How to Kill the Ender Dragon in Minecraft

The Ender Dragon is the final boss in Minecraft. It’s the toughest single enemy you can face in the game. If you face the Ender Dragon unprepared, you are almost certain to die.

Fortunately, you can fight the Ender Dragon as many times as you want until you manage to beat it (unless you are doing a hardcore Minecraft speedrun). But each attempt costs you additional consumables such as food and potions, so it’s best to keep retires at a minimum.

In this guide, we will teach you:

• How to prepare for the fight.
• How to locate and enter the fight arena.
• How to slay the Ender Dragon in combat.

How to Prepare for the Fight?

To slay the Ender Dragon and live to tell the tale, you need to gear up. You don’t necessarily need every piece of equipment mentioned here to kill the dragon, but stocking up on these items can make the fight substantially easier.

Weapons

• A bow is essential for the fight. Used for safely destroying end crystals. Enchanting the bow is recommended. The Power enchantment greatly increases damage against the dragon, and the Infinity enchantment ensures you never run out of arrows during the fight.
• Diamond or netherite sword is your main way of dealing damage. A diamond blade will usually suffice, but the netherite sword does deal slightly more damage. You can also enchant the sword with Sharpness (for extra damage) and Knockback (to make it easier to fight Endermen).

Armor

• Diamond or netherite armor set. Wearing a full set of armor will help you tank some of the damage from the dragon. Diamond armor is usually all you will need, but consider using the netherite set for added knockback resistance. You can also enchant the armor with Protection IV for an extra layer of defense, and you can enchant boots with Feather Fall IV to reduce falling damage for additional safety.
• Carved pumpkin. A carved pumpkin provides no additional armor when worn as a helmet, but it allows you to look at endermen without provoking an attack.

Food/Healing

• Golden apples. The best healing item for the fight. Golden apples provide the Absorption buff (grants 4 temporary health), as well as the Regeneration buff (restores another 4 health over 5 seconds).
• Golden carrots. The most nutritious food item in the game. Stock up on these to ensure full saturation throughout the fight.
• Healing potions. For instant health restoration during the fight.
• Regeneration potions. For gradual health restoration during the fight.

Buffs

• Slow Fall potions. For reducing fall damage during the fight.
• Night Vision potions. To make it easier to orient yourself during the fight, and for avoiding endermen.
• Strength potions. To boost your damage during the fight.

Utility

• Water Bucket. The water bucket is useful for avoiding fall damage. Before hitting the ground, use the water bucket to create a water block right below you, thus negating fall damage.
• Ladder. Useful for climbing pillars with end crystals, which you have to destroy during the fight.
• Diamond pickaxe. For mining end stone, which can be used to barricade yourself against attacks by endermen and the dragon.
• Blocks. Same as the ladder, useful for climbing pillars with end crystals on them.

How to Find the Ender Dragon?

The Ender Dragon lives in its own dimension called the End, separated from the rest of the game world. The only way to reach it is through the End portal.

The End portal can be found in a special room in the stronghold. The fastest way to find the Stronghold is to use the ender eye triangulation method:

1. Throw an ender eye into the air. It will look in the direction of the Stronghold.
2. Move in a line away from the first throw, throw the eye again, and check the direction.
3. Repeat three times, and you will find the Stronghold at the location where lines of sight extending from the eyes intersect.

After locating the Stronghold, explore until you find the End portal. To activate the portal, you will need 12 ender eyes. Craft them by combining 12 ender pearls and 12 blaze rods.

Once you’re ready, step through the portal and face the Ender Dragon.

How to Defeat the Ender Dragon?

There are two strategies for defeating the Ender Dragon, the regular strategy, and the bed strategy.

The regular approach involves fighting the dragon the way the developers intended, using conventional weapons and tactics.

The more advanced bed strategy is significantly faster, but also more dangerous and more difficult to pull off. It is mainly used in Minecraft speedrunning.

Option 1: Regular Strategy

1. Destroy the End Crystals

Once the boss fight has begun, the first objective is to destroy the End Crystals on top of the Obsidian Pillars. The crystals periodically heal the dragon, making the fight almost impossible.

Fortunately, you can destroy the crystals with a single attack from any weapon, and if you time your attacks right and destroy a crystal while it’s healing the dragon, it will deal extra damage to the dragon. The quickest way to destroy crystals is with the bow.

Follow the crystals’ healing beam to easily find them.

2. Kill the Dragon

After destroying the crystals, you will have to deal with the dragon. While the dragon is flying you can shoot it with the bow. When it’s hovering above the portal, it is immune to arrows, but you can hit it with the sword. Attacking the head deals more damage than attacking other parts of the body.

While attacking the dragon, be mindful of the hordes of Endermen prowling the level. Attempting to kill them all is dangerous and time-consuming, so try to avoid them instead and focus on the dragon.

The dragon has 200 health points. After getting struck with the final blow, the dragon will dissipate into a mist and drop rare items as a reward, including the once-per-run Dragon Egg item drop. It will also get you 12000 experience.

Option 2: Bed Strategy

The bed strategy relies on the exploding bed game mechanic. Simply put, beds in Minecraft can only be placed and used in the regular game world. If you try to use a bed in the Nether or the End dimension, the bed will explode, dealing more damage than TNT.

What makes this strategy powerful is the fact that it’s much easier to acquire beds than a full set of endgame equipment. It is also significantly faster to kill the dragon this way, as it only takes around 5-bed explosions to bring the dragon to 0 hp.

The downside to this strategy is that it’s much more difficult to execute. You have to time the placement and activation of the bed, while avoiding the explosion yourself. The trick is to place the bed in front of the dragon’s head while it’s doing a swooping attack. Additionally, you have to place the bed a block above where your character is standing to avoid damage.

Conclusion

The Ender Dragon fight is a suitable final fight for the game. It will put all your Minecraft skills to the test, and the rewards for killing the dragon are well worth the trouble.

The regular strategy is recommended for most casual Minecraft players, and if you want a true challenge, you can also attempt the bed strategy. Now go forth brave warrior, and slay the vile fire beast once and for all!