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[Dild0Merchant]

I've been wondering around the Nether for hours and I haven't seen a single Nether Fortress, I'm looking Nether Brick for my house and a Blaze rod to make an Ender Eye but I just can't seem to find any fortresses, I've even got lost from the portal a few times. Is there any tips to finding them? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[spiderraptor42]

Dild0Merchant, on 12 August 2012 - 10:00 PM, said:

I've been wondering around the Nether for hours and I haven't seen a single Nether Fortress, I'm looking Nether Brick for my house and a Blaze rod to make an Ender Eye but I just can't seem to find any fortresses, I've even got lost from the portal a few times. Is there any tips to finding them? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

patience.

[IronMagus]

There's no hard-and-fast rule to find their exact location but there is a general rule of thumb that can speed up the process a bit. Nether fortresses tend to generate in rough, zig-zaggy "strips" that run generally along north-south lines. This means that you shouldn't explore in a north-south fashion, or else you're likely to remain forever stuck between two of these strips, never crossing over one and so never seeing a fortress. Instead, you should explore either east-west or diagonally, this way you'll cross over the strips at regular intervals, maximizing your chances of spotting a fortress. Once I learned this trick, it's never taken me more than ten minutes or so to find one after I started looking.

[LeMasterTJ]

Go west-east or vice versa, not north-south/south-north. Because of the way Fortresses generate, you can go North-South forever, but never find one. They generate in North-South lines, so if you're not in one of the "lines", you're outta luck. Run a world through Amidst to see what I mean.

[CosmicForum]

Walk forwards until you see one, DO NOT STOP WALKING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

[Dild0Merchant]

IronMagus, on 12 August 2012 - 10:03 PM, said:

There's no hard-and-fast rule to find their exact location but there is a general rule of thumb that can speed up the process a bit. Nether fortresses tend to generate in rough, zig-zaggy "strips" that run generally along north-south lines. This means that you shouldn't explore in a north-south fashion, or else you're likely to remain forever stuck between two of these strips, never crossing over one and so never seeing a fortress. Instead, you should explore either east-west or diagonally, this way you'll cross over the strips at regular intervals, maximizing your chances of spotting a fortress. Once I learned this trick, it's never taken me more than ten minutes or so to find one after I started looking.

Thank you, I will try! Also so they tend to be at the bottom of the Nether or up high or which, so should I be going up or down to find one?

[IronMagus]

Dild0Merchant, on 12 August 2012 - 10:10 PM, said:

Thank you, I will try! Also so they tend to be at the bottom of the Nether or up high or which, so should I be going up or down to find one?

I've heard you should look around level y=70 and below.  I don't know if there is a limit to their height or not, but the pillars that hold them up go all the way down to the ground.  I tend to just stay on the surface, however high that is, and look all around.  Once you do get near a fortress, they're pretty hard to miss.

[Epicness1324]

Open up the co-ordinates with F3. Walk in the direction that makes the "f" co-ordinate display as 0. I always find fortresses when walking in that direction

[FrikinFluffahBunnah]

I had the same luck as you, taking many hours to find a Nether Fortress. I eventually did find one however, and it was closer to my portal that I would have thought. As many people in this thread already said, traveling east and west, or diagonally is your best bet for finding on.

When I first entered the Nether, I just started tunneling straight forward for SOOOO long, which ended up getting me absolutely no where. Turns out the fortress was just a litle bit east of where my portal was.

Pro tip: Take along a stack of cobblestone and a stack of torches with you, then you can place a cobblestone and put a torch on top of it as you go along, that way you never get lost. Once you find a Nether Fortress, I would reccomend mining some Nether Brick and using it as a marker back to the fortress, that way you know which direction the fortress is from your portal.

For those who are curious: I got a TON of nether brick and nether fences from the fortress I found, about 40 Nether Warts, and I found a Blaze Spawner

[Keyl10]

Decided to take the easier route and switch over to creative to fly through to find a fortress.  Found one, quite a ways away.  Got lost though and found about seven more on my trip back, which concluded with a new portal a good 5000+ blocks from my base.  Long walk/flight to say the least.  

And now I've got a railway to that original fortress with a wonderful blaze farm.

[CatsGoBark]

I don't know about you but I just walk in one direction until I find one or get killed.

[CrystalCreeper]

Keep walking and don't even think about punching a pigman. I'm serious. I made that mistake and now I can't even enter the Nether without getting killed 9001 times over.

[yoshiplush2]

You just have to keep looking at the bottom of the nether were the lava is and you can find one then.
NOTE: Theses are quite hard to find.

[BillyBoy64]

You pick a direction and walk. If you come up to lava, turn.

Bring lots of cobble with you. Place one down every so often (good to put one down where you can still see the last one) and use it as a "breadcrumb" trial to get back to your portal. And then just go out searching. As others have said, try not to travel north-south direction if you can help it (migth need to for short distances to get around lava, but keep it generally in an east-west direction as much as you can).

I also found it works best to look out of the corner of your eyes. The fog seems to be much less if you use your peripheral vision than it is looking straight ahead.

[DevilOfEnderDragon]

Dild0Merchant, on 12 August 2012 - 10:10 PM, said:

Thank you, I will try! Also so they tend to be at the bottom of the Nether or up high or which, so should I be going up or down to find one?

What version do you use,1.2.5?. If it is,single player commands for 1.2.5 is wayyyyyyy long ago out,download it then command "SetSpeed8" Turn difficulty to "Peaceful" Then walk forwards (For 15 minutes) And see if you can find anything

[MrSpaM]

I've always found they spawn right next to where my entrance portal is, i've even spawned directly into a fortress before

[Zorg]

If you want a trick use Minutor to find it (search in the wiki for download).

[Crykura]

Nether Fortresses tend to spawn in "strips" aligning along the Z axis (north/south) in the nether, making them easier to find after one has already been found by simply moving north or south, keeping the X coordinate steady. This is a good method to use if you are having trouble finding Nether Fortresses

[Ronar1]

Nether fortresses have a habit of spawning on the same Z axis. Which Z coordinate depends on the seed. But once you find one fort, you can keep walking the Z axis to find more. With that in mind, its why the zig zag method mentioned earlier was most likely to be helpful.