Building Blocks: Stronghold

The places that strongholds are found differ a little between Java and Bedrock – so let’s talk about both! In Bedrock Edition, strongholds are distributed randomly throughout the Overworld, at least 160 blocks away from the original spawn point – the world’s center. In Java edition, strongholds can be found in concentric rings that surround the world’s origin. The first ring has three strongholds, the second has six, the third has 10, the fourth 15, and so on – all the way up to the eighth ring which has nine strongholds in it.

You don’t need to start counting circles to find a stronghold though. There’s an easier way - and that’s by finding something that originates in the End dimension – an Ender pearl, and imbuing it with the fire of the Nether – in the form of blaze powder. Combine those two ingredients in a crafting grid and you’ll get an Eye of Ender.

Next – throw it away. By which I mean: hit your “use” button while holding the eye, and you’ll see it fly up into the air in a specific direction. That’s the direction of the nearest stronghold. You can keep repeating this trick, until you find the stronghold. BUT! There’s a catch. Eyes of Ender are fragile, and every time you use one there’s a one-in-five chance that it’ll shatter. This means that you should be kinda sparing about how you use them, and take multiple with you.

There’s another reason to take multiple Eyes of Ender with you when trying to find a stronghold. You’ll need them to activate the portal – each stronghold’s portal room contains twelve blocks that must be filled with an eye of ender before the portal will activate. Usually you’ll find that one or two of them are already full, but it’s best to bring plenty of Eyes with you if you’re serious about fighting the dragon – you don’t want to get half-way and then run out before you find the stronghold, or get to the stronghold and then find you don’t have enough to activate the portal successfully. 

Do you want to know a fun fact, though? Strongholds were added in Minecraft beta version 1.8, the Adventure Update, in September 2011. But it wasn’t until version 1.0 was released in November of that year that strongholds got their End portal rooms added. Before that, players had to be content with just the libraries, storerooms, and jail cells.

So here’s my advice. Next time you’re hunting down an End portal, don’t just rush through to the dragon. Take a moment to explore the rest of the stronghold, and enjoy what players in autumn 2011 experienced. You’ll find weapons, armour, silferfish, resources, food and plenty of other things that’ll be useful for your interdimensional expedition. If that’s not worth a little detour, I’m not sure what is.