Stronghold


Info

Trivia

  • For some reason, the stairs leading to sections are Cobblestone Stairs instead of Stone Stairs. Only the ones that lead to the Portal, are made of Stone.
  • End Portals become useless if there is an Abandoned Mine Shaft or a Ravine cutting right through it (As at least one of the 12 portal surround blocks tends to be destroyed on generation).
  • There is a possibility that you will be unable to locate the portal, because it will be hidden inside the stones.
  • It is extremely rare, but possible, for a dungeon to be just outside the portal room, thus cutting off the rest of the Stronghold or not spawning it.
  • It`s extremely rare, but if you go to the portal and go in it, you will go to the Nether instead of The End.
  • If a stronghold is found at diamond level, there is a possibility that it will cut through Bedrock. Usually staircases going down to here are just an empty room.
  • Strongholds can sometimes spawn under oceans or other bodies of water. This occurrence can make them hard to access.
  • Although it is extremely rare, an End Portal in a Stronghold may already have all 12 Eye of Enders fitted into the End Portal Frames, meaning you can go to the End without even having to find Diamonds.
  • It is possible for a Stronghold to generate under a Village.

Trivia

  • There are exactly 233 bookshelves in one large Library Room, which, if mined with a non-Silk Touch axe, will yield exactly 699 books.
  • There is an extremely low chance (1 in 1 trillion) for all the end portal frames in the stronghold to be filled completely, thus allowing the player to access the end even without going to the Nether.

Videos

Generation

Stronghold layout through the world.

There is a limit of 128 strongholds per world (3 per world in Console Edition).

All strongholds are located at random positions within rings, each ring with a certain radius from the origin – the point at x = 0, z = 0, not the world spawn, which may be a couple of hundred blocks away. Strongholds also may extend further in or out of that area. The strongholds are generated at roughly equal angles from the center point of the world (for instance, each stronghold in a ring of 3 is in the region of 120 degrees from the others, measured from the origin). The game will not generate a stronghold partially above-ground: any portion above the ground layer will be replaced with air blocks, leaving a cutaway. Strongholds may generate at bedrock level, cutting the bedrock Bedrock Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 18,000,000 Tool None Renewable No Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops None Data value dec: 07 hex: 7 bin: 111 Name bedrock Bedrock is a block, indestructible by survival means. Contents minecraft verify.

In Pocket Edition, 3 strongholds generate within a ring of radius between 640 and 1152 blocks. Other strongholds will generate randomly throughout the world.

In the Computer Edition, they generate in rings with the strongholds evenly spaced around the circle until the total of 128 is reached.

  • The 1st ring has 3 strongholds within 1408–2688 of the origin
  • The 2nd ring has 6 strongholds within 4480–5760 of the origin
  • The 3rd ring has 10 strongholds within 7552–8832 of the origin
  • The 4th ring has 15 strongholds within 10624–11904 of the origin
  • The 5th ring has 21 strongholds within 13696–14976 of the origin
  • The 6th ring has 28 strongholds within 16768–18048 of the origin
  • The 7th ring has 36 strongholds within 19840–21120 of the origin
  • The 8th ring has 9 strongholds within 22912–24192 of the origin

Strongholds primarily generate underground, and prefer to generate in biomes above sea level but will generate underwater if necessary. Whole rooms can be flooded if the stronghold is intersected by a mineshaft or ravine. Very rarely, floating rooms can be found in the ocean. They also attempt to generate under village wells. Pocketedition only Pocket Edition Author(s) Mojang AB Jens Bergensten Aron Nieminen Daniel Kaplan Tommaso Checchi Shoghi Cervantes Jason Major Daniel Wustenhoff Tomas Alaeus Mikael "Slicedlime" Hedberg @@@#@@@Microsoft(microsoft.com)###@### Studios 1] Platform(s) Written in C++ 2] Latest version 1.1.2 minecraft Portal rooms (and other parts of the stronghold) can be overwritten by ravines, caves, abandoned mineshafts, dungeons, or parts of the stronghold itself, forcing a player to find one of the other strongholds.

