How to go to Nether without diamond pickaxe in Minecraft
The Nether is a hellish realm in Minecraft that you must explore to get new resources and progress in the game. This realm can only be entered through a Nether portal that you need to create manually since there are no existing active portals. In regular progression, you will need to create a Nether portal by collecting a total of 10 obsidian blocks, which can only be mined with a diamond pickaxe.
However, there are other ways to enter the Nether realm and mine obsidian even without a diamond pickaxe. We find out how in this guide.
Methods to enter Minecraft's Nether realm without a diamond pickaxe
Create a Nether portal by placing lava and water to create obsidian
One of the fastest ways to enter the Nether realm is to create a Nether portal without progressing too far into the game. Typically, you will mine obsidian and place it in a portal configuration. However, to go to the hellish realm without a diamond pickaxe, you need to use lava and water to create obsidian blocks in the portal configuration.
All you need is a water bucket and a small lava pool where you can create your Nether portal. The trick to create obsidian is to flow water on top of lava. This technique requires practice, as you could accidentally create regular stone blocks if you pour both liquids incorrectly.
Once the portal is successfully created, it can be activated with a flint and steel.
Many Minecraft speedrunners use this technique to quickly enter the Nether realm to barter with Piglins and defeat Blaze to get blaze rods.
Head to the Nether with a ruined portal and obsidian blocks from the chest
Another method to enter the Nether without a diamond pickaxe is to use ruined portals. These are naturally generated broken portals that have several netherrack blocks, lava puddles, a chest, and a portal that either has obsidian or crying obsidian blocks.
To turn these ruined portals into functioning ones, simply break all the crying obsidian blocks and replace them with regular obsidian. Obsidian blocks have a 46.4% chance of generating in ruined portal chests, and 25.6% of generating in the weaponsmith's chest in a village. If you manage to find enough obsidian blocks, you can place them and activate the portal with a flint and steel.
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