How To Get To The Ender World

How to make an End Portal in 'Minecraft,' and use it to find the game's final boss

5 How to make end portal in Minecraft — An End Portal can be found or crafted, depending on the game mode.

You can make an End Portal in "Minecraft" by adding twelve Eyes of Ender to a broken portal.
In Survival mode, broken End Portals can be found in underground strongholds scattered across the world.
If you're playing in "Minecraft's" Creative Mode, you can build an entire End Portal in seconds.
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When "Minecraft" first came out, there wasn't any way to beat the game. You just played as long as you wanted — or until you fell into a ravine and died. But a few years into "Minecraft's" life, the developers added a final boss: the Ender Dragon. Once you beat this flying titan, the credits roll, and you get an achievement for beating the game.

To reach the Ender Dragon, you'll need to build a special structure known as an End Portal. The End Portal gives you direct access to "The End," the dark dimension where the dragon lives.

If you're playing in Survival or Hardcore mode, you'll need to find a broken End Portal underground and repair it using Eyes of Ender. In Creative mode, you can just build one using materials from your infinite inventory.

Whatever your style, we've got you covered with steps to find an End Portal in Survival mode, or craft one in Creative mode.

How to find and make an End Portal in "Minecraft's" Survival mode

In "Minecraft's" default mode, Survival, several broken End Portals are generated underground as soon as you create your world. To use them, you'll need to find the underground stronghold and repair them with Eyes of Ender.

Fortunately, you don't have to aimlessly strip mine the map to find a stronghold. Strongholds can be located using those same Eyes of Ender.

Finding the End Portal

To find the stronghold, you'll need Eyes of Ender, which act as magic compasses of sorts for finding strongholds.

This'll take some work, though. Here's the step-by-step.

Making the End Portal

Once you've reached the portal room, you're almost done. For safety, fill in all the lava and destroy the monster spawner. This will prevent any unfortunate accidents.

At the top of the staircase is the broken End Portal. The portal's entire frame is there, but a number of Eyes of Ender will be missing. Carefully fill in all the missing pegs with Eyes of Ender to activate the structure.

Once you've placed all the pearls, you'll hear a loud booming sound, and darkness will fill the portal. Once you jump in, you'll be taken to The End, and the final boss, the Ender Dragon.

Make sure you're ready to face it before you step inside, because once you do, the only way back is by dying or winning.

How to make an End Portal in "Minecraft's" Creative Mode

The frame pieces of an End Portal can't be crafted. However, in Creative mode, you can find these frames in your inventory (as well as Eyes of Ender) and place them freely.

This means that you don't need to hunt for an End Portal — you can just make one from scratch.

1. Open your infinite inventory and grab your materials. You'll need 12 Eyes of Ender, and 12 End Portal Frames.

2. Now let's start building. To easily make sure that the frames are placed correctly, dig a 3x3 grid in the ground and stand inside of it.

Dig a 3x3 grid — you don't need to fill it, but you can.

3. Position yourself within the grid and face outward, and then place End Portal Frames along the edge of the grid. How you place the frames matters — the sides of the frames with extra green need to be facing the inside and outside, not toward the blocks next to them. Standing inside the grid should ensure they're placed correctly.

The blocks should drop in the correct position if you place them while standing inside the grid, which is where the future portal will spawn.

4. Now get out of the grid and start placing your Eyes of Ender in the frame. As soon as you place the 12th and final Eye, the portal will activate. Jump in, and you'll be transported to The End.

The Eyes can be placed from any direction.

Emma Witman is an Asheville, NC-based freelance journalist with a keen interest in writing about hardware, PC gaming, politics, and personal finance. She is a former crime reporter for a daily newspaper, and has also written extensively about bartending for Insider. She may or may not judge your drink order when behind the bar. Follow her on Twitter at @emwity.