What is the best way to find a Nether fortress in Minecraft?

Nether fortresses are extremely important in Minecraft. Not only is it the best and largest structure found in the Nether, it contains items that are extremely useful. In terms of beating the game (killing the dragon), that can't be done without a Nether fortress.

Finding a Nether fortress is a difficult task for most Minecraft players. Nether spawns are random and there aren't a lot of ways to determine where the fortress is. Here are a few tips for finding one.

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Tips for finding a Nether fortress in Minecraft

The most common way of finding a Nether fortress is to simply do nothing. Nether spawns are random, but if they are in one of the three biomes that they can spawn in, there's a good chance one will be nearby.

If that doesn't happen, there are a few ways to find it. Nether fortresses are able to spawn in soul sand valleys and basalt deltas (two new 1.16 Nether biomes), but they're far more common in the standard Nether biome that was around before the update.

Even then, they can be hundreds and thousands of blocks away. Using the locate command is the only surefire way to find it. This does disable achievements, but players can also make a copy of the world and find the coordinates. It's not the most upright way of finding it, but it'll work no matter what.

If neither of those methods work, then the only other option is to explore the Nether. This is extremely dangerous, but it remains the only solution to find a Nether fortress that is far away.

Taking random, non Nether blocks (cobblestone, gravel, dirt, etc.) to mark the path is extremely helpful for getting back to the portal and for being able to navigate back to the fortress later.

Minecraft players can look for Nether bricks and other fortress-related blocks. Additionally, blazes only spawn there, so if there's a blaze floating around then there will be a spawner in a fortress somewhere close by.

Blazes only spawn from spawners found in fortresses (Image via Minecraft)

There's really no limit to how far players might have to go to find a Nether fortress, but without them, there are no Eyes of Ender or potions of any kind.