Here’s your full guide to Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons

Everyone and their parents know about Minecraft, which remains one of the world’s most popular games today. A little newer, but still excellent, is Minecraft Dungeons, a game from Mojang Studios that takes place inside the expanding Minecraft universe. Instead of an open world with crafting and survival mechanics, Minecraft Dungeons is a classically-inspired, co-op focused ARPG with hordes of enemies, piles of loot, and tons of secrets to uncover.

Minecraft Dungeons has expanded rapidly since its initial launch with a ton of DLC expansions. Now we’re onto expansion number four with Flames of the Nether, which finally takes Minecraft Dungeons to the fiery dimension filled with new threats, new locations, and new adventures.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons.

The Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons releases on Feb. 24, 2021 for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One consoles, PCs, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. There will also be a free update and free cosmetic items available to all players launching at the same time.

Minecraft Dungeons is also available through Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, but the Flames of the Nether DLC will not be included on those services. You’ll have to either purchase the expansion separately (pricing is still unknown) or pick up the Season Pass, which includes Howling Peaks, Flames of the Nether, and two more expansions that will go underwater and to the End.

Finally, Minecraft Dungeons is available through Xbox Cloud Gaming (Project xCloud), where it remains our top pick for Best Game on Xbox Cloud Gaming for its fantastic touch controls. The Flames of the Nether DLC will also be available there and only requires that you’ve purchased it or the Season Pass for Xbox consoles.

What is the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons?

Minecraft Dungeons is built on a solid foundation of fantastic and rewarding gameplay, but it was undeniably light on launch content. Fortunately, Mojang Studios and Double Eleven have been hard at work fixing this weakness with post-launch updates and expansions. Three expansions have already dropped for Minecraft Dungeons, including Jungle Awakens, Creeping Winter as part of Minecraft Dungeons: Hero Edition, and the Howling Peaks DLC, which is the first of four expansions included with the Minecraft Dungeons Season Pass.

Every expansion so far has also launched a free update, which has varied in importance and size with each DLC.

That brings us to the latest DLC: Flames of the Nether. Launching alongside the game’s largest free update yet, Flames of the Nether concludes months of speculation that began right after Minecraft Dungeons initially launched by bringing the ARPG to the Nether from Minecraft.

Rumors that Minecraft Dungeons would eventually come to the Nether began when players (including the Windows Central team) discovered a gently-hidden broken Nether Portal in the game’s Camp hub shortly after launch. The Nether Portal could only be accessed after beating the Arch-Illager for the first time and didn’t appear to have any other functions. Months later, our first official tease came during Minecraft Live.

What do I need to know about the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons?

Flames of the Nether is looking like one of the most significant and most ambitious expansions yet for Minecraft Dungeons. While we don’t know a ton of specifics, we can glean from announcements and official teasers that Flames of the Nether should be an exciting release for Minecraft Dungeons players. Almost more exciting, too, is the free update that drops alongside Flames of the Nether.

If you’d like to learn more about the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons in video-form, you can check out Minecraft Dungeons’ dev diary just above.

Levels and missions

Our first stop in our tour of the Flames of the Nether DLC is the locales. It’s already been confirmed that Mojang Studios will feature a staggering six new missions, which is considerably more than any previous expansion. We don’t know how long each individual mission will be, but we do know where they’ll occur.

Flames of the Nether takes place in the most recent version of the Nether introduced in the Nether Update, which means a ton more biomes for players to explore. In teaser images, we’ve already seen at least three biomes:

• Nether wastes. While this sounds like a fun name for a brand-new biome, this is the rebranded name for what the Nether used to be. For an introduction into the Flames of the Nether DLC, there’s no better place to start.
• • Basalt delta. Basalt deltas offer some of the most gorgeous vistas in all of the Nether in exchange for being covered in a thick blanket of ash, pools of lava, and hopping hoards of magma slime.
• Warped forest. These lively biomes are amongst the “safest” in the Nether and are filled with green-blue foliage and trees. Expect to find ender men here if Minecraft Dungeons follows the rules set by Minecraft.
• Crimson forest. Crimson forests will also be prevalent in Flames of the Nether. These locations are bright, aggressive, and filled with potential baddies like piglins and hoglins.
• Soulsand valley. These are desolate fields of soul sand and soul soil. Beyond slowing you down and crippling your movement, they’re also filled with bones — both of the long-dead and the still-walking skeletons.
• Nether fortress. The final stop in the Flames of the Nether DLC is a massive and winding Nether fortress, which in Minecraft is typically home to the worst of the worst.

