How to Find and Defeat the Ender Dragon

✦ Preparation & Recommended Gear Checklist

Fighting the dragon unprepared means death and looting. You have to be totally ready and geared up.

▸ Enchanted Armor:

You have to properly equip diamond or netherite armor with the enchantment of protection level 4 (protection IV) if you want to live through the battle. Feather falling IV enchantment on the boots is required to survive the flight that the dragon can throw you on.

▸ Ranged Weapon:

 As for ranged weapons, you will need a bow with Power I/II, Infinity, and Unbreaking enchantments. 

▸ Melee Weapon:

As for melee weapons, you will need a diamond or netherite sword (or axe) with Sharpness enchantment of the 5th level to chop off the dragon’s head when he is perched. 

▸ Utility items:

Besides, you will need a few Utility items:

• A water bucket – to drink it when falling from great heights to avoid several seconds of falling damage and to repel Endermen that might spawn nearby;
  
• Some empty glass bottles – to fill the dragon’s breath with lingering potions, 4-8 bottles are needed for this;
  
• A carved pumpkin or golden apples – to prevent Endermen from targeting you when you look in their direction (carved pumpkins) or heal yourself (golden apples);
  
• Some building blocks – 2-3 stacks of cobblestone or dirt to build a ladder or stairs up to the iron-caged end crystals.

✦ Finding and Activating the End Portal

1. Follow your Ender eyes: Throw an Eye of Ender into the air in the Overworld, and follow the direction it flies until you find a Stronghold. Repeat this process every 200-300 blocks until the eyes begin to float down towards the earth.

2. Dig out your way: Dig yourself a safe tunnel to the Stronghold, and follow the stone brick walls until you find a room with a portal frame floating over a pool of lava.

3. Activate the portal: Insert Eyes of Ender into each of the 12 slots on the portal frame until all of them are filled. The lit center of the frame will then open up, revealing a starry black void.

4. Set a respawn point: Set up a bed outside of the room with a space to sleep in it, and sleep in it to teleport to the center of the newly created void.

✦ Step-by-Step Boss Fight Strategy

The Ender Dragon has two separate phases to her fight: disabling her healing sources, and bursting down her health.

Step 1: Escaping The Spawn Platform

You’ll spawn on a platform of obsidian. If you spawned off the main island, you’ll need to bridge back towards the main land using blocks, making sure to always crouch so you don’t fall into the Void.

Step 2: Destroying All End Crystals

The Ender Dragon heals herself when she is near any End Crystals on top of the giant obsidian pillars surrounding the battlefield.

To destroy these crystals:

▸ Unprotected Crystal: Shoot it with an arrow while on the ground.

▸ Caged Crystal: The pillars surrounding the battlefield with a layer of iron on them will need to be climbed up to. Once up there, break an iron block with your pickaxe, break the crystal, and jump off into the water bucket pool below it to negate fall damage.

Step 3: Attacking During The Perch Phase

▸ After destroying all End Crystals, the Ender Dragon will periodically fly down onto a bedrock exit portal located at the center of the island.

▸ During this phase, you should position yourself directly behind or beside her tail/legs (not her head, as it can fire a stream of acid dragon breath that will kill you instantly).

▸ Deal rapid critical hits with your sword or axe, or if using the speedrun method, place a bed on top of the bedrock portal near her head, then right click it to explode, shielding yourself from her attacks while dealing true blast damage to her.

✦ Pro tips & survival mistakes to avoid

Never look Endermen in the eye

The main island has neutral Endermen that are hostile when you look at them (if they are angry, just keep your crosshair on the sky or the ground; if you can’t do that, wear a Carved Pumpkin so that they don’t see you looking at them).

Collect Dragon’s breath early

While the dragon is perching or shooting down pink fireballs, right-click the purple lingering smoke you see on the ground with empty Glass Bottles to collect some valuable Dragon’s Breath. This is required to craft Lingering Potions and Tipped Arrows.

Use a water bucket to cancel dragon launch

If the dragon pushes you up into his body, try placing a water source block on the ground where you are about to land to negate all fall damage

✦ Frequently Asked Questions

✦ Final Thoughts

To kill the Ender Dragon, players must destroy the End Crystals first, avoid looking at Endermen directly, and attack it with all their might when it is on top of the portal. With all this preparation and the water bucket at hand, it will only be a matter of time before the player explores the outer islands and defeats the Ender Dragon.