How to Make an Enderman Portal in Minecraft: Separating Fact from Clickbait

So, you're looking for an Enderman portal. It sounds cool, right? A dark, purple-tinted gateway that leads straight to a dimension filled with tall, teleporting lanky guys. I've seen the videos too. You know the ones—thumbnail with a neon purple obsidian frame, someone throwing an Eye of Ender into a weird block, and then suddenly they're in a custom-built "Enderman Paradise."

Let's get the reality check out of the way immediately. In the vanilla, unmodded version of Minecraft, there is no such thing as an "Enderman Portal."

If you try to build a specific frame made of crying obsidian or end stone and expect a portal to pop open like a Nether gate, you’re going to be standing there for a long time. It just doesn't work that way. What most people actually mean when they ask how to make an enderman portal in minecraft is one of three things: they want to find the End Portal (which leads to the End), they want to build an End Gateway, or they’ve seen a specific mod and want to replicate it.

I’ve spent thousands of hours in this game, from the early beta days to the latest 1.21 updates. I've watched the community grow and, unfortunately, I've watched the rise of "clickbait" tutorials that trick younger players into trying to build impossible structures.

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The Only Real "Enderman Portal" is the End Portal

If your goal is to get where the Endermen live, you need an End Portal. You can’t "make" these in Survival mode from scratch. You have to find them. They are located inside Strongholds, which are massive underground structures scattered throughout your world.

To find one, you need Eyes of Ender. You make these by killing Endermen for Ender Pearls and then heading to the Nether to kill Blazes for Blaze Powder. Combine them in your crafting grid. Now, you throw the eye into the air. It’ll float toward the nearest Stronghold. Follow it. Keep throwing. Eventually, it’ll dive into the ground. That’s your cue to dig.

Once you find the portal room, you’ll see a 3x3 hollow square of End Portal Frame blocks. There are 12 frames in total. To "make" the portal functional, you have to place an Eye of Ender into every single frame.

The orientation matters. This is where most people mess up in Creative mode. If you’re trying to build one in Creative, you have to stand inside the center of the 3x3 square and place the frames around you. The "tabs" on the textures of the frames have to point toward the center. If even one is sideways, the void won't open.

Why you can't craft the frames

Minecraft's progression is built on exploration. If Mojang let us craft End Portal frames with some End Stone and a bit of Diamond, the entire hunt for the Stronghold would be useless. It’s a design choice. It keeps the "End" feeling like a late-game reward rather than a weekend DIY project.

The End Gateway: The "Small" Enderman Portal

There is another type of portal that actually looks like what people imagine. These are the End Gateways. You’ve probably seen them after defeating the Ender Dragon. They are those tiny, one-block-high portals encased in Bedrock that float out in the void.

Technically, you can’t "make" these in Survival either, but you can trigger their appearance. Every time you kill the Ender Dragon (you can respawn her using four End Crystals on the exit portal), a new Gateway appears. You can have up to 20 of these around the main island.

How do you use it? You don't walk through it. You're too big. You have to throw an Ender Pearl directly into the beam of light. It teleports you thousands of blocks away to the outer islands where End Cities and Chorus Fruit grow.

Recreating the "Fake" Portals with Mods and Data Packs

Now, if you saw a YouTuber build a portal out of End Stone and it actually turned purple and took them somewhere new, they were using mods. There’s no shame in that. Mods like The Aether, Twilight Forest, or even custom End-expansion mods add these features.

If you want to make an Enderman portal that feels "real" in your own world, here is how the pros usually do it:

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1. BetterEnd Mod: This is one of the most popular mods for Minecraft versions 1.16 through 1.21. It completely overhauls the End and adds new ways to traverse the dimension.
2. Creative Mode + Command Blocks: If you want to prank a friend or build a "fake" portal for a map, you can use /setblock or /fill commands to place end_gateway or end_portal blocks anywhere you want.
3. Immersive Portals Mod: This is the gold standard. It allows you to see through portals into the other dimension without a loading screen. You can literally build a frame of any shape, and it will "bridge" the two worlds.

Honestly, the "Immersive Portals" mod is probably what you saw if the portal looked seamless. It’s a heavy mod for your PC, but it’s breathtaking.

How to Fake a Portal for a Build

Maybe you don't want to travel. Maybe you just want your base to look like you have an Enderman portal in the basement.

I’ve seen some incredible "portal" designs that use clever lighting and glass. You start by digging a deep hole, maybe 10-15 blocks deep. Layer the bottom with black concrete. Then, place a layer of purple stained glass. Leave a gap. Another layer of magenta stained glass. Repeat this with black and purple glass until you reach the top.

Because of how Minecraft handles transparency, it creates a "fog" effect that looks like a deep, swirling void. Throw some purple particles in there using a localized /particle command or just some hidden campfires with stained glass over them to create smoke. It looks more "End-like" than the actual portal does.

The "Enderman Ritual" Myth

There’s a persistent rumor that if you kill 100 Endermen in a circle of obsidian, a portal opens. It’s fake. It’s an old creepypasta style myth. Don't waste your time. If you want to kill 100 Endermen, do it for the pearls, not for a secret portal that doesn't exist in the game code.

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The Technical Reality of Minecraft Portals

Minecraft's code treats portals as specific "block states." A Nether portal isn't just a shape; it's a series of nether_portal blocks that check for an obsidian frame. The End portal is even more rigid. It’s a "tile entity."

When you ask how to make an enderman portal in minecraft, you're really asking how to break the rules of the game. And in a sandbox game, breaking the rules is half the fun. But you have to know which rules can be bent (with mods) and which are hard-coded (vanilla Survival).

If you are playing on a server like Hypixel or a modded pack like SkyFactory, the "Enderman Portal" might be a specific craftable item unique to that server's economy. Always check the server's /help or Wiki, because they often change the recipes to make the game harder or more interesting.

Actionable Next Steps for Players

Since you can't build a magic Enderman portal out of thin air in a standard game, here is exactly what you should do instead to get that "End" experience:

• Go to the Nether first. You aren't getting anywhere near an Enderman's home without Blaze Rods. Find a Fortress, kill the Blazes, and get at least 7-8 rods.
• Trade with Piglins. If you don't want to hunt Endermen in the dark, give gold ingots to Piglins in the Nether. They have a decent chance of bartering Ender Pearls. It’s way faster and safer than fighting lanky purple-eyed giants.
• Locate the Stronghold. Use the Eyes of Ender. Don't just dig randomly. When the eye hovers in one spot and then sinks, you've found the X and Z coordinates.
• Prepare for the fight. Bring beds. In the End, beds explode. It’s the fastest way to kill the Ender Dragon (the "Bed Strat"). Just make sure you have a block between you and the bed when you try to "sleep."
• Install Fabric or Forge. If you truly want custom portals, download a mod loader. Look for "Immersive Portals" or "Waystones" to create a teleportation network that actually looks and feels like a portal system.

Don't let the YouTube thumbnails fool you. Stick to the mechanics that work, or take the plunge into the world of modding to create the gateway you’re looking for.