How to get Ancient Debris in Minecraft

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Travel to the darkest depths of the Nether to find Ancient Debris in Minecraft.

how to get ancient debris minecraft
(Image credit: Mojang)

Of all the oddities in Minecraft, Ancient Debris might be one of the hardest to stumble across naturally. There’s a lot of reasons for this, most of which involve the place in which you find this rare rock, the Nether, being a horrifying hellscape that's best avoided unless you’re really spoiling for a fight. 

Of course, they don't call it a survival game for nothing. And because of that, you’re going to need to know more about it. So, here’s everything you need to know about Minecraft Ancient Debris, including what it is, how and how to get it as efficiently as possible.

Minecraft Ancient Debris: What is it?

Ancient Debris is a very special kind of ore that can be found in the lowest layers of the Nether. Naturally, what with it being a fair way into any Minecraft world, you’ll need to be geared up to the eyeballs to be able to just survive here, let alone manage to actually mine any Ancient Debris. 

The reason why Ancient Debris is so important is that it’s the most efficient way of getting your hands on Netherite Scrap, which you'll need if you want to get Netherite. This is an incredibly rare material that can help you get the most powerful gear in the game, and you’ll want to be as strong as possible if you’re hoping to see everything Minecraft has to offer. 

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How to get Ancient Debris in Minecraft

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Well, the first thing you’ll need to do is to create a Nether Portal to actually visit the Nether, so, uh, get that done and then we can move onto actually farming this stuff. Once you’re there, head down its lower levels (from 8-22). Now, there are a few key things to keep in mind when it comes to Ancient Debris. 

For starters, you can only mine it with a Minecraft Diamond Pickaxe or above, so come prepared for that. You’ll also likely have to fight off all manner of monsters to actually survive in the Nether, so make sure you’ve got good armour and weapons, too. 

Now that’s all out of the way, there’s one way that’s head and shoulders above all others when it comes to finding Ancient Debris, and that’s to... make some beds. But while sleeping normally is an important way of warding off a Minecraft Phantom, unfortunately you won’t actually be getting any shut eye. 

Basically, you aren’t allowed to use beds in the Nether, so if you try and do so, the bed explodes. Oddly enough, it explodes with a larger radius than TNT, and is also far easier to create than TNT. This makes exploding bed strip mining of the lower-levels of the Nether the best way to find Ancient Debris. It’s weird, but it works.