 Nether Update or later, as the devs increased the apparent distance between each fortress.
Unfortunately, there is no easy way to find a fortress in the Nether unless you use a command code and have cheats enabled. However, the following suggestions will help you narrow down your search:
- Look for structures that stand out from the other colors of the blocks. Fortresses are typically constructed of dark red bricks.
- Save time by riding striders across the Nether seas to get a better look at the other side.
- If you have cheats enabled, type /locate fortress to find the coordinates of the nearest fortress.
- Adjust your render settings to see further away.
Nether fortresses may be difficult to locate, but keep an eye out for tell-tale signs of a nearby fortress. Wither skeletons, blazes, and nether bricks could indicate the presence of a fortress hidden behind Netherrack.
Minecraft’s Nether Fortress interior
When you find a Nether Fortress, make sure you have everything you need to fight your way through it and gather resources effectively. If you don’t have access to high-level supplies, at the very least have an iron sword, a stone pickaxe, and plenty of food.
Investigate the fortress thoroughly. Some fortresses don’t have much to offer, but every now and then you’ll come across a nether wart plantation. They’re usually hidden behind a blaze spawner or a stairwell.
Also, keep an eye out for wither skeletons.
They may appear frightening at first, but keep in mind that they move extremely slowly. These bony foes can’t even get through a 2-block-high passage, so barriers are easily formed.
Consider building a portal on the grounds of a fortress that you want to use for farming. A portal in a fortress saves time when farming Nether resources and provides a quick way to return to the Overworld.
Minecraft Nether Frequently Asked Questions
Bridges and corridors are the two main levels of Nether Fortresses.
Bridges have five-block-wide pathways that are framed by a one-block-high wall. Bridges spawn as tunnels if a fortress is embedded within Netherrack.
Corridors, on the other hand, spawn with 3 x 3 nether brick-encased walkways. They also have 2 x 1 nether brick fences that serve as structure “windows.”
These fortresses are easily missed if your elevation is too high or you are below lava level. Fortunately, you can look for other fortress indicators such as wither skeletons and nether bricks that indicate a nearby structure in either case.
Nether Fortresses can be found in all Nether biomes. The trick is to locate one in a grid/region.
In general, each Nether region can only spawn one of two structures. You’ll either come across a fortress or a bastion relic. If you come across a bastion remnant while exploring, you’ll have to travel to another area to find a fortress.
Consider the following to help you visualize these areas:
• Regions are made up of 432 x 432 (Java) or 480 x 480 (Windows) blocks (Bedrock).
• Each region has a 4-block spawn zone on its east and south borders.
With these figures in mind, you only need to cover a 368 x 368 (Java) or 416 x 416 (Bedrock) section of the region where potential structures may emerge.
Some players claim that following Nether’s North/South axis will lead them to fortresses. They should generate every 200 to 400 blocks. Other players, on the other hand, prefer to look for fortresses organically through exploration.
The Needle in the Haystack
Most players have difficulty locating a Nether fortress, particularly if it is their first visit to the Nether. Patience is the best thing you can do for yourself. Even if you think you have enough, bring a little extra in case you end up wandering for a while.