Beyond the locations we know Minecraft will go, there are still bastion remnants (the home of piglins) and ruined portals (Nether portals that have been destroyed) that can make appearances throughout Flames of the nether.

This gives Minecraft Dungeons plenty of ways to squeeze six full-sized missions from the Nether, complete with secrets and more. I expect Flames of the Nether to be one of the most visually stunning updates we’ve seen for Minecraft Dungeons so far.

Gear and items

As an ARPG, loot is the biggest draw of Minecraft Dungeons. The constant search for new, more powerful gear of all kinds of rarities by battling hordes of enemies draws players towards these kinds of games. Every expansion so far has added at least a handful of new loot to the expanding pool in Minecraft Dungeons, and Flames of the Nether will be no different.

While we don’t have all of the information, we have spotted quite a bit of gear already. Just like with locations, the Nether provides tons of opportunities for Mojang Studios to introduce new gear. From flame-based enchantments and weapons, sturdy netherite gear and armor, and even new Unique gear, there’s a ton that can be done.

In teases so far, we’ve seen fiery swords, a massive stone sword, at least one new crossbow and bow, armor inspired by piglins, crimson forests, warped forests, and more. I expect at least two new weapons, ranged weapons, and armors, with Unique variants for at least half of them. However, with an increased number of missions and content, there can be even more.

Of course, there will also be new artifacts that give players special abilities. We don’t have any details on artifacts. Still, it stands to reason that there’s going to be at least one fire-based attack artifact (maybe a Ghast fireball?) and possibly other artifacts targeted towards support and defense-based characters.

Here’s all of the gear we’ve already seen in the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons:

• Golden Piglin Armor: Unique armor that grants a chance to gain consumables on artifact use, resets artifact cooldowns with potion use, and increases artifact damage.
• Living Vines Armor: Unique armor with reduced roll cooldown that makes health potions heal allies and rolls trap and poison enemies.
• Bone Cudgel: Unique weapon that does increased damage to Illagers and has lots of pushback.
• Mechanized Sawblade: Unique weapon that has long continuous attack.
• Weeping Vine Bow: Unique bow that has charged arrows after rolling.
• Pride of the Piglins: Unique crossbow with a wind-up attack and a chance to fire piercing shots.
• Slayer Crossbow: Unique crossbow that hits multiple targets and has powerful shots.
• Piglin Armor: Normal armor that resets artifact cooldowns with potion use and increases artifact damage.
• Sprout Armor: Normal armor that makes health potions heal allies and rolls trap and poison enemies.
• Boneclub: Normal weapon that has lots of pushback.
• Broken Sawblade: Normal weapon that has continuous attacks.
• Twisting Vine Bow: Normal bow that deals damage.
• Cog Crossbow: Normal crossbow with a wind-up attack.
• Thundering Quiver: Artifact that grants thundering arrows.
• Spinblade: Artifact that ricochets across the battlefield and deals damage.
• Blast fungus: Artifact that flies in multiple directions and explodes, dealing damage.
• Powershaker: Artifact that causes your next few melee attacks to deal explosive damage.

Finally, we know that the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons will introduce all-new top-tier equipment called Gilded gear. It’s only obtainable through endgame missions known as Ancient Hunts (more on those later), and it’s even more potent than Unique gear. Gilded gear possesses an extra ability slot over normal gear. However, the trade-off for such incredible power is that enchanting Gilded gear costs more points.

