Minecraft/Boss Fight: Ender Dragon

The Ender Dragon is the final boss in the game, and for some, the toughest (the warden is not considered a boss). This page will guide you through defeating the dragon, and claim the rewards.

Getting to The End

Required items: 14 - 16 eyes of ender
Recommended: good gear, diamond at least, with max level feather falling enchant; golden apples and healing potions, a bow/crossbow with at least 16 - 60 arrows (depending on your aim); 64 logs, as backup materials; a bed; as many ender pearls as you can get
Optional, only if you want to maximize reward: at least 30 glass bottles; as many firework rockets as possible

You will first need to throw the eye of ender, and see where it points. Pick the eye up (although there is a 1 in 8 chance for it to be destroyed, in which case, skip that part), and carry on walking in the direction the eye traveled.

Every few hundred blocks, throw the eye again, just to make sure you're going in the correct direction. Always make sure to pick it up, you will need at least 11 to actually open the portal to the end.

If it goes underground, you are almost there. Just dig the ground where it fell into, and go down, until you see stone bricks. Enter the structure, and search for the portal room. You know you found it when you can see a mob spawner, 3 small pools of lava, and a stairway up to a ring of yellow blocks.

Those yellow blocks are portal frames. To activate the portal, each frame must contain an eye. To put the eye in the frame, interact with it while holding an eye of ender.

Once each eye is in, the portal will activate. Before you enter, seal off the portal room, place the bed somewhere - do not place it directly under the portal or you will be trapped in the end forever - and set your spawn to it. If you can make an ender chest, do so, and place it. Prepare to fight, and enter the portal.

Defeating the dragon

To kill the ender dragon, you first need to destroy at least 6 of the 8 ender crystals at the top of each obsidian pillar. Destroying more after the first 6 is unnecessary, but makes the fight easier.

The best way to destroy the crystals without exposing yourself to serious harm is to shoot them with arrows. If you cannot hit them, climb up, and destroy the crystal by hitting it. Make sure to have your shield out when you do, since the crystals explode with a force stronger than a charged creeper.

After enough crystals have been destroyed, go to the center pedestal, and wait for the dragon. Make sure to stand inside it. When the dragon comes down, attack it with your strongest melee weapon (arrows bounce off of it if it is on the pedestal). When it dies, quickle jump out of the pedestal. Feel free to watch the rays of light until the dragon disappears.

Maximizing the rewards - during fight

When the dragon uses the fireball attack, it creates a damaging purple cloud. Scoop this up with an empty glass bottle to get dragon's breath. This can be brewed with splash potions to make lingering potions.

Maximizing the rewards - post victory

When the dragon dies, an egg is revealed on the central pedestal. If you hit it, it just teleports away. Instead, let it teleport on a breakable block, like end stone, mine two blocks under it and place a torch. Then break the block below the egg. The egg should fall onto the torch and break, so that you can pick it up. Buttons and slabs also work.

Make sure to put the egg in the ender chest back in the overworld, along with any treasres. To return, just jump into the pedestal where you found the egg. After putting it in your ender chest, return to the end.

Look for a floating bedrock structure (found near the edge), and throw an ender pearl in to the central black block. Do not move until everything is loaded, as you will likely be only a step away from falling into the void. Carefuly move to firmer ground, making sure to mark a trail of some sort to make sure you don't get lost.

What you are looking for is an end city. A large tower made of purple blocks. Once you enter it, make sure to kill all the shulkers (they look like purple blocks, and shoot projectiles at you that make you levitate into the air), preferably with a sword enchanted with looting III. The shulker shells they drop can be crafted into shulker boxes.

Keep exploring the whole city, looting chests and hunting shulkers.

If you find a ship, enter it and go below the deck. In an item frame is an elytra, which allows you to fly in survival when equipped instead of a chestplate.

Aim to get at least 24 shulker shells, which is enough for 12 shulker boxes.

Respawning the dragon

You can respawn the dragon by crafting four end crystals, and placing one on each of the four sides of the central pedistal in the end. This will respawn the ender dragon, allowing you to refight it, collect more dragon's breath, or get more XP for enchanting. Doing this will not give another dragon egg, and unless you have taken the egg from the pedestal, the egg will be destroyed, so be careful.