Last episode ended at the edge of a Nether fortress, about "a thousand blocks I think" from the portal. Basket has no potions yet, "because that's why I'm here," so there's nothing to heal up with in a hurry. The job is blaze rods and nether wart, and then the long walk back.
Blazes everywhere
Magma cubes show up first, "like big slimes except fire." The bow does most of the early work ("Wow, this bow is amazing"), and the first blaze rod drops a couple of minutes in. The blazes keep coming, so Basket guesses there's a spawner nearby, and soon finds it. Light can stop other spawners, but Basket doesn't believe "that really works with blazes," so for now the plan is to stay out of its range and explore the rest of the fortress.
Wart at the bottom of the stairs
Basket knows where to look. Nether wart, "this little red plant that you use for potion brewing," grows at the bottom of some of the stairwells. Basket also picks up magma cream along the way, another potion ingredient.
Then a hit lands and Basket's hearts turn black: the wither effect, which Basket had warned about a few minutes earlier. One upside of hardcore mode, Basket notices, is that its heart graphics make it "actually easier to see how much health" is left while withered. Right after that, a strip of soul sand covered in nether wart turns up, and Basket picks it.
Farming the spawner
With 11 rods already, Basket goes back and charges the spawner. Shooting blazes from a distance works, but Basket would rather lure them in close and finish them with the Looting sword: "I like that looting three quite a bit." The fire protection armor "is really awesome," and the target is two full stacks, "just so I don't have to really come back here." A ghast drops a tear along the way.
The closest call is a zombie pigman that almost takes a swing by accident. "That would've been the end of the season," Basket says, since angry pigmen call for help and there's nowhere to run this far from home.
Basket walls the spawner into a small room with a cobblestone roof, so the blazes make noise when they come out. They still spawn outside it. "Maybe this isn't the best plan," Basket admits, and a bigger room would have worked better. Meanwhile the plans pile up: a brewing station back home, and splash potions for the zombie grinder, if there's enough gunpowder.
The second stack fills up. "Alright, full stack. Or two stacks, rather. Let's get out of here."
Following the torches
Basket marked the way with torches, but mostly near the end of the trip out. The trail goes cold, so Basket checks the earlier footage for the portal's coordinates and steers home with the debug screen. The cobblestone pillar from last episode means "we know we're home free," but Basket comes out on the wrong side of it and has to find a way across and dig through. The pick is wearing out too: "probably have to do some more diamond hunting once we get back."
Home with new toys
At the portal, Basket drops the junk in the chest there and keeps the good stuff. One trip through the portal and Basket is back in the library, alive, with two stacks of blaze rods, nether wart, magma cream and a ghast tear. "Next episode we can play with some of our new toys."
