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This article is about the structure. For the block, see Nether Portal (block). For the naturally generated structure, see Ruined Portal.

A nether portal is a manufactured structure that acts as a gateway between the Overworld and Nether dimensions.

Creation

Build schematics
Full version Minimal version

A nether portal is built as a vertical, rectangular frame of obsidian (4×5 minimum, 23×23 maximum). The four corners of the frame are not required, but portals created by the game always include them, resulting in 4 free/extra obsidian. The obsidian can be placed in any manner, e.g. by placing mined obsidian or by casting it in place using lava and water. Adjacent portals can share obsidian blocks. A nether portal cannot be built horizontally like an End Portal.

Once a frame is constructed, it is activated by fire placed inside the frame. This creates portal blocks inside the frame, resembling a vortex. The fire can be placed in any manner, including use of flint and steel or a fire charge, the impact of a ghast or blaze fireball, a lightning strike, or natural spread of fire to flammable material adjacent to the portal. Nether portals cannot be activated in The End and customized dimensions.

When a portal is used, if no corresponding portal within range exists in the other dimension, one is created there: see § Portal search and creation. There is an exception to the above rule. There is an infinitesimal chance that a portal created in the Overworld does not generate a portal in the Nether, which would leave the player trapped until death or construction of a new portal.

Behavior

Main article: Nether Portal (block)

you can go to the end

Most entities can travel through portals, including mobs (except the wither and ender dragon), thrown items, and transportation without passengers (neither mobs nor player), including boats, minecarts and horses. Storage minecarts and powered minecarts can pass through. Thus, inter-dimensional railways are limited to cargo. Note that mobs have a much longer "cool-down" time than the player, so they cannot go back for 300 game ticks (15 seconds), and during that interval, they can wander or be led away from the portal.

Zombified piglins have a chance to spawn on the bottom frame of the portal in the Overworld if any nether portal block above receives a block tick. They spawn twice as often on Normal difficulty as on Easy, and three times as often on Hard difficulty as on Easy. No other mobs can be spawned by nether portals in this way, in any dimension.

Chunk loading

Whenever an entity is teleported through a nether portal, the chunk at the linked portal gets load ticket with load level of 30, meaning that it is fully loaded and can process entities. This load level also spreads to adjacent chunks but they get lower for each chunk. This results in 8 more fully loaded "entity ticking" chunks with gradually fewer loaded chunks further out.

These chunks remain loaded for 15 seconds but this timer gets refreshed each time the entity passes through the portal. This can be used to permanently load chunks, creating a "chunk loader". Permanently-loaded chunks created using chunk loaders create a considerable amount of lag.

Portal linkage between Overworld and Nether

ClosestPortal

The closest portal to the corresponding location receives the player.

IfNoPortal

A new portal is generated in the closest empty area if no portal is found in range.

Coordinate conversion

Horizontal coordinates and distances in the Nether are proportional to the Overworld in a 1:126 ratio. That is, by moving 1 block horizontally in the Nether, players have moved the equivalent of 126 blocks on the Overworld. This does not apply to the Y-axis. Thus, for a given location (X, Y, Z) in the Overworld, the corresponding coordinates in the Nether are (floor(X ÷ 126), Y, floor(Z ÷ 126)), and conversely, for a location (X, Y, Z) in the Nether, the matching Overworld coordinates are (X × 8, Y, Z × 8).

The Java floor() method used in these conversions rounds down to the largest integer less than or equal to the argument (toward smaller positive values and toward larger negative values), so a coordinate of 29.9 rounds to 29, and one of −29.9 to −30.

Both the X and Z coordinates in this conversion are constrained to be between −29,999,872 and 29,999,872 (inclusive); this affects travel to the Overworld from the Nether at X or Z beyond ±3,749,984.

Portal search and creation

Portals do not permanently "remember" what portal they are linked to in the other dimension, but instead perform the following whenever a portal is used by a player:

First, if the portal block in which the player is standing has been used recently, then it re-uses the destination that was chosen the last time; in this sense, portals do "remember" their linked pairs, but only for about 15 seconds (300 game world ticks, or 150 Redstone ticks). One side effect of this behavior is that the cached destination is not validated before being re-used, so if a player travels through a portal and immediately deactivates it on the other side, other players can still follow them through for the next 60 seconds and appear at the same destination, even though there is no longer an active portal there. After 60 seconds have passed without anyone using the same origin portal, the cached destination expires.

