Minecraft Nether

Accessing

Budget version (left), Full portal (right)

To access the Nether, the player must construct a nether portal in the Overworld (portals created in the End do not activate). To create the portal, the player must first build a rectangular obsidian frame, ranging in size from a minimum of 4×5 to a maximum of 23×23. Once the frame is built, it can then be activated by placing fire within the frame, using flint and steel, fire charge, dispensers or any materials.

An activated portal allows most entities (with the exception of the wither, the ender dragon, and entities riding or being ridden by another entity) to be transported to a corresponding portal in the Nether. In Survival, the player must stand in a nether portal for 4 seconds to get to the Nether. The player can step out of a portal before it completes its animation to abort the teleport. The portal generates a sound effect while the player is inside it. If there is no corresponding portal, a new 4×5 portal is created. 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. Any of the corner blocks can be destroyed without destroying the portal.

In the Old world type, it is impossible to construct a Nether portal. The portal block must be placed using cheats.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Environment

The terrain is largely composed of netherrack that forms complex platforms and niches, with frequent lava oceans, 'lavafalls', and rivers of lava. 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.

Bedrock comprises the top (below layer 127) and bottom 4 layers in a rough pattern. In the infinite worlds of the Java and Bedrock Editions, the Nether is also horizontally infinite. On the Legacy Console Edition, bedrock is found at the world border. On the New Nintendo 3DS Edition, there is no bedrock wall, but an invisible bedrock wall past the border, and the same applies to Old worlds in the Bedrock Edition if cheats are used to access the Nether.

Glowstone clusters generate on ceilings, and mushrooms grow abundantly on the ground. There are patches of floating gravel and soul sand. Small caverns form in the netherrack, which contain random nether quartz deposits. Near the level of the lava oceans, patches of magma blocks generate within the netherrack, making travel difficult and potentially damaging to armor.

Nether fortresses, the Nether's only naturally occurring structures, provide valuable loot, and are the only places where blazes and wither skeletons naturally spawn. Nether fortresses are also the only places where nether wart naturally generates (in the Legacy Console Edition, nether wart naturally generates anywhere on soul sand).

The Nether has no day-night cycle and no weather. Natural sources of light include fire, lava, portals, and glowstone. Even with a light level of 0, the Nether has a dim ambient light (roughly equivalent to light level 8 in the Overworld). Light otherwise functions exactly the same as it does in the Overworld and the End.

Any player who dies in the Nether respawns in the Overworld; any surviving items remain in the Nether where the death occurred.

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. For example, in a perfect scenario, a player who enters a portal in the Overworld at x=0, z=0 and travels in the Nether to x=1000, z=1000 returns to the Overworld at x=8000, z=8000. This makes portals a useful tool for traveling very long distances in the Overworld.

In Legacy Console Edition and New Nintendo 3DS Edition, the ratio is different. All worlds on New Nintendo 3DS, and Classic and Small worlds on Console, have a ratio of 3:1. On Console, Medium worlds have a ratio of 6:1, and Large worlds have the ratio of 8:1.

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 explode and cause fires when a player attempts to sleep in one. It has an explosion power of 5. The explosion is larger than that of TNT, which has an explosion power of 4.
There is no way to place liquid water in the Nether without the use of cheats, besides the usage of a cauldron.
- Using water buckets produces steam particles and a hissing sound, leaving the player with an empty bucket.
- Ice that is melted or smashed in the Nether does not produce water.
- If somehow placed using cheats, water takes on a reddish-brown color.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
- If placed from a water bucket into a cauldron, water takes on a reddish-brown color.
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 a warm biome.
Maps generate a brown-gray static pattern. The player's direction indicator spins randomly; its location is still relative to the player's location in the Nether, except in the New Nintendo 3DS Edition, where it is always in the center of the map.
Compasses and clocks spin wildly, making it impossible to tell the time while in the Nether.
Snow golems rapidly take fire damage and die, due to the Nether being a warm biome. However, they can survive if they have the Fire Resistance status effect.
Wet sponge become dried out.‌^{[Bedrock and PlayStation 4 editions only]}‌^{[upcoming: JE 1.15]}

Mobs

The Nether is home to its own share of mobs, most of which are fire- and lava-proof. Skeletons, chickens, and endermen are the only Overworld mobs that can naturally spawn in the Nether; in Java and Legacy Console editions baby zombie pigmen may spawn as chicken jockeys.

