Minecraft Stronghold Finder

Use our Minecraft Stronghold Finder to locate exact stronghold coordinates from your world seed. Supports Minecraft Java and Bedrock Edition with fast, accurate results—no cheats or /locate commands required.

100% FREE

Find Stronghold in Minecraft

World Seed

Player X

Player Z

World Version

NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT ENDORSED BY OR CONNECTED TO MOJANG OR MICROSOFT.

At a glance

Stronghold: Quick Answer

Strongholds are underground structures in the Overworld and the only place to find an End portal. In Java Edition there are 128 strongholds in eight rings around 0, 0, with the first 3 between 1,280 and 2,816 blocks from the center. In Bedrock Edition they are scattered more randomly, at least 160 blocks from the origin. Enter your seed and coordinates above to get the nearest one, or follow a thrown eye of ender.

Inside: The only End portal in the game (12 frames)
First ring (Java): 3 strongholds, 1,280 to 2,816 blocks from 0, 0
Total (Java): 128 strongholds in 8 rings
No seed?: Throw an eye of ender and follow it

What Is a Stronghold?

A stronghold is a maze of stone brick corridors, staircases and rooms buried in the Overworld. Its most important room is the End portal room: the only place in the game where an End portal can be found, so every player who wants to fight the Ender Dragon has to reach one.

Strongholds can generate at any Y level, mostly underground. They are sometimes cut into by caves, canyons, mineshafts, ancient cities or trial chambers, which can leave parts of the corridors exposed. The End portal room itself is rarely overwritten.

Stronghold Rings in Java Edition

Ring	Strongholds	Distance from 0, 0 (blocks)
1	3	1,280 to 2,816
2	6	4,352 to 5,888
3	10	7,424 to 8,960
4	15	10,496 to 12,032
5	21	13,568 to 15,104
6	28	16,640 to 18,176
7	36	19,712 to 21,248
8	9	22,784 to 24,320

Strongholds in the same ring are spread at roughly equal angles around the world center. In the first ring, the 3 strongholds sit about 120 degrees apart, so once you find one you have a good idea where the other two are.

Bedrock Edition works differently. Strongholds generate randomly, at least 160 blocks from the origin, with no fixed limit on how many there are. There are also 3 extra strongholds at least 453 blocks from the origin that always generate below a village meeting point.

What's Inside a Stronghold

Room	What you find
End portal room	12 End portal frames, lava and a silverfish spawner. The only room every stronghold is guaranteed to have.
Libraries	0 to 2 per stronghold, with bookshelves and 1 or 2 chests. In Java Edition, library chests always hold an eye armor trim.
Storerooms and altars	Chests with food, iron gear, ender pearls, diamonds and enchanted books.
Corridors and staircases	Stone bricks, mossy and cracked bricks, and blocks infested with silverfish.

Each End portal frame has a 10% chance to already contain an eye of ender. On average a portal room starts with about 1.2 eyes filled in, so plan on bringing close to a full set of 12.

How to Find a Stronghold

Get your world seed with /seed, or from the world settings screen.
Enter the seed and your X and Z coordinates in the Stronghold Finder above, and pick your edition and version.
Travel to the nearest result and dig down. Look for stone bricks and iron doors.
No seed? Craft eyes of ender (ender pearl and blaze powder) and throw one. It flies about 12 blocks toward the nearest stronghold, then drops or breaks.
Keep walking in that direction and throw again. When the eye flies downward instead of up, the stronghold's entrance staircase is right below you.

Eyes of Ender: What to Know

Every throw has a 20% chance of breaking the eye, so throwing the same eye three times gives it about a 50% chance of being lost. Pick up the eye when it drops and use your throws sparingly on long trips.

The eye leads to the chunk of the stronghold's first spiral staircase, not to the portal room. The portal room never generates within five rooms of that staircase, so expect to explore before you find it. You need 12 eyes in total to activate the portal, minus any that are already in the frames.

Frequently Asked Questions

How far away is the nearest stronghold?

In Java Edition, the closest strongholds are in the first ring, between 1,280 and 2,816 blocks from the world center, with 3 of them spread around it. In Bedrock Edition, strongholds generate randomly but never closer than 160 blocks to the origin. Enter your seed and coordinates above to get the exact nearest one.

How many strongholds are there in a Minecraft world?

Java Edition worlds have 128 strongholds in eight rings around the world center, from 3 in the first ring to 36 in the seventh and 9 in the outermost ring. Bedrock Edition has no fixed number: strongholds generate randomly across the world, plus 3 extra ones placed under villages at least 453 blocks from the origin.

How many eyes of ender do you need?

An End portal has 12 frames, and you need an eye of ender in every one of them to activate it. Each frame has a 10% chance to already hold an eye, about 1.2 per portal on average. Since each throw can break an eye with a 20% chance, bring extras for finding the stronghold.

Can you find a stronghold without eyes of ender?

Yes. A stronghold's location is fixed by the world seed, so you can enter your seed and coordinates in the Stronghold Finder above and go straight to the nearest one. You will still need eyes of ender to activate the End portal once you get there.

What Y level are strongholds at?

Strongholds can generate at any Y level, but they are almost always underground and are never generated partly above ground. Some reach all the way down to the bedrock layer, and a few get exposed by canyons or caves. When a thrown eye of ender flies downward, start digging straight down.