The End is Minecraft’s final dimension — a dark, void-filled realm floating in nothing, where obsidian pillars ring a central island and the Ender Dragon waits. Most players know it exists. Far fewer actually make it there. This guide covers the full journey: finding the Stronghold, stepping through the End Portal, surviving the dragon fight, and then — the part most guides skip — what to actually do in the outer End islands where the best loot in the game lives.
What Is the End Dimension?
The End is one of Minecraft’s three dimensions alongside the Overworld and the Nether. It’s a permanent, floating island of End Stone surrounded by infinite void. The main island is where the Ender Dragon fight happens. Beyond that, separated by roughly 1,000 blocks of void, lie the outer islands — where End Cities, Shulkers, and elytra wings are found.
Unlike the Nether, you don’t build a portal to reach The End. You have to find an End Portal hidden inside a Stronghold underground and activate it with Eyes of Ender. There’s no other way in.
The environment itself is hostile in a quiet way. There’s no day/night cycle. Beds explode if you try to sleep (like in the Nether). Water placed in buckets evaporates instantly. Endermen spawn everywhere, and looking at them directly provokes an attack. The outer islands have additional gaps over the void that can kill you instantly if you’re not paying attention. Prepare accordingly.
Phase 1: Finding the Stronghold
Your route to The End starts with finding a Stronghold — an underground maze that contains the only naturally generated End Portal in survival mode. There are 128 Strongholds per world in Java Edition, distributed in rings spreading outward from the world origin. The closest ones are roughly 1,280–2,816 blocks from (0,0). On Bedrock, Strongholds generate differently but are still found the same way: with Eyes of Ender.
Crafting Eyes of Ender
To craft Eyes of Ender you need two ingredients:
- Ender pearls — dropped by Endermen. Farm them at night in a desert or the Nether where Endermen spawn more densely. You need 12 minimum to fill the portal, plus extra for navigation. Craft 16–20 to be safe.
- Blaze powder — crafted from blaze rods, which drop from Blazes in Nether Fortresses. You need to have already visited the Nether to reach The End. Check our Nether portal guide if you haven’t made that trip yet.
Each Eye of Ender has roughly a 20% chance of breaking when thrown, so don’t craft the exact minimum. Craft 16–20 Eyes and keep the spares — you’ll need up to 12 to fill the portal.
Throw an Eye of Ender into the air. It floats in the direction of the nearest Stronghold. Follow it. After a few hundred blocks, throw another. Repeat. The trick to knowing you’re close: the Eye starts angling downward toward the ground instead of flying level. That’s your signal to dig.
Strongholds generate underground, typically between Y=0 and Y=50, and they tend to sit under villages in many biomes (not always, but it’s a useful correlation). Once you start hitting stone brick corridors and mossy stone brick, you’re inside. Navigate the maze — it can be sprawling — until you find the Portal Room: a lava-filled chamber with a staircase and the inactive portal frame at the top.
Activating the End Portal
The Portal Room has a 12-block portal frame surrounding a lava pool. Each frame block has a 10% chance of already containing an Eye of Ender (so expect about 1–2 pre-filled on average). Insert an Eye into each empty frame block to activate the portal. Once all 12 are filled, the portal activates — a black starfield appears in the frame and you’ll hear the dimension open.
One thing to deal with first: there’s a silverfish spawner in the broken staircase in the Portal Room. Silverfish are weak individually but swarm when you attack them. Take out the spawner (or step around it) before you start carefully placing Eyes in frames. You don’t want a mob situation while you’re doing precision work over lava.
When you step into the portal, you’re transported immediately. There’s no going back until the dragon is dead or you die. Make sure your inventory is ready before you jump.
Phase 2: Arriving in The End
You spawn on a 5×5 obsidian platform at coordinates (100, 49, 0) on the main island. The exit portal — the one that opens after you kill the dragon — is at the island’s centre (0, 64, 0). Around it, 10 obsidian pillars of varying heights form a ring, each topped with a glowing End Crystal.
The dragon itself will be circling overhead almost immediately. Don’t panic — it doesn’t deal damage during its circling phase unless it charges at you or you walk into it. Take a moment to orient yourself before you start fighting.
