You know that in order to beat the game, you must beat the Ender Dragon. It’s not, by any means, the hardest fight in the game, but it sure has its own quirks. Read on to learn how to beat the Ender Dragon in the simplest ways.
I remember my first Ender Dragon fight. I was so excited, yet, underprepared and not entirely sure what to expect. After about 5 minutes, I was finally able to hit the first crystal, just to be flown to the sky by a melee attack, miss the water bucket MLG, and respawn back in the overworld without a clue where the stronghold was. Fun times indeed.
In today’s article, I will show you how to beat the Ender Dragon and how to do it properly.
Approaching the Fight
You’ll need to do two things to get to the point you fight the dragon. The first is to reach the end, and the second is to reach the main island.
Reach the End and Initiate the Fight
To do that, you need to find the Stronghold and fill the End Portal with 12 Eyes of Ender.
Find The Stronghold
When the Eyes of Ender is in your main hand, right-click. The Eye of Ender will float toward the direction of the nearest Stronghold, where you can find the End Portal. You should throw the eyes with caution because it has a 20% chance of breaking with each throw.
When you throw the eye while on top of the stronghold, it will go down through the ground. Now, dig down until you reach it.
Set your Spawn in the Portal Room
This is a hard fight, and if you are trying it for the first time, you might die once or twice. To make sure you get back there with as little hustle as possible, place a bed in the portal room and right-click on it.
Fill in The End Portal
When you get to the stronghold, you need to find the portal room and fill the portal frames with Eyes of Ender. The End Portal needs 12 Eyes of Ender to activate, and usually, it will be pre-filled with one or more eyes.
Fill the remaining eyes, and jump through the portal when it activates. You don’t need to worry about falling into the lava below.
Get to the Main Island
In some cases, you’ll be spawned in the End Dimension in a closed room or on an Obsidian platform near the main island. To start fighting the dragon, you’ll need to dig your way out of the room or bridge your way to the main island. Throwing Ender Pearls will work, too.
Be careful not to fall because the endless black space below is the void.
Things to Look Out From when Fighting the Ender Dragon
There are a couple of things you want to be aware of when you fight the dragon.
The Dragon’s Attacks
During the fight, the dragon will perform both ranged and melee attacks.
Ranged Attacks
The Ender Dragon will occasionally shoot explosives at you. These “bombs” look very similar to the Ghast’s projectiles but leave a lingering residue on the ground that causes damage of 1.5 hearts per second.
Melee Attacks
In addition to the projectile, the Dragon can also cause damage when she hits the player with her wings or body. In addition to the damage id causes, this hit can also fling you very high, forcing you to perform a water bucket MLG in order to survive.
Endermen
Even though you got to the end to fight the Ender Dragon, you still need to make sure you don’t look the Endermen in the eye. The last thing you need is to fight the Ender Dragon as well as a group of angry Endermen.
What to Bring to the End?
In addition to the things that are required for each of the ways you can choose to use to beat the Ender Dragon, there are things you want to bring in order to explore the End Dimension.
- Building Blocks: For bridging between islands
- Good tools and weapons: for acquiring more building blocks and fighting Shulkers
- A great set of armor: The Shulkers shoot homing projectiles that cause damage on impact and induce a floating effect.
- Fireworks: For after you find the Elytra
- Recommended: Potions of Slow Falling: To recuse fall damage from Shulkers
- Recommended: Buckets of Milk: To stop the Floating Effect
- Recommended: Food with a high level of saturation
How to Beat the Ender Dragon
Today we’ll go over the two most popular ways of beating the End Dragon. The traditional way, and another that uses explosives.
The traditional way is very simple and straightforward while using beds is considered more advanced. What the beds’ method lacks in simplicity, though, it makes up in speed.
The Traditional Way to Beat The Ender Dragon
The Things You Need
- A Bow, preferably one with Power V and Infinity enchantments.
- Arrows, as many as possible, unless your Bow is enchanted with Infinity.
