Regardless of your knowledge of or experience with gaming, I guarantee you’ve heard of Minecraft. With over 200 million copies of some form of the game sold, Minecraft has transcended platform, generations and all sorts of demographics to become a cultural institution. While the game was already a massive success before Microsoft spent $2.5 billion USD to purchase developer Mojang and the IP back in 2014, it’s continued to go from strength to strength since then. Mojang have supported the game tremendously, with frequent updates building on the already solid foundation. The latest of those updates is the Minecraft 1.16 Nether update.

For those that haven’t been deep enough in Minecraft before to reach the Nether, think of it as an alternate hell dimension that’s receiving a touch up in the 1.16 update. Players can build obsidian gateways that transport them to the fiery alternate dimension filled with fire, brimstone and plenty of enemies to wipe you out if you’re not careful. The Minecraft 1.16 Nether update is an utterly massive update to the game and region, with a changelog so long you can lose yourself in it with ease. There’s new biomes, new mobs, new gameplay feature and new block, not to name a myriad of changes and fixes as well. There truly is too many changes with the Minecraft 1.16 Nether update to easily communicate.

Here is a sampling of some of the bigger updates comes with the Minecraft 1.16 Nether update,with the full list of changes in the Minecraft 1.16 update available here:

New Biomes:

Warped Forest

Warped Forests can now be found in the Nether!

• Warped Nylium carpets the cave floor with all kinds of strange new vegetation
• Huge Warped Fungi make up the “trees” of this forest, with Shroomlights lighting up the forest floor
• Warped Wart blocks can be cleared quickly using a hoe
• A dark blue fog covers the forest!
• Warped spores swirl through the air
• Twisting Vines grow from the cave floor and fungi
• The Warped Forests are strange, but also the least hostile place of Nether

Crimson Forest

Crimson Forests can now be found in the Nether!

• Crimson Nylium carpets the cave floor with all kinds of strange new vegetation
• Huge Crimson Fungi make up the “trees” of this forest, with Shroomlights lighting up the forest floor
• Nether Wart blocks can be cleared quickly using a hoe
• Weeping Vines grow from the cave ceilings and fungi
• Hoglins wander these forests
• Crimson spores swirl through the air

Soulsand Valley

Soulsand Valleys can now be found in the Nether!

• An open space made mostly of Soul Sand and Soul Soil
• Basalt pillars span from floor to ceiling
• Fossile remains of unknown creatures from the past litter the valley
• Ash falls through the air
• A light blue glow envelopes the valley
• Beware of Skeletons here

Basalt Deltas

Basalt Deltas can now be found in the Nether!

• Remnants of volcanic eruptions, this biome sports a high concentration of Basalt columns and lava deltas
• Walking through, you will be surrounded by flakes of flowing white ash
• Magma Cubes finally have a place to call home, spawning very frequently
• A new block, Blackstone, can be found in large patches here

Nether Wastes

• The original Nether biome is now called Nether Wastes

Nether Biome Fog

• Biome fog color smoothly blends between biomes. Smooth.

New Mobs:

Piglins

• Piglins are an aggressive civilization that live in the Nether
• They mostly hang around in the Crimson Forest, but you might find some in the Nether Wastes, too
• They think of players as target practice and will attack on sight
• However, if you dress appropriately, they will see you as a respectable figure, or tolerable at least
• Piglins are suspicious of strangers and if they see you opening a chest or mining a block of gold, they will assume that you’re stealing and will treat you accordingly
• Piglins LOVE gold and get very distracted by gold items
• Gold ingots are currency to piglins, and you can throw ingots at them or interact with them while holding an ingot to barter for various goods
• Piglins sometimes get hungry and hunt hoglins for food. Or they try at least. The results… vary
• Piglins prefer to hunt and fight in groups and when a fight is happening, everyone wants in
• Piglins that somehow end up in the overworld become zombified fairly quickly
• Piglins are creeped out by soul fire and zombified piglins, and will stay clear whenever possible
• Wither skeletons are a historic enemy and piglins will attack on sight
• Baby piglins are not as dangerous but they can be mischievous, so watch your back
• … and they like to play with baby hoglins

Hoglins

• Hoglins are big aggressive beasts that live in Crimson Forests
• They attack players on sight so be careful, they can easily knock you off a ledge!
• Hoglins drop pork and sometimes leather, but not willingly
• You can breed hoglins by feeding them crimson fungi, but do so at your own risk
• Hoglins get hunted by piglins sometimes, but they don’t go down without a fight!
• Despite this, hoglins and piglins aren’t enemies – they are more like an ecosystem
• Baby hoglins like to pretend they are tough – but don’t worry, they are more like angry puppies with no teeth
• Want to keep hoglins off your back? Pro tip: Hoglins hate the smell of warped fungi!

