The Nether

The Nether is a dangerous, hell-like dimension containing fire, lava, fungal vegetation, many hostile mobs, and exclusive structures and biomes.

Accessing

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 blocks × 5 blocks to a maximum of 23 blocks × 23 blocks. Once the frame is completed, it can then be activated by placing fire within the frame, using flint and steel, fire charge, dispensers, or any material that is capable of igniting fire. The portal allows most entities (with the exception of the wither and the ender dragon) to be transported to a corresponding portal in the Nether. In Survival, the player must stand in a nether portal for 4 seconds to enter the Nether. The player can step out of a portal before it completes its animation to abort the teleport. The portal plays 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 in the Overworld or lava into it with a bucket or dispenser. Any of the blocks in the corners can be destroyed without destroying the portal. In the former Old‌[Bedrock Edition only] world type, it is impossible to construct a nether portal. The portal block must be placed using cheats. When done, the Nether has the same 256×256 borders as the Overworld, and if a nether portal is then made in the Nether, it can spawn the player outside the world barrier. If cheats are enabled, players can also teleport to the Nether without using a nether portal: the syntax is /execute in the_nether in Java Edition, and /execute in nether in Bedrock Edition.

Nether fortress

Nether fortresses are large, castle-like structures that are composed of nether bricks. This structure is often found bridging over lava seas, or tunnelling through netherrack. This structure is the only place blazes and wither skeletons spawn, making fortresses the gateway to both bosses in the game: the ender dragon and the wither. Fortresses also contain blaze monster spawners, as well as small nether wart farms. Nether fortresses can be found in all Nether biomes.

Terrain features

The Nether has a lot of different terrain features that generate within the biomes of the Nether. There are currently 5 terrain features in The Nether

Lava sea

Lava seas generate at and below level 31 in all Nether biomes. Striders can be found striding across these seas.

Glowstone blob

Glowstone blobs generate on the ceiling of the Nether in all biomes.

Basalt pillar

Basalt pillars generate in soul sand valley biomes and on the lava seas present there.

Delta

Deltas are sheets of constrained lava and magma blocks found among the terrain of basalt deltas biomes.

Hidden lava

Single blocks of lava are buried within netherrack in all Nether biomes. These are particularly dangerous when mining in the Nether, as the lava can quickly flow out and overwhelm the player when uncovered.