The Nether is not just a dimension full of spooky surprises but also serves a fantastic purpose that players have been taking advantage of since the Alpha version. By traveling through the Nether, you can reach different locations in the Overworld much faster! Not only does this save you a lot of time, but it also allows you to bring your creative ideas to life in the hellish dimension. There are many exciting structures you can implement for a Nether Hub. We’ve already discussed survival in the Nether in a previous article , but what if you want to build a permanent base in the Nether? Today, we’ll take a closer look at how you can actively use a Nether Hub and travel quickly over long distances.
Overworld and Nether: How Does Traveling Work?
You can reach the Nether through a portal made of obsidian. It’s a kind of hell with red blocks and a spooky atmosphere. But it’s also incredibly practical for traveling, as one block in the Nether equals eight blocks in the Overworld. So, if you walk 100 blocks in one direction in the Nether and build a new portal there, you will emerge in the Overworld approximately 800 blocks away from your starting point. This distance only applies to the X and Z coordinates. The height (Y coordinate) remains the same.
This mechanic is one of the coolest in the entire game, allowing you to cover large distances in a short amount of time. This is useful if you have builds in different biomes or simply love traveling through the world and want to get home quickly.
Normally, a new portal is generated when you switch between dimensions and no nearby portal exists. Due to the terrain’s nature, these coordinates are not always perfectly accurate. The radius in the Overworld for automatically generated portals is approximately 300 blocks.
Tips for Connecting Portals
Maybe you’ve already built one or more portals and want to network them more efficiently. Here are some tips we’ve compiled for you.
- Don’t build portals too close together if you want to avoid errors.
- Always try to find the exact coordinates to ensure they connect correctly.
- You should dismantle automatically generated portals and place them at the correct coordinates to avoid errors.
- The closer you are to the correct coordinates, the more likely you are to appear at the right portal.
The Fastest Travel Options
Now that you understand the general possibilities for the Nether and hopefully know why a Nether Hub is so important, even within the Nether, travel time can be significantly reduced. There are various options for increasing your movement speed. We’ll introduce you to some of the best methods you can implement in your system.
Simple Paths
Your quickest and easiest option is to build simple paths and tunnels in the Nether to your desired portals. For all the following methods, you will need to do this anyway, so get your pickaxe ready and start digging! It’s worth digging tunnels in the four cardinal directions first and then creating smaller side branches from there. With a pickaxe and efficiency, you can mine Netherrack in seconds, so the tunnels shouldn’t be a problem.
You can either walk through the tunnels or, if they are high enough, ride your horse. If the shafts are wide enough, you can also use your Elytra, which you can obtain after defeating the Ender Dragon in the End.
Minecart System
You can also use a simple system with old-fashioned minecarts, but this will cost you quite a bit of iron in the long run. Still, if you prefer simplicity, you can work with rails and some Redstone. Use booster rails intermittently to maintain your speed.
Ice and Boats
The most efficient and simultaneously weirdest method for transportation in the Nether is an ice road with a boat. Yes, it sounds crazy, but it works! Lay the ice alternately and use slabs in between and buttons on the ice to prevent monster spawning. The pattern also looks quite good.
Important: You can only use packed ice or blue ice in the Nether because regular ice melts due to the heat. Water evaporates anyway, so you need to mine the ice in the Overworld with Silk Touch. Blue ice is the fastest option, but it’s also the hardest to find and craft.
Ideas for Your Nether Hub
When building your base in the Nether, all possibilities are open to you! Let your creativity run wild and choose a system that you like best. A good idea is to work only with blocks from the Nether to create a spooky atmosphere.
Warped and Crimson stems and the wood derived from them look particularly good in the Nether! But you can also work with basalt and quartz to create a good contrast.
Main Hall
The most important thing for a Nether Hub is that your base, like in the Overworld, is protected. Therefore, avoid building your hub in an open area. Come up with a great design that you can build symmetrically based on your travel tunnels. There are many great inspirations online for really amazing Nether Hubs! You can also set up a small storage area for all the Nether blocks you collect along the way.
Different Paths
As mentioned above, the paths and tunnels are the main focus of your Nether Hub. These are often referred to as “Nether Highways.” Build these to specific points; the best starting point is large tunnels in all four cardinal directions. But it also depends on where exactly your portals are and where you want to travel through the Nether.
Conclusion
A Nether Hub is not only a cool base in the hellish dimension but also a wonderful way to make long journeys in your Minecraft world easier. Use different blocks like ice to move faster and get from point A to point B quickly. Make travel easier for yourself and your friends in your Minecraft world. Rent your own server and build a Nether Hub for maximum efficiency!