If the player's origin portal has not been used recently, then a new destination is computed. First, the game converts the entry coordinates into destination coordinates as above: The entry X- and Z-coordinates are multiplied or divided by 8 (or 3) depending on the direction of travel, while the Y-coordinate is not changed.

Starting at these destination coordinates, the game looks for the closest active portal. It searches a bounding area of 17×17 chunks in the Overworld and 3×3 chunks in the Nether[1] centered on the chunk containing the destination and the full map height.

An active portal for this purpose is defined as a portal block that does not have another portal block below it; thus, only the lowest portal blocks in the obsidian frame are considered. A single portal block generated in and placed using server commands would be a valid location.

If a candidate portal is found, then the portal teleports the player to the closest one as determined by the distance in the new coordinate system (including the Y coordinate, which can cause seemingly more distant portals to be selected). Note that this is Euclidean distance, not taxicab distance. The distance computation between portals in the range is a straight-line distance calculation, and the shortest path is chosen, counting the Y difference.

If no portals exist in the search region, the game creates one, by looking for the closest suitable location to place a portal, within 16 blocks horizontally (but any distance vertically) of the player's destination coordinates. A valid location is 3×4 buildable blocks with air 4 high above all 12 blocks. When enough space is available, the orientation of the portal is random. The closest valid position in the 3D distance is always picked.

A valid location exactly 3 wide in the shorter dimension may sometimes not be found, as the check for a point fails if the first tried orientation wants that dimension to be 4 wide. This is likely a bug.

If the first check for valid locations fails entirely, the check is redone looking for a 1×4 expanse of buildable blocks with air 4 high above each.

If that fails, too, a portal is forced at the target coordinates, but with Y constrained to be between 70 and 10 less than the world height (i.e. 118 for the Nether or 246 for the Overworld). When a portal is forced in this way, a 2×3 platform of obsidian with air 3 high above is created at the target location, overwriting whatever might be there. This provides air space underground or a small platform if high in the air. In Bedrock Edition, these obsidian blocks are flanked by 4 more blocks of netherrack on each side, resulting in 12 blocks of platform.

Once coordinates are chosen, a portal (always 4×5 and including the corners) including portal blocks is constructed at the target coordinates, replacing anything in the way.

If a portal is forced into water or lava, the liquid immediately flows into the generated air blocks, leaving the player with no airspace. However, a glitch can prevent this water from flowing into the portal: if the liquid would flow both vertically and horizontally into the air pocket, it instead flows only vertically, so the blocks on the platform's outer corners never become water source blocks.

Sounds

{starshine}

Achievements

Icon Achievement In-game description Actual requirements (if different) Gamerscore earned Trophy type (PS4)
PS4 Other
Into The NetherConstruct a Nether Portal.Light a nether portal.30GBronze

Advancements

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
Advancement-plain-rawThe End?
Enter the End Portal Eye SpyEnter the End dimension.story/enter_the_end

Video

Note: These videos do not mention that Nether Portals on the Nether Ceiling link up with overworld portals.

History

Issues

Issues relating to "Nether portal" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Gallery

Trivia

  • Portals can be placed together in a tunnel-like fashion, though it appears as if the third portal is lit as the first two in a row mimic glass. If more than six portals are connected, the inner portals are completely invisible while in the portal tunnel, however, the particle effects can still be seen throughout. These connected portals also share the 4-second countdown until teleportation, so as long as the player is within a connected portal, they are sent to another dimension.
  • The player cannot open their inventory or the chat window while standing in an active portal, and any other GUI (such as that of a chest or villager) is immediately closed when opened.
  • If 2 portals intersect, and the player lights a fire in the intersection (i.e., in both portals at once) only the portal that lies within the x-axis is activated. Lighting any other block activates whichever portal it is in.
  • There is a splash referencing the Nether Portal. It says "Slow acting portals!".

Publicity

  • A LEGO Nether Portal was included in the LEGO Minecraft Set: "The Nether".
  • On 29 October 2010 PC Gamer released this video, showing a portal being constructed and used.
  • On 1 April 2011, Think Geek released this video to advertise one of their annual fake April Fools products: the Minecraft USB Desktop Nether Portal.

References

External links

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