How to Make Netherite Scraps by Smelting Ancient Debris
Making Netherite Scraps is a smelting process, not a crafting table recipe. To produce scraps, you must first mine Ancient Debris in the Nether (typically around Y-level 15) or loot it from Bastion Remnants.
Once obtained, place the Ancient Debris into a Furnace or Blast Furnace with a fuel source. Each block of Ancient Debris yields exactly one Netherite Scrap. You will ultimately need four Netherite Scraps and four Gold Ingots to craft a single Netherite Ingot.
Upgrading your diamond gear to Netherite is widely regarded as a major milestone in any Minecraft survival world. However, the terminology often confuses newer players. You do not "craft" Netherite Scraps using a crafting table; instead, you must extract them from raw Ancient Debris through a smelting process.
As of 2026, the journey to fully upgraded gear involves multiple distinct phases: mining the raw materials, smelting the scraps, crafting the ingots, and locating the necessary upgrade templates introduced in the 1.20 Trails & Tales update. This comprehensive breakdown will guide you through the mathematics of efficient mining, the mechanics of smelting, and the exact steps required to process your Netherite Scraps into usable ingots.
How to Smelt Ancient Debris into Netherite Scraps
The transformation of Ancient Debris into Netherite Scraps relies entirely on the game's smelting mechanics. Once you have successfully mined Ancient Debris from the depths of the Nether, you must return to a base equipped with smelting blocks.
Furnace vs. Blast Furnace Efficiency
While a standard Furnace is perfectly capable of smelting Ancient Debris, it is generally recommended to use a Blast Furnace for bulk processing. According to DigMinecraft's smelting data, a standard Furnace takes 200 game ticks (10 seconds) to smelt a single block of Ancient Debris. A Blast Furnace cuts this time in half, requiring only 100 game ticks (5 seconds) per block.
When returning from a long mining session with a stack of 64 Ancient Debris, a standard Furnace will take nearly 11 minutes to process the haul. A Blast Furnace completes the same task in just over 5 minutes, allowing you to return to crafting and upgrading much faster.
Optimal Fuel Sources
Because you will likely set up a forward operating base in the Nether to process your materials, it is highly efficient to use fuel sources native to the dimension. This prevents you from having to transport coal or kelp blocks from the Overworld.
- Lava Buckets
- Lava is the most abundant resource in the Nether. A single Lava Bucket can smelt 100 items, making it an exceptionally strong fuel choice for processing large quantities of Ancient Debris. Just remember to retrieve your empty bucket from the furnace slot.
- Blaze Rods
- If you have a Blaze farm established at a Nether Fortress, Blaze Rods serve as an excellent, renewable fuel source. One Blaze Rod smelts 12 items, meaning a stack of 64 rods can easily process multiple stacks of debris.
- Coal Blocks (Overworld Import)
- If you prefer to process your materials in the Overworld, Blocks of Coal (crafted from 9 pieces of coal) are highly effective, smelting 80 items per block.
Fireproof Properties
One of the most unique mechanical traits of Netherite Scraps is their immunity to fire and lava. If you accidentally break your furnace while it contains Netherite Scraps, or if a Creeper detonates near your storage system, the scraps will not burn. Instead, they will float on the surface of lava, giving you a generous five-minute despawn window to retrieve them safely.
Where to Find Ancient Debris for Your Scraps
Before you can smelt scraps, you need the raw material. Ancient Debris is notoriously rare, generating in small veins (usually 1 to 3 blocks) deep within the Nether. Understanding the mathematical distribution of these blocks is crucial for efficient resource gathering.
The Best Y-Levels for Mining
According to the official Minecraft Wiki, Ancient Debris generates in two distinct batches per chunk. The first batch attempts to generate between Y=8 and Y=24, while a second, smaller batch attempts to generate randomly between Y=8 and Y=119.
Because the highest concentration of generation attempts occurs at Y=15, this is widely considered one of the best levels to mine. However, many technical players in the community advocate for mining at Y=17 when using explosive methods (like beds or TNT). Mining slightly higher at Y=17 keeps the blast radius just above the massive lava lakes that generate at Y=31, while also preventing you from accidentally blowing holes into hidden lava pockets that frequently spawn at Y=10 to Y=14. This slight elevation sacrifices a marginal amount of debris density for a massive increase in player safety.
Biome Selection for Faster Mining
Not all Nether biomes are created equal when it comes to mining efficiency. The biome you choose to mine in will drastically impact your speed and tool durability.
This is a top-tier option for mining. The Nether Wastes biome is primarily composed of Netherrack, which has an incredibly low blast resistance (0.4). This allows TNT and beds to clear massive caverns, exposing maximum surface area to reveal hidden Ancient Debris.