The basic structure of the fight is: destroy all End Crystals first (they heal the dragon), then attack the dragon during its perch on the exit portal fountain. Our full Ender Dragon guide covers the fight in deep detail — gear checklist, crystal strategy, perch attacks, and Java vs Bedrock differences. This article focuses on the broader dimension rather than re-covering the fight mechanics.
Gear Minimum for Entering The End
Before you arrive, you should have:
- Diamond or Netherite armour with Protection enchantments
- Feather Falling IV boots — the dragon launches you into the air; without this you die on the way down
- A bow with Power IV–V and Infinity (plus at least one arrow) for the End Crystals
- A diamond or Netherite sword for the perch phase
- 2–3 Slow Falling potions as insurance
- 64+ building blocks (for pillaring up to caged crystals)
- High-saturation food — steak, pork chops, or golden carrots
- 4–6 extra ender pearls for emergency void escapes
Our survival tips cover gear progression if you’re still getting there.
Phase 3: After the Dragon — The End Gateway
When the Ender Dragon dies, several things happen simultaneously:
- 12,000 XP orbs explode outward — more than any other source in the game. Walk through them all.
- The exit portal opens at the island centre, letting you return to the Overworld.
- The Dragon Egg appears on top of the exit portal fountain (a decorative trophy — no crafting use in Java Edition).
- The first End Gateway portal appears near the island’s edge: a small floating obsidian frame with a light beam shooting from it.
The End Gateway is the key to everything else. Throw an ender pearl into the gateway’s opening (it’s only 1 block wide — aim carefully) and you’ll be teleported roughly 1,000 blocks to the outer End islands. Up to 20 gateways can generate per world, one each time you kill or respawn the dragon.
Don’t leave The End immediately via the exit portal without using a gateway first — the outer islands are where the actual loot is, and this is your moment to go while you’re already here.
Phase 4: The Outer End Islands
The outer islands are where The End becomes genuinely exciting. These floating islands come in two types: small rocky outcroppings connected by narrow land bridges, and larger flat islands covered in Chorus trees — those strange branching purple plants that look like coral. End Cities generate only on the larger islands.
The outer islands are separated by gaps over the void. You can bridge across with building blocks, throw ender pearls between islands, or — once you have elytra — just fly. Until you have elytra, bridging is the safest option. Keep your building blocks topped up and always be aware of the void below you. A misjudged ender pearl that falls short means instant death.
Endermen spawn throughout the outer islands at high rates. Wear a carved pumpkin as a helmet to prevent them from aggroing on you — it limits your vision but removes the threat entirely.
End Cities
End Cities are tall structures built from End stone bricks and purpur blocks — the characteristic purple material that only exists in The End. They look like purple skyscraper towers with bridges and smaller turret structures branching off them. Inside, rooms are guarded by Shulkers.
Shulkers are shell mobs that fire homing bullets. When a bullet hits you, it applies the Levitation status effect — you float upward for 10 seconds, then fall. Inside a tall End City tower with no ceiling, that’s survivable. On a bridge over the void, that’s potentially lethal. Engage Shulkers with a sword up close. Their shells open periodically to fire — hit them in the open shell for maximum damage. They drop Shulker Shells when killed.
End City chests contain strong loot: enchanted diamond armour and tools, iron ingots, gold ingots, and occasionally diamonds. The Spire Armor Trim smithing template also appears in End City loot. But the real prize is the End Ship.
End Ships and Elytra
Some End Cities generate an End Ship — a floating ship structure attached to the city by a bridge. Not every city has one (the chance of a ship spawning from any given bridge is about 12.5%), so you may need to explore several cities before you find one.
The End Ship contains:
- Two loot chests with the same End City loot table
- A Dragon Head at the bow — the only survival-mode source of this decorative block
- Three Shulkers guarding the interior
- An item frame in the treasure room holding a pair of elytra wings
Elytra are the single most game-changing item in Minecraft. They equip in your chestplate slot and let you glide through the air. Combine them with firework rockets in your hand while gliding and you get powered flight — unlimited altitude gain, effectively turning you into a flying player. I spent half my first End session just looping around the outer islands on elytra before I even thought about heading back. It fundamentally changes exploration, building travel, and everything else from that point on.
