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The fastest dependable Netherite route combines two jobs: secure a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template from a Bastion Remnant, then expose Ancient Debris with tunnels or controlled explosions around Y15. Smelt the debris into Netherite Scrap, combine four scraps with four Gold Ingots for one Netherite Ingot, duplicate your template before upgrading several items, and finish the upgrade at a smithing table.
What you need to make Netherite
Netherite is not mined as an ore that can be crafted directly. The progression has separate resource and equipment requirements:
- Ancient Debris: a Nether block that must be mined with a diamond pickaxe. It never generates exposed to air, so you must dig tunnels or use controlled explosions to reveal it.
- Netherite Scrap: produced by smelting Ancient Debris in a furnace or blast furnace.
- Gold Ingots: four are needed with four Netherite Scrap to craft one Netherite Ingot.
- Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template: required for the modern smithing-table upgrade system. The template is consumed when used.
- A diamond tool, weapon or armor piece: the item you intend to convert at the smithing table.
The template requirement belongs to the redesigned smithing system introduced during the 1.20 development cycle. A guide that tells you to place only a diamond item and an ingot in the smithing table is describing an older release.
Fastest overall route
- Enter the Nether with a diamond pickaxe, food, building blocks, a way to mark coordinates, and either Fire Resistance or a reliable retreat plan.
- Find a Bastion Remnant and search its chests for a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template. Prioritize a Treasure Room Bastion when possible: Mojang’s Java Snapshot 23w04a notes state that one guarantees two templates.
- Move to roughly Y15 and expose Ancient Debris with branch tunnels, beds, or TNT. Y15 has the highest average chance according to Mojang, but it is not a guarantee.
- Smelt the Ancient Debris in a furnace or blast furnace to obtain Netherite Scrap.
- Combine four Netherite Scrap and four Gold Ingots to craft one Netherite Ingot.
- Duplicate the template before spending it on multiple upgrades: use seven diamonds, one block of the template’s material and one template to produce two templates.
- Use a smithing table with the Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template, a diamond item and one Netherite Ingot.
This sequence avoids the most common dead end: mining enough debris and gold, then discovering that no template is available for the actual upgrade.
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Prepare before entering the Nether
Minimum equipment
Bring the diamond pickaxe first. Ancient Debris cannot be successfully mined with a weaker pickaxe. Carry spare blocks for sealing lava pockets and constructing a protected firing position if you use beds or TNT. Food is essential because long excavation trips create repeated health and hunger exposure. Mark your portal and major tunnels so a death does not erase your route home.
Plan for fire and escape
Fire Resistance is the safest answer to lava exposure, but the practical minimum is a retreat plan that you can execute while disoriented: a known tunnel back to the portal, blocks for emergency barriers and enough food to survive a detour. Explosive mining adds a second hazard, so reserve a solid wall or corner from which to trigger each blast rather than standing beside the charge.
Carry gold for the complete trip
Gold has two jobs in this route. Four Gold Ingots are consumed for every Netherite Ingot, and gold armor is recommended when approaching Bastions because Piglins are hostile to an unequipped player. Keep the ingots separate from the armor budget so you do not return from a Bastion with a template but too little gold to process the debris.
Find the Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template first
Where templates appear
Netherite Upgrade Smithing Templates can appear in Bastion Remnant chests. Mojang’s official Java Snapshot 23w04a notes, published on January 24, 2023, state that templates are found randomly in all Bastion Remnant chests and that every Treasure Room Bastion Remnant guarantees two. The guarantee is attached specifically to the Treasure Room variant, not to every chest in every bastion.
How to raid a Bastion safely
- Approach with at least one piece of gold armor equipped, blocks ready for instant cover, food in the hotbar and a clear escape route.
- Mark the bastion’s entrance and your portal direction before entering. A sealed side tunnel is safer than trying to navigate back through open rooms while attacked.
- Loot chests methodically, placing blocks between yourself and hostile mobs whenever the room layout permits.
- If the structure is not a Treasure Room or its chests do not contain a template, leave through your prepared route and search another Bastion Remnant rather than spending all supplies on a prolonged fight.
Piglins and Piglin Brutes make bastions a high-risk opening move. The template is strategically more important than ordinary loot, so treat the first successful template as an extraction mission: secure it, mark the coordinates and return to the Overworld before taking unnecessary chances.