Other Overworld mobs do not naturally spawn in the Nether, but can be teleported through portals (with the exception of withers and ender dragons).


Zombie Pigman	Ghast	Magma Cube	Blaze	Wither Skeleton	Skeleton	Pigman Jockey‌^{[JE & LCE only]}	Enderman

Generation

Generated Structures

Name	Description	Image
Lava sea	Lava seas are found at and below level 30 in the Nether. They make a large portion of the Nether, and are extremely common. They can stretch for hundreds of meters in any direction, and are usually bordered by netherrack (or more rarely soul sand and/or magma blocks).
Fortress	Fortresses are large, bridge-like generated structures in the Nether, containing dangerous mobs but also valuable loot. They are the only places where wither skeletons generate naturally.
Glowstone clusters	Glowstone clusters are typically veins of glowstone that can be among the hardest natural materials to harvest that don't require digging. They form in coral-like structures on the underside of hanging Netherrack, so they are often found on the ceilings of the Nether, where they provide light along with the ever present lava.
Hidden Lava	A single block of lava generated randomly between netherrack.
Nether Quartz Ore veins	Large "veins" consisting of nether quartz ore blocks.
Magma Block veins	Large "veins" consisting of magma blocks.
Soul Sand patches	Small "patches" of soul sand usually occurring around layer 64.
Gravel patches	Small "patches" of gravel usually occurring around layer 64.

Blocks

Key

^I	Has a different ID as an inventory item.
^D	Use the item's Damage field to define its durability.
^S	Requires additional data from the saved game's Data array to fully define the block.
^B	Requires additional data in the item's Damage field to fully define the inventory item.
^N	Requires additional data in the item's NBT data to fully define the inventory item.
^E	Requires a block entity to store additional data.
Red	Cannot be legitimately obtained. Only available using the `/give` command or via inventory editors.
Light Blue	Cannot be obtained as an item. (Can only be placed using block-placement commands such as `/setblock` or `/fill`.)
Blue	Available in the Creative mode inventory by item list.
Purple	Available in Creative mode by block picking.
Teal	Can be obtained by trading with villagers or in the Creative mode inventory.
Green	Only available by having Enchanted tools or in the Creative mode inventory.
Lime Green	Only available by having Enchanted tools or via use of `/give` or inventory editors, but unobtainable in the Creative mode inventory.
Gray	Unused data.

Naturally generated

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

Dec	Hex	Namespaced ID	Block
0	0	minecraft:air	Air
7	7	minecraft:bedrock	Bedrock
11	B	minecraft:lava	Stationary Lava ^S
13	D	minecraft:gravel	Gravel
39	27	minecraft:brown_mushroom	Brown Mushroom
40	28	minecraft:red_mushroom	Red Mushroom
51	33	minecraft:fire	Fire ^S
87	57	minecraft:netherrack	Netherrack
88	58	minecraft:soul_sand	Soul Sand
89	59	minecraft:glowstone	Glowstone
153	99	minecraft:quartz_ore	Nether Quartz Ore
213	D5	minecraft:magma_block	Magma Block

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.

Dec	Hex	Namespaced ID	Block
0	0	minecraft:air	Air
10	A	minecraft:flowing_lava	Lava ^S
39	27	minecraft:brown_mushroom	Brown Mushroom
40	28	minecraft:red_mushroom	Red Mushroom
49	31	minecraft:obsidian	Obsidian
90	5A	minecraft:portal	Nether Portal

Structures

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

Dec	Hex	Namespaced ID	Block
0	0	minecraft:air	Air
11	B	minecraft:lava	Stationary Lava ^S
52	34	minecraft:mob_spawner	Spawner ^E
54	36	minecraft:chest	Chest ^S E
88	58	minecraft:soul_sand	Soul Sand
112	70	minecraft:nether_bricks	Nether Bricks
113	71	minecraft:nether_brick_fence	Nether Brick Fence
114	72	minecraft:nether_brick_stairs	Nether Brick Stairs ^S
115	73	minecraft:nether_wart	Nether Wart ^I S

