TL;DR: A Nether hub is one small room in the Nether with several portals branching off it, each one linked to a different far-away Overworld base. Because 1 block in the Nether equals 8 blocks in the Overworld, a hub turns your whole map into a few short walks.
Why hubs work: the 1:8 ratio
The Nether is compressed. Every block you walk in the Nether covers the same ground as eight blocks in the Overworld above it.
That means distance in the Nether is basically a cheat code. Two Overworld bases that are 4,000 blocks apart are only 500 blocks apart in the Nether. Walkable. Sometimes runnable.
A single portal already takes advantage of this. A hub takes it further: instead of one portal linking two points, you build several portals in one room, and each one links to a different Overworld destination. One trip through the Nether, any direction you need, all from the same spot.
Plan before you dig
Start with a list, not a shovel. Write down every Overworld location you actually travel to often — your base, a village you trade with, a friend's base, a far-off resource outpost. You need real destinations, not "somewhere cool I saw once."
For each one, work out its Nether-side location using the 1:8 rule (see Portal Linking for the exact math). Plot all of those Nether points on paper or in your head before you build anything — you want to know your hub sits somewhere reasonably central to all of them, not clear across the map from half of your destinations.
Portals link based on what's already nearby in the destination dimension — if a portal already exists close to where a new one would open, the game connects to that one instead of building fresh. That's usually exactly what you want at an existing base. It's also why planning your Nether coordinates carefully matters: get them wrong and you'll link to the wrong place, or to nothing you built on purpose.
Keep your destinations spread out. Don't try to squeeze portals for two bases that sit close together on the map into the same tiny stretch of hub — if their Overworld locations are close, their Nether equivalents are even closer, and the game can get confused about which portal belongs to which base. Give each destination real distance from the others, both in the Overworld and in your hub layout.
Building the hub room
Keep it simple. A hub doesn't need to be fancy — it needs to be safe and easy to expand.
A good starting shape is a rectangle or a ring of small alcoves, one portal per alcove, with a walkway down the middle connecting them. Build the walls out of netherrack, blackstone, or basalt — anything that isn't flammable near open flame is fine, but avoid wood near the portals themselves.
Each alcove just needs a standard obsidian portal frame (4 blocks tall, 5 blocks wide on the inside is the minimum, so 10 obsidian blocks at minimum) with room to walk up to it. Light each one with flint and steel once it's linked correctly.
Seal the whole structure — floor, walls, and a roof. An enclosed hub keeps out wandering mobs and gives you a safe base to build from as you add more portals later. Leave one door or entrance so you can get in and out without breaking your own walls.
Labeling your portals
Once you have more than two portals, they all start looking the same. Fix that before it becomes a problem.
Put a sign above or beside each portal naming its destination — "Home," "Village Trade Post," "Ravi's Base," whatever makes sense to you. Item frames with a matching block (a wheat item frame for a farm portal, a diamond for a mining outpost) work well too, especially for younger players who read pictures faster than text.
Some players color-code the floor in front of each portal with different colored wool or concrete, or match the surrounding decoration to something from that destination. Any system works as long as it's consistent — the goal is that you never have to guess which portal goes where.
Safety note: the Nether doesn't pause for construction
You're building this in the most dangerous dimension in the game, so take a few precautions.
Check the ground and walls around your hub site for exposed lava before you start — a lava lake right next to your build site is a liability, not scenery. Wall it off or pick a different spot.
Ghasts can shoot fireballs through open gaps, including gaps in an unfinished roof, so close up your hub as you build rather than leaving it open while you work. If you hear a Ghast nearby, get under cover before you keep building.
Piglins are usually harmless if you're wearing at least one piece of gold armor, but they will attack if you're not, and a group of them wandering into your half-built hub is a bad surprise. Try to build somewhere away from a Bastion Remnant or a large piglin group, and keep some gold armor on hand just in case.
Nethercon — practical guides for players who want to understand the Nether, not just survive it.
Related: Portal Linking | Nether Navigation
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