Mining in a Basalt Delta is highly discouraged. Basalt and Blackstone have a blast resistance of 4.2 and 6.0, respectively. Explosives will barely dent these blocks, forcing you to manually mine through tough terrain, rapidly depleting your pickaxe durability and slowing your progress to a crawl.
Looting Bastion Remnants
If mining is not your preferred playstyle, you can acquire Netherite Scraps directly from loot chests inside Bastion Remnants. This method is highly dangerous due to the presence of Piglin Brutes, but it can yield scraps without the need for smelting.
- Treasure Chests: Found in the central treasure room of a Bastion, these chests offer the highest probability of containing Netherite Scraps, with generation rates estimated between 19.9% (Java Edition) and 21.7% (Bedrock Edition).
- Hoglin Stable Chests: These chests have a lower yield, offering roughly an 8% to 9.1% chance to contain a single scrap.
- Generic Bastion Chests: The standard chests scattered throughout the structure have a roughly 4% chance of containing scraps.
Fastest Ways to Mine for Ancient Debris
Because Ancient Debris is blast-resistant (it cannot be destroyed by TNT, beds, or Creepers), using explosives to clear away the surrounding Netherrack is a highly effective strategy. Here are the two most prominent methods used by experienced players.
The TNT Chain Reaction Method
Using TNT is arguably the safest explosive method, as it can be ignited from a distance. However, placing TNT blocks directly next to each other is a massive waste of resources, as the blast radiuses overlap unnecessarily.
As detailed in Minecraft.net's official block breakdowns and community testing, the optimal spacing for a TNT tunnel is one TNT block every four spaces.
- Mine a 1x2 tunnel at Y=15 (or Y=17) for several hundred blocks.
- Walk backward down the tunnel, placing one block of TNT, skipping three empty blocks, and placing another TNT on the fourth block.
- Once the tunnel is lined, use a bow enchanted with Flame to shoot the closest TNT block from a safe distance.
- The explosion will trigger a chain reaction, detonating the entire tunnel perfectly and leaving any Ancient Debris floating intact amid the cleared cavern.
The Shulker Bed Strategy
Because beds explode when you attempt to sleep in them in the Nether, they act as a cheap alternative to TNT. However, beds do not stack in your inventory, meaning you can only carry a maximum of 36 beds at a time.
To bypass this limitation, technical players utilize the "Shulker Bed" strategy. Instead of carrying pre-crafted beds, you carry a Shulker Box filled with stacks of Wool and Wooden Planks, along with a Crafting Table.
Chunk Border Mining (Java Edition)
For players on Java Edition, utilizing the game's debug screen can provide a mathematical advantage. By pressing F3 + G, you can toggle the visual display of chunk borders.
Because Minecraft's terrain generation algorithm attempts to place Ancient Debris veins within specific chunks, veins frequently generate on or near the exact borders where two chunks meet. By aligning your 1x2 mining tunnel directly along a chunk border line, you effectively expose blocks in two different chunks simultaneously, slightly increasing the statistical probability of intersecting a vein.
Why Your Fortune Pickaxe Does Not Work on Ancient Debris
A common misconception among newer players is that mining Ancient Debris with a Fortune III pickaxe will yield multiple Netherite Scraps or multiple blocks of debris. This is entirely false.
The Fortune enchantment only applies to blocks that drop an item different from the block itself (such as Diamond Ore dropping Diamonds, or Lapis Lazuli Ore dropping Lapis). Because Ancient Debris drops itself as a raw block when mined, Fortune has absolutely no effect on it. You will always receive exactly one block of Ancient Debris per block mined, which will subsequently smelt into exactly one Netherite Scrap.
Instead of Fortune, your Nether mining pickaxe should be optimized for speed and longevity. A Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe enchanted with Efficiency V, Unbreaking III, and Mending is a top-tier option. Efficiency V allows you to instantly mine Netherrack (often referred to as "instamine"), while Mending allows you to repair the tool using experience orbs dropped by mining Nether Quartz along the way.
Furthermore, it does not matter whether you use a Silk Touch pickaxe or a standard pickaxe; the Ancient Debris block will drop identically in both scenarios.
What to Do With Netherite Scraps After Smelting
Once you have successfully smelted your Ancient Debris, you will have a collection of Netherite Scraps. However, scraps alone cannot be used to craft armor or tools. They must be alloyed with gold to create Netherite Ingots.
The Netherite Ingot Recipe
The crafting recipe for a Netherite Ingot requires a precise 4:4 ratio. You must combine:
- 4 Netherite Scraps
- 4 Gold Ingots
This recipe is "shapeless," meaning you can place the four scraps and four gold ingots anywhere within the 3x3 grid of a Crafting Table to produce one Netherite Ingot. Because gold is required in such high quantities, establishing a Zombified Piglin gold farm in the Nether is highly recommended for players looking to upgrade a full set of gear.
