It happens to all of us. Maybe we build a new house, move to a new place, or expanding. We all want easy access to the nether, so we build a nether portal at our house or nearby. We go through the portal, everything looks fine. But when we go back into the portal, we are somewhere completely random! Before you are quick to judge: no, this is not a trap someone set, this is not a glitch, and it is fixable!

The simple answer: You need to build your own nether portal in the nether and link up your coordinates. The best way to do this is divide your coordinates by 8, then build your portal there. If you are not very mathematically inclined, or still do not understand what that means, then read on to find out! Feel free to just skim this and reference as needed.

As you know, typically when you build a nether portal and you go through it, the game spawns in a nether portal on the nether side. The location of this portal is not randomized however. It may not seem like it, but the nether and overworld are geographically related through coordinates. The world center (0,0,0) is in the same place as the nether. When you go outwards however, every 1 block in the nether is 8 blocks in the overworld, which is why it’s much more efficient to use the nether to travel. This means that wherever you place your portal in the nether, the game is going to spawn the nether portal in that exact location-based spot.

We all know the nether though. It’s not flat and easy like the overworld. There are mountains that go all the way to the roof, oceans of lava, and magma blocks. So this means that there’s a chance that wherever you place your portal in the overworld, the spot in the nether is covered with netherrack or lava, so the portal goes to the nearest, suitable location for a portal. This means that your portal in both dimensions is not in the same coordinate field, but still link.

Now we introduce multiple players. You are not the only one wanting to go to the nether, so you do not have the only portal. Portals will naturally spawn in the nether if there is no nearest portal within 128 blocks, and it will choose the closest spot within 128 blocks. And if you go back through, that radius in the overworld is 1024 blocks. This means that there is a good chance there is someone’s portal in that radius.

This means that when you build your new portal, you might end up in someone else’s portal in the nether side. It might be a base, or just an abandoned portal. However, if there are multiple nether portals in that 1k radius, the game will bring you to the portal that is NEAREST to you. So, when you go through that teleporter, the nearest portal in the nether is the one that is linked to the other player’s base. Once you go through, your geolocation is no longer at your base, but now closer to the other player’s base, and most notably his portal. So, when you go back through the portal, you appear at his base! This may happen the opposite way too, if you end up placing a nether portal in the nether and try to go back home that way.

Whether you are ending up at someone else’s base, a random portal, or a random nether placement fear not, there is help. Follow these steps below. I am going to be very descriptive, so feel free to just skim the titles and review as needed.

Unfortunately, if this is happening it means you are in a double competition with the terrain and probably other player’s access to the nether. So, you will have to pick a base portal. This is the portal you want to use. This most likely is your base, since you probably want a nether portal in your base. The only reason you would want to make the base portal the nether side is if you are specifically trying to link to say a spot in a nether fortress. Choose the portal you want to keep, and record the coordinates at the base. Since nether portals are 1X2 at the base, just pick one of the blocks.

This is the tricky part. Before we do this, we will need to know what to use and what not to use. With the nether as mentioned before, the polar coordinates, X and Z (the first and last number) are the ones linked to the overworld. If you do not already know, the Y coordinate (middle number of the three) is a HEIGHT coordinate. Because the nether works in weird ways, IGNORE THE HEIGHT COORDNATE! as it will only confuse you.

Choose one of the 2 prompts below. Remember, if you are trying to get the portal in the nether to link up with your base portal, that means you are going to build a portal in the nether. If you are going the opposite way, then vice versa.

Take your recorded coordinates, and DIVIDE each number by 8. This will give you the coordinates of where your nether portal in the nether is supposed to be.

For example, if my base is located at (1256, 4568) (remember, we are ignoring the second number, the height coordinate), You divide those numbers by 8, and get (157, 571). These are the coordinates you will need to write down. Negatives don’t change in this division. So if your coordinates were (- 1256, - 4568), your answers will be (- 157, - 571), the negatives carry over. Most likely, you will encounter a coordinate such as 6579, and dividing by 8 will give not a whole number. In this case, you just round to the nearest number to make things easier. It does not have to be super exact.

This is going to be the opposite of above. Take your recorded coordinates from the nether, and MULTIPLY by 8. So if my coordinates are (165, 489) Then my overworld coordinates would be (1320, 3912). Same as above, negatives don’t change in this multiplication. So a negative coordinate remains negative, and vice versa.

Find the quickest way to those coordinates. Most likely it is probably the incorrect portal. It might be a teleporter block too. Once in the nether DO NOT BREAK THAT PORTAL unless it is yours. Once through, you will need to travel to the exact coordinates you calculated. If you do not know how to follow coordinates, please read my article about coordinates and how to follow them, called: "How to Use Coordinates in Minecraft. Like mentioned before, height DOES NOT make any difference. So if you are in the depths of the ground, high on the hills, or in the middle, it will still work. You may discover that your coordinates lead to the middle of a lava pool, or in the middle of a mountain. In these cases, you will have to bridge/dig out to your desired area so be careful. Be sure you mark within 2 or 3 blocks of the exact coordinates you calculated in step 2.

Finally, once you are at that spot, construct a nether portal. Before doing anything else, light up the portal and go through it. If you did your calculations correctly, you should end up at your base portal. And if you go back into the portal, you should end up back at the portal you just created. Congratulations! Build protection if needed. You might be 100 blocks over a lava pool.

First off, if you are linking to a portal that is closed in, or you believe someone is trying to sabotage your portals please make a ticket and let the admins know. It’s much easier if the admins deal with it, versus you dealing with it on your own and the admins try to solve the mess later on.

Be sure to read the whole thing all the way through if you are having trouble. I know its very long, but ever detail is deeply described as to not miss anything. So be sure to look through this document before asking for help as sometimes it takes awhile to get help.

If you are having trouble with the coordinate calculations, don’t feel confident going in the nether on your own, or don’t have the supplies, ask someone for help! If there’s no one online to help, or no one wants to help (some people like being loners), ask about it in discord in the #minecraft channel. Most likely someone will respond and either say something helpful, or offer to help you. Be patient though, it could take a few hours or even a day, depends what time of year, holidays, school stuff, work, etc.

Finally, if all else fails and no one helps, make a ticket. Hopefully that shouldn’t happen. Even if no one responds to the post in the discord, messages get circulated around privately between people so eventually someone who can help or knows who can help will be of assistance.