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To craft an Eye of Ender, place 1 Ender Pearl and 1 Blaze Powder in any two slots of a crafting grid. The shapeless recipe creates one eye. Throw it in the Overworld to follow the direction of the nearest stronghold, then use eyes in the stronghold’s End Portal Frame blocks to open the portal.
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What an Eye of Ender is used for
An Eye of Ender is both a navigation item and the key to reaching the End. When you throw one in the Overworld, it travels toward the nearest stronghold. You can use that flight path to narrow down the stronghold’s location. Inside the stronghold, the portal room contains the End Portal Frame blocks that accept Eyes of Ender. Filling the frame opens the End portal.
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The process has two separate stages. First, you make and throw eyes while traveling across the Overworld. Second, you place eyes into the portal frame after you have found the stronghold. A thrown eye and an eye placed in a frame are different uses, so plan your supply before leaving to search.
Materials and crafting result
| Material | How it is obtained | Role in the recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Ender Pearl | Endermen and other documented game sources, including bartering or villager trading | One pearl combines with the powder to make one Eye of Ender |
| Blaze Powder | Crafted from a Blaze Rod dropped by a blaze | One powder combines with the pearl to make one Eye of Ender |
The recipe is shapeless: the pearl and powder do not need to occupy particular squares. Any two slots in the crafting grid work, and each pair produces one eye.
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How to get the two ingredients
Find an Ender Pearl
Ender Pearls can come from endermen. They also have other documented acquisition routes, including bartering and villager trading. Use whichever source fits your world and your current equipment. Keep each pearl in your inventory until you have enough for both navigation and the portal, because a pearl used in one eye cannot be recovered from that eye.
Get a Blaze Rod
Blazes drop Blaze Rods. A blaze encounter is therefore part of the usual survival route to an Eye of Ender. Once you have a rod, craft it into Blaze Powder. Repeat the rod-to-powder step whenever you need more powder for additional eyes.
If you have pearls but no powder, the missing step is not another Overworld material: you must obtain a Blaze Rod first. Conversely, collecting blaze drops without enough Ender Pearls will not let you complete the recipe.
Step-by-step: craft an Eye of Ender
- Open a crafting grid.
- Place one Ender Pearl in any slot.
- Place one Blaze Powder in any other slot. Because the recipe is shapeless, their positions do not matter.
- Take the resulting Eye of Ender from the output slot and move it into your inventory.
Craft one eye per pearl-and-powder pair. If you expect to throw several eyes while searching, craft a batch before you set out instead of returning to gather ingredients after an eye breaks.
How to use an Eye of Ender to find a stronghold
Use the eye in the Overworld, not while you are already in the Nether or the End. The eye’s flight gives you a direction rather than a complete map coordinate, so the reliable method is to move along that line and check again periodically.
1. Throw the first eye
Use an Eye of Ender in the Overworld. It flies toward the nearest stronghold. Watch the direction carefully, then travel in that direction rather than wandering randomly.
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Walk or travel along the path indicated by the eye. Throw another eye periodically to confirm that you are still approaching the same stronghold. Periodic checks prevent a small navigation error from turning into a long detour.
3. Watch for the downward turn
When the eye starts pointing down, the stronghold is below your current position. Stop treating the flight path as a surface route and begin searching underground. The stronghold itself is underground, so a downward indication is the cue to investigate beneath you.
4. Search for the portal room
Finding the stronghold is not the same as finding the portal. Explore its passages until you locate the portal room. The portal room is the place with the End Portal Frame blocks; use those frames for the final activation step.
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How to activate the End portal
- Enter the stronghold’s portal room.
- Identify the End Portal Frame blocks surrounding the empty portal area.
- Place an Eye of Ender into each empty frame block.
- Continue until all twelve frame blocks are filled. Filling the frame activates the End portal.
The portal room has twelve frame blocks, so as many as twelve eyes may be required for activation. Check every frame before assuming the portal is defective; one unfilled block prevents the completed frame from activating.
