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Strongholds in Minecraft are considered some of the best generated structures in the entire game. The loot is second to none, and they are paramount to beating the game. No player has ever beaten a Minecraft world without a stronghold, so they are extremely important.
They're also pretty difficult to find. Strongholds can be extremely far away from where players find themselves, and there are usually only 2-3 in an entire world.
Still, they're so valuable and important that finding one should be a top priority for Minecraft players. They are difficult to find and there's no map to them (like Woodland Mansions or Ocean Monuments), but there are ways to find them pretty easily.
Finding strongholds in Minecraft
The easiest and quickest way to find strongholds in Minecraft is to use cheats. Granted, these do remove achievements and are usually met with a general disdain from the community. Using cheats is still the fastest way to find one.
Using the /locate cheat is the best way to find a stronghold. Input "/locate stronghold" and the coordinates will come up in the chat. If Minecraft cheats are on, then there's really no reason not to use another cheat once that's done. /teleport will teleport a user to the coordinates, so that's the fastest way to get there, too.
Aside from using cheats, there are a couple of ways to find them legitimately. The first being the way the game was intended to be played: with eyes of ender. Players will need a lot of ender pearls to craft enough, so killing every Enderman is a good idea. If there is a Crimson Forest in the Nether, they will spawn there more frequently. Looting III swords give the most ender pearls.
Speaking of the Nether, players will also need blaze rods, so finding a fortress with a spawner is the next step. This can be tricky (cheats here help, too). Finding them is no guarantee and there's no real trick to locating one.
Take lots of non-Nether blocks (stone, gravel, andesite, diorite, etc.) to mark travels so finding the portal doesn't become impossible. Once players have several blaze rods (Looting III helps again), they can return to the Overworld. Craft those into blaze powder and then use the ender pearls to craft eyes of ender.
Once these are crafted, players can throw them and they will fly up and forward in the direction of the stronghold. Traveling in that direction, players can throw them again periodically to double check their direction and if they've somehow passed it. Don't throw them too often, as they can disappear when thrown.
Once players have found the stronghold, the eyes of ender will simply go straight up (or even backward or any other way than forward) to indicate the position of the entrance. Mine down and begin exploring, but don't get lost!
The only other way to find one is to luck into it. They are often found underneath villages and often underneath the wells in those villages, but that's no guarantee and there's no telling how far away they might be.
Whether players are looking to find books in the library or travel to the end, strongholds are a great structure to look for.
