Minecraft Beginner’s Nether Guide [PS4, Xbox, PC]

Minecraft is an enormous and expansive game  built on surprisingly simple mechanics,   but the more you poke at it the  more complex things can become.   If you need help understanding  this deceitfully simple game,   then you’ve come to the right place. I’m William  Strife and welcome to the Minecraft Guide.  

Grab your sword, strap on your  armor, and load up with supplies,   because it’s time to tackle the nether. In Minecraft the Nether is an extradimensional   plane of existence that’s best described as  a blocky voxel version of the underworld.  

Across its dark mostly red and black landscape  are a series of dangerous pitfalls, enemies, and   treasures for those who successfully brave them. Due to its dangerous nature it’s important to go   in prepared, but before you can even do that  you have to gain access to the dimension by  

Either finding or building a portal. Portals to the nether come in two forms,   ruined or player made. Across the mostly green and verdant landscape of   Minecraft there will occasionally be what amount  to collapsed or ruined portals that can spawn just  

About anywhere in the world, including on top  of mountains, in caves, and even underwater.   These ruined portals commonly have gold left  around them that was once used for decoration as   well as a loot chest with mostly gold equipment. Aside of that though the portal will always be  

Broken and nonfunctional thus needing repair. No matter if you find and fix a broken portal   or build your own from scratch three  things are necessary to get the job done,   a diamond pickaxe, obsidian, and flint and steel. Obsidian is an extremely hard block that’s created  

When lava source blocks are cooled by water. The resultant obsidian is highly blast proof   and can only be mined with a  diamond pickaxe or better.   To make a basic nether portal from scratch at  least ten obsidian is necessary, as a portal  

Has to be at least a four block wide five block  tall ring of obsidian with the corners missing.   That’s just the minimum height and width  though, as portals can be up to 23×23 blocks   or any configuration between the  minimum and maximum dimensions.  

No matter if you build from  scratch or repair a ruined portal   the next step is to light the inner ring on  fire with a flint and steel to activate it,   then stand in the new wubbing purple it creates  and wait for the dimensional jump to happen.  

On the other side you’ll find yourself in the hot  burning landscape of the nether which is composed   of five distinct biomes with various blocks,  resources, plants, mobs, and other quirks.   Additional ruined portals can also spawn in all  the landscape as well, with everything about them  

Being the same save the stone surrounding them Before you go searching for any spoils though   you need to look out for the various hostile  mobs that can spawn across the landscape.   To start are standard Skeletons  and Endermen which are no  

Different from those found in the over world. Second are Piglins who are actively aggressive,   but you can fool into ignoring you  by wearing any type of golden armor.   However, they love gold so much  they’ll hunt you down if you try  

To mine any sort of gold around them. They also have a zombified counterpart   which are passive aggressive, meaning they won’t  attack you so long as you don’t attack them.   Fourth are Hoglins, a type of large  tusked pig that serves as a source  

Of food in the unforgiving landscape. There are also Magma Cubes which are   just hotter versions of the annoying  green slimes from the overworld.   Finally there are Ghasts, which are moaning  floating jellyfish that will screech and hurl  

Fireballs at you which can destroy the landscape. In addition to all these hostile mobs there are   also passive Striders that walk on lava. Under the right circumstances you can   ride them to get across the lava oceans  present across most of the landscape.   That’s more or less everything  for threats and hostile creatures,  

But a lot of details have been left out. If you want more information be certain   to check out the nether mob guide in the  playlist and description down below.   Now past the baddies you’ll stab,  shoot, and dodge; the reason to  

Head to the nether is for resources. The impetus for making an expedition   to the fiery underworld is summed up in  just a bit more than a handful of items:   Glowstone, Quartz, Gold, Ancient Debris,  Nether Wart, Blaze Rods, and Wither Skulls.  

These are the main spoils held by the denizens  of and embedded in the fiery landscape.   We’ll cover them all, but the fine details of  finding them are in separate in-depth videos.   First is Glowstone which just as the name  implies is a luminescent stone that emits light.  

You can find this block hanging from ceilings  no matter where you are in the nether.   Second is Nether Quartz, this ore  spawns exclusively in the reddish stone   Netherrack that makes up most of the landscape. Quartz has a myriad of uses between block crafting   and redstone contraptions. Third is Nether Gold Ore,  

Which unlike its overworld counterpart  breaks into nuggets when mined.   There are particular ways to mine this  resource efficiently, and you want it because   of the next resource: Ancient Debris. Netherite is the most expensive reason   to head to the nether, as it’s the one  material that’s stronger than diamond.  

