Stronghold

Stronghold
Portal Room
Type	Generated Structure
Location	Hidden underground
First Appearance	Update 0.9.0

Strongholds are Generated Structures added in Update 0.9.0. They are the rarest generated structures in Minecraft.

Generation

Up to 128 Strongholds can be generated in a world. Sometimes they are generated in connection with a Village well.

As of Update 1.0, it is possible to locate them using Eyes of Ender or using the /locate Command.

Structure

Exterior

Almost no outward indications exists, making them hard to find. However sometimes the Player can dig around a Village Well and locate the Stronghold. It may also show up at the bottom of Deep Ocean Biomes; look for stone bricks and/or lighted areas where a wall is not fully formed. Certain texture packs may help with seeing them under the water as well.

Rarely, the Stronghold will intersect with an Abandoned Mineshaft.

Interior

Strongholds vary in size but are generally large and complex like a maze, containing multiple rooms often with walls of Iron Bars, corridors, Libraries, stairwells, fountains, dead ends, and other features. Strongholds are lit by enough Torches to provide visibility in most areas, though not enough to suppress Mobs from spawning.

They are mostly built out of Stone Bricks, Mossy Stone Bricks, and Cracked Stone Bricks. Some of these blocks are Monster Egg (AKA Silverfish Stone) which spawns Silverfish.

Of the more essential structures within a Stronghold are the End Portal room, and one or two Libraries with Loot Chests. The Libraries might contain several hundred Bookshelves.

Loot

It is possible to get loot from Chests present in Strongholds. They are:

Stronghold Crossing

Item	Weight	Chance	Count
Group count: 1-4
Iron Ingots	50/386	13.0%	1-5
Gold Ingots	25/386	6.5%	1-3
Redstone	25/386	6.5%	4-9
Coal	50/386	13.0%	3-8
Bread	75/386	19.4%	1-3
Apples	75/386	19.4%	1-3
Iron Pickaxe	5/386	1.3%	1
Enchanted Books	6/386	1.6%	1
Ink Sac	75/386	19.4%	1-3
Based upon 1.7.0 behavior pack

Stronghold Library

Item	Weight	Chance	Count
Group count: 2-10
Books	100/270	37.0%	1-3
Paper	100/270	37.0%	2-7
Map	5/270	1.9%	1
Compass	5/270	1.9%	1
Enchanted Books	60/270	22.2%	1
Based upon 1.7.0 behavior pack

Stronghold Corridor

Item	Weight	Chance	Count
Group count: 2-3
Ender Pearl	50/511	9.8%	1
Emerald	15/511	2.9%	1-3
Diamond	15/511	2.9%	1-3
Iron Ingot	50/511	9.8%	1-5
Gold Ingot	25/511	4.9%	1-3
Redstone	25/511	4.9%	4-9
Bread	75/511	14.7%	1-3
Apples	75/511	14.7%	1-3
Iron Pickaxe	25/511	4.9%	1
Iron Sword	25/511	4.9%	1
Iron Chestplate	25/511	4.9%	1
Iron Helmet	25/511	4.9%	1
Iron Leggings	25/511	4.9%	1
Iron Boots	25/511	4.9%	1
Golden Apple	5/511	1.0%	1
Saddles	5/511	1.0%	1
Iron Horse Armor	5/511	1.0%	1
Gold Horse Armor	5/511	1.0%	1
Diamond Horse Armor	5/511	1.0%	1
Enchanted Books	6/511	2.8%	1
Based upon 1.7.0 behavior pack

Trivia

• Strongholds are by far the biggest Generated Structures.
• With a maxium of two Libraries per Stronghold, each with a maximum of two Chests, and up to 4 corridor Chests, the maximum number of Chests that may be found in a Stronghold is 8.
• Bug: There was an Android-exclusive bug in which Strongholds could not spawn.
  • If a Player leaves a World where there was supposed to be a Stronghold, it would crash the game.
• In the Beta Version of Update 0.16.0, it was impossible to create a World with Strongholds at all, the game would crash and even deleting the World was impossible.
• Before Update 1.0, only 3 Strongholds were generated per World.
• As of Update 1.0, Strongholds generate randomly across a World, even as far as the Far Lands, instead of exclusively underneath Villages, even though that is still possible.
• Strongholds were the only Generated Structure that could be found by the /locate Command prior to Update 1.1.
• There is a one in one trillion chance of a Stronghold spawning with all Eyes of Enders in the End Portal Frames. ^{[citation needed]}
• It is possible for a Stronghold to be revealed by missing chunks caused by lag, however, this is very rare.