What twisting vines are
Twisting vines are a Nether plant that grows upward from the floor of the warped forest. They have a turquoise-green color that matches the rest of the warped theme, and they form tall stalks you can climb like a ladder. They were added in the 1.16 Nether Update along with their downward-growing cousin, weeping vines.
If you have spent any time in a warped forest, you have walked past dozens of them. They look like coiled green rope sticking up from the cyan-tinted nylium. They are non-solid, so you can move straight through a vine block, but they are the fastest renewable climbing block in the game once you set up even a small farm.
They are also one of the few Nether plants that is completely safe to handle. They do not poison you, do not give you wither effect like wither roses, and do not damage you on contact. You can build with them anywhere in the Overworld too once you bring some back through your portal.
Where to find twisting vines
Twisting vines only generate in the warped forest biome. That biome only exists in the Nether, so a freshly built portal in the Overworld will not have any nearby until you cross over. Inside the warped forest, vines grow on top of warped nylium blocks in clusters of varying heights, sometimes a single block tall and sometimes more than a dozen.
You will not find them in the crimson forest, nether wastes, basalt deltas, or soul sand valley. If your portal opens somewhere else, build a road or fly with elytra and rockets until you spot the bright cyan glow of a warped forest in the distance.
How to harvest twisting vines
Breaking a twisting vine with your fist, sword, or other tool has a chance to drop the vine as an item. Using shears guarantees the drop every time, the same way shears work on cobwebs and leaves. If you plan to harvest more than a handful, bring shears.
You can also break the block the bottom segment is attached to. When the bottom support breaks, every segment above it pops at once. This is the fastest way to clear a 26-block column, and it works without shears, but the drop rate per segment is lower than shearing each piece.
What tool is best?
Shears are the only tool that matters for keeping every vine you break. An axe, pickaxe, or sword gives no speed bonus and no extra drops. If you do not have shears, your fist works just as well as any non-shears tool.
How to grow and farm twisting vines
Place a twisting vine on top of any solid block. The vine grows upward over time, adding new segments at random intervals. Maximum height is 26 blocks, the same ceiling as weeping vines and kelp.
Bone meal speeds things up. One use adds one or more segments to the column, and a stack of bone meal can take a single vine from one block to its full height in seconds. Once you have a warped nylium block and a few vines, you have an infinite source.
A simple farm setup
The simplest farm is a single block at the bottom of a 26-block-tall column, a vine planted on top of it, and bone meal in your hotbar. When the vine reaches the ceiling, break the bottom support. Every segment drops at once. Catch the drops with a hopper feeding into a chest underneath.
For a hands-off version, point a dispenser loaded with bone meal at the vine and pulse it with a redstone clock. Most players do not need this much automation since wild warped forests already have more vines than you can use, but it is an option if you want vines on demand without leaving your base.
How bone meal grows them
One use of bone meal on a twisting vine adds at least one segment, with a chance to add several at once. The vine grows from the top, not the bottom, so a fresh vine planted on the floor with bone meal applied at the base will sprout new segments above the existing one. If a block is in the way above the top segment, the vine stops growing until you clear it.
You can also apply bone meal to a fully grown 26-block column. Nothing happens. The cap is hard, and bone meal is wasted on a vine that has already hit it.
What twisting vines are good for
Climbing
Twisting vines work like a ladder. Hold forward against the column to climb up, hold shift to hang in place, and hold the jump key to climb faster than a regular ladder. This is the same trick that works on scaffolding and weeping vines.
Build a vine column up the side of a Nether base, a bastion tower, or a cliff in the Overworld and you have a fast renewable elevator. Unlike scaffolding, vines do not collapse if the bottom block is removed, since each segment hangs from the one above it once it has grown.
Composting
Throwing a twisting vine into a composter has a 50 percent chance of raising the compost level by one. Eight successful raises fill the composter and produce one piece of bone meal. If you already have a vine farm, this gives you a free source of bone meal that loops back into growing more vines, crops, or trees.
Decoration
Vines fit Nether-themed builds, jungle ruins, witch hut interiors, and overgrown aesthetics in general. The turquoise color reads as alien and is harder to find in other plants. Stack them in long columns down a wall, or trim them short for a softer accent above a doorway or window.
Twisting vines vs weeping vines
Both vines come from the Nether Update, both work as climbing blocks, and both can be composted at the same rate. The differences:
- Twisting vines grow up. Weeping vines grow down.
- Twisting vines are turquoise and come from the warped forest. Weeping vines are red and come from the crimson forest.
- Twisting vines grow on top of a solid block. Weeping vines hang from the underside of a block.
You can use them together for full vertical coverage on a Nether build, with weeping vines hanging from a ceiling and twisting vines climbing up to meet them in the middle.
Common mistakes
The two mistakes that come up the most when players first start working with twisting vines:
- Forgetting to bring shears into the Nether. Bare-hand harvesting works but drops far fewer vines per column.
- Building a climbing column without a top stop. If you keep climbing past the last segment, you walk off the top into open Nether air. Place a block above the vine column or build out a small platform at the top.
Frequently asked questions
Can you eat twisting vines?
No. Twisting vines are not food for players or for any mob. You might be thinking of warped fungus, which is what striders eat for breeding and what you put on a stick to lead them.
Do twisting vines need light to grow?
No. They grow in any light level, including pitch dark. Their natural Nether home does not have a strong light source, and they grow fine without one.
What block can twisting vines grow on?
Any solid block top. Warped nylium is the natural option, but you can plant them on dirt, stone, deepslate, or anything else that has a full top face.
How tall do twisting vines grow?
26 blocks is the maximum column height, the same as weeping vines and kelp. Once they hit that limit, bone meal stops adding segments.
Are twisting vines and warped fungus the same?
No. They are two separate blocks from the same biome. Twisting vines are the tall green stalks growing out of the floor. Warped fungus is a small mushroom that you can grow into a huge warped tree with bone meal and a warped nylium block.
Can twisting vines catch fire?
Yes. Lava or a flint and steel will destroy them the same way most plants burn. Keep your vine farms a few blocks away from any open lava in the Nether.
Can mobs spawn on twisting vines?
No. Twisting vines are non-solid, so they do not count as a valid surface for mob spawning. A column of vines running up an open wall does not turn that wall into a piglin or hoglin spawn surface, and you can stand inside a vine block without taking damage or being pushed out.
Do twisting vines slow you down?
No. Walking through a vine block has no movement penalty, the same as walking through tall grass or other non-solid plants. The only time vines change your movement is when you climb them.
Why is my twisting vine not growing?
The most common reason is a block directly above the top segment. Vines need an open block above them to add a new segment, so anything in the way stops growth. The other common cause is hitting the 26-block maximum, in which case growth is supposed to stop.
Final tip
If you only build one thing in the Nether for your first base, build a twisting vine ladder up the wall of your portal room. Two vines, eight bone meal, and you have a permanent climb to your overworld portal anchor that costs nothing to replace if it ever burns.