Last updated: 3 July 2026

How to Find a Stronghold in Minecraft

The stronghold is where the End portal lives — the only way to reach the End and fight the Ender Dragon. There is no map marker for it; you find it by throwing Eyes of Ender and following where they fly. With a stack of eyes and a little triangulation you can pin one down fast and be standing on the portal in minutes.

01Craft Eyes of Ender First

Everything starts with Eyes of Ender. Each one is crafted from one Ender Pearl (dropped by Endermen, or bought from Piglins by bartering with gold) plus one Blaze Powder (made from a Blaze Rod, which Blazes drop in Nether fortresses).

The recipe is simply 1 Ender Pearl + 1 Blaze Powder = 1 Eye of Ender, in any shape in the crafting grid.

Bring at least 15–16 eyes. You need 12 to activate the portal, and every time you throw one to scout, there is roughly a 20% chance it shatters instead of dropping back for you to pick up.

02Throwing and Following Eyes

Throwing an eye is how you locate the nearest stronghold:

1. Stand out in the open (on the surface) and press use to throw an Eye of Ender.
2. It floats up and travels horizontally toward the nearest stronghold, hovers for a moment, then drops — about 80% of the time you can run over and pick it back up.
3. Walk or sprint in the direction it flew, then throw another eye every 20–40 blocks to stay on course.
4. When an eye stops travelling forward and instead floats straight up and then dives downward, you are directly above the stronghold — start digging down.

Never throw eyes while underground or in caves — they will fly into the ceiling and waste throws. Always scout from the surface.

03Triangulation — The Fast Method

Instead of physically chasing every eye across the map, you can triangulate the stronghold's location from just two throws:

1. Throw an eye and note the exact direction it flew using the debug facing readout (press F3 on Java to see your facing angle).
2. Travel several hundred blocks perpendicular to that direction.
3. Throw a second eye and note its new direction.
4. The point where those two lines cross is the stronghold — head straight there.

This saves a huge amount of walking because the stronghold can be over a thousand blocks away. Many players use a free triangulation calculator with the two F3 readings to get exact coordinates.

04How Far and How Many

Strongholds generate in rings around the world origin (0,0). The innermost ring — the closest strongholds you can reach — sits roughly 1,280 to 2,816 blocks from spawn, so expect a journey.

Modern versions of Minecraft generate 128 strongholds per world (older versions had only three). A thrown Eye of Ender always points you to the nearest one, so you never have to find a specific stronghold — just follow the eyes.

05Digging In and Activating the Portal

Strongholds are underground stone-brick complexes with libraries, corridors and store rooms. Once an eye dives downward over your position:

• Dig down carefully — never dig the single block straight under your feet, in case you drop into lava or a deep room. Stagger your descent or use a staircase.
• Explore until you find the End portal room: a 12-block portal frame suspended over a lava pool, with a silverfish spawner nearby.
• Some of the 12 frame blocks may already contain an Eye of Ender (this is random, from 0 up to all 12). Fill every empty frame by pressing use on it with an eye.
• When all 12 frames hold an eye, the portal activates with a starfield in the centre.

Light up the room to stop silverfish swarming you, keep a water bucket handy for the lava, and make sure you are fully geared before you jump in — the other side is the Ender Dragon fight.