Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The End midlands is the biome on the slopes of the large outer End islands, between the End highlands at their center and the End barrens at their edge. It is bare End stone with endermen, and one of only two biomes where end cities generate. In our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds it covered a quarter of the End.
| Dimension | The End (outer End) |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | The middle ring of each large outer island, around End highlands and inside End barrens |
| How common | 25% of the End in our sample, the second most common End biome |
| Distance from 0,0 | Median 1,014 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 and nothing else; no chorus plants |
| Structures | End cities, some with an end ship |
| Biome ID | minecraft:end_midlands |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.9 (Combat Update, 2016) |
How to get to the End midlands
You can’t walk there from the central island. The outer End starts about 1,000 blocks out, past a ring of empty void, and in all 300 seeds of our sample the first End midlands appeared right at that distance (median 1,014 blocks). To cross the void, defeat the Ender Dragon: each time you do, a new End gateway appears near the edge of the main island, and throwing an ender pearl into it sends you to the outer End.
Once you are across, the midlands is easy to spot. In our sample, its edge touched End highlands 45% of the time, End barrens 44% and small End islands 11%. Walk uphill toward the middle of an island and you reach the highlands; walk downhill toward the void and the ground turns into barrens.
These Java 26.3 seeds have End midlands 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 midlands at | From 0,0 | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
4711785765194039058 |
X -558, Z -1106 | 1,239 blocks | Open on the map |
3963837725665925714 |
X -722, Z -734 | 1,030 blocks | Open on the map |
1687136440115383418 |
X -946, Z -498 | 1,069 blocks | Open on the map |
With cheats on, /locate biome minecraft:end_midlands finds the nearest one from anywhere in the End. To plan a trip to a 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.
What is in the End midlands?
Very little grows or generates here on its own. The ground is End stone, the only mob that spawns is the enderman, and there is no weather and no day or night. Chorus plants don’t grow in the midlands at all: they only generate in the End highlands, so if you see chorus on a slope, the highlands start a few blocks uphill.
Endermen spawn here as they do across the End, so you can collect ender pearls while you look for a city. Wear a carved pumpkin if you want to look around without angering them, and fight them with your back to a wall rather than an edge.
End cities and elytra
End cities generate in two biomes only, the End midlands and the End highlands, so the slopes of every large island are worth scanning from a distance. A city is a tall purpur tower 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.
Shulker bullets give you Levitation, which is how most falls into the void start. Fight shulkers with blocks under you, and carry slow falling potions or milk.
End midlands vs highlands and barrens
The three biomes are rings of the same islands. The midlands is the slope, the highlands is the raised center and the barrens is the low rim.
| Feature | End midlands | End highlands | End barrens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Share of the End (our sample) | 25% | 17% | 11% |
| Part of the island | Slopes | Center | Outer edge |
| Chorus plants | No | Yes | No |
| End cities | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobs | Endermen only in all three | ||
The rest of the End is the small End islands (44% in our sample), the void with scattered floating rocks between the big islands, and the End biome itself (3%), the central island where you fight the dragon.
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 midlands was listed 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 midlands sample was. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
