The Nether

I recently decided to visit the Nether and thought it would be fun to do a cool post on it. So here we go.... When I visit the Nether, my main goal is stay alive and gather resources. I bring potions, a diamond sword, a fishing hook, and place a chest outside my portal in the Overworld when I go to the Nether. Potions are pretty much necessary, but you can live without them. A diamond sword is obviously mandatory, but be careful not to lose it! The fishing hook is helpful to bring ghasts in closer to you so you can finish them off easier. And the chest is so when you need to quickly run into your portal, you can empty out your stuff so it doesn't get lost or disappear in the Nether.

One of my favorite resources to collect in the Nether are Mushrooms! I live next to a swamp, but you can only find brown mushrooms there, no red ones. To make mushroom stew, you need a bowl, a brown mushroom, and... a red mushroom. I was currently unaware of the presence of red mushrooms and mushrooms overall in the Nether. So, when visiting it a couple days ago, I was overjoyed at the somewhat large patches of red mushrooms. The only problem is that it's hard to get to the red mushrooms, gather them, and get all the way back to the portal with a ghast shooting fireballs at you without losing your loot. Anyways, why do I love mushroom stew? Well, it seems sorta like a meal, and you don't have to kill anything to get some o.k. health points.

In the Nether I also discovered that you can send a ghast's fireballs back at it. And no it does not involve creating a fireball, all you hit is, in Xbox Version,  LT or maybe RT. It's one of those and works great. Just hit LT or RT when the fireball is near you. I didn't experiment with it to much, but you can! Post your results or new information you find in the comments below.

I don't think the Nether's surroundings are very scary, but in certain circumstances, it can be terrifying! I found this discussion on Mincraft Forum . I thought these replies were interesting.

So, do you agree or disagree? I personally think the Nether is fine the way it is. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

If you're ever caught in the middle of fire form a ghast or blaze, or any kind of fire really, just press RT, Xbox 360 (probably still works for other versions), and point the cursor towards the flame on the netherack. The fire will go out! I really liked this and wound up using it a lot. So if you're ever in a jam, this almost always works.

One more thing before this post is over, it is really important for survival that you build a little "house" inside the netherack by your portal. It really helps to hide from ghasts and such. It doesn't have to have a door or windows, just use your flint and steel to light the netherack in places that are dark and you're good to go! Your hideout is mainly used to get away from ghasts, and if the block of netherack in front of the door ignites, just use the RT trick! ;)

That's all for this post! Mr. Sheepington