Elytra have 432 durability on Java (433 on Bedrock) and lose 1 durability per second of gliding. Repair them with phantom membranes at an anvil (108 durability per membrane), or apply the Mending enchantment so they self-repair as you collect XP.
Shulker Boxes
Two Shulker Shells crafted together make a Shulker Box — a portable inventory container that keeps its contents when broken. This is one of the most practically useful items in the late game. A Shulker Box lets you carry a full chest’s worth of extra items in a single inventory slot. They’re indispensable for mining runs, loot expeditions, and any time you need to haul large quantities of material. Our Ancient City guide covers another late-game loot destination that pairs well with shulker box storage.
Chorus Fruit
Chorus trees grow throughout the outer islands. Their fruit — Chorus Fruit — can be eaten and will randomly teleport you a short distance, similar to ender pearls but uncontrolled and with no fall damage on arrival. It’s a useful emergency escape from Shulkers or void falls. Popped Chorus Fruit (smelted from the raw fruit) is a crafting ingredient for purpur blocks and end rods. You can also bring chorus plants back to the Overworld and grow them on End Stone.
What to Prioritise on Your First End Visit
The outer islands are large and you can spend a long time here. Focus on these in order:
- Elytra first. Find an End Ship. Everything else is secondary to getting elytra on your first visit, because elytra make every subsequent exploration trivially easier.
- Farm Shulkers for shells. Kill as many Shulkers as you reasonably can — they don’t respawn, so each city is a limited supply. You want enough shells to craft several Shulker Boxes.
- Loot End City chests for enchanted gear upgrades, diamonds, and the Spire Armor Trim if you want it.
- Collect Chorus Fruit for Overworld use if you want to grow your own.
Getting Back to the Overworld
Once you’ve looted enough, return to the main island (use an End Gateway from the outer side, or bridge back). Step through the exit portal at the centre. You’ll be transported to your spawn point in the Overworld with everything you collected.
If you want to return to The End, you can — just jump back through the End Portal in the Stronghold. The main island resets nothing (the dragon stays dead and the crystals stay broken). You can also respawn the dragon by placing four End Crystals on the sides of the exit portal fountain. This regenerates the pillars and their crystals and lets you fight again — for 500 XP this time instead of 12,000, and no new egg on Java. Each dragon kill spawns an additional End Gateway portal, giving you more access points to the outer islands.
Common Mistakes in The End
- Leaving via the exit portal before exploring outer islands. The exit portal is right there and it looks inviting after a hard fight. Don’t use it until you’ve at least thrown a pearl through an End Gateway and looked for an End Ship. You can always come back, but many players don’t.
- Standing on the void-side of island edges. The outer islands have abrupt edges. One step too far while focused on a Shulker fight means void death and losing everything you just collected. Hug the interior of islands.
- Not bringing enough building blocks. Bridging between outer islands requires a lot of blocks. Bring at least two stacks of cheap blocks (cobblestone, dirt) beyond what you need for the crystal fight.
- Looking at Endermen. The outer islands have extremely high Endermen density. A carved pumpkin helmet costs you nothing meaningful and prevents the entire threat.
- Skipping the End Ship. Some players loot End City chests and leave, not realising the Ship is the point. Always check every bridge extension off a city for a Ship before moving on.
For a complete breakdown of the dragon fight mechanics, gear, and perch phase strategy, see our full Ender Dragon guide. If you’re still gearing up in the Overworld, our survival tips will help you get there faster, and our Ancient City guide is another late-game dimension challenge worth tackling alongside The End.
The End is also home to the most efficient Enderman XP farm in the game — see our XP farms guide for how to set it up.
Sources
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. The End. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. Stronghold. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. End City. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. Elytra. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. Shulker. Minecraft Wiki.
References
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. The End. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. Stronghold. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. End City. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. Elytra. Minecraft Wiki.
- Minecraft Wiki Contributors. Shulker. Minecraft Wiki.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.