Biome

Nether

Type	N/A
Rarity	N/A
Temperature	2.0
Structures	Lava sea Nether Fortresses Glowstone clusters
Blocks	Netherrack Glowstone Soul Sand Nether Quartz Ore Magma Blocks Lava Gravel Red Mushroom Brown Mushroom Fire
Data value	dec: 8 hex: 8 bin: 1000
Biome ID	§ ID

The Nether biome is used to generate the Nether. Within this biome, mobs such as ghasts, packs of zombie pigmen, the occasional magma cube and enderman spawn. Certain structures, such as nether quartz ore, glowstone veins, and nether fortresses generate only in the Nether. While water cannot be placed in the Nether dimension, ice can and water lakes (and other Overworld structures) can still generate, if the Nether is used in a superflat or buffet preset.

In Bedrock Edition, if the nether is used as the biome for overworld generation, a bedrock ceiling generates at altitude 128. If a river generates in the nether biome, the bedrock ceiling does not generate over the river biome (which exposes sunlight). The terrain consists entirely of stone, without any netherrack or nether related block generated. Although the terrain is entirely stone, no ore is generated (including dirt, gravel, andesite, etc). Caverns and lakes (with red colored water) still generate. The player is still able to place water in an overworld nether biome, but trying to sleep in a bed still causes an explosion.

Technical information

ID

Java Edition:

Dimension	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID
The Nether	`the_nether`	-1

Biome	Namespaced ID
Nether	`nether`

Bedrock Edition:

Dimension	Numeric ID
The Nether	-1

Biome	Namespaced ID
Nether	`hell`

Folder

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, or to go to the Go menu, hold the Option key, and select the "Library" option.

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 still take the player to the Nether world originally generated for that save and vice versa.

Deleting the DIM-1 file resets the Nether, so that all player-made changes and buildings in that dimension are undone.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Availability				Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Xbox	PS	Bedrock	Nintendo	Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
	Into The Nether	Build a portal to the Nether	Light a nether portal.	Yes	PS3	Yes	Yes	40G	Silver
	Into The Nether	Build a portal to the Nether	Light a nether portal.	Yes	PS4, PSVita	Yes	Yes	40G	Bronze

Advancements

There is a whole tab dedicated for the Nether in the advancement system, all involving visiting the Nether in some way in order to advance.

Main article: Advancements

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
Nether	Bring summer clothes	—	Enter the Nether dimension.	`minecraft:nether/root`
Return to Sender	Destroy a Ghast with a fireball	Nether	Kill a ghast using a ghast fireball.	`minecraft:nether/return_to_sender`
Subspace Bubble	Use the Nether to travel 7 km in the Overworld	Nether	Use the Nether to travel between 2 points in the Overworld with a minimum horizontal distance of 7000 blocks between each other, about 875 blocks in the Nether.	`minecraft:nether/fast_travel`
A Terrible Fortress	Break your way into a Nether Fortress	Nether	Enter a Nether fortress.	`minecraft:nether/find_fortress`
Uneasy Alliance	Rescue a Ghast from the Nether, bring it safely home to the Overworld... and then kill it	Return to Sender	Kill a Ghast in the Overworld.	`minecraft:nether/uneasy_alliance`
Spooky Scary Skeleton	Obtain a Wither Skeleton's skull	A Terrible Fortress	Have a wither skeleton skull in your inventory.	`minecraft:nether/get_wither_skull`
Into Fire	Relieve a Blaze of its rod	A Terrible Fortress	Have a blaze rod in your inventory.	`minecraft:nether/obtain_blaze_rod`
Withering Heights	Summon the Wither	Spooky Scary Skeleton	Be within a 100.9×100.9×103.5 cuboid centered on the Wither when it is spawned.	`minecraft:nether/summon_wither`
Local Brewery	Brew a potion	Into Fire	Pick up an item from a brewing stand potion slot (Note that this does not need to be a potion. Water bottles or even empty bottles also trigger this advancement).	`minecraft:nether/brew_potion`
Bring Home the Beacon	Construct and place a Beacon	Withering Heights	Be within a 20×20×14 cuboid centered on a beacon block when it realizes it has become powered.	`minecraft:nether/create_beacon`
A Furious Cocktail	Have every potion effect applied at the same time	Local Brewery	Have all of these 13 potion effects applied to the player at the same time.	`minecraft:nether/all_potions`
Beaconator	Bring a beacon to full power	Bring Home the Beacon	Be within a 20×20×14 cuboid centered on a beacon block when it realizes it is being powered by a size 4 pyramid.	`minecraft:nether/create_full_beacon`
How Did We Get Here?	Have every effect applied at the same time	A Furious Cocktail	Have all of these 26 effects applied to the player at the same time.	`minecraft:nether/all_effects`