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Why you should duplicate immediately
A template is consumed every time it is used in a smithing table. If you have several diamond items to upgrade, a single template forces another bastion raid. At a crafting table, the duplication recipe is seven diamonds, one block of the template’s material and one existing template; the result is two templates. Duplicate enough for the planned upgrades before beginning the smithing sequence.
Mine Ancient Debris around Y15
Why Y15 is the target
Mojang’s March 25, 2021 explanation describes two possible Ancient Debris distributions per chunk: one between Y8 and Y22 and another between Y8 and Y119. The same explanation says Y15 has the highest average chance of finding some. “Highest average chance” does not mean every tunnel at Y15 contains debris, and it does not eliminate the need to expose blocks because Ancient Debris never generates exposed to air.
Set your working tunnel so the mined walls, floor or ceiling expose blocks near Y15. Coordinate conventions and interface displays differ between editions and settings, so verify the Y coordinate shown by your own debug or coordinate display before beginning a long branch.
Branch mining: the low-overhead baseline
Tunnel mining costs only pickaxe durability, blocks and time. From a main corridor near Y15, make parallel branches with enough spacing that their visible walls cover the intervening blocks. Ancient Debris is hidden inside netherrack and other Nether terrain, so inspect every exposed surface rather than looking only at the corridor floor.
This method is the reliable baseline for a new Nether expedition. It has no explosive chain reaction, does not require gunpowder or sand, and lets you seal lava immediately. Its trade-off is slower terrain clearing than a well-prepared blast operation.
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Keep the excavation recoverable
- Mark the main corridor and each branch so you do not revisit the same area.
- Keep blocks selected for sealing lava or closing a blast opening.
- Mine every Ancient Debris block with the diamond pickaxe; do not leave a discovered block behind while searching for a faster route.
- Store debris in a safe container or return to the portal when your inventory becomes valuable enough that a death would erase the trip.
Compare the three main mining methods
| Method | Setup and supplies | Strength | Main risks or limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branch/tunnel mining around Y15 | Diamond pickaxe, blocks and food | Lowest supply and safety overhead; dependable starting method | Clears terrain more slowly than explosions |
| Bed mining | Beds, a protected firing position and blast protection planning | Explosions expose a large area quickly | Beds explode in the Nether; a careless firing position can kill you or destroy the route |
| TNT mining | TNT, gunpowder, sand and safe detonation positions | Rapid excavation once a supply stockpile exists | Resource-intensive to set up and still dangerous around lava and chain blasts |
The available evidence does not establish a controlled, universal seconds-per-ingot winner. Choose by preparation rather than by a claimed fixed time: tunnel mining is the practical default, beds suit players with many beds and careful blast discipline, and TNT becomes attractive in an established world that can afford the ingredients.
Use beds for controlled blast mining
Why beds work in the Nether
A bed explodes when you attempt to sleep in the Nether. That blast can clear a large cavity and reveal Ancient Debris that would be hidden behind ordinary tunnel walls. The technique is fast at removing terrain, but it is not automatically safe or faster for every player because each blast must be staged from cover.
Bed-mining procedure
- Reach your target level near Y15 and dig a short approach tunnel.
- Place the bed at the end of the tunnel with a solid wall or corner between the bed and your standing position.
- Move behind cover before interacting with the bed. Never trigger it while standing beside the pillow in an open cavity.
- After the explosion, inspect the newly exposed surfaces for Ancient Debris and collect it with the diamond pickaxe.
- Seal lava flows, remove unstable edges and extend the tunnel before placing the next bed.
Use one repeatable firing position instead of improvising every blast. A consistent shelter makes it easier to judge distance, preserve a route back to the portal and avoid stepping into fire immediately after the explosion.
Use TNT when your world can support it
When TNT is worthwhile
TNT clears space quickly, but it requires gunpowder and sand in quantity. That preparation cost makes it most appealing to an established player with supplies already stockpiled. If you are entering the Nether for the first time with no explosive materials, building a TNT operation can take longer than simply starting a branch mine.
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- Establish a protected main tunnel near Y15 and store spare blocks nearby.
- Lay charges with enough separation to avoid an uncontrolled chain reaction and keep yourself behind solid cover before each detonation.
- Trigger the blast from a position that leaves a route back to the main tunnel.
- After each blast, check the walls, ceiling and floor for Ancient Debris, then collect it with the diamond pickaxe.
- Put out or block lava before advancing. Do not treat the newly opened cavity as safe merely because the explosion has ended.