Structure

Strongholds vary in size. They contain several doors and rooms made mostly of stone brick Stone Bricks Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 30 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Experience Smelting Stone Bricks: 0.1 Drops Itself Data value dec: 98 hex: 62 bin: 1100010 Name stonebrick Stone bricks are one minecraft (45%), mossy stone brick Stone Bricks Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 30 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Experience Smelting Stone Bricks: 0.1 Drops Itself Data value dec: 98 hex: 62 bin: 1100010 Name stonebrick Stone bricks are one minecraft (30%), cracked stone brick Stone Bricks Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 30 Tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Experience Smelting Stone Bricks: 0.1 Drops Itself Data value dec: 98 hex: 62 bin: 1100010 Name stonebrick Stone bricks are one minecraft (20%) and monster egg Monster Egg Transparency No Luminance No Blast resistance 3.75 Tool Any tool Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No Drops Spawns 1 Silverfish Data value dec: 97 hex: 61 bin: 1100001 Name monster_egg See the minecraft blocks (5%). Strongholds are lit by enough torches to provide visibility in most areas, though not enough to suppress mob spawns.

Each Stronghold contains several dispersed chests containing a variety of loot.

Rooms

Libraries

Each stronghold library chest contains 2–10 item stacks, with the following distribution:

Stack Size Weight # Items Chance # Chests

Paper
2–7 2052 10.385 94.6% 1.1

Book
1–3 2052 4.615 94.6% 1.1

Enchanted Book
1 1052 1.154 72.2% 1.4

Compass
1 152 0.115 11.0% 9.1

Empty Map
1 152 0.115 11.0% 9.1
  1. a b c Enchantment probabilities are the same as a level-30 enchantment on an enchantment table Enchantment Table Type Solid Block Requirements None Physics No Transparency Yes Luminance Computer: No Pocket Edition: 12 Blast resistance 6,000 Hardness 5 Tool Renewable No Stackable Yes (64) Flammable No First appearances See History Drops minecraft that was able to apply treasure enchantments See the mechanics of Enchanting. Contents 1 Basic Mechanics 2 Bookshelf placement 2.1 Selecting an enchantment level 3 How Enchantments Are Chosen 3.1 Step One - Applying modifiers to the enchantment level minecraft , and where the chance of multiple enchantments is not reduced.

Blocks

Block

Stone Bricks

Cracked Stone Bricks

Mossy Stone Bricks

Water

Monster Spawner

Iron Bars

Lava

End Portal Frame

Torch

Oak Fence

Chest

Stone Brick Slab

Cobblestone

Stone Brick Stairs

Oak Wood Planks

Ladder

Stone Slab

Stone Button

Iron Door

Oak Door

Cobblestone Stairs

Bookshelf

Cobweb

Stone Bricks Monster Egg

Loot

See also: Chest loot

Store rooms

Each stronghold storeroom chest contains 1–4 item stacks, with the following distribution:

Stack Size Weight # Items Chance # Chests

Apple
1–3 1562 1.210 50.0% 2.0

Bread
1–3 1562 1.210 50.0% 2.0

Coal
3–8 1062 2.218 35.6% 2.8

Iron Ingot
1–5 1062 1.210 35.6% 2.8

Redstone
4–9 562 1.310 19.0% 5.3

Gold Ingot
1–3 562 0.403 19.0% 5.3

Enchanted Book
1 162 0.040 4.0% 25.1

Iron Pickaxe
1 162 0.040 4.0% 25.1

Slab altars

Each stronghold altar chest contains 2–3 item stacks, with the following distribution:

