How to find the End portal (stronghold) in Minecraft

The End portal is hidden in a stronghold deep underground, and eyes of ender lead you to it. This guide covers Java Edition 26.3; Bedrock Edition places strongholds differently.

Combine 1 Ender Pearl and 1 Blaze Powder in any crafting grid to get 1 Eye of Ender. Endermen drop 0 to 1 pearl each, and an Expert (level 4) Cleric may sell them for 5 Emeralds. Blaze rods come from Blazes in Nether fortresses, and 1 rod makes 2 powder. Bring 12 eyes for the portal plus 4 to 6 spares, because thrown eyes can break.

In the Overworld, right-click with an eye. It flies about 12 blocks toward the nearest stronghold, hovers, then either drops so you can pick it up or shatters. Each throw has a 20% chance to break the eye, so after 3 throws there is roughly a 50% chance it is gone. Walk a few hundred blocks between throws.

All 128 strongholds sit in 8 rings around the world center. The first ring holds only 3, about 1,300 to 2,800 blocks from 0, 0:

Two throws are enough to pinpoint the stronghold. Open the F3 debug screen and stand still. Throw an eye, put your crosshair on it while it hovers, and note the first number in brackets on the Facing line (your horizontal angle) together with your X and Z. Then walk 100 to 200 blocks sideways, at a right angle to that direction, and throw again. Enter both throws in the calculator below to get the stronghold's X and Z.

Once you are within about 12 blocks of the target, the eye flies downward instead of up. It points to the spiral staircase where the stronghold starts, not to the portal room. Dig down in a staircase pattern instead of straight down. Mining Infested Stone Bricks releases Silverfish, so expect a few.

From the staircase, explore the stone brick corridors and mark the ones you have checked with torches on one side. The portal room has 12 End Portal Frames over a lava pool and a staircase with a silverfish Monster Spawner. Break the spawner first with a pickaxe, or it keeps sending silverfish while you work.

Right-click each empty frame with an eye. Each frame has a 10% chance to generate with an eye already in it: a portal starts with 1.2 eyes on average, and 28% of portals have none. When all 12 frames hold an eye, the End Portal opens. The frames cannot be broken in Survival, so the portal stays where it is.

• Wear full armor and bring a sword, food and a Bow or Crossbow with plenty of arrows for the End Crystals.
• Carry stacks of blocks to bridge and pillar, and a Water Bucket.
• Wear a Carved Pumpkin to stop Endermen from getting angry when you look at them.
• Do not sleep there: beds explode in the End.

The only ways back are dying or defeating the Ender Dragon, which opens the exit portal. If you die, you respawn at your Overworld spawn point, so set it close to the stronghold first.

In Survival you cannot build an End portal: End Portal Frames cannot be crafted or mined, so the only working portals are the ones in strongholds. In Creative Mode, or with cheats on, you can build your own:

• Get 12 End Portal Frames and 12 Eyes of Ender, from the creative inventory (the frames are in the Functional Blocks tab) or with /give @s minecraft:end_portal_frame 12 and /give @s minecraft:ender_eye 12.
• Lay out a 5 × 5 square on one level: 3 frames on each side, the 4 corners left empty. The 3 × 3 space in the middle becomes the portal.
• Place every frame while standing inside the square. A frame always faces the player who places it, and the portal only opens when all 12 face the center.
• Put an eye in each frame by hand. The portal opens when the last eye goes in, and it replaces whatever fills the 3 × 3 center. Frames filled with /setblock do not open it.

Your portal works like the one in a stronghold: it takes you to the End, and only the exit portal or dying brings you back. In Creative you can break the frames again; in Survival they stay.