The End



The End (previously known as The Ender) is a stark, empty plane containing a series of large floating islands of End Stone dotted with Obsidian Spikes. The End Stone may only be mined with a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch in previous pre-releases, but as of 1.9pre5, it is dropped normally when mined. This dimension is populated by a relatively large number of Endermen, which spawn considerably more than in the Overworld, and one Enderdragon, an End exclusive mob. The starless sky and Void are both composed of a dark static pattern, but there are still particle effects within the Void area.

The day/night cycle is absent in the End, similar to the Nether, being replaced by a constant dim light. Most items and blocks (including Fluids) function in the End exactly as they do in the Overworld, with a few notable exceptions. Compasses will be unable to find the original spawn point, as always when entering any dimension other than the Overworld, and Clocks cannot determine the position of the sun (the arrows and dials will instead spin and flail randomly). Maps don't seem to map correctly, only mapping static; Beds will explode and cause fire when used, and portals to the Nether will not activate in the End.

Traveling to the End


The only way to enter The End is in survival Singleplayer mode and Multiplayer (as a non-op). In Singleplayer survival mode, the player must collect at least 12 Ender Pearls by killing Endermen, crafting a Portal to the Nether to collect at least 6 Blaze Rods (from Blazes), and crafting the rods into Blaze Powder. The Ender Pearls and Blaze Powder are crafted together to yield the Eyes of Ender.

Then the player needs to return to the Overworld and locate a Stronghold. They can then use one of these Eyes of Ender to locate one by tossing it into the air and following the direction the Eye flies towards until it lands on the ground to be recollected. The player is advised to craft a few extra Eyes, as they will occasionally disappear into The End. Once inside, the player has to search the Stronghold for a room with Ender Portal Frame blocks. If a ravine or an abandoned mine shaft intersects with the room, some portal frame blocks may be missing and the Ender Portal will not be usable. For the Ender Portal to activate, the player must insert an Eye of Ender on each of the frame blocks.

An activated Ender Portal allows the player to enter The End immediately, appearing on top of a five by five Obsidian platform in the End. The centre of this portal is always at the co-ordinates 0,72,0. There is currently no possible way to leave the End without dying or using inventory hacking to obtain portal blocks.

As of 1.9 pre 5, entering a portal to The End in multiplayer will spawn the player onto a completely empty section of The End (located approximately 4000 blocks) away from the normal Single Player warp-in coordinates of 0,72,0, requiring the player to build a bridge thousands of metres long to reach the dimension's floating islands. If the player is an OP on a multiplayer server, the player can use the /give command to give themselves item number 119, the item id of the Ender Portal. Jumping into one placed in The Overworld will send the player to The End. The player may also use /give to give themselves item number 90, the item id of the Nether Portal, which will allow them to leave The End and then teleport back to The Overworld at the player's spawn location.

A player in Creative Singleplayer Mode can successfully create an End Portal. However in order to do so the player must be below sea level (level 64). They must also be in dim light, and ensure that the portal blocks are aligned correctly and that there aren't additional ones nearby. Assuming all of these conditions are true, one can be created but can't be used.

History
In an earlier stage of development, The End was known as the Sky Dimension and had Overworld blocks and mobs.

Notch first mentioned The End with his comment regarding the name-change petition of the Endermen, when people wanted to change the name of the mob to "Farlanders" (a reference to the area nicknamed the Far Lands). He joked that instead of renaming them Farlanders, he was more likely to change the name of the Far Lands to "The End". In later Beta versions, the Far Lands were accidentally removed and The End became the native land of the Endermen.

The End was added in Beta 1.9 pre 4 on October 13th, 2011. Notch tweeted "raqreqentba", which could be decoded using the ROT13 cypher, translating to "enderdragon." A Reddit user under the name of "cptqwashi" posted the idea that the new dimension accessed by the new "Crystal Block Portal" would be called the Ender, and would be home to the Endermen and Enderdragons. Notch soon gave more information and said that cptqwashi was "100% correct," mentioning that it would be called "The Ender" and that there would be Enderdragons. However, it was later revealed that it was just called "The End" and that there would be only one Enderdragon there. In 1.9 pre 4, an Enderdragon spawned near a portal would destroy it, but End Portal blocks would continue to function even if the frame was destroyed. The ability to create Ender Portal frame blocks in Creative Singleplayer mode was also removed.

File save location
The End is saved in the same way normal worlds are, but instead of mixing the world files inside the save folder, the files for The End are stored in appdata/.Minecraft/Saves/Worldname/DIM1, whereas normal world files in %appdata%/.Minecraft/Saves/Worldname. Note that DIM1 does not contain its own level.dat, as the same level.dat in the upper folder is used for the Overworld, Nether, and End. Also, note that the Nether's folder is "DIM-1".

Trivia

 * The Ender Portals found within Strongholds may be how the Endermen ended up outside of their native dimension in the Overworld. It may also be that they can use their natural teleportation to move between dimensions, or a possibly a combination of the two (interplanar teleportation, but only when an Ender Portal is present).
 * The End, an endless sky filled with masses of stone, is intended to be an inversion of the Nether, an endless cave filled with masses of air.
 * An Ender Portal frame may be created by hacking but the last block must be placed from inside the frame.
 * Mob behavior, plant growth, potionmaking, and enchanting are not visibly affected by the End.
 * Ender portals can be permanently deactivated by flowing water or lava. Reactivation requires replacing one of the portal blocks with a game editor.
 * When spawned in a Stronghold, the portal to The End is guarded by a Silverfish spawner.