Stronghold

Strongholds are structures that occur naturally underground, and are the only place where end portals can be found. Strongholds can be easily located by using an.

Generation


All strongholds are located at random positions within rings, each ring with a certain radius from the origin – the point at x = 0, z = 0, not the world spawn, which may be a couple of hundred blocks away. Strongholds also may extend further in or out of that area. The strongholds are generated at roughly equal angles from the center point of the world (for instance, each stronghold in a ring of 3 is in the region of 120 degrees from the others, measured from the origin). The game does not generate a stronghold partially above-ground: any portion above the sea level is replaced with air, leaving a cutaway. Strongholds may generate at bedrock level, cutting the bedrock.

$$, 3 strongholds generate within a ring of radius between 640 and 1152 blocks. Other strongholds generate randomly throughout the world.

In Java Edition, they generate in rings with the strongholds evenly spaced around the circle until the total of 128 is reached.
 * The first ring has three strongholds within 1408–2688 blocks of the origin.
 * The second ring has six strongholds within 4480–5760 blocks of the origin.
 * The third ring has ten strongholds within 7552–8832 blocks of the origin.
 * The fourth ring has fifteen strongholds within 10624–11904 blocks of the origin.
 * The fifth ring has twenty-one strongholds within 13696–14976 blocks of the origin.
 * The sixth ring has twenty-eight strongholds within 16768–18048 blocks of the origin.
 * The seventh ring has thirty-six strongholds within 19840–21120 blocks of the origin.
 * The eighth and outermost ring has nine strongholds within 22912–24192 blocks of the origin.

Strongholds primarily generate underground and prefer to generate in biomes above sea level but generate underwater if necessary. Whole rooms can be flooded if the stronghold is intersected by a mineshaft or ravine. Sometimes, floating portal rooms can be found in the ocean, where no other room would normally generate. $$, they also attempt to generate under village wells or meeting points. Most parts of the stronghold can be overwritten by ravines, caves, mineshafts, fossils or dungeons; but it is very rare for the end portal to be replaced, which would force a player to find one of the other strongholds, as a portal can only be activated with all 12 frame blocks present.

Structure
Strongholds vary in size. They contain several doors and rooms made mostly of stone bricks (45%), mossy stone bricks (30%), cracked stone bricks (20%) and infested stone bricks (5%). Infested cracked stone bricks and infested mossy stone bricks do not generate. Strongholds are lit by enough torches to provide visibility in most areas, though not enough to suppress mob spawns. Stairs that generate within these structures include stone brick stairs, but not mossy stairs.

Each stronghold contains several dispersed chests containing a variety of loot.

Rooms
Strongholds feature various types of main rooms. Each room has an entrance, which is either a plain 3×3 opening, a wall with a wooden door, a wall with an iron door (with buttons), or a 3×3 opening with a grate of iron bars along the top and sides. Rooms may have exits to other room pieces or dead-end "exits" into stone. Additional "passages" between rooms may exist if their generation overlaps or if the stronghold intersects a cave, mineshaft, or other structure. Sometimes, doors can be sealed off by stone bricks, resulting in "secret doors", usually occurring with 5-way crossings.

Stronghold generation begins with a spiral staircase room with a 5-way crossing at the bottom, with additional rooms being randomly generated from the exits of previous rooms up to a maximum distance of 50 rooms and 112 blocks horizontally. If a portal room is not generated, the generation is redone.


 * End portal room: Contains an End portal and a silverfish spawner. There are two pools of lava in the front sides of the room and a bigger lava pool below the End Portal. There are 16 iron bars windows in the room, and the entrance is always a gate. There is exactly one per stronghold, and it is never within 5 rooms of the starting staircase. On average, 0-3 eyes generate in the portal frames, and very, very rarely generates completely filled. Each portal frame has a 10% chance to be prefilled with an eye, thus the chance of the portal being completely filled is one in a trillion (1:1,000,000,000,000 or 10-12).
 * In Java Edition, only one seed was found having an pre-activated end portal.
 * In Bedrock Edition, it is intended that some strongholds do not generate with end portal rooms
 * Libraries (see below). Maximum two per stronghold, and never within 4 rooms of the starting staircase.
 * Large rooms: A room with three exits (four counting the entrance). The center of the room may have various decorations. Maximum six per stronghold.
 * Empty rooms: Has no decoration.
 * Stone Pillar rooms: Has a stone brick pillar with torches on it.
 * Fountain rooms: Contain a fountain in the center, which consists of a stone brick ring and pillar with a water source block on top of the pillar.
 * Storerooms: Dual-level rooms, each 2 blocks high, with a cobblestone center structure joining the two. A lone torch is housed within the structure. A ladder runs up the sidewall for access to the second floor, which is a chamber made of oak wood planks containing a chest.
 * Five-way crossing: Has up to five exits (six counting the entrance): one across from the entrance down a short stairway made of smooth stone slabs and stone brick blocks, one each to the left and right of the entrance, one on the left side of the upper level reached by a short stairway made of smooth stone slabs and stone brick blocks, and one on the right side of the upper level across a bridge of smooth stone slabs and double smooth stone slabs over the downward stair. A single torch is on the side of the bridge. $$, it usually has 1 to 4 entrances sealed. Minimum one and maximum five per stronghold.
 * Empty prison cells: A corridor with one wall partially made of iron bars and with two iron doors (in an "open" position, with no buttons). Beyond each iron door are cells with an iron bar wall between them. An exit is opposite the entrance. Maximum five per stronghold. $$, no iron doors are generated.
 * Spiral staircase: A 3×3 spiral stair made of stone bricks and stone brick slabs, leading down, with an exit at the bottom. Minimum one and maximum six per stronghold.
 * Straight staircase: A 3 block wide staircase of cobblestone stairs leading downwards, with an exit at the bottom of the stairs. There is also an empty alcove under the stairs. Maximum five per stronghold.
 * Corridor: A bare corridor with up to 3 exits: one straight ahead, and optional exits to the left and right.
 * Chest corridor: A corridor with a small altar made of stone brick slabs, with a chest on the altar. One exit, opposite the entrance. Maximum four per stronghold.
 * Corridor turn: A bare corridor with one exit, left or right. May resemble a small room if both the entrance and the next room's entrance have oak doors.
 * Dead-end corridor: A bare corridor with no exits, although it is likely to intersect other rooms. This room type never has a door or grate at the entrance.

Libraries
Libraries occur in two sizes: Small single-level libraries, and larger duplex libraries. All libraries contain bookshelves, oak planks, and one (single level) or two (duplex) chests, with cobwebs dispersed randomly.

Large libraries contain a second level consisting of a surrounding balcony with oak fences as railings, and fences & torches arranged like a chandelier over the center of the room. The two levels are connected by a ladder on the wall furthest from the entrance.

Trivia

 * There are exactly 233 bookshelves in one large Library Room, which, if mined without Silk Touch, yields exactly 699 books.
 * Though strongholds do not generate above ground, they can be exposed through above-ground dungeons or ravines.
 * They can also sometimes be exposed underwater if they generate in terrain that is close to an ocean, or exposed by an underwater ravine.
 * The only variant of infested blocks that can naturally generate within strongholds are regular stone bricks. Interestingly, mossy and cracked variants cannot generate as infested blocks naturally.
 * When generating in a buffet world, many rooms will be missing the outer wall layer, causing the stronghold to appear fragmented, with the exception of the portal room.