Minecraft added a ton of different pieces of content over the years. The recent addition of full biomes into the Nether is the biggest addition of the last few months. Mojang used the Nether Update to add new items, crafting options and enemies to the game. And for the purposes of this guide, they also added something called Ancient Debris in Minecraft.
Ancient Debris in Minecraft is something unique to the Nether, so you need to go there to hunt it down. It’s useful for crafting a new resource called Netherite, which is itself used in crafting the new Diamon armor, as well as other weapons and gear. This Debris takes some work to get to though since you primarily will be mining it from certain layers in specific Nether biomes. It will appear most often on levels from 8 to 22, although it has a smaller chance to appear on other levels.
To mine the Debris, you need either a Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe. Mining Netherack, where the veins spawn, with any other tool will not yield the raw mineral.
Ancient Debris in Minecraft is found in a few different Nether biomes, primarily around Bastion Remnants. You can find Bastion Remnants in the following biomes:
- Crimson Forest
- Nether Wastes
- Soul Sand Valley
- Warped Forest
Another source for Ancient Debris in Minecraft is the chests found inside Bastion Remnants. These were also added in the Nether update. You will normally find 1 or two pieces of Ancient Debris in these caches. This means it’s very much not the optimal way to hunt the stuff. Mining for Ancient Debris in Netherack is much faster.
You will need to smelt the Ancient Debris before it can be used. When smelted in a Blast Furnace, it will yield Netherite Scrap. Netherite Scrap can then be combined with Gold to create a Netherite Ingot. You need four pieces of Netherite Scrap and four Golden Ingots to create a single Netherite Ingot.