History

Java Edition Indev
0.31 (January 6, 2010)				Added a map theme named "Hell". It was a normal map, but with a lava ocean, perpetually dim lighting, and a black sky with dull red clouds. Map themes were later removed in Infdev.
Java Edition Alpha
September 18, 2010				Notch mentions the return of the hell biome, and that it will be used for fast travel, based on a transportation method used in the novel series The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Within a dangerous transportation system, "the Ways", people could travel a massive amount of distance in a few days instead of weeks.
v1.2.0		October 4, 2010		This announcement poster hinted that the hell world would utilize portals and that distance traveled inside the hell world would be multiplied greatly on the map above ground.
		October 8, 2010		Notch reveals a new block type, now known as soul sand, that would be included in the new dimension.
		October 10, 2010		A screenshot was released by Notch depicting what the Nether would look like.
		October 11, 2010		Notch makes mention of the first mob to be added to the Nether, saying "You will hate the Ghast."
		October 25, 2010		Notch tweets that he is working on the second new Nether mob, and says that they are less dangerous but are otherwise "pointless."
		October 29, 2010		Notch was conflicted on naming the new dimension; he wanted to avoid "re-using existing religious names", and wanted to use a more creative and original name. He considered both "the Slip" and "the Nexus" but felt that neither felt "minecrafty enough." It was eventually changed to “the Nether” on the day of the Halloween Update release.
		preview		A preview of the Halloween Update was sent out to two gaming websites later that day.^[1] Interestingly, the name "the Slip" was used in this release.
		v1.2.0		Added the Nether, including ghasts, zombie pigmen, netherrack, soul sand, glowstone, and nether portals.
v1.2.2				Lava was made to flow farther than it did on the Overworld.
Java Edition Beta
May 2, 2011				Portals were made to function properly in multiplayer, allowing players in servers to teleport between the Overworld and the Nether.
1.6		Test Build 3		Beds in the Nether were made to explode if used.
Java Edition
1.0.0		September 16, 2011		Jens Bergensten tweets a teaser screenshot of changes to the Nether terrain generation, including nether fortresses.
		September 19, 2011		Jens releases a second teaser screenshot, showcasing the structure of the upcoming nether fortresses.
		September 21, 2011		Jens mentions that he is finished with most of the new Nether features, including two new mobs, one of which is a "retexturing attempt".
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease		Many new additions to the nether, including: magma cubes, blazes (as well as blaze spawners and blaze rods), nether fortresses (including nether bricks, nether brick stairs and Nether brick fences), nether wart, ghast tears dropped by ghasts and gold nuggets dropped by zombie pigmen.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4		With the addition of the Silk Touch enchantment, it was possible to legitimately obtain water using ice in the Nether.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5		The ability to pick up ice blocks with the Silk Touch enchantment was removed.
1.2.1		12w06a		Snow golems now take damage in the Nether.
1.3.1		12w16a		Added the `/give` command. Using it to get water or flowing_water blocks allows another way to place water in the nether.
		12w17a		Ice can now be obtained with Silk Touch again, but ice no longer melts into water in the Nether.
		12w22a		Rarely, Nether portals spawn zombie pigmen.
		12w27a		Growing nether wart is no longer restricted to the Nether – it can be grown in the Overworld and The End.
		12w30a		Made the Nether less laggy.
1.4.2		12w32a		Zombie pigmen can wear armor, and the sword they are holding makes them deal more damage.
		12w34a		Any mobs and entities can travel through Nether portals.
		12w36a		Added wither skeletons.
1.4.6		12w49a		Added nether brick slabs.
1.5		13w01a		Nether quartz ore is added to the Nether, which spawns around netherrack.
1.5		1.5.1		Lava flows more quickly in the Nether, and hidden lava can be found in the Nether.
1.6.1		13w18a		Chests can now be found in nether fortresses.
2013 Music Update				Four ambient music tracks added for the Nether.
1.7.2		13w37a		Added the `/setblock` command which can place water in the Nether.
1.8		14w03a		Added the `/fill` command which can place water in the Nether.
1.8		14w25a		Removed the item forms of water. The `/give` command can no longer be used to get water in the nether because water can no longer exist in inventories (just as a placed block). `/setblock` or `/fill` should be used in place of `/give`.
1.9		15w31a		Removed the Nether fog.
		15w31c		Re-added the Nether fog.
		15w49a		The wither and ender dragon no longer travel through portals.
1.10		16w20a		Endermen now rarely spawn in the Nether, and can now pick up netherrack.
				Added magma blocks.
				Added red nether bricks and nether wart blocks, which can be crafted but do not otherwise generate naturally in the Nether.
1.13		18w07a		Vertical air cavities, stretching from bedrock level as far as Y=35 and filled with lava to Y=10, now occur in chains across the bottom of the Nether, often forming extensive ravines.
		18w19a		Renamed the biome Hell to Nether.
		pre5		Changed the biome ID `hell` to `nether`.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.12.1		April 22, 2015		Tommaso Checchi tweets a picture of the Nether, showing that it is officially in development.
		April 22, 2015		He later tweets stating that he won't tell how finished it is or what version it will be in.^[2]
		build 1		Added the Nether.
		build 1		You can place water in nether breaking ice.
		build 6		Lava now spreads faster in the Nether.
0.15.0		build 1		Endermen can now spawn in the Nether, and can now pick up netherrack.
0.16.0		build 1		Water cannot be placed in nether without inventory editing or using commands.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0				Four ambient music tracks added for the Nether.
1.1.3		alpha 1.1.3.0		Added magma blocks.
1.1.3		alpha 1.1.3.0		Added red nether bricks and nether wart blocks, which can be crafted but do not otherwise generate naturally in the nether.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added the Nether.
TU9				Added 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.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13	Endermen can now spawn in the Nether, and can now pick up netherrack.
				Added magma blocks.
				Added red nether bricks and nether wart blocks, which can be crafted, but do not otherwise generate naturally in the Nether.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0				Added The Nether.
1.3.12				Improved view distance.

