How do you make a portal in Minecraft?

Oh, so you want to go to the Nether? Well, who am I to stop you? Let’s explore what materials you need, and how you make a Nether Portal in Minecraft. I’ll take you through it step-by-step, so you’ll be in the Nether in no time.

How do you make a Nether Portal in Minecraft?

It’s simple. Make a doorway with Obsidian blocks, light it on fire, and there you have it, a Nether Portal. Now, you do need to build your Nether Portal according to some specifications. I’ll cover those in the steps.

Step 1: Get a Diamond Pickaxe

First, you’ll need to get your hands on a Diamond Pickaxe. If you break the Obsidian block with an Iron Pickaxe, it won’t drop. Building a Diamond Pickaxe is easy though. All you need are three Diamonds in the top row, and then two sticks down the middle of your crafting table.

In case you need diamonds, here’s a guide on where to find diamonds in Minecraft.

Step 2: Make or find Obsidian

You’ll occasionally find Obsidian in the bottom of ravines or caves where water has run across lava, but you can easily make your own obsidian. All you need is a bucket and some water. You can make a bucket by combining three iron ingots in a bucket shape on a crafting table.

All you need to do now is find some lava, drop your water, and wait for the lava to turn into Obsidian. Be careful not to drop the water right on top of the lava, or the water will disappear. Instead, drop it to the side so that the water runs over the lava.

After that, get the Diamond pickaxe out and mine it. Make sure it’s the Diamond Pickaxe, or you’ll just waste your Obsidian.

Step 3: Build your Minecraft Portal

To get your portal to work, you’ll need the place your Obsidian blocks within certain dimensions. The smallest portal you can build needs at least ten Obsidian. It has to be three blocks high and two blocks wide. It’s the one on the right in the below image.

Now let’s have some fun. What is the biggest portal you can build?

The widest portal you can build is 21 blocks on the inside of the portal. So your Obsidian will be 23 blocks wide. The tallest portal you can build in Minecraft is also 23 blocks high. In other words, your obsidian frame can be 23×23 at its biggest.

Why? Because it looks cool.

If you’re playing in survival, however, it can take a long time to get all of that Obsidian. You’ll need 89 Obsidian blocks just to build it, so maybe it’s better sticking with a small portal.

Now that you have access to the Nether, why not learn how to make a brewing stand in Minecraft next?