Nether

TheNether is the second dimension in Minecraft, and can be accessed via the main Overworld using a Nether Portal. It is an extremely inhospitable dimension located completely underground, and has innumerable amounts of lavafalls that pool into the bottom of the Nether's biomes. Navigation is also a big problem: this realm often features huge voids that can only be crossed by building your own bridges, directly over the lava pools.

Making matters worse are the hostile mobs: in addition to Skeletons andEndermen, you can encounterBlaze,Hoglins, Magma Cubes,Piglins, Wither Skeletons, and the incredibly dangerous Ghasts. All of these make traveling in the Nether incredibly treacherous. There's also the passive Strider, a potential mount which is able to safely run across lava.

The Nether is however a source of materials and items not found anywhere else in the game, including Basalt, Netherrack, Shroomlight, Soul Soil, Quartz, and several Crimson and Warped resources. Many of these are required for crafting some of the more advanced and useful items in the game. Finally, the Nether is home to several unique structures, including Nether Fortresses, Bastion Remnants, and even some Ruined Portals.

For more, check out our pages onBiomes andThe End!

Nether Subtopics:

Nether Biomes

The Nether is made up of five distinct biomes, four of which were added in a later update.

Nether Wastes	Basalt Deltas

The original and primary Nether Biome, the Nether Wastes is made primarily of Netherrack and lava, and populated by Zombified Piglins. The huge empty spaces make crossing over the lava pools to reach minerals incredibly dangerous.	The Basalt Dunes are one of the dangerous biomes you can find, thanks to Magma Cubes and frequent pools of lava., and basalt formations that are difficult to navigate. This is also the only Nether biome to not have any generated structures.

Crimson Forest	Soul Sand Valley
While called a forest, Crimson Forests are actually made of Huge Fungus structures. The presence of Hoglins means this biome is actually habitable, since they can be bred and thus make a sustainable farm.	Soul Sand Valleys require extra caution, since the Soul Sand can slow the player down when you walk on it. The spaces are also vast enough to allow Ghasts to appears, and it's dark enough for Skeletons too. If that weren't enough, the blue Soul Fire is ever present, and hurts even more than regular fire. There is little to recommend it.

Warped Forest
Warped Forests are the inverted cousins of Crimson Forests. While Endermen still require caution, no mob here is actively hostile, making it a rare respite in the Nether. This is the only place in the game to obtain Nether Sprouts.

How to Get to the Nether

Since the Nether is another dimension, it doesn't technically exist within the Overworld. To get there, you must instead construct a Nether Portal out of Obsidian.

Obsidian is created when water flows into lava (NOT the other way around: this creates Stone). Obsidian can only be mined with a Diamond Pickaxe: if broken with anything else, it doesn't drop anything.
The Obsidian Blocks must then be placed in a vertical rectangle shape, with a 2x3 gap inside. The corner blocks are not actually necessary. The largest Portal size is a 23x23 frame.
You may also find Ruined Portals throughout the Overworld and the Nether itself. These are incomplete, and also contain Crying Obsidian that don't count towards a functioning Portal. However you can still mine the normal Obsidian so you can build your Portal elsewhere.
Once the Portal is complete, you must then light a fire inside the finished frame. This is most easily done with Flint and Steel, however a Fire Charge, Fireball or even a Lightning Strike will work too.
When a Portal is created, a second one is created in a relatively safe spot in the other dimension.

Nether Quirks

As the Nether is a different dimension, there are various things that do not work normally there:

Space is compressed in the Nether: every horizontal block in the Nether equates to 8 blocks in the Overworld. You can use this to aid travel by creating two Portals in the Overworld and then creating a safe passage between them in the Nether.
When the player dies, they respawn in the Overworld, unless you have a Respawn Anchor with some charge in it. Beds will also violently explode and kill you if you try to use them.
Due to the extreme heat, water and ice will evaporate instantly, including Water Buckets, Sponges, and even Snow Golems without Fire Resistance. The only exception is placing water into a Cauldron.
Navigation items don't work correctly: maps display static and the player's arrow spins about, as do Clocks. Compasses typically don't work either, but you can work around this by linking it to a Lodestone, which it will then always point to.
Finally, Lava flows twice as fast in the Nether than in the Overworld, meaning you should exercise extreme caution when placing it.

Nether Resources

The five Nether biomes are home to a wide variety of Resources. To that end, we've covered them all in the tables below:

Nether Wastes	Basalt Deltas
Ancient Debris	Basalt
Blackstone	Blackstone
Brown Mushroom	Lava
Fire	Magma Block
Glowstone
Gravel
Lava
Magma Blocks
Netherrack
Nether Gold Ore
Nether Quartz Ore
Red Mushroom
Soul Stone

This second graph deals with the two Nether forest biomes:

Crimson Forest	Soul Sand Valley
Crimson Fungus	Crimson Fungus
Crimson Nylium	Crimson Roots
Crimson Roots	Nether Sprouts
Crimson Stem	Shroomlight
Nether Wart Block	Twisting Vines
Shroomlight	Warped Fungus
Warped Fungus	Warped Nylium
Weeping Vines	Warped Roots
	Warped Warped Stem
	Warped Root Blocks

Badlands Mobs

As of Minecraft 1.19, these mobs can be found in the Nether's biomes and its variants:

	Nether Wastes	Basalt Deltas	Crimson Forest	Soul Sand Valley	Warped Forest
Enderman	Enderman			Enderman	Enderman
Ghast	Ghast	Ghast		Ghast
Hoglin			Hoglin
Magma Cube	Magma Cube	Magma Cube
Piglin	Piglin		Piglin
Skeleton				Skeleton
Strider	Strider	Strider	Strider	Strider	Strider
Zombified Chicken Jockey	Zombified Chicken Jockey (Java Edition only)		Zombified Chicken Jockey
Zombified Piglin	Zombified Piglin		Zombified Piglin