Today Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, has announced that there's a new type of ore coming to the game. The ore will be called Netherite, and fittingly, it will only be able to be found in the Nether. This new ore will fundamentally change Minecraft, because according to Mojang, Netherite will be more powerful than diamonds.
Minecraft is one of the most popular games of the last decade, selling more than 176 million copies since it was released 2009, For most of that time, Diamond Ores have been far and away the best for crafting tools, weapons, and armor. For example, a Diamond Pickaxe will have a much higher durability than any other pickaxe and will cut through stone faster. It has been this way since diamonds were first introduced to the game in update 0.31.
Netherite will upend this. Mojang wrote in the official update notes that "Netherite tools work faster and last longer than diamond." Not only that, but Netherite weapons will "do more damage than diamond" and Netherite armor has a "higher toughness and durability than diamond." The Netherite armor looks great, and will probably look even better with a shader thrown on it.
Another huge change is that tools made out of Netherite will not be destroyed when dropped in lava. They will instead float as if they were dropped in water. This is a huge upgrade, and will make exploring the Nether far safer than it once was. So while digging straight down into lava still might not be the best idea, it at least won't lead to the catastrophic loss of tools that it once did.
So how can players get Netherite? First they'll have to find Ancient Debris in the lower depths of the Nether. Putting Ancient Debris in a Furnace or Blast Furnace will result in Netherite Scrap. Combining four pieces of Netherite scrap with four Gold Ingots will create a Netherite Ingot. Netherite Ingot can then be crafted into Netherite tools using the regular Minecraft recipes.
For now Netherite, will only be available on the PC version of Minecraft, and it's being added as a part of Snapshot 20W06A. This snapshot is the first part of a much larger announced update that Mojang is referring to as the "Nether Update," so players can expect to have a lot more adventures in the fiery dimension. As long as Mojang keeps adding awesome updates to the game like this one, it will most likely stay the most popular game on YouTube.
Minecraft is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and various other platforms.