Stack Size Weight # Items Chance # Chests

Apple
1–3 1599 0.758 33.7% 3.0

Bread
1–3 1599 0.758 33.7% 3.0

Iron Ingot
1–5 1099 0.758 23.4% 4.3

Ender Pearl
1 1099 0.253 23.4% 4.3

Redstone
4–9 599 0.821 12.2% 8.2

Gold Ingot
1–3 599 0.253 12.2% 8.2

Iron Pickaxe
1 599 0.126 12.2% 8.2

Iron Sword
1 599 0.126 12.2% 8.2

Iron Helmet
1 599 0.126 12.2% 8.2

Iron Chestplate
1 599 0.126 12.2% 8.2

Iron Leggings
1 599 0.126 12.2% 8.2

Iron Boots
1 599 0.126 12.2% 8.2

Diamond
1–3 399 0.152 7.4% 13.5

Enchanted Book
1 199 0.025 2.5% 39.9

Saddle
1 199 0.025 2.5% 39.9

Iron Horse Armor
1 199 0.025 2.5% 39.9

Golden @@@#@@@Apple(apple.com)###@### (Normal)
1 199 0.025 2.5% 39.9

Gold Horse Armor
1 199 0.025 2.5% 39.9

Diamond Horse Armor
1 199 0.025 2.5% 39.9

Advancements

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Internal ID
Advancement-plain-raw.png
Eye Spy Follow an Ender Eye We Need to Go Deeper Enter a stronghold. minecraft:story/follow_ender_eye

Video

History

Beta
Jul. 01, 2011 Jens Bergensten shares an image of mysterious ruins. Unlike modern strongholds, a large part of these ruins are above-ground.
1.8 pre1 Added strongholds as part of Adventure Update. They are vacant except for regular mobs that spawn under normal conditions.
Strongholds have chests in libraries and in storerooms.
pre2 Increased stronghold count to three per map instead of one.
Official release
1.0.0 Beta 1.9-pre1 The End Portal room was added to the Stronghold.
Beta 1.9-pre3 A pair of glass towers indicated the location of a stronghold`s start (aka Main entrance) and second for the portal room on top of them, extending from the top of the map to the stone bricks. This was because Jeb forgot to remove the debug towers.
Strongholds now also have chests in corridor altars.
Beta 1.9-pre4 Removed glass towers generating above strongholds.
1.4.2 12w40a Strongholds can now generate in the air in Superflat worlds with certain customization presets.
1.9 15w43a Increased stronghold count to 128 per map, rather than 3.
Library chests now have 2–10 stacks of items, rather than 1–4 stacks
Enchanted books found in library chests is now weighted to 10 rather than 2, and in single books rather than in groups of 1–5.
16w06a Stronghold placement formula changed.
pre3 Ender Eyes can now point to the 125 new strongholds.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.9.0 May 6, 2014 Jeb posts on Instagram a photo of one section of a stronghold.
May 8, 2014 Jeb posts another image of a stronghold, this time within the End Portal Room.
build 1 Added strongholds.
The end portal block frame exists, but the player cannot travel to the End.
0.9.2 Strongholds are now more common.
Pocket Edition
1.0 build 1 Strongholds now generate in new chunks
Strongholds can now be found using eyes of ender Eye of Ender Type Items Durability N/A Renewable Yes Stackable Yes (64) Internal ID PC: 15 PE: 70 Network ID PC: 72 Entity ID eye_of_ender_signal First appearances See History Data value dec: 381 hex: 17D bin: 101111101 Name minecraft .
Console Edition
TU5 CU1 1.0 Patch 1 Added strongholds.

Issues

Issues relating to ⃢₀ₜStronghold⃢₀₝ are maintained on the issue tracker. Report issues there.

Overview

Contents

show

    Overview

    An example of a cave system intersecting with a Stronghold.

    Up to 128 strongholds spawn per map on the PC edition, as of The Combat Update (vs only three on the₠Xbox and PS3 editions). ₠Most strongholds have a Monster Spawners (for Silverfish),₠an abundance of Stone Bricks, Torches, Chests with randomized loot, Stone Slabs, and blocks found mainly underground such as Cobblestone.

    A hazard worthy of note that is found inside Strongholds is the Silverfish. In addition to the spawner, some of the blocks the stronghold is composed of will spawn silverfish when broken; they are only distinguishable by their fixed mining speed, which is comparable to wood. Some of the items commonly found inside a Stronghold include Coal, Apples, String, Compass, Paper, Books, Iron Bars, Redstone Dust, and sometimes a Clock or Gold Ingots.

