TL;DR: Four Bastion types: Treasure Room (best), Bridge (second), Housing Units (third), Hoglin Stable (skip unless you want food). Wear gold before entering any of them. Brutes attack regardless of gold.
Before you enter a Bastion: look at it from outside.
The shape tells you what is inside, and what is inside tells you whether dying is worth it.
The four Bastion types
1. Treasure Room Bastion (best)
Looks like: A large squat structure with a tall central pit.
What's inside: Treasure chests behind bars at the bottom of the pit. Gilded blackstone everywhere. Piglin guards.
Why it matters: These have the best loot in the entire Nether — netherite upgrade smithing templates, netherite scraps, ancient debris, enchanted golden armor, lodestones, and blocks of netherite (rarely). This is the one worth dying for.
How to loot it: Lower yourself to the gold room without touching the chests first. Piglins attack when you open chests near them. Clear the Piglins or barter them away before looting. Then open everything.
2. Bridge Bastion (second)
Looks like: A long elevated bridge with towers at each end.
What's inside: Treasure chest at one end of the bridge. Smaller side chests in the towers.
Why it matters: The main chest often has crossbows, golden equipment, and a chance at netherite. Less dangerous than Treasure Room but also less rewarding.
How to loot it: The bridge is open — Ghasts can shoot you while you cross. Rush to the chest end, loot, leave.
3. Housing Units (third)
Looks like: A medium-sized structure with multiple small rooms connected by hallways.
What's inside: Many small chests distributed across rooms. Piglins living in compartments.
Why it matters: Each chest is smaller, but there are more of them. The chest quality is medium. Good if you want quartz, gold ingots, and food (porkchops from Hoglin drops).
How to loot it: Room-by-room. Piglins mostly stay in their areas. Move carefully and you can often loot without fighting.
4. Hoglin Stable (skip)
Looks like: A sprawling low structure with ramp access.
What's inside: Hoglins. Many Hoglins. Some small chests.
Why it matters: The chests have low-value loot (mostly food and gold nuggets). The Hoglins make it dangerous. Only worth visiting for raw porkchop farming.
How to loot it: Warp fungus on a stick, ride a Strider through the entrance while Hoglins follow, loot the edges.
What the chests have (by quality)
| Item | Found in | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient debris | Treasure Room | Rare |
| Netherite scrap | Treasure Room | Rare |
| Netherite ingot | Treasure Room | Very rare |
| Enchanted golden armor | All types | Common |
| Crossbow (enchanted) | Bridge | Common |
| Gold ingots | All types | Common |
| Snout banner pattern | Treasure Room | Rare |
| Lodestone | Treasure Room | Rare |
| Spectral arrows | All types | Uncommon |
| Porkchops | Hoglin Stable | Common |
The one rule about Brutes
Piglin Brutes wear no gold. They attack you regardless of what you're wearing. They have 50 hearts (twice a zombie's health) and high attack damage.
Do not engage a Brute without full armor and a strong sword. Better option: run past them to get to the chest, loot, leave.
If you must fight a Brute: fire resistance potion so a firestrike or accidental lava doesn't kill you. At least iron armor. A sword with Smite IV or higher does extra damage.
Common mistakes
- Walking into a Bastion wearing no gold. All nearby Piglins aggro instantly.
- Opening chests near Piglins before clearing them. Opening a chest = hostile even with gold on.
- Fighting the Brute while it's near a ledge. Knockback sends you off the edge.
- Treating all Bastions the same. A Housing Unit is not worth dying for. A Treasure Room is.
- Looting the easy chest and leaving. Treasure Room Bastions have hidden chests on shelves in the pit walls. Look for them.
A closing thought
Bastions reward patience. The Piglins are not mindlessly aggressive — they react to specific actions. Learn those actions (don't open chests near them, don't break gilded blackstone) and a Bastion trip goes from chaotic to readable.
The kids who learn to read Bastions early get more netherite, more gold, and more interesting trips. The kids who run in swinging their sword tend to die, repeatedly, in the same hallway.
Pair this with Piglin Trading and The Complete Nether Guide.
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