Action: If your Ghast dropped a Ghast Tear, pick it up only if it lands somewhere safe. Never go into lava after an item. Losing it is fine. Items left on the ground vanish after 5 minutes.
TL;DR:
- Most Nether mobs drop something useful. This guide covers the main ones and follows Java Edition. Some numbers are different in Bedrock Edition.
- Ghast Tears (about a 1 in 2 drop) go into Potions of Regeneration. Blaze Rods make Brewing Stands and Blaze Powder. Wither Skeleton Skulls (2.5%) can summon the Wither, a destructive boss.
- Magma Cream goes into Fire Resistance potions. Fire Resistance stops fire and lava damage and Blaze fireballs for 3 minutes (8 with Redstone Dust). It does not stop Ghast fireball hits or a Blaze's close-up hits.
- Zombified Piglins are neutral. If one survives your hit, the ones nearby all turn on you.
- Hoglins drop 2 to 4 Raw Porkchops, but they are hostile.
- Items on the ground despawn after 5 minutes (the timer runs while that area is loaded).
The Nether is a dangerous place, but many of its mobs drop something that opens up a new thing to do: a potion, fuel for a Brewing Stand, a part for a boss summon. Here are the main Nether mobs, one at a time.
Ghast — Ghast Tear, Gunpowder
A Ghast drops 0 or 1 Ghast Tear and 0 to 2 Gunpowder. The tear is about a 50% chance (1 in 2), so some Ghasts drop none.
If a Ghast floats over lava when it dies, its tear can fall in, and lava destroys dropped items. Do not run into lava after one. Losing a tear is fine. A Ghast shoots fireballs at you, and you can hit a fireball back at it. A direct hit kills the Ghast instantly.
To make a Potion of Regeneration, add a Ghast Tear to an Awkward Potion (a Water Bottle plus Nether Wart). Regeneration slowly refills your health and lasts 0:45, or 1:30 with Redstone Dust. Gunpowder turns a potion into a Splash Potion you can throw, so it is worth keeping.
Blaze — Blaze Rod
A Blaze drops 0 or 1 Blaze Rod, about a 1 in 2 chance, and only when a player or a tamed wolf kills it. Looting adds up to 1 more rod for each level.
Blaze Rods are needed for a Brewing Stand and for the Blaze Powder that fuels it. Craft 1 Blaze Rod with 3 Cobblestone to make a Brewing Stand. Craft 1 rod into 2 Blaze Powder. Each Blaze Powder fuels 20 brews and is also an ingredient in Strength potions. Two rods is enough to get started, one for the stand and one for powder. You also need Nether Wart for most potions.
Blazes live in Nether fortresses. They come from Blaze spawners, and they can also spawn on their own inside a fortress, for example on its Nether bricks, so one can show up away from a spawner. A Blaze shoots volleys of three small fireballs and hits you if you get close.
Wither Skeleton — Coal, Bone, Stone Sword, Skull
A Wither Skeleton drops 0 to 2 Bones and Coal about 1 kill in 3. It has an 8.5% chance to drop its Stone Sword, or 11.5% with Looting III.
The real prize is the Wither Skeleton Skull. It has a 2.5% chance, and only when you or a tamed wolf make the kill. Each level of Looting adds 1 percentage point, so Looting III is 5.5%. Bedrock Edition adds 2 points per level instead.
To summon the Wither, build a T shape from 4 blocks of Soul Sand or Soul Soil, then put 3 skulls on top of the three upper blocks. The Wither is a destructive boss mob, so only build it when you are ready for that fight.
Magma Cube — Magma Cream
Small Magma Cubes never drop Magma Cream. Medium and large ones share the same chance of dropping one, about 1 in 4, so a bigger cube does not drop more. A large cube does split into 2 to 4 medium cubes when it dies, and each medium cube is another chance. Magma Cubes spawn in Basalt Deltas and Nether fortresses, and far fewer spawn in Nether Wastes.
To make a Potion of Fire Resistance, add Magma Cream to an Awkward Potion. It stops fire damage, lava damage, magma block damage and Blaze fireballs for 3 minutes, or 8 minutes with Redstone Dust. It does not stop a Ghast's fireball hits or explosions, or a Blaze's close-up hits. Read the Fire Resistance Potion guide for more.
