The Nether Update from June 2020 in Minecraft added a lot of Nether content to the sandbox game. Players now are able to live in the Nether and explore it even more fully. One of the blocks added during this update was the Lodestone, and players who spend a lot of time in the Nether will find it incredibly useful.
Lodestone Uses
Players can use Lodestones in order to help navigate the confusing, twisting, and monochromatic Nether. Lodestones can be used together with compasses in Minecraft in order to help players find their way back to a location after getting lost in the Nether. It works by magnetic pull, which means that a compass will always point towards a Lodestone. These stones work in the Nether, the End, and the overworld.
Where to Find Lodestones
In the Nether, players can find Lodestones inside of the bridge bastion remnants treasure chests. These bridge-like structures are ruins that are found in all Minecraft Nether biomes except for Basalt Deltas, which are the grey-stone, foggy locations. There are many items that can possibly be in bridge bastion remnants treasure chests, however, but thankfully players can also make Lodestones for themselves.
Making Lodestones
In order to make Lodestones, players will need a Crafting Table and two ingredients: eight Chiseled Stone Bricks and one Netherite Ingot. Players can create Chiseled Stone Bricks in Minecraft by combing stone brick slabs together.
Netherite ore is the hardest material in the game, and can only be made by combining four Netherite Scrap and four Gold Ingots together in a Crafting Table. Netherite scrap can found in bridge bastion remnants treasure chests and by smelting Ancient debris, the rarest ore in the game second only to Emeralds. Players can only get Ancient debris by digging deep in the Nether; it very rarely spawns any higher than Y-axis 22.
Netherite ingots can also be used to create weapons, armor, and tools.
How to Use a Lodestone
In order to use a Lodestone in Minecraft, players have to place the Lodestone down on the ground somewhere in the dimension they wish to use it. It can be used in the End, the Nether, or the overworld. Next, players need to hold onto a compass, then hit the use button with the Lodestone; the compass will begin to glow as though it has been enchanted. Now the compass will point to the Lodestone no matter how far away players get from it, unless they leave the dimension in which the Lodestone is located.
Place the compass into the avatar's hand in order to see it. Once a compass is attached to a Lodestone, it cannot be reverted back to a basic compass, but it can be aligned with a new Lodestone.
Minecraft is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: MinecraftGampedia, MinecraftFandom, Minecraft.net