Action: Pick up 64 nether bricks from a Fortress wall. Don't break support pillars. Build something with them.
TL;DR: Nether brick comes from two places — you mine it off Fortress walls, or you smelt netherrack in any furnace (1 netherrack = 1 nether brick item). Four nether brick items craft into one nether brick block. From there you can make slabs, stairs, fences, and walls. The material doesn't burn. It fits the Nether's color palette and looks good in dark builds anywhere.
The first time most players notice nether brick, they're sprinting across a Fortress looking for Blazes and not thinking about the walls at all. The walls are the building material. You can just take them.
There is one rule: don't break the columns that hold up the bridges. Those are structural. Break the flat sections of wall instead. The Fortress will not collapse — it's not a real building — but breaking support columns can open gaps that drop you into lava below. Flat wall sections are safe to mine.
How to Get Nether Brick the Fast Way
Walk up to any Fortress wall section and mine it with a pickaxe. Each block drops nether brick — the item, four of which craft back into one block. You get roughly one item per block mined, so if you need 64 nether brick items (to craft 16 blocks), mine 64 wall blocks. That's about 15 seconds of work if you're standing next to the Fortress.
Bring a decent pickaxe. Stone works. Iron is faster. Don't bring wooden.
How to Get Nether Brick Without a Fortress
Smelt netherrack. One netherrack in a furnace, any fuel, produces one nether brick item. Netherrack is everywhere in the Nether — it's the red stone that makes up most of the ground and walls. This method is slower than mining a Fortress wall, but it means you can farm nether brick indefinitely without needing to find a Fortress first.
If you're back in the Overworld and want to farm netherrack, bring a fire resistance potion. Netherrack catches fire easily and you don't want to lose your inventory standing in a burning pile of it.
What You Can Craft With It
Four nether brick items = one nether brick block. From there:
- Nether brick slab — two blocks of elevation, not a full block. Good for roofing.
- Nether brick stairs — full staircase block with the right hitbox for walking.
- Nether brick fence — looks better in dark builds than wood fence. Connects cleanly.
- Nether brick wall — slightly different hitbox than fence. Same look.
You can also make cracked nether brick (smelt a nether brick block in a furnace) and chiseled nether brick (craft two nether brick slabs vertically). Both are decorative variants — good for breaking up a flat wall texture.
Why Nether Brick Is Worth Using
It does not burn. This matters. If you build a base with wood and a Ghast fires at it, you lose the base. Nether brick takes the shot and keeps standing. The same fire-proof property applies in lava — nether brick will not catch fire from lava contact.
It also just looks right in dark builds. The deep reddish-brown color works with basalt, blackstone, and dark prismarine in a way that cobblestone doesn't. If you're building anything underground or Nether-themed, it's the correct block.
Common Mistakes
- Breaking Fortress support columns. Mine the flat wall sections instead. Columns look different — they're thicker and positioned at bridge joints.
- Trying to mine it with a wood pickaxe. You need stone or better. Wood pickaxe on nether brick gives you nothing.
- Forgetting the item vs. the block. Four nether brick items craft into one nether brick block. Don't confuse the two in your inventory — the item looks like a small brick, the block looks like a full tile.
- Smelting netherrack in a furnace without fuel. Netherrack itself is the best fuel for this job — it burns hot and long. Put netherrack in both slots.
A Closing Thought
Nether brick is one of those materials that rewards the player who bothers to learn it. Most beginners walk right past entire Fortress walls — hundreds of free fire-proof building blocks — because they're looking for loot chests. The walls are the loot. They're just not labeled.
Pair this guide with Nether Biomes: A Field Guide and Getting Obsidian in the Nether Without Dying and Nether Safety for Younger Kids.
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