TNT is an excavation tool, not a guarantee of a Netherite find. You still need to inspect the exposed blocks, and every blast consumes a resource that could have been used for a later branch.
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Smelt debris and craft Netherite Ingots
Turn Ancient Debris into Netherite Scrap
Place Ancient Debris in a furnace or blast furnace. Each piece is smelted into Netherite Scrap. The blast furnace is useful when you have one available and want the specialized smelting block; a regular furnace follows the same material conversion.
Craft one ingot
Combine four Netherite Scrap with four Gold Ingots in a crafting grid to make one Netherite Ingot. The recipe is fixed, so the number of ingots you can craft is limited by whichever input you have less of. Four recovered debris pieces provide four scraps after smelting; you must still supply four gold ingots for that single ingot.
| Desired Netherite Ingots | Ancient Debris to smelt | Netherite Scrap | Gold Ingots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 2 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 3 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| 4 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
These quantities cover the ingots themselves, not the diamonds, templates or diamond items required by the smithing step.
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Upgrade equipment at the smithing table
- Open a smithing table in the current release’s smithing interface.
- Place a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template in the template slot.
- Place the diamond tool, weapon or armor piece in the equipment slot.
- Place one Netherite Ingot in the material slot.
- Take the resulting Netherite item from the output slot.
The template is consumed by this operation, while the diamond item becomes its Netherite counterpart. Plan the number of templates and ingots before opening the table; running out of either stops the upgrade even if your mining trip produced enough of the other material.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Common failure points and fixes
“I found debris but cannot mine it”
Use a diamond pickaxe. Ancient Debris requires that tier for successful mining; a weaker tool does not solve the problem.
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“Nothing is visible at Y15”
Y15 is the highest-average level, not a guaranteed spawn layer. Continue with parallel branches or expose more terrain with a carefully controlled bed or TNT blast. Because the block is never exposed to air naturally, searching only open Nether caves is unreliable.
“I have an ingot but the smithing table rejects my item”
Check for the Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template. Current smithing requires all three inputs: the template, a diamond item and a Netherite Ingot. Older instructions that omit the template apply to pre-redesign mechanics.
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“The template disappeared”
That is expected behavior: templates are consumed on use. Duplicate one before upgrading a group of items with seven diamonds, one block of the template’s material and one existing template.
“The Bastion raid went badly”
Return with gold armor, blocks, food and a preplanned escape route. Piglins and Piglin Brutes make an unplanned retreat dangerous, so mark the structure from outside and secure a protected path before opening additional rooms.
“An explosion killed me”
Move farther behind a solid wall or corner before triggering the next bed or TNT charge. Rebuild the firing position in the main tunnel, block lava immediately after the blast and keep your portal route identifiable.
A practical decision guide
Choose branch mining when
- You are starting from scratch and do not have spare gunpowder, sand or beds.
- You value the lowest explosion risk and want to control every lava opening.
- You are still learning Nether navigation and need a clearly marked route.
Choose beds when
- You have a dependable bed supply and understand how to trigger the Nether explosion from cover.
- You want faster terrain clearing without assembling a TNT stockpile.
- You can repeatedly build the same protected firing position near Y15.
Choose TNT when
- Your established world already provides substantial gunpowder and sand.
- You can afford the consumable cost of repeated blasts.
- You are comfortable maintaining a protected detonation route and checking every cavity for lava and debris.
Choose a Bastion-first opening when
- You need the template before any upgrades can happen.
- You are prepared for Piglins and Piglin Brutes and can prioritize a Treasure Room.
- You want to secure the bottleneck item before investing time in a large debris mine.
Complete Netherite checklist
- Diamond pickaxe equipped.
- Food, blocks and a coordinate-marking method packed.
- Fire Resistance or a safe retreat plan prepared.
- Gold armor available for the Bastion approach.
- Bastion Remnant located and template search planned.
- Treasure Room prioritized when the structure layout allows it.
- Ancient Debris exposed around Y15 by branches, beds or TNT.
- Debris smelted into Netherite Scrap.
- Four scraps and four Gold Ingots reserved for each ingot.
- Template duplicated before multiple smithing operations.
- Template, diamond item and Netherite Ingot placed together in the smithing table.
The dependable strategy is therefore not a single magic tunnel or a guaranteed timed trick. Secure the template, mine around Y15 with the method your supplies and risk tolerance support, then process exact four-to-four material batches and duplicate the template before spending it.
