Minecraft Nether Fortress guide: Location, loot, mobs, and more

If you want to beat Minecraft, you need to explore at least one Nether Fortress. These locations, found in the Nether biomes, contain enemies that only appear there, and important items if you want to get to the end. You will likely explore several of these dungeons throughout your time in Mojang’s voxel-based building game. They might be a little difficult to find, but we’ll cover that, what you can find in these dungeons, as well as what foes you might find here.

Nether Fortresses aren’t going to look the same or drop the same loot, so it’s worth exploring several of them. Whether you’re looking for specific monsters, or perhaps simply want some fancy loot drops, here’s what you need to know about this zone in Minecraft.

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How to locate a Nether Fortress in Minecraft

These deadly fortresses are important to seek out in your playthrough. (Image via Mojang Studios)

While there’s no perfectly defined location for a Nether Fortress in Minecraft, there is a reliable way to find them. Typically speaking, from the [0,0] coordinates in the game, the fortress will be about 100-200 blocks away. You can also use a Night Vision potion to help you spot it a bit easier.

Thankfully, once you’ve spotted the fortress, you can keep walking the same path to find another. There are multiples of these in the Nether, and since the Nether is endless in Minecraft, you can keep going to find another, should you need more materials for a variety of purposes.

Occasionally, these fortresses can spawn into a map covered in Netherrack. It can’t hurt to break through some of this if you’re having trouble locating one normally. You can also use outside tools (AMIDST) to map an area and find the structure easier if you’d like.

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What enemies can spawn in Minecraft’s Nether Fortress?

Blazes are an important mob to farm in these dungeons (Image via Mojang Studios)

Regardless of where a Nether Fortress spawns within the nether, there are specific foes that spawn here. In particular, Blazes, one of the most useful mobs from this area, only spawns within a fortress. The algorithms for how mobs spawn will vary between games, but it’s the same enemies.

In addition, Wither Skeletons are exclusive to this Minecraft zone and only spawn here. Their skulls are nice for decoration, or you can opt to wear them as a helmet. Thankfully, the enemies are the same in both editions.

However, one of the spawning platforms is interesting. If you’re looking for Blazes, you can find their spawners on small platforms with a three-block staircase that leads up to them. As an important enemy, this is worth noting.

Mob Name	Spawn Weight	Group Size
Blaze	10/28	2-3
Wither Skeleton	8/28	5
Zombified Piglin	5/28	4
Magma Cube	3/28	4
Skeleton	2/28	5

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What loot can spawn in Minecraft’s Nether Fortress?

If you want a fancy horse, you need Diamond Horse armor. (Image via Mojang Studios)

While enemies in the Nether Fortress are important, so is the loot. Both editions of the game have the same loot tables, so you aren’t going to find exclusive drops that only appear in the Java or Bedrock Editions of the game. Below, you’ll find a list of all the possible items, with all the pertinent data on how they drop.

Item	Stack Size		Weight		Chance	Avg.per chest	Avg. # cheststo search
	2–4×	1×	2–4×	1×
Nothing	—	1	—	14⁄15	93.30%	0.933	1.1
Gold Ingot	1–3	—	15⁄73	—	49.00%	1.233	2
Saddle	1	—	10⁄73	—	35.30%	0.411	2.8
Golden Horse Armor	1	—	8⁄73	—	29.10%	0.329	3.4
Nether Wart	3–7	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	1.027	5.3
Iron Ingot	1–5	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	0.616	5.3
Diamond	1–3	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	0.411	5.3
Flint and Steel	1	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	0.205	5.3
Iron Horse Armor	1	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	0.205	5.3
Golden Sword	1	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	0.205	5.3
Golden Chestplate	1	—	5⁄73	—	19.00%	0.205	5.3
Diamong Horse Armor	1	—	3⁄73	—	11.80%	0.123	8.5
Obsidian	2–4	—	2⁄73	—	8.00%	0.247	12.5
Rib Armor Trim Smithing Template	—	1	—	1⁄15	6.70%	0.067	15

While many of these are nice finds, some of the best are the Diamonds, Golden Sword, Diamond Horse Armor, and the Rib Armor Trim Smithing Template.

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If you’re going to delve into the Nether Fortresses, it’s important you’ll need to come here for several reasons. One in particular is that you need to kill Blazes to craft Eyes of Ender, to reach the End.