Better Than Wolves Forum

I'm in single player and am getting tired of tunneling through the nether knowing that I'll never find a fortress unless I pop up to look around the surface. However, I discovered in the change logs that soul sand piles can be used to find fortresses. Some quick searching on the forums shows that flowerchild itself uses the piles while tunneling in order to find the fortress during the stage of progression when roaming around the nether surface is still stupid.

I've tried them out, and I have to say, I have no fucking idea of what I am looking at. The particle effect and sound effect is nice, but it just sits there. Sometimes. There is a couple of places along my tunnels that the soul sand particle effect is kind of different.

How am I supposed to read the sand? I'm really itching to get my hibachis.

If the particle efect doesn't move ther is not a fortress nearby. If the particle effect moves, dig in the direction it's moving.

To add to Niyu's post, it's a good idea to dig a 3x3 or if you're a beginner at soulsand, a 4x4 box in your tunnel before using it and maybe also going into third person. It helps a lot in figuring out which direction the sand is going or if it stands still.

Thanks guys. I should have figured its use would be this straightforward.

Right now I'm strip mining at diamond level for more iron and will be setting up a desert base for the absence of storms.

I had to throw over 40 of those things before i figured out how to see the subtleties of the sand's movement. I find that having a large open room to move immediately after you throw the sand helps you calibrate where it's moving. If you happen to be standing in the plane of movement it's not obvious if it's moving forward or away from you. If you throw it and step back you can see the lateral movement easier.

Does it move more than once, or do I have to keep my eyes on it immediately for the one time it does it?

it pauses then moves away in a direction until it disappears.

I found spamming right click to throw 5-10 all at once then backing up was enough to get a clear direction for tunneling.

I found my nearest fort by getting a couple stacks of sand, digging a 5x5x5 room, throwing 5-10 sand and digging in the general direction it led. I did this a few times and when the sand went back in the other direction I poked my head down (I tunnel near the ceiling) and it was right below me.

MUCH easier than trying to run the death gauntlet on the surface, especially with the risk of stepping on soul sand overhangs now.

While we're on the subject, has anyone found a netherwartless fortress yet?

I was very lucky to have my first fortress visible from my initial portal but I have scoured the whole thing and deduced that it doesn't contain any netherwart whatsoever.

I've been trying to explore the nether in each cardinal direction but haven't found a further fortress yet. Unfortunately any soul sand piles I have used seem to only point back to the original fortress.

So far I've found one in four fortresses had no nether wart room. I don't know if my numbers is an accurate depiction of how it happens for everyone else, though.
Lucky for you that nether warts is a one time find. Once you've got some, you have your first fortress for everything else.

I have yet to find one that lacked a netherwart room (vanilla and BTW).

BtW- there are safe areas in the natural nether. Good luck.

EtherealWrath wrote:I have yet to find one that lacked a netherwart room (vanilla and BTW).

Same here. I've come across an awful lot of fortresses and can't ever remember one that didn't have netherwart.

You guys sure you're exploring the entire fortress? If they're partially buried (which they almost always are) they can get a little tricky at times.

Do soul sand piles do the same thing in the overworld or what do they do? I thought someone said something about them leading to the original spawn point.

Yhetti wrote:Do soul sand piles do the same thing in the overworld or what do they do? I thought someone said something about them leading to the original spawn point.

They're used to track other players who have died in SMP. They don't have an overworld use in SSP.

Just as you posted that, I was reading about it on the wiki.

Another interesting thing about nether fortresses is that they spawn in "clusters" that are along north and south lines or something like that. The wiki says something about it, and I guess it could make it easier to find them but it is sort of a meta game type thing.

Thanks guys. I used the piles and found me a fortress!

It's a ways off from my portal, but I got my blaze rod and am ready to progress to recyclable tools and armor.

Also to note, the fortress I found doesn't seem to have netherwart. I'll have to come back with weapons to explore further, but yeah, not a single wart so far.

In my many cronic new world restarts I have found several nether fortresses with no netherwart. They were mostly "mini" fortresses with just the tower with the stairs and several walk ways. They didnt have the one tower with the "fire pit". Usually if I see the fire pit i know I will probably find netherwart.

FC must really like me because I just opened a nether portal in a new world and for the third (maybe forth) time in a row it was right by/on top of a fortress. Why is there this whole quest we are supposed to do that I keep missing out on? Dammit.

Yhetti wrote:FC must really like me because I just opened a nether portal in a new world and for the third (maybe forth) time in a row it was right by/on top of a fortress. Why is there this whole quest we are supposed to do that I keep missing out on? Dammit.

he must hate me a lot then, because this about the 15th portal I open in my search for a vilage, and the third that's not a ocean or a giant frozen wasteland

Just bad luck my current world has fortresses all in a nice line. That line runs parallel about 1000 block away from my large rail line :/. I've only gotten a mob trap running and am about 70% done lighting up the surface, with no nether trap so I'm waiting a while till I can really build any larger rail lines. However with potions armor, and cobble stone paths the nether isn't so bad. Minus ghasts + lots of pig men, those are not fun. Just keep using the soul sand you'll find something eventually. I'd suggest moving about 1000 block N E W S before looking further.

Yhetti wrote:Another interesting thing about nether fortresses is that they spawn in "clusters" that are along north and south lines or something like that.

Thanks man! Almost exactly 200 blocks North of our first fortress we just found our second fortress of the nether. Unfortunately, after a brief exploration it seems like it's void of Netherwart again :( I'm going to try south of the first fortress and report back again as we've just traveled a further 500+ blocks further north and have found nothing.

Side note - We think we found out what the recently added "little something something about Pigmen behavior that is absolutely nothing to worry about" is....

Ozziie wrote:

Spoiler

Show

Ghast fireballs that hit Pigmen seem to anger the Pigmen towards the player they were fired at now? This isn't necessarily reflected fireballs either, it also seems to affect them with direct hits. Wonder if this applies to Blaze fireballs? Wither projectiles? Skeleton arrows?

Yeah, I'm perty sure that's it. I've experienced it in that standard scenario but also Do soul sand piles point out where the last player died or where the last player who died currently is? One helps with the dead player's loot and the other helps with getting your dead player back from a HC spawn.

the second. If he died in an unknown place the inventory is still probably gone

Pigmen:

Dreambolt wrote:Just bad luck my current world has fortresses all in a nice line.

Sounds like exactly what I just said about north south lines....

Ozziie wrote:

Spoiler

Show

Ghast fireballs that hit Pigmen seem to anger the Pigmen towards the player they were fired at now? This isn't necessarily reflected fireballs either, it also seems to affect them with direct hits. Wonder if this applies to Blaze fireballs? Wither projectiles? Skeleton arrows?

That would explain something that happened to me in the Nether

Huh i didnt know this thing about Soul Sand piles...I noticed something while watching videos of Vioki and Charlie and i saw that Vioki used them to find Charlie.. There should be a post on the Wiki to explain how this exactly works..I bet i'm not the only one confused at this ^^