Ruined Portal Finder

Where You'll Find Them

• Overworld ruinsOverworld Ruined Portals can spawn in just about any biome. You'll typically find them sitting on grass, half-buried in sand or hillsides, underwater off beaches, or even floating up on mountainsides.
• Nether ruinsNether Ruined Portals appear in any Nether biome — Crimson Forest, Warped Forest, Nether Wastes and the occasional Soul Sand Valley. The Crimson Forest variants tend to be partly overgrown by red fungus, which makes them harder to spot from a distance.
• Gold blocksSome portal frames have gold blocks built into them, especially the larger ruined variants. Mining them out is a quick early-game source of gold ingots if you haven't broken into a Nether gold supply yet.
• Repair costMost frames need 3 to 7 obsidian blocks added to make a working portal, and a flint and steel to light it. Be aware that some of the visible "obsidian" is actually crying obsidian, which doesn't conduct portal energy — replace those with the real thing.
• Buried portalsSome Ruined Portals are completely submerged or buried under terrain. The finder pin lands on the portal itself rather than a visible surface marker, so when you arrive it's worth digging around the spot before assuming you're in the wrong place.

The Loot Chest

Turning a Ruin Into a Free Nether Trip

1. Travel to the portal pin and study the frame layout. Ruined Portals always use the standard 4×5 obsidian shape that a working Nether Portal needs (4 blocks wide, 5 blocks tall) — they're just missing several blocks where the world generator has chewed them out. Walk around the frame and note exactly which obsidian blocks are present so you know how many more you need before you start mining for materials.
2. Count the missing blocks and gather replacement obsidian. Most Ruined Portals are missing three to seven blocks. The fastest way to make new obsidian is to find a lava pool nearby, place a water source next to it (which turns flowing lava into obsidian instantly), then mine each block with a diamond or netherite pickaxe. The loot chest near the portal also frequently contains a few obsidian blocks already, which can save you the trip.
3. Fill the gaps to complete the frame. Note that the four corner blocks of a Nether Portal don't actually need to be obsidian — the portal still activates with regular blocks (or no block at all) at the corners. So if you're three short of a full set, leave the corners empty and use your obsidian for the edges where it's actually required.
4. Light the portal with Flint and Steel or a Fire Charge. Flint and Steel is crafted from one iron ingot and one flint, but Ruined Portal chests very often contain Fire Charges (a craftable equivalent that's already lit) so check the chest before you craft. Right-click any inside face of the obsidian frame and the purple swirling portal activates — you've just unlocked a Nether route hours earlier than the usual diamond-pickaxe route would have allowed.
5. Build a backup portal at your base before you step through. The first time you enter a portal, the game generates a corresponding Nether Portal in the Nether at the linked coordinates (Overworld coords ÷ 8). For Ruined Portals in random places, that link can land you in a sea of lava or stranded on a tiny island. If you build and light another portal at your home base first, you'll have a known-safe entry point to fall back to.

Why this is an early-game gold mine

A nearby ruined portal at spawn is one of the best early finds in a world. It cuts out the entire obsidian grind (you'd otherwise need a diamond pickaxe to mine any). Combine with a close village for beds and trading, and you've got a week-one route to the nether. Nether fortresses are the next target once you're through — bring gold armour to keep piglins calm.