How to find ruined portals in Minecraft’s Nether Update
You can find lost treasures all over your Minecraft world.
Zack Palm 
Image via Mojang
Ruined portals are partially destroyed portals that can lead to the Nether of Minecraft. In the Nether Update for version 1.6, a ruined portal has a block on them you will need called Crying Obsidian. You can use Crying Obsidian to creates respawn anchor allowing you to revive in the Nether. These ruined portals are scattered all over your Minecraft world. There are several versions of them randomly spawning in, each with a chest that contains plenty of useful items available for you to grab inside.
A ruined portal has the chance to spawn underground, underwater, or out in the middle of nowhere in Minecraft. You won’t find a distinct biome that has them, but they do sometimes look different than others. For example, a ruined portal located in the jungle biome has the chance to have vines over it, whereas one in the desert won’t have any plants attached to it. You can also find them in the Nether.
To make finding a ruined portal a bit easier, they have netherrack blocks around them. You will know you are closing in on a ruined portal by the netherrack on the ground. Additionally, the ones spawning underground will have air pockets around them, which means they are pushing blocks up above them further up than usual. Ruined portals with air pockets spawn in the standard, jungle, mountain, and Nether biomes.
Most ruined portals will have a chest next to them you can loot. These chests have a chance to contain various useful items, such as gold nuggets, golden items and equipment, obsidian, iron nuggets, fire charges, flint and steel, and more. For those looking to collect the Crying Obsidian around a ruined portal, bring a diamond or a netherite pickaxe to harvest it. Any other pickaxe will not work with it.
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