The nether has been part of Minecraft for a while now and it hasn’t really served any great purpose but Jens Begensten has been teasing us lately with a few new screenshots of the nether which he posted on his twitter. From the looks of the screenshots he has provided us the nether looks absolutely huge! Very reminiscent of an underground city and with the release of the new 1.9 patch, we will probably see quite a few new nether blocks as well as items being released which will aid you in traveling the, now vast, nether! 
Now the new screenshot that he posted doesn’t show any enemies, but I can’t imagine the developers would release such a huge expansion without putting in some new and interesting mobs to kill. Now Jens has also said that we will most likely run into “a new mob that will (nearly) force you to get better upgrades. If you want to fight it, that is”. Which means we will be seeing an improved armor system which allows us to upgrade weapons and armor in order to deal with tougher enemies and armor will be more durable. As of yet that is all we know regarding the new armor system.
Now we already know that 1.9 will include the following:
1. NPC’s will be available to fill up empty villages!
2. Experience points will actually be put to good use! They are currently not used in 1.8 but the developers have said that in 1.9 they will become a bigger part of the game.
3. Animal breeding will become part of the game, presumably for those of us who like farming etc.
4. There will be an increased number of Strongholds per map (3 to unlimited)
5. There will also be boss mobs in strongholds.
6. Armor will have last longer and be more durable.
7. There will also be new Biomes; Snowy and Mushroom. Biomes is another word for a climactic condition(We had to look it up!).
