Minecraft guide: How to tame/breed hoglins in the Nether Update

Hoglins are one of the new mobs being added to Minecraft in the upcoming Nether Update. They're the only real source of food in the Nether, making them a valuable commodity for players to keep around. They're also hostile mobs, however, so they will attack you on sight if you're not careful. It is possible to placate them, in a way, as well as breed them to create more hoglins. After a while, you could have a veritable farm of hoglin livestock in the Nether. Here's how to do it.

How to tame and breed hoglins in the Nether Update

The first step to being able to tame and breed hoglins is of course, finding them. Fortunately, we have a guide that does just that. Once you've found your hoglin pals in a crimson forest, you'll probably want an abundance of two different kinds of fungi that are also being added in the Nether Update.

• Crimson fungus. These fungi are found in the crimson forest, and much like their name and the place they're found, they're very red. Hoglins love crimson fungi, so this is your number one tool for getting on their good side.
• Warped fungus. This is the opposite of crimson fungi, and is only found in warped forests. Unlike crimson fungi, hoglins hate it. In fact, they'll do anything they can to stay away from it.

Once you have your items and you've found at least on pack of hoglins, you're ready to tame them and breed them if you want. This is useful if you want to make sure you always have a supply of food in the Nether, since longterm adventures can dry up food stores rather quickly. It's good that Mojang made handling hoglins surprisingly easy, despite their aggressive nature. That's because both of the fungus types have very different effects on the hoglin. Here's what you need to do:

• To lead the hoglins: This means to safer locations, pre-built pens you've prepared for them, even your living room, wherever you want the hoglins to go. Use a crimson fungus. Much like other animals, if hoglins see you holding their food, they'll willingly follow you.
• To scare the hoglins: If you want the opposite effect, say if there are too many hoglins around and you don't feel totally safe, use a warped fungus. Hoglins despise the drab vegetation, and will flee several blocks away if they spy you holding it.
• To tame the hoglins: There's no way you can totally make hoglins friendly, as they are aggressive beasts by nature. However, making sure you're always holding a crimson fungus when you're around them goes a long way.
• To breed the hoglins: As many of you may have guessed, the magical food that gets hoglins in the mood to, ah, make babies is the crimson fungus. If you feed two adult hoglins that haven't bred recently a crimson fungus each, a new baby hoglin will spawn into existence near them.
• To contain the hoglins: If you want to build an area specifically for your hoglins, nether brick fence is the obvious choice. It doesn't burn, doesn't allow mobs to jump over it, and looks at home in the Nether. Just make sure you always have some crimson fungi handy anyways, or some warped fungi to scare the hoglins away from the entrance.
• To hunt the hoglins: Hoglins are aggressive, and will attack players on sight. They also have a high degree of knockback, so they can be very annoying to fight. However, as of right now, hoglins do not fear fire, or panic when they're set on fire. This opens up ways for you to deal extra damage to them, and get some cooked porkchops out of it. Bows are also useful.

A farmer in Hell

That basically covers it. Hoglins aren't the most complicated of creatures, with fairly predictable behavior and ways of controlling them. Things can get a little more hectic if piglins are around, but as long as you've set aside an area for your hoglins, you should always have a supply of delicious porkchops if you need it. You should still watch out for the lava, though.