How to Defeat the Ender Dragon (Step by Step)

The dragon has 200 health, or 100 hearts, and any crystal left standing heals it back. If you haven't reached the End yet, start with how to find a stronghold.

What to bring

• Armour: diamond or netherite with Protection IV. Put Feather Falling IV on the boots, because wing hits launch you into the air.
• A bow with Power (max level V) and two or three stacks of arrows. Crossbows can't take Power.
• A stack of Snowballs. Snowballs and eggs pop an End Crystal even though they do no damage.
• A sword, a pickaxe and a Water Bucket. The pickaxe mines End Stone for pillars and opens the Iron Bars around two of the crystals.
• A Carved Pumpkin to wear on your head while you walk among endermen.
• Food and Golden Apples. Each apple gives Regeneration II for 5 seconds and Absorption for 2 minutes.
• Potions of Slow Falling, brewed from an Awkward Potion and a Phantom Membrane. The potion brewing chart shows the full tree.
• Glass Bottles, to collect Dragon's Breath from the purple clouds.
• A Totem of Undying in your off-hand, if you have one. It saves you from a killing hit, but not from falling into the void.

Use a bed near the stronghold portal before you jump; that sets your spawn even by day. In the End a bed explodes when used, with a blast stronger than TNT, and a respawn anchor doesn't work. A death sends you back to that bed.

Arriving in the End

You land on a 5×5 Obsidian platform at X=100, Z=0. The exit portal, where the dragon perches, is at X=0, Z=0. The platform usually sits off the main island, so you may need to bridge across.

Mine a stack of End Stone as soon as you reach the island. The dragon flies through and destroys most blocks, but it can't break End Stone, Obsidian, Bedrock or Iron Bars. A Cobblestone pillar can vanish under your feet when it passes.

Endermen are everywhere. One turns hostile when you look at its eyes for a quarter of a second from within 64 blocks, unless you are wearing the Carved Pumpkin. Endermen dodge arrows by teleporting, so fight them with a sword. They are 2.9 blocks tall and can't follow you into a gap two blocks high, and water hurts them.

Its attacks

Damage is in health points; 2 points is one heart.

• Wing hits throw you into the air, sometimes high enough to kill you or carry you off the island. Slow Falling removes fall damage entirely, and a Water Bucket placed just before you land does the same.
• Purple clouds from its breath and its fireballs hurt you every second you stand in them, and armour points don't reduce it. Walk out at once.
• Never fight near the island's edge. Below the End there is only void.

Step 1: Destroy all 10 End Crystals

Ten Obsidian pillars stand in a ring around the exit portal, each with an End Crystal on top. The dragon draws a white beam from the nearest crystal within 32 blocks and heals 1 health every half-second while it's connected.

• Shoot every open crystal from range. A crystal explodes with power 6 when it breaks, as strong as a charged creeper.
• Time your shot to the beam. Breaking a crystal while the dragon is charging from it deals 10 damage to the dragon.
• Look up after each one. Destroying a crystal switches the dragon to strafing: it flies at you and fires a fireball once it's within 64 blocks.
• Open the two cages. The second- and third-shortest pillars hold crystals inside Iron Bars. Pillar up beside the cage with End Stone and mine one bar level with the crystal. Then bridge a few blocks away with End Stone and shoot through the gap from there.

Step 2: Hit the dragon on the portal

Each time the dragon reaches the next waypoint on its circuit around the pillars (about every twelfth of a lap), it has a 1 in (3 + crystals still alive) chance to fly in and land on the exit portal. That is 1 in 13 with all ten crystals up and 1 in 3 once they're gone, which is another reason to clear them first.

If you stay within 20 blocks of it, it turns to face you, roars and breathes a purple cloud onto the ground in front of its head, toward you. Step out of the cloud and wait about nine seconds until it vanishes. Then run in and swing at the head. When it roars again, back off: the next cloud lands about two seconds later.

• Arrows and thrown tridents bounce off a perched dragon. Use your sword. In Java Edition the dragon can't take critical hits, so don't jump before each swing. Hit when your attack cooldown is full; combat basics covers the cooldown.
• It takes off once the damage it has taken while perched passes 50, a quarter of its health, or after four breath attacks. The hit that crosses 50 still counts in full, and damage from a perch that ends early carries over to the next one. Arrows between perches shorten the fight.
• Aim for the head. Hits on the body, wings or tail lose most of their damage: a 7-damage Diamond Sword hit does 2.75. Since 26.3, head and neck hits deal full damage. In earlier versions back to 1.21.4, they were reduced too, so any hit counted the same.
• Bottle the breath. A Glass Bottle used on a purple cloud fills with Dragon's Breath, which turns splash potions into lingering ones. Collect it during the fight; a respawned dragon breathes the same clouds if you need more.

After the kill

The death animation lasts 10 seconds. On the first kill it drops 12,000 XP, enough to take you from level 0 to level 68 (the XP calculator shows level 68 costs 11,978 XP in total). A respawned dragon drops 500.

• The exit portal opens. The first time you enter it, the credits roll. After that it returns you to your spawn point.
• The Dragon Egg appears on top of the portal after the first kill only. Hitting or using it teleports it up to 15 blocks sideways and 7 up or down. Push it with a piston placed beside it and it drops as an item.
• An End Gateway appears at Y=75, 96 blocks from the centre. Throw an Ender Pearl into it to reach the outer islands and their End Cities. How to get an Elytra takes it from there.

To fight again, place four End Crystals on the exit portal, one on each side. Each crystal takes seven Glass, an Eye of Ender and a Ghast Tear. The respawn rebuilds the crystals on the pillars and blows up the top of each one, destroying any blocks you placed there, so stay off the pillars. Every kill adds another gateway, up to 20.