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Eye of Ender

Eye of Ender

An eye of ender is a craftable item that can be thrown in the Overworld to show the direction of the nearest stronghold, which may break the eye. 12 eyes…

11 min read Updated 10 views
Items Stackable resources Renewable resources Entities Projectiles
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Contents (25)
  1. Obtaining
  2. Crafting
  3. Usage
  4. Locating strongholds
  5. Activating End portals
  6. Crafting ingredient
  7. Sounds
  8. Data values
  9. ID
  10. Entity data
  11. Advancements
  12. Videos
  13. History
  14. Java Edition
  15. Bedrock Edition
  16. Legacy Console Edition
  17. New Nintendo 3DS Edition
  18. Data history
  19. Issues
  20. Trivia
  21. Gallery
  22. Screenshots
  23. In other media
  24. External links
  25. References
This article is about the item in Minecraft. For the item in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Eye of Ender. For the object in Minecraft Mini-Series, see Enchanted Ender Eye.
Eye of Ender
Eye of Ender.png: Infobox image for Minecraft item entity 'Eye of Ender'
Invicon Eye of Ender.png: Inventory sprite for Eye of Ender in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Eye of Ender
Rarity tier
  Common
Renewable Yes
Stackable Yes (64)
Size Height: 0.25 blocks
Width: 0.25 blocks

An eye of ender is a craftable item that can be thrown in the Overworld to show the direction of the nearest stronghold, which may break the eye. 12 eyes of ender are required to activate a stronghold's End portal (which may generate with some of the eyes already in place), which leads to the End dimension.

Obtaining

Crafting

Ingredients Crafting recipe
Blaze Powder +
Ender Pearl
Invicon Blaze Powder.png: Inventory sprite for Blaze Powder in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Blaze Powder with description: Blaze PowderInvicon Ender Pearl.png: Inventory sprite for Ender Pearl in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Ender Pearl with description: Ender Pearl
Invicon Eye of Ender.png: Inventory sprite for Eye of Ender in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Eye of Ender

Usage

Locating strongholds

An animation of an eye of ender shattering.
When an eye of ender is thrown in the stronghold chunk, the red X in the image marks the center of the entrance staircase. The screenshot is facing north.

To locate strongholds (and the End portals they house):

  • Pressing use while holding an eye of ender causes it to fly approximately 12 blocks in the direction of the nearest stronghold, traveling through any blocks necessary, and leave a trail of purple particles, the same particle effect used for endermen and ender chests.
    • The eye leads to the chunk where a spiral staircase, the first room generated in the stronghold, is located.
    • The center of this entrance staircase is always exactly at the chunk coordinates 4, ~, 4, although the eye of ender leads to chunk coordinates 0, ~, 0 (the northwest corner of the chunk).
  • While over 12 blocks away from the northwest corner of the staircase chunk, the eye travels upward to offer an easily-visible indication of the horizontal direction the player must travel.
  • When closer than 12 blocks to the northwest corner of the staircase chunk, the eye travels downward, to indicate the player is above a stronghold and must mine downward.
  • After two or three seconds of travel, the eye floats in the air briefly, then either falls (becoming collectable again) or shatters in mid-air. The eye has a 20% chance of shattering and an 80% chance of surviving per throw. Therefore, throwing it three times has approximately a 50% overall chance to shatter the eye (0.83=51.2%).
  • The eye of ender's flying function works only in the Overworld and only if a stronghold exists or can generate in the world. It does nothing in the Nether, the End, or custom dimensions, unless a structure able to generate in that dimension has been added to the #minecraft:eye_of_ender_located structure tag.

Note that the eyes may point to an incorrect location if the target chunks were generated with a different biomes map in an older version or through different generation settings.[1]

Activating End portals

An End portal activated with eyes of ender.

Once an End portal is found, eyes of ender are required to activate it. End portals require a total of 12 eyes of ender in order to activate, though each individual frame-block has a 10% chance of containing an eye of ender when generated. Eyes can be placed in empty End portal frames by pressing use on them until the entire ring of 12 is filled, thereby activating the portal. Because there is a 10% chance of for each individual End portal frame to contain an eye, there is a 1 in 1 trillion chance that every frame will have an eye in it, thereby activating the portal automatically.

End portal pre-filled eyes
Eyes 0 1 2 3 4 5-12
Exactly 28% 38% 23% 9% 2% <1%
Or more 100% 72% 34% 11% 3% <1%

The probability that a specific number of eyes are generated was calculated using the probability mass function:

pX(k) = P(X = k) =

where k is the number of eyes and pX(k) is the probability that a particular End portal contains k eyes when it is generated.

