version: "1.0.0" name: the_nether description: Minecraft 1.21.1 Nether facts - portal frames, lighting and linking, the 8:1 coordinate scale, terrain and rules that differ from the overworld, the five biomes, fortresses and blaze spawners, bastion remnants, piglins and bartering, ancient debris and the whole netherite chain.

The Nether (1.21.1)

Portals

• A frame is a rectangle of obsidian (crying obsidian does not count) at least 4 wide and 5 tall, at most 23 x 23; the inside is air. The four corners are optional, so the smallest frame takes 10 obsidian (14 with corners).
• It is lit by fire inside the frame: flint and steel or a fire charge used on the frame's inside, or any fire that lands there. A lit portal fills with purple; standing in it for 4 s changes dimension.
• Coordinates: 1 block in the Nether = 8 blocks in the overworld horizontally (x and z divided by 8; y is unchanged). A portal links to the nearest existing portal around the matching position (search radius 128 blocks in the overworld, 16 in the Nether), else it builds a new one there.
• Explosions (ghast fireballs) can put a portal out without breaking the obsidian; it can be lit again.
• Ruined portals (overworld and Nether) are broken frames with obsidian and crying obsidian already in them, plus a chest of gold loot. Obsidian otherwise forms where water flows onto a lava source.

How the Nether differs

• The space is Y 0 to 127 with bedrock floor and ceiling (the roof is at 123-127). A lava sea fills everything below Y 31; most ground is netherrack over it.
• Water cannot exist: a water bucket evaporates. Ice broken here leaves no water.
• Beds explode when used (a strong blast that sets fires). A respawn anchor charged with glowstone sets the respawn point instead.
• Lava flows farther and faster (7 blocks). Netherrack, once lit, burns forever.
• Compasses and clocks spin; maps still work.
• Items dropped into lava are destroyed, except netherite items, which float.

Biomes

Nether fortress

• Dark nether brick corridors and bridges on stilts, often over the lava sea; it spreads over a wide area and many heights.
• Blaze spawners (usually two, in small rooms on the bridges or at stair landings) and wandering blazes; wither skeletons in the corridors.
• Nether wart grows on soul sand in its stairwells (the brewing base ingredient).
• Chests: diamonds, iron, gold, saddles, horse armor, obsidian, flint and steel.
• A blaze rod drops only when a player (or a tamed wolf) killed the blaze; 0-1 per blaze, Looting adds more. One rod grinds into 2 blaze powder.

Bastion remnant

• Huge blackstone and gilded blackstone buildings with gold blocks, guarded by piglins and piglin brutes (always hostile, 50 HP), and hoglins in the stables.
• Four layouts: housing units, hoglin stables, bridge, and the treasure room (a lava-moat room with gold blocks and a magma cube spawner).
• Chests hold gold, ancient debris, netherite scrap, crying obsidian, enchanted gear, and netherite upgrade smithing templates (always one in the treasure chest; 10% in the other chests). Templates are found nowhere else.

Piglins and gold

• Wearing any one piece of gold armor keeps ordinary piglins neutral. Even then they attack anyone who opens or breaks a chest, barrel or shulker box, or mines gold ore, gold blocks or gilded blackstone near them. Brutes ignore gold.
• Bartering: drop or hand a gold ingot to an adult piglin; it studies it for 6 s and throws something back. About 2% of barters give 2-4 ender pearls; others give obsidian, crying obsidian, fire resistance potions, string, quartz, iron nuggets, soul sand, gravel, blackstone and similar.
• Piglins pick up gold items lying on the ground. Piglins taken out of the Nether turn into zombified piglins after 15 s.

Ancient debris and netherite

A full netherite armor set therefore needs 4 ingots (16 debris and 16 gold ingots), 4 templates (1 found and 3 copies, 21 diamonds) and a diamond set to upgrade (24 diamonds).

Other Nether resources

• Glowstone clusters hang from the ceiling (drop glowstone dust; Fortune helps).
• Nether quartz ore (quartz, experience) and nether gold ore (gold nuggets) are everywhere in netherrack.
• Magma cream from magma cubes, ghast tears from ghasts, crimson and warped fungus, shroomlight, soul sand and soul soil (soul torches, soul campfires).
• Striders walk on lava and can be ridden with a saddle, steered by a warped fungus on a stick.