You've been digging for hours. Your inventory is a mess of cobblestone, diorite (which nobody actually wants), and maybe a few stray iron ingots. But you’re looking for something specific. You want to leave this world behind. Not the game itself, but the Overworld. You’re ready for the Nether.
But how do you create a portal in Minecraft without messing it up? It sounds simple. Build a frame, light it on fire, and walk through. Easy, right? Well, not exactly. If you’ve ever ended up with a pile of obsidian and no purple swirl, you know there’s more to it than just stacking purple-black blocks.
The Obsidian Problem: Getting the Goods
First things first. You can’t just craft obsidian on a workbench. It doesn't work like that. You need to find where water meets a lava source block. Not flowing lava—it has to be the stationary stuff. When water hits a source block, it snaps into obsidian instantly.
Most people think you need a Diamond Pickaxe to even start. That's the "official" way. You mine the ten to fourteen blocks required, which takes ages because obsidian has a hardness value of 50. It’s one of the toughest blocks in the game. Honestly, standing there holding the mouse button for nine seconds per block is a test of patience I usually fail.
💡 You might also like: Hotline Miami Chapters: What Most People Get Wrong About the Level Count
But there is a shortcut. Speedrunners do it all the time. They use buckets. They "mold" the portal. By placing lava and then water in a specific dirt mold, you can freeze the obsidian exactly where you want it. No mining required. It’s dangerous because, you know, lava, but it saves you from having to find diamonds early on.
Building the Frame (The Math Matters)
A standard portal is a 4x5 vertical rectangle.
That’s the classic look. Two blocks on the bottom, two on the top, and three on each side. If you’re feeling fancy or you're short on materials, you can skip the corners. Those four corner blocks don't actually do anything for the portal's "logic." You can put dirt there, or gold blocks if you’re showing off, or just leave them empty.
Actually, did you know you can make them bigger? Much bigger. Since the 1.7.2 update, portals can be anywhere from 2x3 (the inside air space) up to 23x23. If you want a massive gateway that looks like something out of a high-fantasy movie, go for it. Just remember that the bigger it is, the more obsidian you’ll need to grind for.
The Lighting Ritual
Once the frame is standing, it’s just a cold hunk of rock. To wake it up, you need Flint and Steel.
- Gather one piece of flint (from gravel) and one iron ingot.
- Craft them together.
- Right-click the inside of the bottom obsidian block.
If everything is correct, the space fills with a translucent, purple, undulating effect. It also makes a creepy, low-frequency humming noise. That’s how you know you’ve done it right. If you don't have Flint and Steel, you can actually use a Fire Charge or even trick a Ghast into shooting the frame, though I wouldn't recommend the latter unless you’re looking for a very stressful afternoon.
Why Your Portal Might Be Broken
Sometimes it just doesn't work. You’ve got the shape, you’ve got the fire, but no purple. Usually, this is because a block is missing or you used "Crying Obsidian" by mistake.
Crying Obsidian was added in the Nether Update (1.16). It looks cool with its purple particles and glowing veins, but it is functionally useless for portals. It’s a decorative block used for crafting Respawn Anchors. Don't mix them up. If even one block in your frame is Crying Obsidian, the portal will stay dead.
Another weird glitch? Height limits. In the modern versions of Minecraft, like the ones we're playing in 2026, the world height has changed. If you try to build a portal too high up or too deep near the bedrock, you might run into "spatial" issues where the game struggles to find a safe spot to link you on the other side.
The Science of Linking: Don't Get Lost
This is where people get truly frustrated. You build a portal at your base, go to the Nether, come back, and suddenly you’re in a random cave five hundred blocks away from home.
Why? Because of the 8:1 ratio.
Every single block you travel in the Nether is equal to eight blocks in the Overworld. If you aren't careful with your coordinates (hit F3 on Java or check your map on Bedrock), your portals will "cross-talk." To fix this, you have to do some math. Take your Overworld X and Z coordinates, divide them by 8, and build your Nether-side portal at exactly those coordinates. It's the only way to ensure a perfect 1:1 link.
Beyond the Nether: The End Portal
When people ask "how do you create a portal in Minecraft," they usually mean the purple one. But there's another. The End Portal.
Unlike the Nether version, you generally can't "create" this in Survival mode. You have to find it. You need Eyes of Ender, which you get by killing Endermen and blazes. You throw them into the air, follow them to a Stronghold, and find the portal room sitting over a pool of lava.
You have to place twelve Eyes of Ender into the frame blocks. But here’s the kicker: the eyes have to be facing the right way. If you’re in Creative mode trying to build one, you have to stand inside the center of the portal while placing the frames around you. If the "tabs" on the Ender Eyes aren't pointing toward the center, the portal won't open. It's a tiny detail that ruins thousands of builds every year.
Essential Portal Safety
Before you step through that purple haze, prepare yourself. The Nether doesn't have a "loading screen" that protects you. You can spawn directly over a lava lake or right next to a Piglin Brute who’s having a very bad day.
- Bring a spare Flint and Steel. Ghasts can shoot your portal and put the fire out, leaving you stranded in the Nether.
- Wear one piece of Gold armor. Piglins are neutral if you're wearing gold. If you aren't, they will swarm you the second you materialize.
- Crouch while entering. Sometimes the game spawns the portal on a tiny ledge. If you’re moving forward when the world loads, you might walk right off into the fire.
Actionable Next Steps
To get started right now, grab three buckets of water and find a surface lava pool. Practice the "lava casting" method in a creative world first so you don't burn your inventory in survival. Once you've mastered the mold, you'll never waste time mining obsidian with a diamond pickaxe again. Check your coordinates twice—X and Z are your lifelines—and always make sure your "exit" portal is encased in cobblestone so Ghast fireballs can't disable it while you're exploring.