Netherrack icon PNG

Netherrack in Minecraft: the fire that never goes out

Netherrack is the reddish stone that makes up almost all of the Nether's terrain. It is soft and frail and mines in a moment, but it needs a pickaxe: without one it takes longer and drops nothing. It also appears in Overworld ruined portals and in some bastion remnants.

Its most useful property is fire. Light the top of a netherrack block and it burns forever, and rain will not put it out, which is why it ends up in fireplaces, fire beacons and decorations. Careful, though: that fire can still spread to flammable blocks next to it.

Being so plentiful and cheap, it is ideal for temporary building: scaffolding, plugging gaps or blocking a path while you explore. Bone meal on netherrack next to crimson or warped nylium turns it into that nylium. The reverse also happens, with nylium reverting to netherrack if a solid block or snow covers it.

Before item tooltips existed, its official name was netherstone; bloodstone was only a player nickname. Jens Bergensten has said that rack means nothing at all, it is just the name of the rock.

Sources: minecraft.wiki/Netherrack