The 1.20+ Smithing Template Bottleneck
If you are returning to Minecraft after a long hiatus, you may be surprised to find that a Netherite Ingot is no longer sufficient to upgrade your Diamond gear. As of the 1.20 Trails & Tales update (released in 2023), the upgrade process was significantly overhauled.
To apply a Netherite Ingot to a Diamond tool or armor piece, you must now use a Smithing Table and provide a third item: a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template. These templates can only be found in Bastion Remnants, adding a mandatory exploration requirement to the Netherite progression path.
When you find your first Smithing Template, do not use it immediately. Templates are consumed upon use. Instead, you should duplicate the template using a Crafting Table. The duplication recipe requires:
- 1 Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template (placed in the top center slot)
- 1 Netherrack (placed in the center slot)
- 7 Diamonds (filling the remaining slots in a U-shape)
While spending seven diamonds per upgrade is expensive, it is a much more reliable strategy than attempting to raid multiple Bastion Remnants to find individual templates for every piece of armor and every tool you wish to upgrade.
Comparison of Mining Methods
To help you choose the best approach for your playstyle, here is a breakdown of the most common methods for acquiring the raw materials needed for Netherite Scraps.
| Method | Speed of Acquisition | Resource Cost | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strip Mining (Pickaxe) | Slow | Low (Only requires pickaxe durability) | Low (Easy to manage lava pockets) |
| Bed Mining | Fast | Medium (Requires massive amounts of wool/wood) | High (Fire damage, unexpected lava flow from explosions) |
| TNT Mining | Fastest | High (Requires a Creeper farm for gunpowder and a desert for sand) | Medium (Can be detonated from a safe distance) |
| Bastion Looting | Variable | None (Relies on combat and exploration) | Very High (Piglin Brutes deal massive damage, even through armor) |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you find Netherite Scraps in the Overworld?
No, Ancient Debris only generates in the Nether dimension. Consequently, you cannot mine for it in the Overworld or the End. The only way to obtain Netherite Scraps without visiting the Nether is if a server admin spawns them in, or if you are playing a heavily modded version of the game.
How many scraps do I need for a full set of armor?
To upgrade a full set of Diamond armor (Helmet, Chestplate, Leggings, Boots), you need 4 Netherite Ingots. Because each ingot requires 4 scraps, you will need a total of 16 Netherite Scraps (and 16 Gold Ingots) to complete a full armor set. If you also want to upgrade a sword, pickaxe, axe, and shovel, you will need an additional 16 scraps.
Does the Blast Furnace give more scraps than a regular furnace?
No. The yield is always a strict 1:1 ratio. One block of Ancient Debris will always yield exactly one Netherite Scrap, regardless of which smelting block you use. The only advantage of the Blast Furnace is that it completes the smelting process twice as fast.
Why can't I use my Netherite Ingot on the Smithing Table?
If you are playing on version 1.20 or later, the Smithing Table requires three items to upgrade gear: the Diamond gear piece, the Netherite Ingot, and a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template. If you are missing the template (which must be found in a Bastion Remnant), the Smithing Table will not allow you to complete the upgrade.
Is Netherite Scrap fireproof if I drop it?
Yes. Like all Netherite-tier items (including Ancient Debris, Netherite Ingots, and Netherite tools/armor), Netherite Scraps are completely immune to fire and lava damage. If you accidentally drop them into a lava lake, they will float on the surface until their standard 5-minute despawn timer runs out.
Can I use a normal furnace to smelt Ancient Debris?
Yes, a standard Furnace works perfectly fine for smelting Ancient Debris into Netherite Scraps. It simply takes 10 seconds per block, compared to the 5 seconds required by a Blast Furnace. You can use any standard fuel source, including coal, wood, or kelp blocks.
Final Thoughts
Transitioning from Diamond to Netherite requires patience, preparation, and a solid understanding of the game's mechanics. By optimizing your mining strategy and understanding the modern upgrade requirements, you can significantly reduce the time spent grinding in the Nether.
- Smelt, don't craft: Remember that Ancient Debris must be processed in a Furnace or Blast Furnace to yield scraps.
- The 4:4 Ratio: You will always need 4 Netherite Scraps and 4 Gold Ingots to craft a single Netherite Ingot.
- Mine at Y=15 or Y=17: Target the Nether Wastes biome and use TNT spaced four blocks apart for maximum efficiency.
- Don't forget the Template: In modern versions of Minecraft, an ingot is useless without a Netherite Upgrade Smithing Template looted from a Bastion.
- Duplicate your templates: Always spend the 7 diamonds to clone your Smithing Template before consuming it on an upgrade.
Equip your best fire-resistance potions, pack a Shulker box full of wood and wool, and start clearing those Nether Wastes today.