The Ember Sanctum
A reaction cracks the Cinder Warden’s armour open.
What it is
A forge-temple in the Nether’s caves, kept by the Cinder Warden. Its armour turns every blow and every plain spell. Only an element reaction breaks through, so this is where you learn reactions for real.
| Biomes | Nether wastes, basalt deltas, crimson forests |
| How often | About one in every square 576 blocks across |
| Doors | Fire and Earth, then Void and Storm. The vault’s is Frost and Fire |
| Boss | The Cinder Warden, 300 health |
| Its own rune | Cinderheart (Tier IV) |
| Trophy | The Cinder Heart |
| Runes found only here | Cinderbrand, Ashen Veil, Kindled |
How to find it
It sits on a Nether cave floor above the lava sea, or is carved into the rock where there’s no floor, so tunnelling can find one too. Look for a causeway of blackstone bricks between two lava trenches, with braziers either side. A Sanctum never cuts into a fortress or bastion.
The way in
The gate: Fire and Earth seals.
| Room | What’s in it | Door out |
|---|---|---|
| The causeway | A path between two lava trenches | Fire and Earth seals |
| Hall of Chains | A lava channel crossed by three bridges, magma patches, a chest, and four Runebound | Void and Storm seals |
| The Forge | Blast furnaces, lava cauldrons, an anvil | open |
| The Arena | A domed forge-circle with four lava pools near the edge and the forge-altar in the middle | Side door of Frost and Fire |
| The Vault | Two chests |
How to open the doors is on the Archive page. The vault door is a hint: Frost and Fire make Shatter.
The Hall of Chains and its keepers.
The hall’s guards: two wither skeletons (Fire Bolt, Fire Arc), a skeleton (Frost Bolt) and a piglin brute Adept (Flashfire Cone). The Frost Bolt and a Fire Bolt together make a Shatter on you, so kill one first. More wither skeletons, blazes and magma cubes spawn inside, and about a third of the wither skeletons are Runebound. Sneak over magma blocks.
The hall chest holds 2 to 3 Tier II or III fire and earth runes, plus 2 to 3 of: a Torn Page, Blank Runes, lapis, blaze powder, a Mana Crystal, magma cream, gold, or (rarely) netherite scrap.
The Cinder Warden
The Cinder Warden on its forge-circle.
It climbs out of the forge-altar the first time a player comes within 12 blocks. It’s nearly three blocks tall, walks slowly, can’t be knocked back, and never strays more than 22 blocks from its altar. Fire, lava and burning never hurt it. It’s weak to frost (+50%) and resists fire (half), but a reaction set off on it lands in full. See Creature Affinities.
Its trick: armour only a reaction breaks
| What hits it | What it takes |
|---|---|
| Swords, axes, arrows, tridents, fists | Nothing |
| Fire, lava, burning | Nothing |
| A plain spell | A tenth of its damage |
| A spell that sets off a reaction on it | Full damage, and its plates crack open |
| Any spell while cracked open | Full damage |
A crack stays open for 1.5 seconds, and the boss bar says cracked open!. A reaction anyone sets off cracks it for everyone. How reactions work is on Reactions.
How it fights
It fights with its fists, its chains and its own heat, and never makes the same move twice running. Each move has its own wind-up and marks where it will land on the floor, and the boss bar names it with a hint on what to do. Nothing lands until the wind-up ends, and the aim of the aimed moves locks a quarter of a second before the blow.
| Move | From | What you see | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hammerfall | Phase 1 | Both fists raised overhead, trembling, over a ring marked before it | Leave the ring (behind it is safe). From phase 2 a wall of fire rolls out from the blow: jump it |
| Chain Sweep | Phase 1 | Its chains let out to lie along the floor, scraping, out to a marked ring | Hug its feet, stand outside the ring, or jump the chains as they come round |
| Seam | Phase 1 | Crouched, gauntlets dug into the floor, a line marked out up to 13 blocks | Step off the line before the floor bursts open along it |
| Vent | Phase 1 | Hunched round its core, back plates lifting and hissing, a cone marked behind it | Get out from behind it |
| Haul | Phase 2 | A chain whirled overhead, faster and faster, down a marked lane | Step out of its line, or be hauled in and struck. On a miss it hauls itself after the hook, bowling people over |
| Slag | Phase 2 | Head thrown back, chest heaving, marks round everyone | Keep off the marks; the pools burn a while. It favours anyone standing still |
| Bellows | Phase 2 | Chest swelling, arms spread, then a long cone of fire that turns slowly after you | Run round it, or put stone between you |
| Flare | Phase 3 | Curled tight round its core, flames running in across the floor, its glow beating faster | Put stone between you and it. It reaches 16 blocks, and comes at most every 15 seconds |
Its openings. Some moves leave it open, and the boss bar says so:
- Fists sunk in the floor after a Hammerfall: its back is bare for a moment.
