13

I have been trying for days to find a Nether Fortress. I've looked up different ways on how to find one and I happened to stumble upon an answer that might help me. The question he asked was just what I was looking for. Someone answered him and said, "There are infinite nether fortresses in the nether. They spawn in rows every 200-400 blocks along the world's North/South axis." I don't even know how to find the North/South axis. I'm on bedrock edition and all I can see are coordinates. And, I'm pretty sure you can't use a compass in the Nether, so what do I do? And how do I find the North/South cords?

LeBiscuit
  • 1,013
  • 4
  • 13
  • 28
  • 9
    A compass wouldn't help in the Overworld anyway, they point towards the world spawn point, not North :) – AJPerez Apr 22 '21 at 19:02
  • 1
    @AJPerez oh yeah. Ur right, haha. – LeBiscuit Apr 23 '21 at 12:34
  • 1
    Sorry to drop in, but I feel I should mention Nether Fortress generation has changed since that Q&A was written. If yo uare playing post-1.16 Nether Fortress spawn is different now, and every direction is as good an any other to search: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Nether_Fortress I too spent six-ish hours before finding my first Nether Fortress after the update so you are not alone in this – Thegs Apr 23 '21 at 21:09
  • 1
    https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/8693/how-can-i-determine-which-direction-im-facing – qwr Apr 24 '21 at 02:38
  • (The question linked by qwr is the same thing but in Java Edition, so not a duplicate) – pppery Feb 04 '23 at 17:45

2 Answers2

44

You can use the south-east rule, which works in all dimensions. Place 4 pieces of minecart track in a T shape, with the intersection piece last, and it will favor south or east. Do this twice, with the second T rotated 90 degrees from the first one, and you'll be able to uniquely identify which way is which.

Joseph Sible-Reinstate Monica
  • 619
  • 5
  • 6
  • 12
    This is the best "in universe" method since it doesn't rely on debug/coordinate info, but it's also kind of funny because it's like a paranormal behavior that is well documented in universe. – Logarr Apr 23 '21 at 17:58
  • 1
    Also doesn't rely on textures, used to use cobble to tell which direction things were, since it had a very pronounced L shape before the texture updates – phflack Apr 24 '21 at 20:20
26

Turn "show coordinates" on. Then just move around. The negative Z direction is North and the positive Z south.

Penguin
  • 5,134
  • 5
  • 23
  • 54