Mobs and bosses

One of the most notable changes made in the Nether Update was the vast array of diverse mobs that exist in their fiery ecosystem. This gaggle of ghastly mobs (yes, and Ghasts) makes for the perfect enemies in the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons. While we can’t confirm every mob in the DLC, we can take a closer look at what’s already been shown off.

The mobs (and boss(es)?) we know about in the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons include:

• At least five piglin variants. In the Nether, the headlining mob is the piglin, a pseudo-civilization with mobs that have an unnerving fascination with gold and generally don’t like it when people touch their things. In teasers for Flames of the Nether, we’ve seen a basic piglin with a sword, an armored piglin, a piglin with a crossbow, and an ax-wielding piglin berserker. There’s also the new piglin fungus thrower, which tosses fungus grenades to deal explosive damage.
• Magma slime. These hoppy bois are very similar to the regular slime we’ve already seen in Minecraft Dungeons, but they’re also on fire.
• Wither skeletons. Wither skeletons are blackened skeletons with deadly swords that apply a “wither” effect upon hit. Whether or not the “wither” effect makes an appearance in Minecraft Dungeons is unknown, but I’d still expect these baddies to put up a deadly fight. Wither skeletons can also wield bows in Flames of the Nether, making them even more dangerous.
• Blaze. These are ranged enemies that rapid-fire blazing fireballs at their opponents while flying and are some of the more annoying mobs in Minecraft. Expect blaze to be just as fatal in Minecraft Dungeons and Flames of the Nether as in vanilla Minecraft.
• Ghast. Everyone’s favorite mob powered by cat noises, ghasts are ghost-like creatures that fire massive explosive fireballs. Ghasts could appear as stronger base mobs or could end up being a mini-boss with a health bar, like the ender man. I’d put my money on the latter.
• Hoglins. The aggressive pig-like creatures that can provide food in the Nether, will also be making an appearance in Flames of the Nether, and they don’t seem to happy to see you.
• Zombified piglins. It looks like the zombified versions of piglins will be joining the vast army of enemies players will have to face in Flames of the Nether.

Those are all the mobs we can safely identify in official teasers, but there are a few more things that could make an appearance. We’ll just have to wait and see.

That takes us to the subject of bosses. While the ghast is a likely candidate for a suitable mini-boss that breaks up levels and provides an additional challenge, what about the main boss? Without any further information, it would stand to reason that the brutal Wither will take up the mantle. The Wither is dangerous, has varied attack patterns, and, well, already exists.

However, the main teaser for Flames of the Nether may give us a sneak peek at what the real main boss could be. In the lower right-hand corner, we see something that looks like a combination between a mega-Ghast and a ghost-squid. Since key images for previous expansions also contained hints for the main boss, it stands to reason that this mysterious creature will represent the apex of the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons.

Endgame changes

One of the biggest complaints levied against Minecraft Dungeons was the lack of meaningful endgame content. While the game was plenty fun, it quickly became repetitive as players burned through the limited amounts of content, hitting a max power level in less than 30 hours of playtime. Mojang Studios massively improved this situation with Apocalypse Plus mode, which added a further 20 difficulty levels and massively increased the power ceiling for characters. Despite this change, there were still weaknesses in Minecraft Dungeons’ endgame content.

Fortunately, the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons has a plan to fix this. It’s going to be adding procedurally-generated missions, which players have been pining for since launch. As part of the free update dropping alongside Flames of the Nether, Mojang Studios and Double Eleven are adding missions called Ancient Hunts. These missions are procedurally-generated, providing nearly endless content for players, and exist between the Overworld and the Nether.

Completing these intense and near-random missions will give players a chance at earning exclusive rewards for their efforts. Gilded gear represents the new top-tier of equipment over Unique gear and can only be obtained by clearing Ancient Hunts.

It also looks like players will have control over Ancient Hunts, whether that’s what they look like, what they might find, the difficulty, and more. There might be some surprises in store, but this means near-endless replayability for Minecraft Dungeons players. Because of this, though, Ancient Hunts will be separate from Apocalypse Plus mode, and will have their own difficulty levels.

