Minecraft has just released its latest massive content update, this time bringing all sorts of new blocks, mobs, and biomes to its most nefarious dimension. Among the many great and innovative changes being made to The Nether comes something that most never would have dreamed of: the developers want players to be able to actually live in the Nether. Until now, doing that was virtually impossible. Dedicated players could make it work, but it would be surviving, not thriving. In a recent interview with GameRant, Sr. Game Designer Agnes Larsson explains some of the additions to the game which should aid players in not just living in, but flourishing in this most hostile of areas.
Each year, Minecraft receives a massive content update to add something new or revamp some of its older, outdated systems. This year the focus is on The Nether, and it isn't hard to see why. Of all the aspects of Minecraft, most would agree that the Nether has been the most stagnant. Not much has changed about this dimension since it first appeared years ago, so Larsson and her team set out to change that. The Nether update will provide more depth to the hellish landscape than ever before.
Surviving in The Nether
In Minecraft, players only truly need one thing to survive: food. Unfortunately, there was no renewable food source in the Nether to make surviving possible, meaning players were forced to bring in food from outside sources. This meant bringing in animals to breed for meat or planting farms with dirt and seeds from the overworld. While these methods did work, they were highly inefficient and it was much better to simply get these things from the overworld.
Even still, if players managed to make use of things like melons which are a better source of food, resources for expansion and progression were limited. There was no wood, stone, iron, or diamonds in the Nether, meaning players had to rely on the tools they brought with them and could not craft things like furnaces or the like. All of this paired with the hostile nature of the area and the lack of a day night cycle to provide safety made trying to live solely in the Nether a fool's errand attempted only by the most hardcore of players.
Living in The Nether
"We actually want players to be able to live in the Nether and also of course want players to want to spend a lot of time, or maybe live there depending on how adventurous they are... There will be so many unique environments, and this is what's interesting. The biomes are very different from each other, and they still have this very weird and scary feel to them, but they are also more unique."
The new update brings food sources, crafting materials, biomes, enemies, potential friends, and so much more to the Nether, and developers are interested in seeing how well players can survive in the new iteration of The Nether. Players can get food from the Hoglins (pictured above), although they should be aware that this food source fights back. Likewise, strange trees provide a source of wood for crafting tools, Black Stone allows players to get stone tools, and gold ore can even be found in the Nether (or farmed from Piglins). New building materials exist too, so players can create truly unique Nether abodes.
That isn't to say it will be easy, though. The Nether is still a very hostile place, and players will need to keep their wits about them. In the interview, Larsson advises players wanting to live in the Nether to start out in the Warped Forest area, as this is the biome which spawns the fewest mobs and has most of the resources players will need. There is also the potential to befriend the new arrivals to The Nether, the Piglins, by trading gold with them and interacting in other ways. All of this adds together to make living in the Nether not only an enjoyable expereince, but one that both is challenging and feels markedly different from the overworld experience.
Minecraft's Nether Update is available now.