The Ender Dragon has 200 health and heals from ten end crystals mounted on obsidian pillars. Destroy every crystal first, then damage the dragon while it perches on the central fountain. Done properly the fight takes about ten minutes and costs you almost nothing.
The hard part is not the dragon. It is the preparation: eyes of ender, a stronghold, and gear that survives a fall in a dimension with no water on the ground and a lot of open air.
Step 1: eyes of ender
An eye of ender is one blaze powder plus one ender pearl.
- Blaze powder comes from blaze rods, dropped by blazes in Nether fortresses. One rod makes two powder.
- Ender pearls come from endermen, which are common in the Nether's warped forest and in the Overworld at night. Looting III raises the drop to as many as 4 per kill.
Bring at least 16 eyes, ideally 20. Each thrown eye has a 20% chance of shattering, and you need 12 in reserve to fill the portal frame — though most frames generate with a few eyes already in place.
Step 2: find the stronghold
Throw an eye of ender and watch where it flies. It travels towards the nearest stronghold, hovers, then either drops as an item or breaks. Walk in that direction 200–400 blocks, throw another, and repeat.
When the eyes start flying downwards, you are on top of it. Dig down carefully — never straight down — and you will hit the stronghold's stone brick corridors.
Strongholds are large. The portal room contains a lava pool, an end portal frame ring of 12 blocks, and a spawner producing silverfish. Break or light the spawner before doing anything else.
Fill the empty frames by right-clicking each with an eye. Orientation matters and is handled automatically — you cannot place an eye in the wrong direction. When the twelfth is placed, the portal activates.
Step 3: what to bring
| Item | Quantity | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Full diamond or netherite armour | 1 set | Dragon breath and enderman hits |
| Protection IV | on all pieces | 64% additional reduction |
| Bow with Power | 1 | Crystals and the dragon in flight |
| Arrows | 64+, or Infinity | |
| Sword | 1 | Perched-dragon damage |
| Pickaxe | 1 | Caged crystals, obsidian, escape tunnels |
| Blocks (cobblestone) | 3–4 stacks | Pillaring up to caged crystals |
| Carved pumpkin | 1 | Stops enderman aggro entirely |
| Water bucket | 1 | Cancels fall damage; works in the End |
| Food | 1 stack | Fights drain the hunger bar fast |
| Ender chest | 1 | Bank the loot before the fight |
| Beds | 6–8 | The fast kill method, see below |
| Slow Falling potions | 2 | Insurance against a knockback into the void |
The carved pumpkin is the single most useful item in that list. Wearing one blocks the look-based aggro that makes endermen attack, at the cost of a heavily obscured view. Many players carry one and swap it in only while moving between pillars.
Step 4: destroy the ten crystals
Ten obsidian pillars ring the central fountain, each with an end crystal on top. Every crystal heals the dragon rapidly whenever it is in line of sight, so the fight does not begin until they are all gone.
- Uncaged crystals: shoot them with an arrow. They explode; stand well back.
- Caged crystals: the taller pillars have iron bar cages that arrows cannot pass. You must pillar up, break a bar with a pickaxe, and hit the crystal — then get away from the blast. Placing a block between yourself and the crystal before hitting it is the standard trick.
Work around the ring methodically. The dragon will strafe you the whole time; keep the shield up when it charges and keep away from pillar edges.
Step 5: the fight
The dragon cycles between circling above the fountain and perching on it. Perched, it is stationary and its head is at ground level — this is when you do damage.
Method A: melee the head
While perched, hit the head with your sword. Body hits deal reduced damage; the head takes full. Between perches, shoot it with a bow — again aiming for the head.
Watch for the breath attack, which leaves lingering purple clouds on the ground that deal continuous damage. Step out of them rather than tanking. You can collect the cloud with a glass bottle to get dragon's breath, needed for lingering potions.
Expect 8–12 perch cycles with a diamond sword.
Method B: beds
Beds explode in the End exactly as they do in the Nether, and the explosion is very strong.
- Wait for the dragon to perch.
- Place a bed on the fountain a few blocks from its head.
- Stand behind an obsidian block, with the bed at the far side of it.
- Right-click the bed. The blast damages the dragon heavily.
Roughly five to six beds finish the fight, which is far faster than melee. The risk is entirely to you: the same explosion kills a player outright at close range, so the obsidian shield between you and the bed is not optional.
After the kill
- 12,000 experience drops on the first kill — enough to take you from level 0 to about level 68. Subsequent kills give 500.
- The exit portal opens in the centre. Jumping in shows the end poem and returns you to your spawn point.
- The dragon egg appears on the exit portal. Hitting it makes it teleport; the way to collect it is to place a piston beside it and push it, or teleport it onto a torch so it drops as an item.
- End gateways appear around the arena. Throwing an ender pearl into one takes you to the outer islands, where end cities hold elytra and shulker boxes.
To fight it again, place four end crystals on the four edges of the exit portal.
Frequently asked questions
Can I beat the dragon in iron armour?
Yes, with care and a bow. The fight is more about positioning than raw stats: stay off pillar edges, keep the shield up against charges, and use the perch windows. Iron with Protection IV is comfortably enough. Iron with no enchantments is survivable but you will burn through food and probably lose a fight with an enderman somewhere along the way.
Do I need to kill the dragon to get an elytra?
Effectively, yes. The end gateways that lead to the outer islands, where end cities and their elytra are found, only appear after the dragon dies. You can reach the outer islands by other means in theory, but in normal play the dragon comes first.
What happens if I fall into the void?
You die and everything you carried is destroyed permanently — items in the void do not drop as loot. This is why an ender chest matters: bank anything you would hate to lose before stepping into the arena. Slow Falling potions and a water bucket reduce the chance of a knockback becoming a fall.
Is the dragon's breath worth collecting?
It is the only way to make lingering potions, which in turn are the only way to make tipped arrows in quantity. Collect three or four bottles during the fight if you can do it safely. If not, you can respawn the dragon later with four crystals and collect at leisure.
Should I bring my best gear or expendable gear?
Bring your best, and bring an ender chest. The dragon fight is not especially deadly with good preparation, and the risk of an unenchanted loadout — long fight, many endermen, running out of arrows — is higher than the risk of losing gear. Store anything irreplaceable in the ender chest before you enter the arena.
