How do I survive in the Nether long enough to build shelter?

Question

Whenever I travel to the Nether in Minecraft, I almost instantly get blasted to smithereens and chopped up into little pieces.

How do I survive for more than a few seconds, long enough to build some sort of shelter?

Asked by Keaanu

Answer

There are three big dangers in The Nether:

1. Ghasts
2. Pigman Zombies
3. Lava and Fire

Ghasts

• These are the one danger that will actively seek you out and try to kill you, so they are the ones to watch out for. They are not really worth engaging unless you have a good supply of arrows (half a stack is good).
• They will only attack you if you are relatively close and in their line of vision. The easiest way to avoid Ghasts is to simply hide behind something.
• Their eyes and mouth are normally closed, but when they're shooting a fireball, they'll open wide. This is your cue to sidestep.
• It is possible to knock their fireball back with a well-timed sword attack or arrow. (You may want to practice this tactic with an empty inventory for a while if you plan on using it.)
• The easiest way to kill a Ghast is by getting fairly close and spamming arrows. Their own fireballs do not appear to have any effect on them.

Pigmen

• Pigmen are not hostile by default! This means you can pick your battles with them, as long as you're careful. They become hostile when you directly deal damage to them (by hitting them with something or shooting them with an arrow).
• Once you aggravate a single Pigman, all nearby Pigmen will also become hostile. They will eventually forgive you.
• Ghast fireballs also make quick work of Pigmen.

Lava and Fire

• Ghasts' fireballs cause a Creeper-like blast, but they also tend to light nearby bloodstone on fire. They can also knock you back. Be careful to avoid cliffs with lava below, and try not to get in the fire while strafing/dodging. Carrying a bucket of water doesn't work in the Nether, because it will evaporate as soon as you pour it out. If you light on fire, you're basically screwed.
• You can put out fire on a block by punching it with any item (left clicking). Unfortunately, there's no way to punch yourself in Minecraft.
• Aside from bloodstone, lava and fire are the defining characteristics of the Nether. This may sound obvious, but watch where you're walking! It's generally pretty dark, so you'll either want a good supply of torches or some flint and steel to light up nearby bloodstone. The flammability of bloodstone is convenient for lighting your way, but it can also be a problem if you light a fire in enclosed spaces where you're likely to run back into it. Just because everything in the Nether is flammable doesn't mean you can't use torches.

Final Considerations

If you find yourself dying right out of the portal, you may have to give up on fighting and just run. Digging into the nearest cliff face just to get out of sight for a while is a good idea. Bloodstone is very soft (one hit with a diamond pick), so you can dig-in pretty quickly, as long as you can get away from danger for a few seconds.

If there's a big group of Pigmen camping the portal, you might try a suicide TNT run - just drop it and punch it as soon as you're through! As of the first update post-Nether, pigmen will stop being hostile if you simply wait long enough!

If you absolutely have a terrible exit point, consider making another portal. Just don't build it too close to the first, as portals close to each other can "connect" to the same exit point in the Nether!

Answered by sjohnston

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