- Food, you’re gonna get hit, and you need to restore your health
- Recommended: Ender Pearls for moving around fast and surviving long falls.
- Recommended: A full set of enchanted iron armor or better.
- Recommended: Water bucket to keep away the Endermen and perform an occasional water bucker MLG if needed.
- Recommended: 2-3 stacks of building blocks to climb on towers if you can’t hit the crystals from the ground.
- Recommended: A good Sword or an Axe to deal more damage while the dragon perches.
The Steps to Beat the Ender Dragon
1. Blow Up the Crystals
The Ender Dragon regenerates health using the crystals on top of the tall obsidian towers. Blow them up by shooting at them or hit them with any object.
If you decide to melee them, be careful because they explode on contact.
2. Start Shooting the Dragon
Once all the End Crystals are destroyed, the dragon won’t be able to regenerate health, and this is your chance to beat her from afar using the Bow and Arrows.
While you do that, switch position every time she shoots at you.
3. Watch Out for the Perch
When the Dragon starts to fly back an forth above the middle structure made of Bedrock, run toward it or use Ender Pearls to reach ther before she does. By staying inside the frame, you can hit her while she hangs out above it.
4. Rinse and Repeat
Keep at it. It could take a few rounds to beat the Ender Dragon.
Beating the End Dragon with Explosives
The Things You Need
- 4-5 blocks of Obsidian
- Explosives: I’d recommend having 8-9 beds in your inventory, but respawn anchors will work, too.
- Food
- Recommended: Water Bucket for water bucket MLG
- Recommended: Ender Pearls for teleporting fast
- Recommended: Bow and Arrows to blow up the crystals
The Steps to Beat the Ender Dragon
Prep the Bedrock Frame
In the middle of the Bedrock frame, there’s a small tower. You need to place an obsidian block next to the highest block in the middle tower (above the torches) and another one right above it.
Optional: Blow Up the Crystals
Shoot the End Crystals with your Bow, or tower up to blow them up up close. There are two reason you want to do it:
- It will prevent the dragon from regenerating her health.
- It will make the dragon perch sooner. With each crystal you blow up, there’s an 11% chance of the dragon perching.
Prep your Hotbar
After you are fully prepared to fight the Ender Dragon, it’s time to wait in a safe distance from the center frame and wait for the perch.
Keep some Ender Pearls in one slot, and place Beds in the rest of them.
Blow Up the Explosives
When the Ender Dragon starts to perch, throw an Ender Pearl or start running toward the middle. When it gets closer, right-click on the bed when the dragon’s head is above it and immediately put another in its place. Now, wait for the dragon to turn around and explode the next bed right when her head is above it.
If you beat the Ender Dragon in the first perch, you just completed your first one-cycle. If you didn’t, don’t worry, it is considered a very hard thing to do. This is mostly why this technique of defeating the Ender Dragon is mostly used by speed runners.
Free the End
Now that you have beaten the dragon, there are a couple of things you can do
Pick up the Dragon Egg
There’s only one Dragon Egg that spawns in every world. If you don’t pick it up, it will despawn when (and if) you re-summon the dragon.
The Dragon Egg, like a block of sand or an Anvil, is affected by gravity. Unlike Sand, you can’t break it, because it teleports as soon as you touch it. What do we do, then?
1. Touch it Once
So that it won’t stand on top of Bedrock.
2. Dig the Trap
That’s not really a trap but a way for the egg to fall on a torch. Make sure it stands on one block, and below that block, put a torch.
3. Collect the Egg
This kinda goes without saying, right?
Explore the End
The are many things you can, and should, explore the End for. First of all, the Elytra, then we have Shulkers, Chorus Fruits, Dragon Heads, and some of the best loot chests in the entire game. On top of these, building an Endermen Farm is a great way to get experience fast.
Finishing Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed the article. Now, go and beat the Ender Dragon in any of the two methods I showed you.
After you beat the Ender Dragon, go explore the End, or build a simple yet effective Endermen Farm. Good Luck!