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The absolute portal requirement is twelve eyes when all twelve frame blocks need filling. That means twelve Ender Pearls and twelve Blaze Powder are required for twelve crafts. This is only the portal calculation, not a complete expedition allowance.
You also need eyes for locating the stronghold. Every time you throw one, there is a one-in-five chance that it shatters instead of returning to you, according to Minecraft.net’s current guidance. Because the number of throws needed depends on how far you travel and how accurately you follow each direction, there is no single guaranteed search count. Craft additional eyes beyond the twelve-frame requirement so a broken eye does not end the expedition.
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- Portal-only plan: up to twelve eyes, assuming none are spent on locating the stronghold and every frame requires one.
- Search-and-portal plan: twelve eyes for the frame plus a reserve for directional throws and possible breaks.
- Risk-aware plan: make as many extra pairs of ingredients as your pearl and powder supply allows, then avoid throwing an eye when you only need to follow a direction you have already confirmed.
The one-in-five figure applies to each thrown use; it does not mean that exactly one out of every five eyes in your inventory will break. Treat it as a per-use risk and carry spares.
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Why an Eye of Ender breaks
A thrown eye can shatter as part of its normal use. The reported chance is one in five each time you throw it, so a break does not indicate a bad recipe, a wrong dimension, or a damaged item. The practical response is to craft replacements before searching and to throw periodically rather than continuously.
If an eye breaks immediately, continue with another eye and keep following the last confirmed direction. If several eyes break, return to your stored Ender Pearls and Blaze Powder or gather more of either ingredient before continuing. Do not spend the last eyes reserved for portal activation unless you have a clear plan to replace them.
Troubleshooting common problems
The crafting output does not appear
- Confirm that one slot contains an Ender Pearl and another contains Blaze Powder.
- Make sure the rod has been crafted into Blaze Powder; a Blaze Rod is not the same ingredient as the powder.
- Use a crafting grid and place the ingredients in any two slots. The recipe is shapeless, so rearranging them should not be necessary.
You cannot find a stronghold after throwing an eye
- Verify that you are using the eye in the Overworld.
- Travel in the direction of its flight and throw another eye periodically to correct your heading.
- When the eye points down, search below your position rather than continuing across the surface.
- Once underground, look for the stronghold’s portal room instead of assuming the first passage you find is the portal.
The End portal will not activate
- Check that you are in the portal room, where the End Portal Frame blocks are located.
- Inspect all twelve frame blocks and place an eye into every empty one.
- If even one frame remains empty, continue placing eyes before troubleshooting anything else.
You ran out of eyes during the search
There is no recovery shortcut built into the eye itself. Gather another Ender Pearl and another Blaze Rod, turn the rod into Blaze Powder, and craft more eyes. Keep a reserve for the twelve-frame activation rather than spending every newly crafted eye on repeated tests.
Java and Bedrock considerations
The available current guidance does not establish a reliable edition-by-edition difference for the recipe, eye-flight behavior, stronghold generation, starting portal-frame eyes, or resource requirements. The instructions here therefore apply as general Minecraft guidance without assigning a different recipe or search method to Java Edition or Bedrock Edition. If a particular version displays different behavior, verify that version’s in-game mechanics before relying on an edition-specific assumption.
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- Have at least one Ender Pearl and one Blaze Powder for each eye you intend to craft.
- Make the eyes before leaving so a broken throw does not stop the journey immediately.
- Reserve enough eyes to fill up to twelve portal-frame blocks.
- Carry extra eyes for repeated direction checks and the one-in-five shatter risk.
- Use the first throw to establish a heading, then check periodically as you travel.
- When an eye points down, search underground for the stronghold.
- Locate the portal room and fill all twelve End Portal Frame blocks to activate the portal.
What to remember
The complete progression is simple but resource-sensitive: obtain pearls, obtain a Blaze Rod and turn it into powder, combine one of each in any two crafting slots, and use the resulting eyes first for navigation and finally for the portal frame. The portal can require twelve eyes, while thrown eyes can break one in five times, so a successful trip depends on carrying more than the bare minimum whenever possible.
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