Consider the most gloomy biome in Minecraft. The surroundings are filled with ominous mob noises. Then you hear the sound of boiling lava, which is present at every corner. Does it sound frightful? This is not simply one of the Minecraft biomes that we are discussing. There are no resources for food or water in the new dimension known as the Nether in Minecraft. But all of that anxiety can wait till later. To enable you to teleport into this realm, we will show you how to build a Nether portal in Minecraft today. There are other ways to make it, but we’ll concentrate on the one that is the easiest for beginners. Both the Java and Bedrock Editions of Minecraft should be compatible with this technique. But just because something is simple doesn’t mean it has to be quick. So let’s get started learning how to create a Nether gateway in Minecraft right away.
Make a Nether Portal in Minecraft (2022)
The procedure will start by gathering the necessary ingredients first, just like with any other recipe in Minecraft. Prior to beginning the actual building process, we will concentrate on how to obtain the necessary materials. So let’s get started without further ado!
What is a Nether Portal in Minecraft?
A rectangular, gateway-like building built of obsidian blocks is called a nether portal. It’s the only way we can go to the Nether dimension of Minecraft survival. It’s a frightening and perilous area in the game with its own enemies, biomes, and treasure. There, players can gather resources, take down enemies, or find supplies for making tools and structures.
One of Minecraft’s two primary portals is the Nether portal. The second one is an End Portal, which teleports us to the End dimension. But you will have to visit the Nether first to make an End portal work because of its special requirements. So, a Nether portal is one of the key structures you must learn to build in Minecraft.
How Does a Nether Portal Work?
Activating a Nether portal links our overworld dimension to the Nether dimension. It works simply by creating another Nether portal in the Nether dimension. Youcan make multiple portals in a small area(up to 128 blocks), and they will all link to the same spawn location in the other dimension. It is true for both the Nether and the overworld.
Though, do keep in mind that the Nether realm is 1/8 the size of the overworld in most versions of the game. So, traveling a single block in this dimension is equivalent to traveling 8 blocks in the overworld. Many players use this fact to travel quicker in Minecraft. But as you can guess, it involves creating a lot of Nether portals. So, let s continue to learn more about it.
What are the Minecraft Nether Portal Dimensions?
The smallest possible size for a Nether portal is 4 5 blocks. It means it has to beat least 5 blocks tall and 4 blocks wideto function. Meanwhile, the average largest Nether portal on all modern versions of Minecraft can be 23 blocks high and 23 blocks wide. Though, you can create multiple portals edge to edge to give an illusion of a supersize Nether portal (shown below).
Materials Required to Make a Minecraft Nether Portal
Making a Nether portal and activating it requires only two ingredients. Here are the blocks you need to make a Nether portal in Minecraft:
- 10 Obsidian Blocks: One of the toughest blocks in the game, Obsidian is pretty hard to come across naturally. These are only generated when lava and water source blocks collide with each other. Source blocks are the main block from which lava or water starts to expand. If the blocks aren t source blocks, water and lava s collision will only give you cobblestone.
- Flint and Steel: As the name suggests, this tool is made up of flint and iron. It s a simple tool you can use to set fire to any block. It s useful in fighting mobs as well. In this guide, it will help us set fire inside the portal to activate the Nether portal.
How to Get Materials to Build Nether Portal in Minecraft
The primary ingredient you need to build a Nether portal is Obsidian blocks. They aren t as hard to come across if you mine deep enough in the game. What is stopping you is the fact that you canonly obtain Obsidian with a diamond pickaxe and a bucket. Let s figure out how to craft them first.
How to Craft a Diamond Pickaxe and a Bucket
1. Diamonds, if you choose to mine, are not that easy to find. You need to dig deep to the bedrock level to maximize your chances. Also, do keep in mind that you will require aniron pickaxe or better to mine the diamondsyou come across. The other route you can choose is trading with villagers or looting chests that rarely spawn with diamonds.
2. Once you have collected enough diamonds, you need some sticks to craft a diamond pickaxe. You cancraft sticks by placing any two blocks of wooden planksvertically in the middle column. You can do it by pressing your inventory button, which is usually theEkey on PC. Then, you will see a crafting area to use the following recipe.