Crafting ingredient

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
End Crystal Glass +
Eye of Ender +
Ghast Tear
Invicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: GlassInvicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: GlassInvicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: GlassInvicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: GlassInvicon Eye of Ender.png: Inventory sprite for Eye of Ender in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Eye of EnderInvicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: GlassInvicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: GlassInvicon Ghast Tear.png: Inventory sprite for Ghast Tear in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Ghast Tear with description: Ghast TearInvicon Glass.png: Inventory sprite for Glass in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Glass with description: Glass
Invicon End Crystal.png: Inventory sprite for End Crystal in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to End Crystal with description: End Crystal
Ender Chest Obsidian +
Eye of Ender
Invicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Eye of Ender.png: Inventory sprite for Eye of Ender in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Eye of EnderInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: ObsidianInvicon Obsidian.png: Inventory sprite for Obsidian in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Obsidian with description: Obsidian
Invicon Ender Chest.png: Inventory sprite for Ender Chest in Minecraft as shown in-game linking to Ender Chest with description: Ender Chest
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Sounds

Java Edition:
Eyes of ender use the Friendly Mobs sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Sounds
SoundClosed captionsSourceDescriptionIdentifierTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
​Eye of Ender falls [sound 1]Friendly MobsWhen an eye of ender drops or breaksentity.ender_eye.death​[sound 1]​subtitles.entity.ender_eye.death​​[sound 1]​1.31.016
​Eye of Ender shoots[sound 2]Friendly MobsWhen an eye of ender is thrownentity.ender_eye.launchsubtitles.entity.ender_eye.launch​1.01.016
​Eye of Ender attachesBlocksWhen an eye of ender is placed in an End portal frameblock.end_portal_frame.fillsubtitles.block.end_portal_frame.fill​1.01.016
  1. ↑ a b c MC-98316 – Wrong subtitles caused by missing distinction
  2. ↑ MC-312271

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
SoundClosed captionsSourceDescriptionIdentifierTranslation keyVolumePitch
​ ?BlocksWhen an eye of ender breaks [sound 1]block.itemframe.break​ ???
​ ?PlayersWhen an eye of ender is thrownrandom.bow​ ?0.50.33–0.5
​ ?BlocksWhen an eye of ender is placed in an End portal frameblock.end_portal_frame.fill​ ?0.30.9/1.0/1.1
  1. ↑ MCPE-115646

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

ItemIdentifierForm Translation key
ItemSprite eye-of-ender.png: Sprite image for eye-of-ender in Minecraft Eye of Enderender_eyeItem item.minecraft.ender_eye
EntityIdentifier Translation key
EntitySprite eye-of-ender.png: Sprite image for eye-of-ender in Minecraft Eye of Endereye_of_ender entity.minecraft.eye_of_ender

Bedrock Edition:

ItemIdentifierNumeric ID Form Translation key
ItemSprite eye-of-ender.png: Sprite image for eye-of-ender in Minecraft Eye of Enderender_eye433Item item.ender_eye.name
EntityIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
EntitySprite eye-of-ender.png: Sprite image for eye-of-ender in Minecraft Eye of Endereye_of_ender_signal70 entity.eye_of_ender_signal.name

Entity data

The purple particles left by eyes of ender have entity data that define various properties of the entity.

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
    • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Item: The item to render as, may be absent.
      • A single item stack see Template:Nbt inherit/itemnoslot/template

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements

IconAdvancementIn-game descriptionActual requirements (if different)
Eye SpyFollow an Eye of EnderEnter a stronghold.

Videos

Note: This video does not mention that eyes of ender can be used to craft ender chests or End crystals.

History

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.0.0Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3 Added eyes of ender.
Eyes of ender can be used on a portal block to repair them, but repairing them does nothing.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 Each eye can now be placed in a portal block or used to hone in on a stronghold. Jeb demonstrated the new uses for an eye in his livestream.[2] An End portal within a stronghold could be seen in the stream with two eyes inserted into blocks.
In older worlds with chunks generated before Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3, the eyes may mislead the player to a place where there isn't a stronghold at all. This happens because the eyes lead to where a stronghold should be based on the world seed in the current version, but before Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3, strongholds generated differently based on the seed. Therefore, if the player saved the coordinates the eye traveled to in an old world and generated a new world with the same seed, the player could travel to those same coordinates and find a stronghold.
Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6 Eyes of ender no longer render like a tool in third person.
RC1 The throwing sound of eyes of ender has been changed.
1.3.112w21a Eyes of ender can now be used to craft ender chests.
Priest villagers would buy 2–3 eyes of ender for one emerald.
12w22a Priest villagers no longer buy eyes of ender, instead sell them for 7–10 emeralds.
1.6.41.6.3 Eyes of ender now lead to strongholds based on the structure data saved in the world file instead of calculating their approximate location via the world seed. Therefore, strongholds generated in old versions can still be found even if the distribution of strongholds is changed.
1.7.213w41a Eyes of ender now lead to the entrance of a stronghold instead of the portal room.
1.814w02a With changes that have been made to villagers and the trading system, cleric villagers now sell eyes of ender for 7–11 emeralds, as one of their tier III trades.
14w06a Eyes of ender now spawn at the player's feet when thrown instead of their eyes.[3]
1.915w41a Eyes of ender are no longer sold by cleric villagers.
15w44b An eye of ender is now used to craft an End crystal.
16w07a Eyes of ender now spawn at the player's chest when thrown instead of their feet.
pre3 Eyes of ender now point to the 125 new strongholds.[4]
1.1116w35a Throwing an eye of ender now slows down the player for the time that the use button is held down, similar to eating, drinking etc..[5] This was done to prevent it from also causing the item in the offhand to be used.[6]
1.1217w17a Added a new sound when placing eyes of ender to the portal frames, and a new pop sound when a thrown eye of ender bursts.
1.1418w43a The texture of eyes of ender has been changed.
1.1922w11a Eyes of ender now lead to the corner of the chunk (0, ~, 0) instead of the center (8, ~, 8).[7]

