Minecraft Netherite is one of the most powerful resources in the game, as you can use it to craft incredibly strong tools, weapons, and armor. However, you won't find Netherite in the Overworld - you'll have to explore the dangerous, fiery Nether dimension instead. Far from the most hospitable place in Minecraft, navigating the Nether is quite scary, but getting your hands on the overpowered crafting material makes it worth the effort.
To help you out, this Minecraft guide will show you how to get Netherite and how to use it in crafting recipes.
How to get Netherite in Minecraft
Getting Netherite unfortunately isn't as simple as finding the ore and mining it. It's a material that must be crafted into ingots and requires some high-quality tools, so knowing how to find Minecraft Diamonds will also be key. In short, you'll need to get Ancient Debris in the Nether, smelt it, then combine the scraps with Gold to get Netherite Ingots that can be used for crafting. It's an arduous process, so we've broken down each step in more detail below:
How to find Ancient Debris in Minecraft
Once you've got yourself a Diamond Pickaxe at the very least - although we'd advise getting a full set of Diamond armor, a Diamond Sword, and an enchantment or two for each of those items - you can create a Nether portal to reach the hellish dimension and begin your quest for Netherite. Here's what you need to do:
- Use a Diamond Pickaxe to mine at least 10 blocks of Obsidian and create a Nether portal
Your portal should be four blocks wide and five blocks tall, but you can miss out the corners for the bare minimum. - Go into the Nether and search for Ancient Debris
Ancient Debris is a type of block that can only be mined using a Diamond Pickaxe (or a Netherite Pickaxe but we assume you don't have one of those yet). It spawns in small clusters, similar to Lapis Lazuli ore, and each block you mine goes straight to your inventory, ready for smelting. - Smelt Ancient Debris to get Netherite Scaps
Take your Ancient Debris blocks and plop them into a furnace or blast furnace with some fuel to smelt them into Netherite Scraps. The conversion ratio is 1:1, so smelting one Ancient Debris block gives you one Netherite Scrap.
Learning about Minecraft enchanting will help you get the best tools for the job
When you go through your Nether portal, make sure you have your coordinates visible (press F3 on PC for Java Edition and toggle the 'Show Coordinates' option in your settings for Bedrock Edition) so you can find an appropriate Y-level to begin mining. Make sure you also note your Nether portal's coordinates so you can get home!
Ancient Debris can spawn in veins of 1-3 blocks at Y-level 8 to 22, and it can spawn in veins of 1 or 2 blocks at Y-axis 8-119. Since those Y-level ranges overlap, your time will be best spent mining between Y8 to Y22 if you want to get as much Ancient Debris as you can. Ancient Debris also never spawns exposed to air, so you will have to mine the Nether in order to find it.
How to make Netherite Ingots
After you've smelted your Ancient Debris to get Netherite Scraps, you're ready to turn them into Netherite Ingots. Combine four Netherite Scraps with four Gold Ingots at a crafting table - given the amount of mining you've likely done to reach this points, you should definitely have some Gold lying around - and you'll create one Netherite Ingot. You can also find Ancient Debris blocks, Netherite Scraps, or even Netherite Ingots in lootable chests found inside Bastion Remnants structures in the Nether.
The conversion ratio for crafting Netherite Ingots is pretty awful and means that for every four Ancient Debris blocks you mine, you'll get just one Netherite Ingot in the end. Exploring Bastion Remnants can be a good way of finding more of the necessary materials, or even the ingots themselves if you're really lucky, allowing you to upgrade a decent number of your tools and equipment to Netherite quality.
How to use Netherite to upgrade tools
For a complete breakdown on this topic, make sure you look at our Minecraft Netherite tools guide. However, in short, you can use a single Netherite Ingot, along with a Diamond tool or piece of armor, to upgrade it to a Netherite tool or armor piece. You'll want to do this as Netherite tools have the highest durability in the game and can mine blocks slightly faster. Besides crafting better tools, you can use the material to craft Minecraft Netherite armor.
The Nether is a dangerous place - be sure to place a Minecraft Respawn Anchor before things go south!
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