Ruined Portal Entry
EasyNether EntryFinish a ruined portal's broken frame, light it and you are in the Nether without mining obsidian or casting a whole portal from lava. Ruined portals generate in every Overworld and Nether biome except the deep dark, and the chest beside one often has something to finish the job with: obsidian, flint and steel or a fire charge.
When to Use
When you can see one from spawn and the frame is close to complete. Count the gaps before you commit, because each one needs obsidian from the chest or a block cast from lava and water. Look for crying obsidian too: a frame with crying obsidian in it will not light, so the portal you build has to leave those blocks out.
Estimated Time Save
Mining or casting a full frame
Step-by-Step Guide
Judge the frame
Ruined portals come in small and large versions, standing up or lying flat, and some are half buried or underwater. What matters is how many blocks are missing. A working frame is at least 4 blocks wide and 5 tall on the outside, and the corners are optional, so 10 obsidian is the minimum.
Open the chest
The chest rolls 4 to 8 times. Obsidian (1 or 2 per roll), flint, iron nuggets, flint and steel and fire charges are the most common results, followed by golden armor and tools, gold nuggets and golden apples. In Java Edition the chest is sometimes gone because terrain generated over it, most often lava.
Fill the gaps
Place the chest's obsidian first. For anything still missing, cast it: pour lava into the gap and let water run over the source block so it turns into obsidian. One bucket does the job if you swap between lava and water, and a bucket costs 3 iron ingots.
Light it
Any fire inside the frame activates it, so flint and steel and a fire charge both work. No igniter in the chest? Nine iron nuggets craft an iron ingot, and an iron ingot with a piece of flint makes flint and steel.
Go through and note where you land
Stand in the portal for 4 seconds. Your Nether position is your Overworld X and Z divided by 8, so a portal at X 800 puts you near X 100 in the Nether. Press F3 when you arrive and remember the numbers, you will want them when planning the way out.
Pros
- +Often the quickest way into the Nether when one is in sight
- +The chest can supply obsidian, flint and steel or a fire charge
- +No diamond pickaxe or lava pool needed when the frame is nearly whole
- +Golden armor from the chest keeps piglins neutral once you are in the Nether
Cons
- -Only in 1.16 and later, the version that added ruined portals
- -Many frames miss too many blocks to be worth finishing
- -Crying obsidian in the frame stops the portal from lighting
- -In Java Edition the chest can be missing, replaced by terrain such as lava
- -You come out at your X and Z divided by 8, which may be nowhere near a bastion