- Steaming for 5 seconds after a Vent (7 from phase 2): a storm spell sets off Conduct.
- Tangled in its own chain after a Haul that bit nothing, then pulled taut for 3 seconds: blast it (Implode) or repel it (Collapse).
- Fanned open for 4 seconds after its Bellows: fire sets off Wildfire.
- Spent and brittle after a Flare: it goes nearly dark and cold, open to fire (Shatter) or earth (Fracture).
- Reeling. Set off a reaction on it during any wind-up and it rocks back on its heels for over a second and loses the move. This can happen once every 10 seconds.
Its armour is unchanged: only a reaction still cracks it. The openings just hand you the reaction.
Its spells set up reactions on you. It casts most early in each phase, then between its moves, more often when you keep your distance. The boss bar names each one, and the circle lands 1.4 seconds later.
| Phase | Its spells (the reaction it sets up on you) |
|---|---|
| 1 (300 to 200) | Frost Bolt › Fire Bolt (Shatter), Fire Pillar, Ember Wave |
| 2 (200 to 100) | Dash Bolt › Fire Comet (Wildfire), Frost Ring › Fire Ring (Shatter), Fire Rain, Flashfire Cone |
| 3 (100 to 0) | Drawing Bolt+ (Implode), Frost Bolt+ (Shatter), Inferno Zone, Frost Wave › Fire Wave (Shatter) |
What each phase changes. In phase 2, Haul, Slag and Bellows join in, the Sweep turns back the other way, the Vent’s cone grows and it rests less between moves. In phase 3 the Flare joins in, the Seam fans out into three, the Sweep reaches further, a second load of slag drops out of the dark, the breath turns faster, and over half its moves run straight on into another with a shorter wind-up.
Stoking its forge. At each phase change it can’t be hurt for 3 seconds, then the heat throws everyone within 8 blocks back. Two Runebound wither skeletons climb out of the fire (Fire Bolt and Frost Arc; Adepts the second time). No single blow skips a phase.
Tips and counterplay
-
Bring a one-spell reaction. The easiest is the Warden’s own:
Bolt · Frost · Delay · Bolt · Fire. The fire half sets off Shatter, lands in full and cracks it open. Others that work:Reaction Example spell Shatter Bolt · Frost · Delay · Bolt · FireWildfire Bolt · Push · Delay · Bolt · FireImplode Bolt · Pull · Delay · Bolt · ExplodeFracture Bolt · Chill · PeltBlight Bolt · Hex · VenomRupture Bolt · Rend · WindcutNothing sets the Warden alight, so fire-based Overload doesn’t work. There’s no rain in the Nether, so soak it with a spell if you want Conduct.
- Hit hard inside the crack. For 1.5 seconds every spell does full damage, and frost does 50% more.
- Read the floor. Every move marks where it will land: a ring, a line, a cone or spots. Get off the mark before the wind-up ends.
- Use its openings. Storm it while it steams, blast it while it’s pulled taut, burn it while it’s fanned open or spent. Each one hands you a reaction for free.
- Stand behind its fists, not before them, and don’t stand behind it when its plates lift.
- Dodge the second half of its paired spells. When the bar says Drawing Bolt+, get clear of the comet.
- Fire Resistance stops its burning (not blasts or the fist). So does the Cinder Heart on your next visit.
- Kill its keepers first: Fire Bolt plus Frost Arc is a Shatter on you.
- Mind the lava pools when you get knocked back.
- Don’t bother with blades or arrows. They do nothing.
When it falls
- Everyone who fought and is within 96 blocks of the altar gets a Tier IV rune they don’t know yet, straight into their pack.
- Its killer also gets the Cinder Heart trophy, the Cinderheart rune, 3 Mana Crystals, a Torn Page, a fire or earth rune, and a 50% chance of a rune of the Sanctum.
- 220 experience drops on the altar. Anything that doesn’t fit is left on the altar, safe from fire, lava and blasts.
- Everyone within 64 blocks earns the Tempered feat (1,500 mana toward your next Heart Circle) and advancement. It counts as a boss for the 7th Heart Circle, and the feat itself is one of the things the 10th Heart Circle asks for.
The Cinder Heart is kept, not spent: hold it up for 3 minutes of Fire Resistance, then it rests for 5 minutes.
The vault
The vault, behind the Frost and Fire door.
Each of its two chests holds a Tier IV rune, a rune of the Sanctum (35% chance of a second), and 2 to 4 of: Mana Crystals, a Torn Page, gold, blaze powder, diamonds, magma cream, an echo shard, or netherite scrap.
The runes of the Sanctum:
- Cinderbrand (Tier II fire, the most common): brands a target, and your fire burns it hotter for a while.
- Ashen Veil (Tier III fire): fire can’t hurt the target, and whatever strikes it up close catches fire.
- Kindled (Tier III modifier): more power, and the effect sets what it hits alight.
Full details are on Runes of the World.