Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The crimson forest is a red Nether forest of huge fungi growing out of crimson nylium, full of hoglins and piglins. It is the second most common Nether biome after the nether wastes, covering about a fifth of the Nether in our sample. Come here for fireproof wood, shroomlights and a renewable source of pork.
| Dimension | Nether |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | Anywhere in the Nether, mostly bordering nether wastes and soul sand valleys |
| How common | 22% of the Nether in our sample (nether wastes 36%, soul sand valley 17%, basalt deltas 16%, warped forest 8%) |
| Distance from 0,0 | Median 97 blocks from the Nether’s 0,0 (our sample), so a portal near Overworld spawn usually opens close to one |
| Mobs | Hoglins, piglins, zombified piglins, and striders on lava |
| Notable blocks | Crimson nylium, huge crimson fungi (crimson stems, nether wart blocks, shroomlights), weeping vines, crimson roots |
| Structures | Bastion remnants, Nether fortresses, ruined portals |
| Biome ID | minecraft:crimson_forest |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.16 (Nether Update, 2020) |
What spawns in a crimson forest
Four mobs spawn here: hoglins, piglins, zombified piglins, and striders on the lava seas. Hoglins are the danger. They are always hostile, hit hard and knock you upward, which near a lava lake can be fatal.
Do endermen spawn in crimson forests?
No. Endermen spawn in the warped forest, soul sand valley and nether wastes, but not in the crimson forest. Ghasts don’t spawn here either. If you are farming ender pearls in the Nether, go to a warped forest instead.
Piglins and hoglins
Piglins leave you alone if you wear at least one piece of gold armor. They still turn hostile if you open a chest or break gold blocks near them. Drop a gold ingot near one and it will barter, tossing back items such as ender pearls, fire resistance potions or obsidian.
Hoglins are the only renewable meat source in the Nether. They drop raw porkchops and leather, and you can breed them with crimson fungus. They are scared of warped fungus, Nether portals and respawn anchors, so a warped fungus placed by your base keeps them away.
Does netherite spawn in crimson forests?
Yes. Ancient debris, the ore that smelts into netherite scrap, generates under every Nether biome, crimson forests included. It doesn’t care about the biome above it, only the height: dig around Y 15. The crimson forest is not a better or worse place to mine it, but it is noisier, because hoglins can wander into your tunnels.
How to find a crimson forest
You rarely have to look far. In our sample the median distance from the Nether’s 0,0 to the nearest crimson forest was 97 blocks, and every one of the 300 seeds had one within 1,000 blocks. Its edges mostly touch nether wastes (68%) and soul sand valleys (21%); it borders warped forest less often (12%).
These Java 26.3 seeds have a crimson forest right at the Nether’s center. Coordinates are Nether coordinates, checked at block level.
| Seed | Crimson forest at (Nether) | From 0,0 | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
-7527190037502534775 |
X -94, Z 130 | 160 blocks | Open on the map |
-1856171074832894972 |
X -74, Z -154 | 171 blocks | Open on the map |
5774717188943918562 |
X -230, Z 2 | 230 blocks | Open on the map |
With cheats on, /locate biome minecraft:crimson_forest gives the nearest one. Remember that one block in the Nether is eight in the Overworld when you plan a portal link.
Blocks worth collecting
Huge crimson fungi are the Nether’s trees. Their stems give crimson stems and planks, which never burn, so they are the safest wood for a Nether base. The caps are nether wart blocks, and the glowing blocks hidden inside them are shroomlights, a full-brightness light source you can’t craft. Grow more fungi by using bone meal on a crimson fungus planted on crimson nylium. Weeping vines hang from the fungi and the ceiling; you can climb them, and they are a handy way down from a high ledge.
Crimson forest vs warped forest
The warped forest is the crimson forest’s blue twin, but they play very differently. The warped forest only spawns endermen and striders, which makes it the safest place to build in the Nether. The crimson forest has hoglins and piglins, so it is busier and more dangerous, but it is also where the food is.
What changed in 2025-26
In Chaos Cubed (Java 26.2, June 2026), piglins now spawn here on Peaceful difficulty, while hoglins count as hostile mobs and no longer spawn on Peaceful.
In Spring to Life (Java 1.21.5, March 2025), the crimson forest counts as a warm biome for the new farm animal variants, so a pig, cow or chicken spawned here (with a spawn egg, for example) comes out as the warm variant. They don’t spawn here naturally.
Source: the official 26.2 and 1.21.5 release notes.
How we measured
The numbers on this page come from our own seed map engine, running Java Edition 26.3 world generation. We generated 300 random seeds and sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square of the Nether centered on 0,0, at about Y 60. “How common” is the biome’s share of those samples; “distance from 0,0” is how far the nearest sample of the biome was. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