    It is possible and relatively common for Caverns, Underground Ravines, Abandoned Mine Shafts, and Dungeons to intersect a Stronghold. It is also possible for Stronghold hallways to extend out into a body of water, allowing for easier detection of the Stronghold. When generated after 1.0.0, Strongholds also contain a portal room with an inactive End Portal, which when activated with 12 Eyes of Ender, can be used to travel to The End.

    03:13

    End Portal

    A tutorial on how to reach the Stronghold in Minecraft.

    Tips for exploration

    When exploring a stronghold, it is advised to bring some useful things.

    • Pickaxe - There might be Mossy Stone Bricks or ores (extremely rare) that could be useful to mine.
    • Sword or other weapon - Many mobs, including₠Silverfish, may be encountered, so be prepared with a weapon.
    • Eye of Ender - The most important resource while exploring and finding a stronghold. These are required to find the stronghold and activate the₠End Portal.
    • Health Potions - Health may get low, if attacked by hostile mobs. Regain the health by using health potions.
    • Iron or Diamond Armor - These kinds of armor are strong enough to keep a player while facing enemies within a stronghold.
    • Bow and several Arrows - This will be convenient later on in₠The End₠while fighting.
    • Food - All the fighting and exploring will cause a player to lose several hunger points. Make sure there is enough food items which restore at least 3 or more hunger points.
    • Compass - This could be used to help a player get their bearings and navigate the many rooms and corridors within a stronghold.
    • Torches - Like caves, strongholds are very dark inside. Plenty of torches will be needed.
    • Bed - Placing a bed in a stronghold and sleeping in it, will allow a player to remain in the stronghold if they die, rather than running back from a long distance.

    Mobs

    Mobs that spawn inside of Strongholds are mostly Silverfish. However any mob that usually spawns in darkness could also be found inside, especially in places where Caves or Ravines intersect.

    Rooms

    While there is no predefined template or blueprint for a Stronghold, there are several rooms that may generate in a Stronghold. Here is a list of rooms and what they contain:

    • Hall: Big room that may contain a fountain. Often used as the entrance and/or to connect other rooms.
    • Jail: Empty rooms behind, Iron Bars,₠Iron Doors₠(Usually opened),₠and Buttons.
    • Small library: Bookshelves, Wooden planks, Chests and Cobweb.
    • Large library: Same as a Small library, but with an added floor above, with a balcony and Fences and Torches arranged in a in a chandelier-like style. Both floors are connected by Ladders.
    • Empty rooms: This is self-explanatory, often generated to the sides of Halls.
    • End Portal Room: The room contains an End Portal and a Silverfish spawner.

    As a Base

    If you visited a Stronghold multiple times and know what is where in the Stronghold, you might want to use it as a secondary base. This has its advantages, but also disadvantages:

    Advantages:

    • If you play on a server, it is very hard to find for griefers if they don`t have Eyes of Ender.
    • You don`t have to build or dig a whole base because the map generator has already done the work for you!
    • There is plenty of space to store your loot.
    • A handy tip if you are moving to another location: Take anything you might want to have in your new base, including bricks!
    • If you get lost (in the Overworld), you can find your base by using Eyes of Ender, so remember to take some when going out.
    • If you need to go to The End (if the server does not have a warp feature that goes to The End), there is always one nearby.

    Disadvantages:

    • You will need₠lots of torches to ensure that no mobs will spawn. Or, you must always be ready to fight.
      • However, as you (assumingly) already have explored it thoroughly, there are likely already a lot of torches around.
    • If you are in SMP, the last advantage also counts for other players armed with Eyes of Ender.
    • Since they are often exposed by Ravines,₠Abandoned mine shafts, and₠Dungeons, it makes it easier to find for griefers. However, if you block up the incidental entrances, you might just be able to make yourself comfortable.
    • If you are moving and following the tip named above, mining some Stone Bricks might awaken Silverfish.
      • An easy way to discriminate between normal bricks and Silverfish bricks is to see how fast it mines with your hand. Silverfish bricks are destroyed in 3 seconds, even using your hand.