The ender dragon is the only fight in Minecraft that has a required structure to it. You cannot simply out-damage it, because it heals faster than most players deal damage as long as the End crystals are alive. The fight is really two jobs done in order: remove the healing, then deal with the dragon.
Most deaths in the End come from doing those in the wrong order, or from not knowing that the dragon takes 75% less damage anywhere except its head.
The numbers that decide the fight
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Dragon health | 200 HP (100 hearts) |
| End crystals | 10 total, 2 in iron cages |
| Crystal healing | 1 HP every half second |
| Melee hit (normal) | 10 HP to you |
| Wing hit | 5 HP |
| Dragon's breath | 3 HP per second |
| Fireball | 6 HP per second |
| First kill XP | 12,000 |
| Later kills | 500 |
The crystal healing line is the one that decides everything. 1 HP every half second is 2 HP per second, and that is from a single crystal within range. Leave several standing and the dragon out-heals almost any damage you can produce. This is why "shoot the dragon" fails as a plan and why the crystals come first.
The 12,000 XP on a first kill is also worth planning for. That is enough to take a fresh character from nothing to level 68 in one drop, and it only happens once per dragon per world unless you respawn it. Have your enchanting sorted before the fight, not after, so you can actually spend it. Our enchanting setup guide covers getting to level 30 reliably.
Step one: destroy the ten crystals
Ten obsidian pillars surround the exit portal in a circle roughly 42 blocks out. Each has an End crystal on top, and two of them sit inside cages of iron bars. Those two are on the shorter pillars, which is the opposite of what many players assume.
The uncaged crystals are simple: shoot them with a bow from the ground. One arrow destroys a crystal, and the resulting explosion is large, so do not be standing underneath.
The caged ones need you to get up there. Options, in rough order of how much setup they need:
Pros
- Ender pearl onto the pillar. Fast, costs a pearl, and the fall damage on arrival is on you.
- Pillar up with blocks. Slow and exposed, but needs nothing special.
- Break the bars and shoot through. The cage is iron bars, not bedrock.
Standing next to a crystal when it explodes will kill an unarmored player outright. Destroy them from a distance, and when you are on top of a pillar, get clear before the crystal you just exposed goes off.
While you are doing this, the dragon is flying around attacking you. That is normal and mostly survivable. The crystals are the priority; chasing the dragon at this stage accomplishes nothing because it just heals back.
Step two: the perch, and why your bow stops working
Once the crystals are gone, the dragon starts landing on the exit portal at the center. This is the part of the fight people get wrong.
While perched, the dragon is immune to arrows and thrown tridents. They catch fire and bounce off. A player who has spent the whole fight shooting from a distance will stand there watching arrows do nothing and conclude the fight is bugged.
Perched, it is vulnerable to melee. So the pattern is:
- While it flies, shoot it with the bow. It takes arrow damage in the air.
- When it perches, run in and hit the head with your sword.
- When it lifts off, get out from under it and go back to the bow.
The head detail matters more than the weapon: the dragon reduces incoming damage by about 75% unless the hit lands on its head. Hitting the body or tail is technically damage, but it is a quarter of what you could be doing. When it perches, the head comes down low and forward, which is exactly the window you want.
This is the whole reason the fight has a rhythm instead of being a damage race. Bow in the air, sword to the head on the perch, retreat when it lifts. Fighting it any other way works eventually, but takes several times as long.
The dragon's breath, and the thing that actually kills people
When perched, the dragon breathes a purple cloud onto the portal area, and it also throws fireballs that leave the same lingering cloud. That cloud does 3 HP per second standing in it, and it persists after the attack ends.
The cloud is what kills prepared players. It is easy to focus on the melee window, stay one second too long, and die to a puddle rather than the dragon. Step out of purple, always. There is no fighting through it.
If you want the cloud for yourself, an empty bottle collects it as dragon's breath, which is the ingredient for lingering potions. Collecting during the fight is a distraction; collect on a later respawned dragon if you want them.
Gear that matters, and gear that does not
| Item | Why |
|---|---|
| Bow with Power, plus plenty of arrows | The entire flight phase |
| Sword, ideally Sharpness | The perch window |
| Full armor, Protection | Survives a melee hit and a wing hit |
| Feather Falling boots | The single most underrated pick here |
| Water bucket | Cancels fall damage, saves you from knockback |
| Ender pearls | Reaching caged crystals, escaping bad positions |
| Blocks (60+) | Pillaring, bridging, blocking the breath |
| Pumpkin | Stops endermen aggroing when you look at them |
Feather Falling deserves the emphasis. Almost every death in the End that is not the breath cloud is a fall: knocked off a pillar, knocked into the void, or a misjudged pearl. The dragon's wing attack throws you a long way, and the arena is full of edges.
The pumpkin is the other quiet one. The End is full of endermen, and looking around during a boss fight means looking at them. Wearing a carved pumpkin stops that entirely at the cost of some screen edge. Many players consider the vision trade worth it; some prefer to just keep the crosshair low.
Cons
- Beds do not work here. Beds explode in the End the same way they do in the Nether, and that is a real strategy against some bosses, but the dragon spends most of the fight airborne and out of reach of a bed on the ground. It is not the reliable trick it is against the wither.
- Do not bring your only elytra. You get one from the End city after the fight; you do not need one during it.
- Do not fight at night in your head. There is no day cycle in the End. Take your time.
After the dragon dies
The dragon's death spawns the exit portal with a dragon egg on top, and opens End gateway portals at the edge of the central island. Those gateways are the route to the outer End islands, about 1,000 blocks out, which is where End cities and the elytra are.
Two things people lose on their first kill:
- The egg. Hitting it with anything teleports it rather than dropping it. Place a torch under it and break the block it sits on, and it falls as an item.
- The XP. 12,000 XP arrives in drops over several seconds. Stand near the portal and let it come to you rather than walking off.
The gateway is a one-block gap in bedrock and takes a bit of technique to enter. An ender pearl thrown into it works. From there, the elytra guide covers the End city trip and what to do with the wings when you find them.
Frequently asked questions
How much health does the ender dragon have?
200 HP, which is 100 hearts. It also heals 1 HP every half second from any active End crystal within range, so the effective health is much higher until the crystals are destroyed.
Why are my arrows not hurting the ender dragon?
It is perched. While the dragon sits on the exit portal, arrows and thrown tridents catch fire and bounce off. Melee works during that window. Shoot it while it flies, hit it with a sword when it lands.
How many End crystals are there?
Ten, on top of the obsidian pillars. Two of them are enclosed in iron bar cages and sit on the shorter pillars, so they need you to climb or pearl up rather than shoot from the ground.
How much XP does the ender dragon drop?
12,000 XP on the first kill in a world, delivered as ten drops of 960 and one of 2,400. Every kill after that, from a respawned dragon, drops 500.
Can you kill the ender dragon with a bed?
Not reliably. Beds do explode in the End, and that works on the wither, but the dragon spends most of the fight in the air where a bed on the ground cannot reach it. Bow in flight and sword on the perch is the method that actually works.
Do I need diamond armor to beat the ender dragon?
No, but you want full armor of some kind with Protection, and Feather Falling boots matter more than the armor tier. Most deaths in the End are falls and the lingering breath cloud rather than direct hits from the dragon.
The fight in one line
Kill the ten crystals first, because everything else is pointless while the dragon heals 2 HP a second. Then shoot it while it flies, hit its head while it perches, and never stand in purple. The stronghold guide covers getting here in the first place, and the End dimension lore is worth reading afterwards, when the place stops being a boss arena and starts being strange.
