The fight: the Ender Dragon is the boss of the End and the closest thing Minecraft has to a final boss. It appears as soon as you arrive. The End portal is one-way until the dragon dies, so go in prepared.
The plan in one line: destroy the End crystals on top of the obsidian pillars, then wear the dragon down with arrows while it flies and with your sword when it lands on the portal in the middle.
Difficulty: the dragon comes for you whatever difficulty you play on, so there is no setting that skips this fight.
What to Bring
You cannot pop back for something you forgot, so pack for a long fight on a floating island full of endermen.
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Weapons
Your best sword, ideally enchanted, and a bow or crossbow with plenty of arrows. The bow does most of the early work, on the crystals and on the dragon in the air.
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Armour and healing
Your strongest armour (diamond or netherite if you have it) and plenty of food and healing: golden apples, healing potions or a large stack of good food.
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Blocks and a water bucket
A few stacks of building blocks or scaffolding, to bridge to the main island if you arrive away from it and to climb pillars. A water bucket breaks falls, and stepping into water keeps endermen from reaching you.
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A carved pumpkin
The End is full of endermen. A carved pumpkin worn as a helmet stops them turning hostile when you look at them, at the cost of a narrower view.
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A safety net
Set your spawn on a bed beside the portal room in the stronghold and leave a chest of spare gear there, so a death costs you a walk rather than everything.
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Glass bottles (optional)
Empty bottles collect the dragon’s breath it leaves on the ground, a brewing ingredient you can only get here.
The End Crystals
Tall obsidian pillars ring the island, each topped by an End crystal. While a crystal stands, it heals the dragon, shown by a white beam between them. Until they are gone, any damage you deal is undone.
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Shoot them down
Most crystals can be hit with an arrow from the ground. They explode when hit, so keep your distance. Destroying a crystal while it is healing the dragon also damages the dragon.
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Caged crystals
Some crystals sit inside cages of iron bars that arrows cannot get through. Climb the pillar with blocks or scaffolding and break the cage, then the crystal. Get down carefully: a water bucket placed before you land, or the scaffolding you came up, is safer than a jump.
Fighting the Dragon
With the crystals gone, the dragon can only lose health. It swoops at you, spits fireballs, and leaves clouds of purple dragon’s breath that hurt to stand in.
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In the air
Shoot it with arrows as it circles and dives. Keep moving and keep away from the island’s edges, since a hit can knock you into the void.
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On the perch
From time to time the dragon lands on the bedrock perch over the exit portal in the centre. While perched it is immune to arrows, so run in with your sword. Hits to the head deal the most damage. Watch the breath it sprays on the ground.
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Beds
Beds explode in the End when you try to use them, and players use that as a weapon on the perched dragon. The blast hurts you too, so it is a risky tactic and not one to try in your best gear without practice.
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Endermen
Do not look at the endermen around the island. If you anger one, stand in water from your bucket: they cannot reach you there, though the dragon still can.
When the Dragon Dies
The dragon bursts into light and drops a huge amount of experience: 12,000 points on the first kill, a huge jump in levels in one go.
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The exit portal and the End Poem
The exit portal in the centre activates. Jumping in takes you back to the Overworld, and the first time it plays the End Poem and the credits. That is the official ending of the game; the world carries on afterwards.
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The dragon egg
A dragon egg appears on top of the exit portal. Clicking it makes it teleport, so knock it off its perch and make it drop onto a torch to collect it as an item: dig under the block it lands on, place a torch beneath, and break the block.
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An End gateway
A small gateway portal appears near the edge of the main island. Throwing an ender pearl into it carries you to the outer End islands, where the next chapter begins.
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A second egg in Bedrock?
GameSpot says there is only one dragon egg per world. The Minecraft Wiki agrees for Java, but says that in Bedrock the egg currently also appears after the second kill, which it lists as a known bug.
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A rematch
Placing four End crystals around the exit portal, one on each side, resummons the dragon and rebuilds the pillars if you ever want to fight it again.
Chapter Completion
The dragon’s exact health. Only one of the sources we read gives a number for it, so it waits until two more confirm it. The boss bar at the top of the screen shows how much it has left.
✅ Before Moving On to After the Dragon...
Cross-checked
Cross-checked on 12 October 2026 against Mojang’s Mob Menagerie article on the Ender Dragon on minecraft.net, the Minecraft Wiki pages on the Ender Dragon, End crystal and bed, GameSpot’s Ender Dragon boss guide, PCGamesN’s Ender Dragon guide, and Game Rant’s guides to beating the Ender Dragon and the tips for it. Not from a playthrough: nobody here has played it, and what the sources do not describe is not on this page.