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition
1.0.0alpha 0.17.0.1 Added eyes of ender.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3 The texture of eyes of ender has been changed.
1.16.0beta 1.15.0.51 The particles of eyes of ender have been changed to match Java Edition.
1.21.100Preview 1.21.100.20 The sprites of eyes of ender, when rendered in the world, now have the correct scaling and positional offset.
They now match Java Edition and also match better with their collider.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360Xbox OnePS3PS4PS VitaWii USwitch
TU7CU11.001.001.00Patch 11.0.1 Added eyes of ender. They can be used to locate stronghold, but cannot be inserted into End portal frames.
TU9 Eyes of ender can be placed in empty End portal frames.
TU141.04 Eyes of ender can now be used to craft ender chests.
Priest villagers now sell eyes of ender for 7–10 emeralds.
TU31CU191.221.221.22Patch 3 With changes that have been made to villagers and the trading system, cleric villagers now sell eyes of ender for 7–11 emeralds, as one of their tier III trades.
TU46CU361.381.381.38Patch 15 Eyes of ender are no longer sold by cleric villagers.
An eye of ender is now used to craft an End crystal.
Eyes of enders now spawn at the player's chest when thrown instead of their eyes.
TU53CU431.491.501.49Patch 231.0.3 A new pop sound has been added when a thrown eye of ender bursts.
TU54CU441.521.521.52Patch 241.0.4 Throwing an eye of ender now slows down the player for the time that the use button is held down, similar to eating, drinking etc..
1.90 The texture of eyes of ender has been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10 Added eyes of ender.
  • The eye of ender used to appear large in third-person view.
    The eye of ender used to appear large in third-person view.

Data history

Java Edition
1.1116w32a The entity ID has been changed from EyeOfEnderSignal to eye_of_ender_signal.
1.1317w47a Prior to The Flattening, the item's numeral ID was 381 and the entity's numeral ID was 15.
pre5 The entity ID has been changed to eye_of_ender.
1.1418w50a Now have an optional Item tag that can specify a different item stack to render.
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Issues

Issues relating to "Eye of Ender" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

  • When thrown in third-person view, the eyes of ender fly out from the player's chest instead of their hand.
  • In Bedrock Edition the eye of ender flies out of the top right of the screen above the player head.
  • In Bedrock Edition if the player travels beyond a certain radius (roughly 740,000 blocks), eyes of ender always point to a stronghold near spawn, even though strongholds continue to generate past this limit. If one travels to this limit, they can see eyes of ender suddenly switching direction. A similar phenomenon occurs with the /locate command.

Screenshots

  • An End portal frame containing a few eyes of ender
    An End portal frame containing a few eyes of ender
  • An ender chest depicting an eye of ender on the front
    An ender chest depicting an eye of ender on the front
  • An enchanted eye of ender obtained with commands being thrown. Eyes of ender retain their components, including name and enchantments, when used.
    An enchanted eye of ender obtained with commands being thrown. Eyes of ender retain their components, including name and enchantments, when used.

In other media

  • Official T-shirt artwork "Eye of Ender" sold by JINX
    Official T-shirt artwork "Eye of Ender" sold by JINX
  • A Halloween T-Shirt design featuring an eye of ender
    A Halloween T-Shirt design featuring an eye of ender
  • Tyler throwing an eye of ender in Minecraft: Volume 1
    Tyler throwing an eye of ender in Minecraft: Volume 1

References

  1. ↑ MC-135996
  2. ↑ http://www.twitch.tv/jebox/b/297000418
  3. ↑ MC-51203
  4. ↑ MC-91173 – resolved as "Fixed".
  5. ↑ MC-107185
  6. ↑ MC-83337
  7. ↑ MC-253394
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How to craft Eye of Ender
See the exact crafting recipe on a 3×3 grid, the ingredients and step-by-step instructions.
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