Issues

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

Trivia

Upon entering the Nether as a single player, the passage of time freezes in the Overworld, resuming when the player returns unless the /forceload command is used. This is due to the spawn chunks no longer being ticked, and not chunks loading and unloading as some players believe. The spawn chunks are kept loaded when there are no players in the overworld, but most stuff other than basic redstone stops working.
In the Legacy Console Edition, everything in the Nether is renewable due to the fact the Nether can be restarted any number of times from the main menu using the "Reset Nether" button. This can be done on Java Edition by deleting the save folder's DIM-1 file, which resets the Nether.
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.
In the Legacy Console Edition, the nether music in the festive mash-up pack is actually different from the original nether music, with some minor differences.

Gallery

The first screenshot released by Notch showing what the Nether would look like.
The first screenshot released by Jeb in September 2011 of nether fortresses.
Brightened version of the previous screenshot.
Another early view of a nether fortress Jeb released in September 2011.
Brightened.
The Nether as it appeared prior to Beta 1.8.
View of a nether fortress.
View of Nether fortresses with a blaze spawner.
A large, spreading stream of lava in the Nether.
Ghasts are not harmed by lava or fire.
Bedrock naturally exposed in the Nether.
Using a map in the Nether causes the player's position indicator to rotate, but any markers do not.
A hidden lava source block uncovered.
Mushrooms naturally generated above the nether.
The magma block naturally generated in the Nether.
A nether ravine.
Gravel in the Nether.
The Nether in the Overworld, generated using Buffet.