3. Next, with 2 sticks and 3 diamonds, you can craft a Diamond Pickaxe.
Get yourself a Crafting table in Minecraftfor this task and right-click on it. Now, place the3diamonds in the top rowof the crafting area. Then, place thesticks on the middle cellsin both of the bottom rows. What you will now have is a Diamond Pickaxe. Click to pick it up and place it in your inventory.
How to Find or Make Obsidian in Minecraft
4. What we need now are the Obsidian blocks. You can go back to the underground world to mine these blocks, but we do have a better solution. First, you need to make an iron bucket using3 iron blocks. Use the following recipe in your Minecraft Crafting table.
1. Once our tools are ready,we need a source of lava and a source of water. The best way to go about it is by searching for a source with a lot of lava first. You can then find a pond of lava or even a lavafall on the ground. Or you can start mining deep to find lava flowing underground or in caves. Once you find the lava source, finding water nearby is comparatively easier.
2. Next, with the bucket equipped,right-click on the lava to collect itand take it to your water source. You can do this with multiple buckets to save time. Once you are at the water source, right-click on the water to drop lavain it. This will create a block of Obsidian, which you can mine with your diamond pickaxe. Here s us demonstrating it in Minecraft creative mode.
How to Get Flint & Steel in Minecraft
Keep in mind that you need10 blocks of Obsidianto make your Nether portal. If water and lava sources are colliding, you might even discover naturally occurring Obsidian blocks.
Now we have what we need to build a Nether portal. But before we learn how to make a Nether portal in Minecraft, we still need something else. That is Flint & Steel. It s a tool used to create fire in Minecraft. It s also the tool we can use to turn on a Nether portal.
1. The easiest part of this tool is finding the steel. You require a single block of iron to cover up the steel part of the tool. As for the flint, it is a rare material that you can only find by miningGravel blocks. You will have a10% chance of getting flintwith every gravel block you mine. The good thing is that you only need one piece of flint to get by.
Steps to Make a Nether Portal in Minecraft
2. Once you have a piece of flint and a piece of iron, you need tocombine themusing the following recipe. Just place them diagonally in the crafting area as shown below to get Flint & Steel in Minecraft.
Now, what you need in your inventory is 10 blocks of Obsidian and a piece of Flint & Steel. Additionally, you will need4 random blocksto make the structure. These can be any blocks, but we suggest using dirt asdirt blocksare easiest to find in Minecraft.
1. Find an open location and place two obsidian blocks next to one another. You can place them by looking at the ground and pressing theright-clickor secondary action button on your mouse. Then,place dirt or any other blockson both sides of the obsidian blocks like the following screenshot.
2. Now,place two obsidian blockson top of each of the dirt blocks we placed in the step above. You can choose to break the dirt blocks after placing Obsidian blocks for aesthetic purposes, but that s optional. Then, on top of the vertical obsidian block pillars, place dirt blocks on either side. Your structure should look something like this:
How to Activate a Nether Portal in Minecraft
3. Now, between the top two dirt blocks, placetwo more Obsidianblocks. It should make the whole Minecraft Nether portal structure look like a hollow rectangular window.
Your Nether portal is now ready, and it s waiting for you to activate it. To do so,equip the flint & steelandright-click on any of the inner sidesof the Obsidian structure. Doing so will activate the Nether portal, and you will see a purple liquid-like glowing substance in the middle of the rectangular portal. You can then step into it to be teleported to the Nether Dimension in a few seconds.
You can alsouse a fire chargeto activate the Nether portal. But they only appear in rare chests in the overworld. Some players also try to set fire in the portal using lava and a flammable block, but that s not a reliable option for most. So, sticking with a tried-and-tested flint and steel method might be the best for beginners.
Make your Own Nether Portal In Minecraft
As for the Nether portal itself, what we created is a basic version of it. While keeping the basic structure and at least 10 obsidian blocks in it, you can use your creativity to personalize it. Some people like to increase its size, while others decorate its surroundings. You can hop into thebest Minecraft Discord serversto join communities and discover creative portal designs and even more. One such example of a unique design portal is in the following screenshot: