Taking Inventory: Warped Fungus on a Stick

It had to arrive eventually. After years of writing about every item in Minecraft, it’s finally time to put everyone’s second-favorite branch-mounted delicacy in the spotlight. Our item of the month is the warped fungus on a stick.

This extremely specific item was added to the game in the Nether Update, released in June 2020. As its name indicates, this update dramatically reworked Minecraft’s warmest dimension, adding new biomes, mobs, a new tier of equipment, and of course plenty of new blocks and items.  

One of the mobs added in that update was the strider, which got its own spotlight in this article. Striders skate across the surface of lava lakes, and can be fitted with a saddle so that they can carry players with them – their toes kept juuuust above the fire.

But there’s a problem. Striders... well. Let’s just say that they weren’t very close to the front of the queue when brains were being handed out. They tend to wander around aimlessly, which isn’t very helpful when you’re fleeing a horde of piglins and need to get across some lava in a hurry.

Luckily, there’s a tasty treat that all striders will respond to – warped fungus. Why they love the stuff, I do not know. Perhaps it’s connected to that aforementioned lack of gray matter. Whatever the reason, wave some fungus around near a strider and it’ll come running striding. 

Then what? I’ll tell you – pop a saddle on the strider, hop aboard and then attach that fungus to a fishing rod and dangle it in front of the strider. You’ll quickly discover that it goes wherever you point it. 

Normally this is the part of the article where I would tell you about some sort of real-world equivalent to warped fungus on a stick, but I searched Wikipedia at length and could not come up with anything even remotely similar.

So instead, let’s talk about a few of the subtleties to grasp about steering your fiery new steed. First, going out of the lava will mean your strider gets cold and will move much slower. When this is the case you’ll see the poor thing shivering. To get off safely, park your strider in the lava by the shoreline, and point your aim at the block you want to step onto before dismounting.

Second, you can gee up your strider by hitting the use button while holding your warped fungus on a stick, bringing the fungus closer to the strider’s mouth and letting them take a little nibble. This will spur them on faster, but remove a little durability from the item. Once all the fungus is nibbled away, it’ll turn back into a regular fishing rod. You can combine two damaged items in an anvil to create one repaired one.

Finally, warped fungus on a stick can be enchanted – you can get Unbreaking, Mending, or the unlucky Curse of Vanishing. If you spend a lot of time in lava lakes atop a strider, it might well be worth spending the XP to level up your warped fungus on a stick.

Now if you’ll excuse me and my little friend, we’re off to stride into the sunset. Wait... this is the Nether... which way does the sun set again?