How To Ride A Strider in Minecraft

Stride your way across the deep lava ocean with your very own Strider mount! In this guide, we will show you how to ride and control a strider in Minecraft.

Ever since the Minecraft 1.16 Nether update, the world inside the Nether became more vibrant, and it turned the Nether into an important location for players to continue the game’s progression. The game developers added new biomes to explore, resources to farm, and mobs to discover. But along with it came a massive predicament—how will players discover new places in the Nether without crossing the vast lava seas? We certainly can’t ride boats on lava, and the Nether is not an ideal location to bring your pet horse. So what do we do now?

Luckily for us, Mojang decided to bring to life one of the coolest mobs a player could mount: the strider. Striders are two-legged mobs that walk—or rather stride—on lava in Minecraft. They only spawn on lava oceans in the Nether, and when you bring one out of the Nether, they’ll get hurt by rain. They’re so cool that zombified piglins might even hitch a ride on one! Pretty unique, right? If you want to find out how to ride striders in Minecraft, then read on to find out.

What Is A Strider?

Minecraft striders are passive mobs that are native to the Nether. These two-legged creatures love warped fungus and will follow the player when they hold one in front of them. They often spawn in groups of two to four, and there is a 1 out of 10 chance for a baby strider to spawn riding an adult strider. Striders walk on lava considerably faster than on land, and their appearance becomes darker outside of lava. They can also breed baby striders when you feed both parents with one warped fungus. To ride one, you place a saddle on it, and then you can mount them anytime. The tricky part is in controlling where you want them to go.

Things You Will Need

You will only need a few items to mount and ride a strider. Some of these items must be acquired via loot from chests, dropped by certain mobs when killed, or crafted using mid-game resources such as the saddle and lead. Here is a list of all the things you will need to ride one:

• Saddle: The saddle is an item that is used to ride mobs such as horses, donkey, mules, and pigs. Unfortunately, saddles cannot be crafted. You will need to find one in order to obtain a saddle. Saddles can be obtained from chests, fishing, trading with a master-level leatherworker villager, or dropped by mobs such as the ravager when killed.
• Warped Fungus on a Stick: This item is a fishing rod with a warped fungus attached as bait. It will be used to lead and control the direction of a strider’s movements similar to how mounted pigs can be controlled using a carrot on a stick.
• Warped Fungus: Warped fungus is a type of fungus that grows on warped nylium blocks. This item will be used to bait the strider the follow you. Warped fungus is fairly common in the warped forest biome but you may find some of these in the crimson forest biome as well.
• Lead: The lead is used to leash mobs to make them follow you. You will need a lead to leash the strider once you dismount it, otherwise the strider will wander away.
• Nether Brick Fence (Optional): You may want to bring one nether brick fence with you when riding a Strider in the Nether. This fence will be used to attach the lead to it—allowing you to explore the nether without the strider wandering off on its own. Specifically, you will need a nether brick fence due to its wooden counterpart being fairly flammable in the nether.

How To Craft Warped Fungus On A Stick

1. Use a crafting table and craft a fishing rod first. You will need three sticks and two strings to craft one fishing rod. The sticks and strings must be placed in the right pattern in order to successfully craft a fishing rod.
   
2. Next, you will need to combine the fishing rod and one warped fungus on the crafting table to make a warped fungus on a stick.
   

How To Ride A Strider

If you have all the items you need to mount a strider, it’s time to look for the perfect strider companion. It is definitely worth your while to get yourself a new mount while in the Nether as it makes things easier for you to cross the vast lava seas and explore more places in Minecraft.

1. First, you will need to look for a strider. Striders spawn on the lava seas so you must get to the bottom floor. Be careful not to accidentally fall into the lava, otherwise you will not only die but risk your items burning in lava as well.
   
2. When you get to the bottom part of the nether, try going near an edge where there are striders around. Then hold the warped fungus in your hand to bait them to follow you.
   
3. Once the strider is close enough, use the saddle and place it on the strider using the “Use Item/Place Block” or right-click mouse button.
   
4. Now that you have the saddle equipped on the strider, you can mount it by facing the strider and pressing your right-click mouse button.
   
5. To control the strider’s movement, equip the warped fungus on a stick in your hand and simply rotate your mouse in the direction you want the strider to move.
   
6. To dismount, simply press the left shift button on your keyboard. Make sure that you are on land when you dismount from the strider, otherwise you will fall in lava.
   
7. To leash the strider, use the lead by right-clicking on the strider while holding the lead. Then place the brick fence on the ground and right-click the fence again to attach the lead to the fence.
   
8. Now that you have your strider mount secured, you can freely explore the Nether.