You’re standing in a blocky field with a diamond pickaxe and a dream. Honestly, the first time most players try making portals on minecraft, they end up staring at a frame of obsidian that does absolutely nothing because they missed one tiny, annoying detail. It’s the quintessential "welcome to the game" moment. Minecraft isn’t just about digging holes; it’s about tears in the fabric of reality.
Dimensional travel is the core of the mid-game. Without it, you’re stuck in the Overworld forever, never seeing a Blaze or dodging a Ghast fireball. You need these gateways. But the game doesn’t give you a manual. It expects you to figure out that purple swirls and crying obsidian aren't just for decoration.
The Nether Portal: Your First Real Headache
Building a Nether portal is basically a rite of passage. You need obsidian. Ten blocks, at a minimum. Most people use fourteen because they like the corners to look "complete," but if you're low on resources, skip the corners. Save that obsidian for an enchantment table.
To get obsidian, you’ve got to find where lava meets water. Not just any lava—source blocks. If you pour water on flowing lava, you just get cobblestone, which is a massive disappointment when you’re trying to reach the underworld. You’ll need a diamond pickaxe or better (netherite works too, obviously) to mine it. It takes forever. Seriously, it feels like years of your life passing by while you hold down that left-click button.
Lighting the Spark
Once the frame is 4x5, you need Flint and Steel. Or a Fire Charge. Heck, you can even put wood next to the portal and wait for lava to set it on fire if you're feeling chaotic. The moment that purple haze fills the frame, the game starts calculating your coordinates.
Here is what most players mess up: The 8-to-1 ratio.
Every block you travel in the Nether is eight blocks in the Overworld. If you’re making portals on minecraft to travel fast across your world, you have to do the math. If you place a portal at X: 800, Z: 800 in the Overworld, its twin in the Nether should be at X: 100, Z: 100. If the game "auto-generates" the portal somewhere else because of a cave or a lake, your link will be messy. You'll go through one way and come out somewhere totally different on the way back. It’s frustrating.
The End Portal: You Can't Just "Build" This One
The End is different. You can't craft End Portal Frames in Survival mode. You just can't. You have to find a Stronghold.
Finding a Stronghold involves throwing Eyes of Ender into the sky and following them like a lost puppy. They float, they hover, and eventually, they dive into the ground. That’s where you dig. Once you find the room with the silverfish spawner—break that thing immediately, by the way—you’ll see the frame floating over a pool of lava.
- You need 12 Eyes of Ender.
- The frames are often partially filled.
- You must stand inside the ring while placing the eyes so they face the right way.
- If the eyes are crooked, the portal won’t open.
It’s a weirdly specific mechanic. If you place an eye while standing outside the frame, the texture might be rotated 90 degrees. The game won't tell you why it isn't working; it just sits there, empty and cold.
Ruined Portals and Crying Obsidian
Lately, the world is littered with "Ruined Portals." These are those jagged, half-broken structures surrounded by Netherrack and Magma blocks. They’re a shortcut. Sometimes they have Crying Obsidian in them.
Pro tip: Crying Obsidian cannot be used to make a functional Nether portal. It’s strictly for Respawn Anchors. Don’t waste your time trying to light a frame made of the glowing stuff; it’s just going to look pretty and do nothing. Use the regular obsidian from the nearby chest instead. Gold nuggets are a nice bonus, though.
The Technical Side of Portal Linking
Linking portals is where the real experts separate themselves from the amateurs. Imagine you want a portal in your base and a portal at your desert temple, which is 2,000 blocks away. Walking that takes forever.
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If you build a portal in the Nether at the correct divided coordinates, you can traverse that 2,000-block gap in about 250 blocks of Nether walking.
- Get your Overworld coordinates (X and Z).
- Divide them by 8.
- Go into the Nether and tear down the "auto-generated" portal.
- Rebuild it at the exact math-derived coordinates.
This prevents the "portal overlap" glitch where two Overworld portals lead to the same Nether spot, but only one of them works for the return trip. It’s a literal life-saver when you’re running from a Creeper.
Custom Portals and Data Packs
If you're on a server or playing with mods, the rules for making portals on minecraft change entirely. Some players use "Immersive Portals," which lets you see through the portal to the other dimension without a loading screen. It's beautiful, but it'll melt a low-end PC.
In vanilla, you're stuck with the loading screen. But you can make the portal frame any size from 2x3 all the way up to 23x23. Huge portals look incredible for megabases. They don't function any differently, but the "wow" factor is high.
Why Your Portal Might Be Breaking
Sometimes, you’ll hear that glass-shattering sound. A Ghast probably shot a fireball at your portal. If the purple stuff disappears, you’re stranded. Always carry a spare Flint and Steel. If you're really stuck, you have to trick a Ghast into shooting the frame again to relight it. It’s terrifying. It’s high-stakes. It’s Minecraft.
Another reason? Water. If water flows into the portal frame, it breaks the "block" of the portal. Keep your portals on a raised platform or behind a fence if you’re building near an ocean or a decorative fountain.
Next Steps for Your World
First, grab 12 buckets of lava and a water bucket to "cast" your first portal frame without a diamond pickaxe—just build a dirt mold and pour the lava in, then cool it with water. Once you're in the Nether, immediately write down your coordinates. Use a calculator to divide those by 8 and find the exact spot for your next Overworld hub. If you're feeling brave, start farming Endermen now; you'll need those pearls for the End Portal long before you think you do. Skip the decorative Crying Obsidian for now and focus on a standard 4x5 frame to get your foot in the door of the Nether. Get moving. That ancient debris isn't going to mine itself.