Nether

5k radius nether spawn map using Journeymap in March 2022

Render of 1k radius of 0,0 nether spawn in July 2021

Nether Spawn in early 2020

The view from 0,0 as seen in April 2012

The Nether is one of the three dimensions in Minecraft alongside the Overworld and the End. It can be accessed by using a Nether portal, which is usually seen around 2b2t's spawn, abandoned or disabled. Because one block length in the Nether equals eight blocks in the overworld, players use the Nether highways as the main travel method.

Nether Hub

0,0 in the Nether, also known as the Nether Hub, is a large chasm of floating bridges and pillars of various blocks. Most blocks have been completely obliterated from the bedrock roof to the bedrock floor. The bottom is filled with several lava lakes and has a population of withers on the bedrock surface. The vast majority of activity and development occurs just beneath the roof because tunnels built at the top of the Nether cannot be flooded with lava from above. A large platform made mostly from obsidian (200 x 200) is located in the middle of the Nether spawn, which periodically gets damaged, repaired, and added on by various players and groups. Spawnfags are often present, waiting to kill other players that try to pass through.

Nether Highways

See also: Nether highways

Four highways extend outwards along the X and Z axis towards the world border. They are very large tunnels with elevated platforms made from obsidian to avoid griefing. Straight highways are 4 blocks wide (three blocks of air above) with guardrails on each side (two blocks of air above) while unpaved highways (netherrack tunnels) are 6x4. The highways are symmetrical to the chunk border and maintained by Highway Workers Union (HWU). Ultimately, this allows players to travel efficiently using horses or elytra All of the 4 highways reach the overworld world border, thanks to the good work done by the Diggers and Motorway Extension Gurus (MEG).

All diagonal highways that are centered at 0,0 also reach the world border. 4 tunnels that extend 5.3 Million blocks from 0,0 through the Nether to the Overworld world border were dug by the +X Diggers and MEG.

A few players have ventured out over 10,000,000 blocks using exploits that don't involve the usage of highways, like R2bEEaton and Jordanl666.

Uses

The Nether is an ideal place for people who want to travel due to the Minecraft mechanic where one block in the Nether equates to eight blocks in the overworld. Portals to the Nether are also used for gold farms, in which players create large Nether portals for zombie pigmen to emerge from them and fall into a machine that kills them. It is also used for its regular Minecraft purposes such as mining or farming for soul sand, Nether bricks, Nether quartz, magma blocks, Ghast tears, Nether wart, Blaze rods, magma cream, and sometimes even for Netherrack. Wither skulls are not generally farmed for since they have been duped thousands of times and Wither Skeletons barely spawn, if at all, due to 2b2t's bad mob spawn rate.

Resources

One of the main disadvantages of 2b2t these days is the difficulty of obtaining Nether items. Because the server is so old and spawn region is thoroughly explored, you have to go far out to find Nether fortresses (which only generated after version 1.0) and even farther out to find Netherquartz (which only generated after version 1.5). Naturally generated magma blocks (which were added in 1.10) are even harder to find. But fortunately, they can be crafted with magma cream, and generate naturally in the underwater trenches in the overworld added in 1.13. Netherwart can be farmed anywhere so it's generally easy to obtain, but blaze rods are a different story. The low spawn rates of ghasts and magma cubes make getting ghast tears and magma cream more difficult than normal (but not impossible). Of course, wither skulls are almost completely impossible to obtain, even harder than normal, so players are better off getting them from someone else than trying to get them themselves. Red and Brown mushrooms also generate in the nether, providing a useful supply of food in a pinch.

Issues

One of the most common and major issues that Hausemaster had to deal with over the years was access to the Nether roof. There have been several glitches, exploits, and hacked clients that have allowed players to access the top of the bedrock roof of the Nether over the years. Players would use the Nether roof as a place to build stuff that would be inaccessible to most other players (including, in the early days, one of the first duping machines ever built on the server), and they would also use it to travel long distances through the Nether very easily on the flat and featureless bedrock ceiling, rather than having to go to the trouble of tunneling through the Nether. This was exploited by players who abused the flatness of the Nether roof and use hacked clients to run extremely fast through the Nether and load copious amounts of chunks to seriously lag the server. This eventually prompted Hausemaster to close the Nether's rooftop entirely by installing a plugin that would teleport anyone who got above level 127 back down below the roof.

Dangers

When in the Nether most players will KOS and crystal pvp, 0,0 Nether is known for fights to break out and is generally advised to avoid it when making your way onto the highways. Another danger is the huge chasms and lava lakes close to the ground, making one wrong step can be deathly if not properly prepared. Withers are also very dangerous and sometimes seen in the Nether. Lastly, portal trapping; portal trapping is a method of trapping players by placing obsidian around a Nether portal which makes it difficult for players with no teleportation or pickaxes to escape them, they are escapable by using some hacks or just breaking the obsidian with hands which take 4 minutes.

Trivia

• The Nether receives plenty of traffic every day, especially along the main highways, because of how convenient it is for fast travel. The spawn, in particular, receives very heavy traffic, with it being a very common occurrence to encounter someone there. The "Nether hub" is considered by many to be the most dangerous place on the server simply because it is the site of the most player activity (and because it overlies a 100+ block drop into a wither-infested magma-covered jagged floor of indestructible rock). Having max level gear and totems is compulsory if you are planning to spend some time at 0, 0 (without dying).
• Despite (or perhaps, because of) this traffic, not many people build in the Nether and mostly prefer to build in the overworld (or occasionally the end).
• If you (try to) sleep in a bed in the Nether, a bed bomb will occur. This is one of the reasons the Nether is more dangerous than the overworld, as beds can be used by suicide bombers, which are easily obtained and don't have to be placed on obsidian, as opposed to end crystals. However, since they can not stack, they are for a few uses only if the first explosion doesn't kill the bomber immediately.
• There was a time in which players using elytra hacks would fly under the Nether floor to travel rapidly through the Nether, entering and exiting through holes in the bottom bedrock layer opened up through exploits or hacks. As long as players stick close to the floor, they would be able to avoid the void damage that occurs higher up above the Nether roof.
• Several people used a boat phasing glitch to travel millions of blocks an hour through the Nether without needing highways. This allowed some to reach distances of up to 15,877,000 on the X+ axis (jordanl666), and 10,000,000 x 10,000,000 on the X+Z+ diagonal axis (R2bEEaton).
• The Apocalypse Exploit was an exploit executed in the Nether that led to the crashing of the server.