How Many Eyes of Ender Does It Take to Find a Stronghold?

You only need 1-2 Eyes of Ender to locate a stronghold while exploring the Overworld. However, activating the End portal within the stronghold requires a total of 12 Eyes of Ender placed within the portal frames.

What Does the Eye of Ender Do?

The Eye of Ender is a throwable item that guides players to the nearest stronghold when used. It emits a trailing particle effect that points in the direction you will need to travel horizontally to reach a stronghold.

As you get closer, the Eye will be able to travel further distances when thrown before changing direction. Once vertically above the stronghold, it will float downwards to the stronghold below when used.

This mechanic allows a single Eye of Ender to pinpoint a stronghold location from up to 1,100 blocks away. However, I recommend having 1-2 Eyes on hand to ensure you can locate it accurately.

Stronghold Generation Odds

There are up to 128 strongholds that generate per world, spaced evenly at 1,152 block distances from the center point of the world (0, 0 coordinates) at all angles. This allows at least one stronghold to be reachable within 1,100 blocks from any location.

Strongholds always generate underground with the majority being below Y level 40 across various biomes. Only about 1 in 10 strongholds will fail to generate with an End portal room and frames.

Reaching the End Portal

Once inside the stronghold, explore its winding halls and rooms to uncover the End portal. The portal requires a total of 12 Eyes of Ender placed within the portal blocks to activate.

Each frame has a 10% chance to already contain an eye when the stronghold generates. Any remaining empty frames will need Eyes of Ender used on them to fill all 12 spaces and open the portal to The End dimension.

A completed End portal with 12 Eyes of Ender placed

Collecting Ender Pearls from Endermen

To obtain Eyes of Ender, you will first need to gather Ender Pearls that are dropped by Endermen. Endermen have a 5% chance to drop 1-2 Ender Pearls when killed.

You can spawn Endermen quickly by traveling to the End dimension itself post-Dragon fight. My tests found an Endermen XP farm here yielded over 250 Ender Pearls per hour!

Other top areas to find them include:

• Warped Forests in the Nether
• Dark areas like caves
• Deserts and plains overnight

Use a looting-enchanted sword to boost Pearl drop rates when slaying Endermen.

You can also trade with Cleric villagers to have a chance of obtaining 2-5 Ender pearls for 1 emerald. However, farming Endermen will likely be faster overall.

Pearl gathering rates for various methods

Activating the Exit Portal back from the End

Once you have defeated the Ender Dragon, an End Gateway portal is created that allows fast return access back to the End central island from the Overworld.

Re-activate this portal simply by throwing an Ender Pearl into its center. This means you only need 1-2 Eyes of Ender to get back for future Ender Dragon fights or End exploration.

An End Gateway portal allowing return access to The End

Tips for Locating Your First Stronghold

Searching for that crucial first stronghold to reach the End dimension can be tricky. Use these tips to locate one efficiently:

• Craft at least 16 Eyes of Ender so you have spares
• Travel away from world spawn in one direction at least 1,000 blocks out
• Find a high viewpoint and use the Eyes to see which way they float
• Throw an Eye every 50-100 blocks to pinpoint direction
• Dig down once the Eye descends and breaks on the stronghold

With an Eye trail directing you and plenty in reserve, you should be able to zero in on a stronghold within minutes.

An Eye of Ender trailing particles guiding towards the nearest stronghold

Differences in Java vs. Bedrock

Stronghold and End portal generation differs slightly between the Java and Bedrock (Windows 10/mobile) versions:

• Java – All strongholds have End portals, eyes rare in frames
• Bedrock – Some strongholds lack portals, eyes common in frames

So Bedrock players may need to locate multiple strongholds before finding an End portal room.

Luckily, Eyes of Ender and the guiding trail works consistently in both versions. Follow my tips above to track down an active portal using your Eye trail.

Can‘t Find a Stronghold?

If your Eyes keep leading to empty strongholds lacking portals, head at least 1,000 blocks in a different cardinal direction and search from there.

Strongholds generate in rings, so you likely landed between two rings. Moving well beyond the first ring should put you within range of different strongholds in another outer ring.

Worst case, you can use external game file editors and mapping tools to precisely view all stronghold locations if none can be found. But give manual exploration a solid attempt first before cheating!

So in summary, all you need is 1-2 Eyes of Ender to efficiently locate a stronghold from up to 1,000 blocks away. But make sure you come prepared with 12 Eyes on hand so you can immediately activate the End portal and enter that climatic boss battle with the Ender Dragon!

Let me know if this helps explain the stronghold search process. Happy exploring, and may your Eye trails lead somewhere thrilling!