Netherite is not an armour upgrade. It is the same twenty armour points diamond already gave you, plus three things diamond does not have, and one of those three is the reason to bother.
Here is the full path from ancient debris to upgraded gear, and what you actually gain at the end of it.
Step one: the template
The netherite upgrade smithing template is found only in bastion remnants. The rates differ by chest type – the treasure chest has it guaranteed, while bridge, hoglin stable and generic chests each carry a 10 percent chance.
That means one successful bastion treasure room is one template, and everything after that is duplication rather than exploration.
Duplication costs seven diamonds plus netherrack plus the template you already have, and returns two templates. Expensive in diamonds, unlimited in supply, and the reason you only need to find one.
Step two: ancient debris and scrap
Ancient debris is mined with a diamond pickaxe or better, smelted into netherite scrap. Four scrap plus four gold ingots makes one netherite ingot.
One ingot upgrades one piece. A full set of armour plus a sword, pickaxe, axe and shovel is eight ingots, which is 32 ancient debris and 32 gold. That is the real cost of “going netherite” and it is why most players upgrade a piece at a time.
Ancient debris is blast resistant, which is what makes bed mining and TNT viable for finding it – everything around it goes and the debris stays. It is the one ore where the search method is destructive by design.
Step three: the upgrade, and what it preserves
Smithing table, template, diamond item, netherite ingot. The result keeps more than most people realise:
- Enchantments carry over intact.
- Prior work penalty carries over – and the upgrade itself does not add to it.
- Armour trim carries over.
- Durability carries over as the number of points lost, not the percentage – so a half-worn diamond sword becomes a netherite sword missing the same absolute number of points, which is a smaller fraction of the larger pool.
- Experience cost: none.
That last pair is the part worth planning around. Upgrading costs no levels and does not increase the prior work penalty, so it should happen after you have finished enchanting, not before. Enchant the diamond piece to completion, then upgrade it. Doing it the other way round wastes nothing but gains nothing either, and the anvil cost rules are where the real expense lives.
What you actually gain
Toughness. Armour points are identical to diamond – twenty for a full set, eighty percent reduction. Netherite adds toughness, which reduces how much armour large hits bypass. Against a skeleton arrow, no difference. Against a charged creeper, a real one. The mechanics are in the armour guide.
Knockback resistance. Each piece contributes, and a full set is noticeably harder to push around. This is the change most players feel first without being able to name it.
Lava immunity when dropped. Netherite items float in lava instead of burning. For most players this is the single most valuable property, because the most common way a good set disappears is a mistake in the Nether.
Tools also gain a durability increase and netherite weapons a small damage increase over their diamond equivalents.
Whether it is worth it
Eight ingots of investment for toughness, knockback resistance and lava safety is a reasonable trade if you spend time in the Nether or fight things that hit hard. It is a poor trade if your deaths are from fall damage, drowning, or the mobs that appear in a badly lit base – none of which netherite helps with.
The strongest single argument is the lava one. A Mending netherite pickaxe survives the mistake that ends a diamond one, and over a long world that is worth more than the combat numbers.
Order of operations
- Find one bastion treasure chest, take the template.
- Duplicate it as many times as you have diamonds for.
- Mine ancient debris – blast mining is faster than tunnelling.
- Smelt to scrap, combine with gold into ingots.
- Finish all enchanting on the diamond pieces first.
- Upgrade, in order: pickaxe, chestplate, boots, sword, then the rest.
Pickaxe first because it is the item most often carried into lava. Chestplate second because it carries the largest share of armour points. Everything after that is preference. For getting to the Nether safely in the first place, portal linking is the other half of the job.
Finding ancient debris efficiently
Ancient debris is blast resistant and everything around it is not, which decides the method. Two approaches dominate and they suit different resource situations.
Bed mining uses the fact that beds explode in the Nether. Place, interact, take cover, repeat. Beds are cheap if you have wool, and the explosion clears a large volume while leaving any debris standing.
TNT does the same job more predictably and costs gunpowder, which is the constraint. A creeper farm makes this the better option; without one, beds win.
Either way, the Y level matters. Debris generates in a band well below the surface of the Nether, and the productive approach is to tunnel to that depth once and then work horizontally, rather than digging down repeatedly. The same principle that governs ore distribution elsewhere applies here, with a shorter band and a more dangerous ceiling.
What not to upgrade
Not everything is worth an ingot. A shovel sees the least danger and the least wear of any tool, and a bow or crossbow gains nothing from netherite because they cannot be upgraded at all.
Elytra cannot be upgraded either, which surprises people, and it is worth knowing before you plan a set around it. A shield takes no netherite version.
The realistic full kit is helmet, chestplate, leggings, boots, sword, pickaxe, axe and hoe – and the hoe is genuinely optional unless you farm at scale. Seven ingots is the practical target, not eight.
Images: Artifacts project gallery.