The "roof" of the Nether refers to the largely empty space above the Nether's bedrock ceiling. In contrast to the void, the player does not take damage from the Nether roof, and in Java Edition, the player can also place blocks up to 128 blocks over the Nether roof. The Nether roof was once seen as a bug, but is now unofficially maintained by Mojang.
The Nether roof is completely flat, with only brown and red mushrooms found above the layer of bedrock.[Java Edition only] Unlike the void, the Nether roof does not have its own biome. Instead, its biome depends on the biome under the roof and the lighting changes with the biome as it would below the bedrock.
A use case for the Nether roof is building farms. Having a farm in an empty space is beneficial because more mobs spawn in the farm (See Mob spawning § Spawn Cycle). Common farms to build on the Nether roof include hoglin farms and gold farms.
Another use case is fast travel. The Nether allows for 8 times shorter travel distances, and by building Nether portals, it is possible to travel quickly between destinations using ice highways or other methods of transportation.
Exiting
In Java Edition, the player can use a Nether portal to escape the Nether roof. In Bedrock Edition, the player is not supposed to be in the Nether roof, so if the player logs out and then logs back in, they will be teleported back into the Nether.
Trivia
During the 2025 March Minecraft LIVE, when developers talked about the new happy ghast, one of them suggested some uses for the new mob. High-altitude builds on the Nether roof were among the mentioned suggestions.
Nether portals above the Nether roof now link both ways. Previously Nether portals from the overworld could not teleport entities to portals that are above the Nether roof.
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