Whether you’re a speedrunner or a regular Minecraft player, your life can’t be complete without a Stronghold. This is one of the oldest and most important structures in the game. You cannot finish the story of Minecraft without finding one. But even with a powerful history, the Stronghold can still be confusing for new Minecraft players. That’s why we are stepping in with a complete handbook to Strongholds that you can use to find, explore, and make the most out of these mighty structures in Minecraft. This is the only guide you will need.
Minecraft Stronghold Guide (2022)
What is a Stronghold in Minecraft
Following the plot of defeating the dragon, Stronghold is considered the last major structure you need to find in the overworld. It is where the End portal spawns that you can use to reach the End dimension, where Minecraft’s largest boss, Ender dragon, lives. As a structure, all Strongholds are sets of underground rooms and smaller structures.
They only generate in the Overworld dimension and are almost always buried deep beneath the ground. Since they are supposed to be the structure that prepares you for the final battle, you can get a bunch of useful resources from the Strongholds early on.
Rooms in a Minecraft Stronghold
A Stronghold in Minecraft has the following set of smaller structures and rooms within:
- Chest Corridors: These are long corridors with a chest sitting on one side on top of a small staircase-like structure.
- Staircase: Most Strongholds are made up of multiple floors and have staircases connecting them. Though, at times, some staircases lead nowhere.
- End portal room: This is where the End portal generates alongside a silverfish mob spawner. Every Stronghold only has one portal room.
- Libraries: Often infested with web and spiders, libraries are two-floored rooms in Strongholds, loaded with bookshelves and a couple of chests.
- Prison Cells: All Strongholds in Minecraft have a small area with dark prison cell areas where hostile mobs might spawn.
- Empty Rooms and Corridors: To make the portal room challenging to find, Stronghold has plenty of empty rooms and corridors.
What Can You Get in a Stronghold
The Stronghold in Minecraft spawns with a lot of great chest loot. Some of these items spawn in the corridor chests, while others show up in the chest of libraries. You can find the following items in these chests:
- Apples and Golden Apples
- Bread
- Book
- Coal
- Redstone Dust
- Gold and Iron Ingots
- Compass
- Paper
- Maps
- Ender Pearl
- Ink Sac
- Iron Sword, Pickaxe, and Armor Pieces
- Diamonds
- Music Disc
- Enchanted Books
- All Types of Horse Armors
- Saddle
Minecraft Mobs Found in Stronghold
Other than the chest loot items, you can find the following Minecraft mobs in the Stronghold:
- Silverfish (most commonly)
- Zombies
- Creepers
- Skeletons
- Spiders
- Witch
Leaving the silverfish aside, all the other hostile mobs that spawn in Stronghold are the same that regularly spawn in the caves and at nighttime in the overworld.
How to Find a Stronghold in Minecraft
You have to use an Eye of Ender to find the Stronghold in Minecraft. When thrown in the overworld, it always flies towards the nearest Stronghold. Alternatively, you can also use commands in Minecraft to find the coordinates for the nearest Stronghold in your world.
For your ease, we already have a guide on how to find a Stronghold in Minecraft. You can use this guide to read a variety of step-by-step methods of finding the Stronghold in Minecraft.
How to Activate the End Portal
The main part of Minecraft Stronghold is the End portal. It spawns in its dedicated portal room that is usually generated in a central location of the Stronghold. This portal surrounds a pool of lava and is located right next to a Pufferfish mob spawner.
You need to put all the Eye of Enders in their dedicated portal frame holes to activate the End portal. After activating it, you need to jump into the portal to travel to the End dimension of Minecraft.
Explore the Stronghold in Minecraft
With that, you know everything you need to know about Strongholds in Minecraft. You can now easily find, loot, and conquer them before entering the End dimension. Then, once you have conquered the End dimension, you can create an Endermen farm right there. It is one of the many best Minecraft farms that you can get in your world. Having said that, which other structure do you want to explore in Minecraft? Tell us in the comments below!
