Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The End highlands is the biome at the center of each large island in the outer End. It is the only biome where chorus plants grow naturally, and one of two where end cities generate. In our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds it covered 17% of the End and always started just past 1,000 blocks from the End’s center.
| Dimension | The End (outer End) |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | The middle of the large outer islands, ringed by End midlands |
| How common | 17% of the End in our sample, the third most common End biome |
| Distance from 0,0 | Median 1,015 blocks from the End’s 0,0; never within 1,000 blocks, always within 2,000 (our sample) |
| Mobs | Endermen only; shulkers come with end cities |
| Notable blocks | End stone, chorus plants and chorus flowers |
| Structures | End cities, some with an end ship |
| Biome ID | minecraft:end_highlands |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.9 (Combat Update, 2016) |
How to get to the End highlands
You can’t walk there from the central island. The outer End only starts about 1,000 blocks out, past a ring of empty void, and in all 300 seeds of our sample the first End highlands appeared right at that distance. The way across is an End gateway: each time you defeat the Ender Dragon, a new gateway appears near the edge of the main island, and throwing an ender pearl into it sends you to the outer End.
Once there, head for the highest, widest part of the nearest big island. In our sample the End highlands bordered End midlands 99.9% of the time, so the highlands is always the core of an island with a ring of midlands around it, never an island edge.
These Java 26.3 seeds have End highlands just past the 1,000-block ring. Coordinates are End coordinates, checked at block level, and the map links open in the End.
| Seed | End highlands at | From 0,0 | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
6344123284989658485 |
X -818, Z -662 | 1,052 blocks | Open on the map |
547032377997846341 |
X -638, Z -814 | 1,034 blocks | Open on the map |
3711975486749412315 |
X -630, Z -834 | 1,045 blocks | Open on the map |
With cheats on, /locate biome minecraft:end_highlands finds the nearest one from anywhere in the End. To plan a trip to a specific city, the end city finder lists them for your seed, or paste the seed into the biome finder. These are Java seeds; Bedrock worlds from the same number are different.
Chorus plants
Chorus plants only generate in the End highlands; the midlands, barrens and small End islands have none. They grow as tall, branching purple stalks on End stone, topped with chorus flowers. Breaking a stalk drops chorus fruit, and anything above the broken piece breaks too, so cut low to harvest a whole plant.
Eating chorus fruit teleports you to a random nearby spot, which can save you from a fall but can also drop you somewhere worse, so eat it over solid ground. Smelt it into popped chorus fruit to craft purpur blocks and End rods. To grow your own, plant a chorus flower on End stone; it grows anywhere, including the Overworld, as long as it sits on End stone.
End cities and elytra
End cities generate in the End highlands and the End midlands. They are tall purpur towers guarded by shulkers, whose shells craft shulker boxes. Some cities have an end ship moored beside them, and every end ship holds an elytra in an item frame and a dragon head on its bow. Once you have an elytra, crossing the void between islands gets much easier.
Shulker bullets give you Levitation, which is how most falls into the void start. Fight shulkers with blocks under you, and bring slow falling potions or milk to clear the effect.
Is there a “small End highlands” biome?
No. The outer End has four biomes, and the patches of void with tiny floating rocks between the big islands are the small End islands. The End highlands only covers the centers of the large islands.
| End biome | Share of the End (our sample) | What’s there |
|---|---|---|
| Small End islands | 44% | Void and tiny End stone islands |
| End midlands | 25% | Island slopes, end cities |
| End highlands | 17% | Island centers, chorus plants, end cities |
| End barrens | 11% | Island edges |
| The End (central island) | 3% | The main island and the void around it |
What changed in 2025-26
In Wilderness Bound (Java 26.3, September 2026), a long-standing bug was fixed that made outer End terrain fail to generate in shrinking rings around the End’s center (MC-159283).
In The Copper Age (Java 1.21.9, September 2025), the End gained sky flashes: from time to time a purple flash lights up the whole dimension with a rumbling sound. The “Hide Sky Flashes” accessibility option turns the lighting off.
In Spring to Life (Java 1.21.5, March 2025), the End highlands counts as a cold biome for the new farm animal variants, so a pig, cow or chicken spawned here (with a spawn egg, for example) comes out as the cold variant. They don’t spawn here naturally.
Source: the official 26.3, 1.21.9 and 1.21.5 release notes.
How we measured
The numbers on this page come from our own seed map engine, running Java Edition 26.3 world generation. We generated 300 random seeds and sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square of the End centered on 0,0. “How common” is each biome’s share of those samples, including the central island; “distance from 0,0” is how far the nearest End highlands sample was. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