Getting it however requires you mine up  ancient debris which is incredibly rare.   Then you combine four debris with four  gold to make one Netherite ingot.   For full information on finding this  material you’ll need to watch the  

Nether Mining Guide in this series, check the  description for a link, and the playlist.   We’ve covered all the hard inanimate ores,  so now let’s cover the more organic spoils.   Nether Wart, Blaze Rods, and Wither Skulls are  all highly valuable items found almost exclusively  

In what are known as Nether Fortresses. Fortresses are large structures that spawn in all   biomes, are composed of Nether Brick, and mostly  made of bridge pathways connecting small rooms.   One of those rooms is a stairway garden,  which is the home to Nether Wart a basic  

Alchemy component that only grows in soulsand. It’s advisable you take it home to grow more,   as it has multiple uses that  rely on having plenty of it.   Another room frequently found in  Nether Fortresses has a blaze spawner.   Blazes are basically living fires that  float about and hurl fireballs at you.  

Dealing with them is far from easy but when  killed they can drop Blaze rods, which is   both an alchemy ingredient and used to create an  alchemy crafting station called a Brewing Stand.   For all the details about alchemy and how  it works, you can check the description  

For a separate video about just that. The last thing that comes from Nether   Fortresses are Wither Skulls. They’re dropped by Wither Skeletons,   large charcoal boned entities  who fight with stone swords.   They drop skulls infrequently though, so for more  details on increasing your odds there’s a separate  

Video dedicated to Nether Dungeons and everything  about them that hasn’t been covered here.   Past the valuable spoils you search for  when exploring the Nether there are also   the biomes that make up the landscape. The various locals of the underworlds start  

With the Nether Wastes, a barren landscape that  nearly all the other biomes are built on top of.   There’s also the Soul Sand Valley,   a mostly dead area with a bluish tinge to the  air and large bone formations on the ground.  

Then there’s the Basalt Delta, which  is a latent volcano that almost   completely replaces the Nether Wastes. Finally there are Crimson and Warped Forests,   which are the only lush places  in the fiery dimension.   These two areas are similar with limited  differences, but serve as the only ready  

Supply of many basic crafting materials. All of these biomes has a myriad of blocks   that have their own uses, but explaining them  is best saved for the Nether Biome Guide where   all the details are properly fleshed out. Again, check the description for links.  

However, there are many special craftables you  can build out of things we’ve already covered.   One of the special quirks about the Nether,  aside of not being able to place water in the   dimension, is how you can’t sleep in a bed. You can certainly try, but it won’t end well.  

This means death in the dimension  sends you back to the overworld.   This is remedied by building a  respawn anchor, which requires   six Crying Obsidian and three Glowstone. There are limited sources for the Crying Obsidian   including busted portals, but  Piglins are the most reliable.  

For more information on how to  get the bipedal swine to cough   any up though check the Nether Mob Guide. Anyway after crafting and placing the Respawn   Anchor you must both activate and charge it up  with Glowstone the same way you place a block,  

And the maximum charge for  an anchor is four respawns.   Die and you’ll appear at the  anchor and it will lose a charge.   Something else to mention is how Respawn anchors   mirror beds when it comes to  interdimensional volatility.  

In other words if you try to activate a Respawn  Anchor outside the Nether it explodes.   The other craftable block from the nether  is one that works in all dimensions   and aids in navigation: The Lodestone. Lodestones are made of a single  

Netherite ingot surrounded by chiseled stone. Activate it with a compass and the compass will   take on a glowing enchanted effect and always  point toward the Lodestone it was linked to.   The purpose this serves is to specifically help  you find your way across the nether landscape,  

As normally compasses taken into the fiery  dimension will spin wildly just like clocks.   The last craftable from the  nether to mention is Soul Fire.   This blue flame can be incorporated into torches,   lanterns, and camp fires with  either Soul Soil or Soul sand.  

For a torch just add either when crafting and you  have a blue flame, then use those soul torches   to make a lantern like you normally would. As for camp fires replace the coal in the recipe   with soul sand or soil and you’re golden. A word of warning though,  

Soulfire gives off decidedly less light, so  you’ll need more of these light sources to   spawn proof anything you build. That’s just about everything for a   basic rundown of venturing into the Nether. However, there’s still plenty more to cover   including building materials from the various  biomes, special dungeons called Fortresses  

And Bastions, fine details involving safe  mining and Netherite, and the particular   ways to both deal with mobs, what they  drop, and secret ways to manipulate them.   If you want to know more and learn every little  bit of info check out the playlist on screen  

For the full host of guides. Until next time I’m William Strife   and this video was made possible through  viewer donations at Strife.Solutions.   If you want to see more guides  like this then please consider   contributing so I can continue making them. Subscribing also helps, and you can also  

Check me out on twitch where you’ll find my  stream schedule, links in the description.   Thanks for watching and listening, I’m William  Strife and I’ll see ya later.