Strider

• Striders are neutral mobs that stride the Nether, preferably through lava
• Striders can be mounted if they first get a saddle placed on them
• Similar to pigs, they can be controlled by the player, using mushroom-on-a-stick!
• They are not hostile
• They spawn in lava, and are fire immune
• When they are not in lava, they freeze, shiver, and move slower
• You can breed striders by feeding them warped fungus
• Baby striders follow their parents

Zombified Piglins

• Zombie pigmen are now known as zombified piglins, and they now have ears… well, at least one ear

Zoglins

• Zoglins are zombified hoglins – the result of bringing a hoglin into the overworld
• Unlike hoglins, they can’t be bred or fed, and they don’t care about warped fungus
• Beware – these beasts are raving mad and attack just about everything they see!

New Gameplay Features:

Ruined Portals

• Remains of ancient Nether portals can now be found in the Nether and Overworld!

Bastion Remnants

What’s made of Blackstone and full of Piglins and Hoglins? Bastion Remnants!

• Added 4 separate Bastion Remnant types: Bridge, Hoglin Stable, Housing Units, and Treasure Room
• You can find these sizable structures in all biomes in the Nether, except for the ashy cliffs of Basalt Deltas
• Explore, loot, and conquer a Bastion Remnant to call it your home…but beware, Piglins don’t take kindly to intruders stealing their things
• Added a new music disc from Lena Raine titled ‘Pigstep’, which can only be found in Bastion chests

Blackstone

The only stone whose color is almost as dark as the humor of Mojang’s former writer and friend, Tom Stone!

• Added a new set of stone blocks with regular, polished, and polished brick variants!
• Added Gilded Blackstone – Blackstone which has been imbued with gold and has a chance of dropping gold nuggets when broken
• You can find these new blocks in Bastion Remnants
• Blackstone can be used to craft a Furnace
• Blackstone can be used to craft stone tools

Respawn Anchor

• Added the respawn anchor that can set your respawn point in the Nether
• Use while holding Glowstone to charge to a maximum of four charges – each respawn depletes one charge
• You can charge the Respawn Anchor using a Dispenser

Netherite

• Netherite items float in lava so you don’t lose all your gear after that unplanned lava bath
• Netherite tools work faster and last longer than diamond
• Netherite weapons do more damage than diamond
• Netherite armor have higher toughness and durability than diamond
• Netherite items have higher enchantment value than diamond (but not as high as gold)
• Netherite armor gives you knockback resistance, so you barely get knocked back at all when hit by arrows and such- Netherite blocks can be used as the base of a beacon and netherite ingots can be used as the fuel for a beacon. Weird flex but ok
• And it looks cool!

Crafting Netherite

• Mine ancient debris in the lower depths of the Nether. At own risk. No insurance coverage for that
• Refine it into netherite scrap in a furnace or blast furnace
• Combine 4 netherite scrap with 4 gold ingots in a crafting table to make a netherite ingot

Crating Netherite Tools and Armor

• Add one of your diamond tools or armor pieces into a Smithing Table with a netherite ingot
• The Smithing Table will preview your new netherite item in the right slot. Take it out to craft!

Target Block

Because let’s face it, your aim could use some practice

• The closer you hit to the center, the larger the redstone signal!
• You will need one hay block and four redstone for this recipe

Soul Speed

Never suffer again drudging through Soul Sand Valleys – Soul Speed has you covered!

• Shine your boots of choice with this soul-sucking enchantment to speed around on Soul Sand and Soul Soil!
• There’s a downside: Enchantments will slowly degrade your boots each Soul block you walk on
• Can only be obtained by bartering with those pesky Piglins

Lodestone

A new block that can help you get your bearings!

• Crafted from a netherite ingot and chiseled stone bricks
• Use a compass on a lodestone to point the compass to that lodestone