Portals between worlds
How Nether portals work, coordinate ratios, plugin portals between arbitrary worlds, and common linking problems.
Updated August 13, 2026
A vanilla portal links the Overworld and the Nether with a ratio of 8: one block in the Nether equals eight blocks in the Overworld.
Linking rules
The server searches for the nearest portal within a radius; if it doesn't find one, it creates a new one. This causes the classic problem: two Overworld portals standing next to each other lead to the same Nether portal.
The solution is to build portals manually using coordinates: X/8, Z/8, and the same height. Then linking is exact and predictable.
Disabling
allow-nether=false disables the Nether and portals entirely — Nether and End.
Portals between arbitrary worlds
This is impossible in vanilla. It is done with a plugin: Multiverse-Portals lets you assign any target to the frame — another world, coordinates, or a command.
/mvp create hub
/mvp modify dest w:lobby
— Multiverse.
Issues
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Player ends up in the wrong place | Linking matched a different portal |
| Portal is not created | Blocked by a region or the Nether is disabled |
| Mobs pass through the portal | Can be disabled with a core setting — Purpur |
| Minecarts and items get lost | Known behavior: don't send valuables through a portal |
Load
Each portal is a potential chunk generation point in the Nether. Hundreds of portals from players mean a loaded Nether scattered across the entire map — World border helps here too.
