Minecraft wiki entry for Things_not_to_do, associated text: The vast space inside the Nether, along with its environment, comes with many more risks and hazards than one would expect from the Overworld. The player should come well-prepared with a bow (preferably enchanted), at least two stacks of arrows, (or one arrow if the player has Infinity), enchanted iron/diamond armor, especially those with Fire protection, and an iron or diamond sword (preferably enchanted with Sharpness). However, unless the player is on Hardcore, they should leave their more valuable equipment such as diamond items at home: an inventory-incinerating death in lava is far more likely in the Nether than it is in the Overworld. The player should only bring along one or more iron pickaxes and an iron shovel (unless they plan to farm soul sand to plant nether wart in the Overworld) as tools, and torches, at least a stack of food, flint and steel for relighting the player's nether portal if something happens to it, and two to three stacks of cobblestone. If the player does not want to risk losing anything else, then they should not bring anything else. If the player is not playing on Hardcore mode, and wants to preview the Nether, they may want to equip some cheap weapons just in case the nether portal spawns in a lava ocean.