You're standing there with a wooden pickaxe and a dream, looking at the floor of a deep cave, wondering when the "real" game starts. Honestly, the Overworld is just a tutorial. The real challenge, the better loot, and the absolute chaos of Minecraft live behind a purple, swirling curtain of dimensional energy. But if you're asking how do you make a portal to the Nether, you aren't just asking for a crafting recipe. You’re asking how to survive the transition from a cozy farm simulator to a literal hellscape where everything wants you dead.
It’s simpler than people make it out to be.
Most players think they need to spend hours strip-mining for diamonds just to get the obsidian they need. That is a total waste of time. While you can do it the old-fashioned way, speedrunners and veteran players have figured out how to skip the grind entirely. Whether you are playing on Java, Bedrock, or even an old legacy console version, the physics of the portal remain the same. You need a frame. You need a spark. You need to not fall in the lava while you're building it.
The Standard Method: Obsidian and Diamonds
If you're playing a long-term survival world, you probably want a permanent structure. This is the "proper" way. To do this, you need at least three diamonds to craft a Diamond Pickaxe. Nothing else breaks obsidian. If you try to mine it with iron, the block just vanishes into nothingness, and you've wasted thirty seconds of your life clicking a dark purple rock for zero reward.
Once you have that pickaxe, go find a lava pool. Pour a water bucket over the still lava blocks—not the flowing stuff, as that just makes cobblestone—and you’ll get obsidian. You need 10 blocks for a "budget" portal (skipping the corners) or 14 blocks for a full, aesthetic rectangle. The frame must be at least four blocks wide and five blocks tall.
Most people mess up the dimensions. They make it too small. It has to be a 2x3 opening in the middle. If the hole in the center isn't at least two blocks wide and three blocks high, the fire won't catch. You'll just be standing there clicking your flint and steel like a confused caveman while a creeper sneaks up behind you.
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How Do You Make a Portal to the Nether Without Diamonds?
This is where things get interesting. You don't actually need a diamond pickaxe to get to the Nether. In fact, if you watch any professional Minecraft streamer, they almost never mine obsidian. They "cast" it.
Think of it like pouring concrete into a mold.
You find a pool of lava. You build a dirt or cobblestone "mold" in the shape of the portal frame. By carefully placing water next to the lava source blocks inside your mold, the lava turns into obsidian exactly where it stands.
The Speedrunner's L-Shape
This is the trick that makes you look like a pro. You place a single block against a wall of a lava pool, put water next to it, and use the resulting "L" shape of stone to guide the rest of the lava placement. It takes about 20 seconds once you've practiced it. You're basically using the water bucket to "freeze" the lava into the portal shape block by block. It's risky because if you misplace a block, you can't mine it back without that diamond pickaxe you were trying to avoid using in the first place.
It's sort of a "measure twice, pour once" situation.
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Lighting the Fire
Once the frame is standing, you need a catalyst. The standard choice is Flint and Steel. You craft this by putting one iron ingot and one piece of flint (found by digging gravel) into your crafting grid. Right-click the inside bottom of the obsidian frame, and the purple veil should appear.
But what if you're stuck?
Maybe you're in a "Skyblock" challenge or you're just incredibly unlucky and can't find iron. You can actually use fire spread to light a portal. If you place wood or wool inside the frame and set it on fire using lava nearby, the flames can eventually "jump" into the portal frame and activate it. It’s janky. It’s slow. It feels like a bug. But it works perfectly.
Why Placement Actually Matters
Don't just slap your portal down in your bedroom. Nether portals have a weird relationship with coordinates. For every 1 block you travel in the Nether, you travel 8 blocks in the Overworld. This is the secret to "Fast Travel" in Minecraft.
If you build a portal at X: 800, Z: 800, it will appear in the Nether at roughly X: 100, Z: 100.
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If you aren't careful, you can end up "linking" portals incorrectly. If two Overworld portals are too close together, they might both lead to the same exit in the Nether. This is a nightmare for multiplayer servers. To fix it, you have to do the math. Take your Overworld X and Z coordinates, divide them by 8, and manually build a portal at those exact coordinates in the Nether. This "forces" the game to link them 1-to-1.
Dealing with the "Ghastholes"
The moment you step through, you are vulnerable. The game takes a few seconds to load the Nether terrain. During this time, you might hear a high-pitched screech. That’s a Ghast. If a Ghast shoots a fireball at your portal, the explosion will extinguish the purple flame.
Always carry a spare flint and steel. If you don't, and your portal gets snuffed out, you are effectively stranded in the Nether. Your only hope then is to find a Ruined Portal or a Bastion Remnant chest to scavenge for fire-starting materials, or—if you're really desperate—get a Blaze or a Ghast to shoot at the frame again to relight it. It’s basically Minecraft's version of being stranded on a desert island, but the island is made of soul sand and the ocean is lava.
Ruined Portals: The Shortcut
Since the 1.16 "Nether Update," the world is littered with Ruined Portals. These are naturally occurring, broken structures that often have Crying Obsidian (the glowing stuff) mixed in.
- Crying Obsidian cannot be used to light a portal. You have to replace it with regular obsidian.
- The chests nearby usually have enough obsidian or fire charges to finish the job.
- Sometimes the frame is almost done; you just need to place two or three blocks.
If you find one of these early on, it’s almost always faster than trying to find a deep cave or a lava pool. Just be careful with the "Gold" blocks often found at the top. Mining them usually angers any nearby Piglins, and those guys hit surprisingly hard if you aren't wearing at least one piece of gold armor.
Actionable Next Steps for Your First Trip
Don't go in empty-handed. Now that you know how to build the thing, you need to survive the first thirty seconds.
- Bring Cobblestone: Ghasts cannot blow up cobblestone. Build a small "bunker" around your portal immediately so a stray fireball doesn't leave you stranded.
- Gold Armor is Mandatory: Unless you want to fight every Piglin in a five-mile radius, wear gold boots or a gold helmet. It makes them neutral.
- Leave Your Valuables: For your very first jump, take the bare essentials. You might spawn over a lava lake or inside a wall.
- Write Down Coordinates: F3 is your best friend. Write down exactly where your portal is in the Nether so you can find your way home after exploring.
The Nether is a massive, bi-layered dimension full of ancient debris and wither skeletons. It’s the only way to reach the End and beat the game. Get your bucket, find some lava, and stop overthinking the obsidian. Just build the frame and jump in.