Zombified Piglin — Gold Nuggets, Rotten Flesh, sometimes Gold
A Zombified Piglin drops 0 or 1 Gold Nugget and 0 or 1 Rotten Flesh. When a player or tamed wolf kills it, it also has a 2.5% chance to drop a Gold Ingot and an 8.5% chance to drop the weapon it carried, often a Golden Sword.
Zombified Piglins are neutral. They ignore you until you hit one and it survives. Then all the Zombified Piglins nearby turn on you. Piglins only trade for Gold Ingots, not Nuggets. A Nugget is worth one-ninth of an Ingot, so you need nine.
Hoglin — Raw Porkchop, Leather
A Hoglin drops 2 to 4 Raw Porkchops and 0 or 1 Leather. Looting adds up to 1 more of each for every level. Hoglins are one source of food in the Nether, not the only one. Zombified Piglins drop Rotten Flesh, which is food too, though it may give you the Hunger effect.
Hoglins are hostile, and an adult's tusk attack can launch you a short distance into the air, so do not walk up to a herd. In Java Edition, they run away from a Warped Fungus placed on a block (or in a flower pot), and from active Nether portals and Respawn Anchors. They do not attack you while you stand near one. Holding a Warped Fungus does nothing, and none of this helps once a Hoglin has already chosen to attack you.
Strider — String
An adult Strider drops 2 to 5 String. A baby Strider drops nothing, so leave babies alone. Striders spawn in groups of 2 to 4 on lava. They are passive: they do not attack you, and you can put a Saddle on one and steer it with a Warped Fungus on a Stick. String is used to craft Bows, Fishing Rods and Wool.
Piglin — Barter, not drops
Piglins are barter mobs, not drop mobs. In Java Edition, an adult has an 8.5% chance to drop each weapon or armor piece it spawned with when a player or tamed wolf kills it. The real prize is bartering. Throw an adult Piglin a Gold Ingot and it tosses you one random reward, sometimes a small stack (an Ender Pearl barter gives 2 to 4). Baby Piglins take the ingot but do not trade.
A barter can give any of 19 different items, each with its own odds. Crying Obsidian is about 8.5%, an Ender Pearl about 2.1%, and a Potion of Fire Resistance about 1.7%. It is a gamble, so do not count on any one item.
Adult Piglins are hostile to you unless you wear at least one piece of golden armor. Wear one piece to keep them calm. Hitting a Piglin, opening or breaking a chest or barrel, or mining gold blocks or gold ore (including Nether Gold Ore and Gilded Blackstone) near them still makes them angry. Piglin Brutes, found in Bastion Remnants, attack you on sight even if you wear gold, and they do not trade. Trade with Piglins instead of fighting them.
Common mistakes
- Going near lava after a Ghast Tear. A tear that lands in lava is destroyed. Let it go.
- Expecting a skull quickly. At 2.5%, a skull takes about 40 kills on average, and after 40 kills there is still about a 36% chance of having none. Looting III (5.5%) brings the average down to about 18 kills.
- Trusting Fire Resistance too much. It has limits (see above) and a timer, so watch the clock.
- Hitting a Zombified Piglin when you are not ready for a crowd. A door is not a safe wall, because some can break wooden doors on Hard difficulty in Java Edition. Leave them alone unless you have a plan and a clear way out.
- Expecting Looting to fix everything. Each level adds up to 1 to the most a common drop can give, so a Ghast Tear goes from at most 1 to at most 4 at Looting III. Rare drops like the skull and the Zombified Piglin's Gold Ingot gain only 1 percentage point per level in Java Edition. Kills by tamed wolves do not get Looting.
A closing thought
Many Nether drops feed into something else. A Blaze Rod becomes a Brewing Stand and Blaze Powder. A Ghast Tear or Magma Cream becomes a potion. Three Wither Skeleton Skulls can summon a Wither. Gold Ingots become bartering trades.
Pair this guide with Ghast Survival Guide, Blaze Farming 101, and Magma Cube Combat.
Want the whole picture? Read the Complete Nether Guide, then walk the path in The Morning After.
Spotted a mistake? Ask a grown-up to send corrections to [email protected] — we read everything.
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