Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The End biome is the central island of the End dimension and the empty void around it. It is where you arrive through an End portal and where you fight the Ender Dragon, and it holds the exit portal and the gateways to the outer End. Unlike every other biome, it sits in the same place in every world: centered on the End’s 0,0.
| Dimension | The End |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | Always at the center of the End: the main island plus the void out to roughly 1,000 blocks |
| How common | 3% of the sampled End in our sample, which works out to a disc about 1,000 blocks in radius |
| Distance from 0,0 | 0 blocks: it covered the End’s center in all 300 seeds (our sample) |
| Mobs | Endermen, plus the Ender Dragon |
| Notable blocks | End stone, obsidian pillars with end crystals, the bedrock exit portal, the dragon egg |
| Structures | No generated structures; the obsidian arrival platform, the exit portal and End gateways are part of the island |
| Biome ID | minecraft:the_end |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.0 (2011); the outer End biomes were split off in Java 1.9 (2016) |
Where to find the End biome
You don’t search for it. The central island always generates at the End’s 0,0, and every End portal sends you to the same obsidian platform at about X 100, Z 0, on the island’s edge. In our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds, the biome covered the center in every one. Past its edge the void gives way to small end islands 63% of the time, End midlands 17%, End highlands 12% and End barrens 8%.
Getting there takes a stronghold: follow thrown eyes of ender to it, then fill the twelve frames of its End portal. Our guide to the End walks through the whole trip, and the stronghold finder shows where the strongholds are in your seed.
Because the location never changes, the three seeds below mostly confirm that. Each has the End biome at the same spot next to 0,0, checked at block level, and the map links open in the End.
| Seed | End biome at | From 0,0 | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
6344123284989658485 |
X -6, Z -6 | 8 blocks | Open on the map |
547032377997846341 |
X -6, Z -6 | 8 blocks | Open on the map |
-9083720909831523632 |
X -6, Z -6 | 8 blocks | Open on the map |
With cheats on, /locate biome minecraft:the_end points to it from anywhere in the End. To see the outer islands around it for your seed, use the seed map or the biome finder. These are Java seeds; the same number on Bedrock gives a different world.
What’s on the central island
The island is a dome of End stone with nothing growing on it. Chorus plants only appear out in the End highlands.
A ring of ten obsidian pillars stands around the middle, each topped with an end crystal that heals the dragon; a few of the crystals sit inside iron-bar cages. Which pillar is tallest depends on the seed. At 0,0 sits the exit portal, a bedrock frame that stays dark until the dragon dies.
When the dragon dies, three things happen. The exit portal opens, and jumping in takes you back to your Overworld spawn point. A dragon egg appears on top of the portal after the first kill. And a new End gateway appears near the island’s edge; throw an ender pearl into it to reach the outer End, which in our sample never started closer than 1,000 blocks from the center. Each later kill adds another gateway.
For the fight itself (crystals first, then the dragon, and how to respawn it with four end crystals), see our End guide and the Ender Dragon page.
What mobs spawn in the End biome
Only endermen spawn naturally, in groups of four, and there are a lot of them on the island. Don’t look at their faces: an enderman you stare at turns hostile. Wearing a carved pumpkin stops that, at the cost of a blocked view. The Ender Dragon is the other mob here; it appears when the End is first entered, not through normal spawning.
Shulkers don’t live on the central island. They come with end cities, which generate only in the End highlands and End midlands.
The End biome vs the outer End biomes
The End dimension has five biomes. This one is the center; the other four make up the outer islands.
| Feature | Share of the End (our sample) | What’s there |
|---|---|---|
| The End (this page) | 3% | Central island, pillars, exit portal, gateways |
| Small end islands | 44% | Void with tiny End stone islands |
| End midlands | 25% | Slopes of the big islands, end cities |
| End highlands | 17% | Centers of the big islands, chorus plants, end cities |
| End barrens | 11% | Thin edges of the big islands |
Questions about the End biome
Can you place water in the End?
Yes. Water behaves normally here; only the Nether makes it evaporate. A water bucket is also the quickest way to keep endermen off you, because they take damage from water.
Can you sleep in the End?
No. A bed explodes when you try to use it in the End, and so does a respawn anchor. The straw bed added in Java 26.3 can’t be used here either and breaks if you try.
What does the dragon egg do?
Nothing beyond being a trophy. It teleports a short way when you hit it, so players usually knock it off its perch with a piston or let it fall onto a torch to pick it up.
Is the End linked to Overworld coordinates?
No. Unlike the Nether, the End has no 8-to-1 link with the Overworld. Every End portal leads to the same platform near the central island, wherever the stronghold was.
What changed in 2025-26
Wilderness Bound (Java 26.3, September 2026) made no gameplay changes to the central island.
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), a bug that could leave the exit portal incomplete was fixed; the portal had been placed on the highest block at 0,0 (MC-93185). The same update made the End 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 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; the End biome’s location was checked in every seed. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
