Nether fortress vs bastion remnant in Minecraft: How different are the two structures

The number of structures generated naturally in Minecraft is huge, and a few of them can only be seen in the Nether dimension. Nether is a dangerous biome, but players can also benefit from the mobs and structures that spawn there.

Two of the most useful Nether structures are nether fortresses and bastion remnants. The latter can be found in any biome, whereas bastions only generate in four of them: Nether wastes, soul sand valley, crimson forest, and warped forest.

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Differences between Minecraft's nether fortress and bastion remnant

Main blocks

Common blocks of both structures (Image via Minecraft)

Inside the nether fortress, players will mainly find blocks, fences, and stairs of nether bricks. Apart from that, soul sand can also be seen in some places.

Bastions are primarily made of basalt, blackstone, and their polished variants. Stairs, slabs, and walls of blackstone can also be seen inside them. Gold blocks and quartz slabs are also generated in some parts of the bastions.

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Color

Color difference (Image via Minecraft)

Nether fortresses maintain a deep red color theme throughout the structure. This is because they are mainly made of nether brick blocks.

Bastions are mostly dark black because of blackstone. They marry this with an ash colored hue which exists because of basalt. The polished variants of these blocks add a bit of variety to textures.

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Mobs

Mobs found in them (Image via Minecraft)

Nether fortresses have been a common place for players to create a blaze farm. This is because up to two blaze spawners can generate in every fortress. Regardless of the biome, various other mobs can also be seen there, such as zombified piglins, wither skeletons, magma cubes, and skeletons.

Bastions are the only place where a magma cube spawner can be found. Aside from that, piglin, piglin brutes, and zombified piglins predominantly spawn here as well. Interestingly, hoglins may also spawn in bastions with bridges and hoglin stables.

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Loot

Loot chests in both structures (Image via Minecraft)

The loot in bastions remnants is considered some of the best in the game, whereas the fortresses do not provide much. A few of the most valuable items that a player can obtain from a bastion are ancient debris, gold blocks, gold ingots, netherite scraps, spectral arrows, weapons, and armor essentials made of gold.

Exploring a nether fortress for valuable items might be slightly disappointing for the players. However, with luck, they can find diamonds, diamond horse armor, saddles, and gold ingots from the chests generated in fortresses.

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When were nether fortress and bastion remnants added to the game?

The nether fortress is a much older structure compared to the bastion remnants. They were added to the game back in the 1.0.0 update, released on 18 November 2011. Bastion remnants were introduced in the 1.1 Nether update, which was released on 23 June 2020.