Furthermore, a new currency besides emeralds is being introduced in the free updatewith gold. Gold can be found in brand-new chests either in Ancient Hunts or Flames of the Nether missions. Gold can be turned around and spent at the brand-new Piglin Merchant, who joins other merchants in the Minecraft Dungeons camp like the Blacksmith vendor, Mystery Merchant vendor, and more.

The Piglin Merchant is able to survive outside of the Nether without being zombified, and has made a home in your camp. If you’ve earned some gold from your adventures, you can take them to the Piglin Merchant and trade them in exchange for powerful gear and items.

Finally, Flames of the Nether promises to make more changes to how Apocalypse Plus mode works (also included in the free update). Apocalypse Plus will be rebalanced and expanded even further, hopefully giving players even more reasons to replay. We don’t have all the details for these changes yet, though.

Other additions

We’ve gone over everything we know about the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons except for a handful of loose ends. Most updates for Minecraft Dungeons have included a handful of smaller changes or additions, like new cosmetics or skin options, and Flames of the Nether is no different.

The paid Flames of the Nether expansion will include two new skin choices for characters and a Baby Ghast cosmetic pet that joins the ranks of Baby Chicken, Arctic Fox, and Parrot.

On top of that, Minecraft Dungeons is celebrating 10 million players by dropping a free cape and Baby Pig cosmetic pet that’ll be available to everyone for free alongside the Flames of the Nether DLC.

Will there be a free update with the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons?

Every expansion that’s launched for Minecraft Dungeons has included some kind of free update. In some cases, it’s been a ton of balancing changes and bug fixes, while another expansion added major additions like a revamped Camp with all-new vendors. The Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons is no different. It will be launching alongside a free update available to all players, regardless of whether they purchased the major expansion.

Furthermore, the free update dropping alongside Flames of the Nether is arguably the largest and most ambitious free update so far and should make dedicated Minecraft Dungeons players very happy. Here’s what you can expect in the free update:

• Ancient Hunts. These are procedurally-generated missions that provide endless content for Minecraft Dungeons’ endgame. Ancient Hunts will be challenging, diverse, inspired by the Nether, and include other new additions to Minecraft Dungeons.
• Gilded gear. Gilded gear is ultra-powerful gear that posseses additional abilities, in exhange for increased enchantment costs across the board.
• Gold. A new currency is joining the emerald-based economy in Minecraft Dungeons with gold, which can be found in new chests either in Ancient Hunts or Flames of the Nether missions.
• Piglin Merchant. A new vendor is joining the Camp in Minecraft Dungeons. The Piglin Merchant trades in rare and powerful items, but will only accept the new gold currency.
• Apocalypse Plus changes. The Apocalypse Plus mode that added a considerable amount of endgame content to Minecraft Dungeons is getting an update, although exact changes are unknown. We know it’s going to be rebalanced and expanded in some way.
• Free cosmetic items. The free update alongside Flames of the Nether will include a cosmetic cape and a Baby Pig pet that everyone can redeem.

What will be the price for the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons?

The Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons may come with a substantial free update, but the majority of content there will still need to be purchased. Mojang Studios hasn’t confirmed exact pricing information yet, but we can make some educated guesses about Flames of the Nether.

We know that Flames of the Nether is included in the Minecraft Dungeons Season Pass for $20, including Howling Peaks, Flames of the Nether, and the next two expansions for Minecraft Dungeons.

Flames of the Nether should also be available for purchase by itself, but we don’t have an exact price yet. Previous expansions cost exactly $6, but Flames of the Nether does appear to be much larger in scope and size than anything that came before it. Hopefully, it’ll continue the trend of only costing $6, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a small price increase here.

As always, anyone can access content from DLC expansions, including Flames of the Nether, by playing with a friend who has purchased it. If you play Minecraft Dungeons co-op with someone who owns the Season Pass, for example, you’ll be able to play all the levels and gain all the rewards by playing in their lobby.

Minecraft Dungeons is always better when played with a friend, but this is especially true when you’re venturing into the dangerous and wild Nether. Never miss a moment with one of the best headsets for Xbox Series X|S, which combines excellent in-game audio with superb built-in mics.