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I have been trying for days to find a Nether Fortress. I've looked up different ways on how to find one and I happened to stumble upon an answer that might help me. The question he asked was just what I was looking for. Someone answered him and said, "There are infinite nether fortresses in the nether. They spawn in rows every 200-400 blocks along the world's North/South axis." I don't even know how to find the North/South axis. I'm on bedrock edition and all I can see are coordinates. And, I'm pretty sure you can't use a compass in the Nether, so what do I do? And how do I find the North/South cords?

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    A compass wouldn't help in the Overworld anyway, they point towards the world spawn point, not North :)
    – AJPerez
    Apr 22, 2021 at 19:02
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    @AJPerez oh yeah. Ur right, haha.
    – LeBiscuit
    Apr 23, 2021 at 12:34
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    Sorry to drop in, but I feel I should mention Nether Fortress generation has changed since that Q&A was written. If yo uare playing post-1.16 Nether Fortress spawn is different now, and every direction is as good an any other to search: minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Nether_Fortress I too spent six-ish hours before finding my first Nether Fortress after the update so you are not alone in this
    – Thegs
    Apr 23, 2021 at 21:09
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    gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/8693/…
    – qwr
    Apr 24, 2021 at 2:38
  • (The question linked by qwr is the same thing but in Java Edition, so not a duplicate)
    – pppery
    Feb 4 at 17:45

2 Answers 2

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Turn "show coordinates" on. Then just move around. The negative Z direction is North and the positive Z south.

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    @ExpertCoder14 I was watching the sun and moon, and it appears your right. I'm pretty sure north is positive Z then right?
    – Penguin
    Apr 22, 2021 at 15:45
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    minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Coordinates yes, negative Z = north
    – AJPerez
    Apr 22, 2021 at 19:06
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    dishonoroubales
    – DeepDeadpool
    Apr 23, 2021 at 22:41
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    @DeepDeadpool ?
    – Penguin
    Apr 24, 2021 at 1:42
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    @Penguin Well, it's computer co-ordinates. Top-left is (0, 0), down the screen is positive y… erm, z.
    – wizzwizz4
    Apr 25, 2021 at 11:23
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You can use the south-east rule, which works in all dimensions. Place 4 pieces of minecart track in a T shape, with the intersection piece last, and it will favor south or east. Do this twice, with the second T rotated 90 degrees from the first one, and you'll be able to uniquely identify which way is which.

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    This is the best "in universe" method since it doesn't rely on debug/coordinate info, but it's also kind of funny because it's like a paranormal behavior that is well documented in universe.
    – Logarr
    Apr 23, 2021 at 17:58
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    Also doesn't rely on textures, used to use cobble to tell which direction things were, since it had a very pronounced L shape before the texture updates
    – phflack
    Apr 24, 2021 at 20:20

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