Last updated: 25 June 2026

How to Beat the Ender Dragon in Minecraft

The Ender Dragon is Minecraft's final boss — a 200-health behemoth that circles the obsidian pillars of The End while ten healing crystals keep topping her back up. To win, you need to destroy all the crystals first, then hammer the dragon during her perch on the central portal. Do that, and you'll pocket 12,000 XP, a dragon egg, and access to the outer End islands and elytra.

01Find the Stronghold and Activate the End Portal

Before you can reach the Ender Dragon, you need to locate a Stronghold hidden deep underground and activate its End portal. The tool for the job is the Eye of Ender: craft one by combining one Ender Pearl with one Blaze Powder in any crafting grid. You'll want to gather at least 12 Eyes of Ender — up to 12 are needed to fill the portal frames, and you'll use extras for navigation.

To navigate to the Stronghold, throw an Eye of Ender (right-click in Java Edition, left trigger on console). It will float roughly 12 blocks in the direction of the nearest Stronghold, leaving a trail of purple particles, then either float back down for you to pick up or shatter. Keep throwing and following until the eyes start falling straight down — that means the Stronghold is directly below you. Dig down and explore its corridors until you find the End portal room.

• The portal frame has 12 blocks; place an Eye of Ender into each empty slot to fill it.
• Some frames may already contain an eye when you arrive — only empty ones need filling.
• When all 12 are filled the portal activates with a deep roar and shows a starfield in the centre.
• You cannot return through the End portal once inside, so make sure you are geared up before jumping in.

02Gear Up Before You Jump In

The End offers no respawn point, no natural resources, and instant access to Endermen by the dozen. Going in under-equipped is a fast way to lose your best gear. Below is the recommended kit for a clean first kill.

Arrows: Infinity on your bow means a single regular arrow in your inventory recycles indefinitely. If you don't have Infinity yet, carry at least two stacks of arrows (128). A Flame enchantment on the bow is optional but does set the dragon on fire during strafing runs for bonus damage.

03Destroy All Ten End Crystals First

This is the most important step of the whole fight. Each of the ten obsidian pillars surrounding the central island is capped with a glowing End Crystal sitting on bedrock. While any crystal survives, it beams white light at the dragon and heals her by 1 HP every half-second. Trying to fight the dragon without clearing the crystals is an exercise in frustration — she heals faster than you can damage her when multiple crystals are active.

Hitting or shooting any crystal destroys it instantly in a large explosion — so stand well clear before it pops. Eight of the ten crystals sit exposed at the top of their pillars and can be sniped from the ground with a single arrow. The other two are caged inside iron bar structures on the two shortest pillars (at approximately Y=79 and Y=82). To destroy those, you have two options:

1. Pillar up or pearl in: Throw an Ender Pearl onto the cage platform, then break the iron bars with your pickaxe to expose the crystal and hit or shoot it.
2. TNT: If you brought some, place it on the cage and ignite — the explosion destroys the bars and the crystal in one go, though the blast radius is large, so be careful with your positioning.

One extra danger: if the dragon is actively beaming health from a crystal when you destroy it, the explosion deals bonus damage to her (roughly 10 HP extra on top of the blast). Plan your crystal order to maximise this — save a crystal or two for when the dragon circles back to perch.

Watch out for Endermen. The central island is packed with them, and any stray eye contact triggers aggression. Wearing a carved pumpkin on your head prevents Endermen from aggroing at the cost of some visibility. Alternatively, a quick splash of water scatters any who pursue you. Avoid fighting them during the crystal phase — save your attention for the pillars.

04Damage the Dragon: Perch Phase and Aerial Phase

Once all ten crystals are down, the dragon cannot heal and the fight becomes a sustained damage race. The Ender Dragon cycles through several distinct behaviours, and each calls for a different tactic.

Circling / Strafing: The dragon glides around the outer edge of the arena and occasionally fires a purple fireball that leaves a pool of lingering dragon's breath on the ground. Keep moving to avoid the breath clouds — standing in them deals 6 HP of damage per second — and use your bow to land shots on the dragon's head (her head takes roughly four times the normal damage compared to hitting her body or wings).

Charge: Occasionally the dragon swoops directly at the player. Stay alert and sidestep. Landing an arrow to the head during a direct charge is one of the cleanest damage windows in the fight.

Perch phase — your biggest damage window: Periodically the dragon lands on the exit portal fountain in the centre of the island, lowers her head to ground level, and releases a stream of dragon's breath. During this phase she completely ignores arrows — they phase straight through her — so switch to your sword and land as many hits to the head as possible. Stand to one side of the portal to avoid the breath stream. If you walk over the portal top while she perches, you will be pulled into the End Portal (which sends you home), so approach from the sides. Each perch phase lasts around five to ten seconds before she lifts off again, so make every swing count.

05Bed Explosion Tactic (Advanced, Use with Caution)

Beds explode when you attempt to use them in any dimension that lacks a natural day-night cycle — the Nether and The End both count. Speedrunners and experienced players exploit this by placing a bed next to the central portal fountain while the dragon perches on it, crouching behind a solid block for cover, and right-clicking the bed to trigger the explosion. A well-placed bed blast can remove around 20% of the dragon's remaining health in a single detonation.

The risks are real: the explosion radius can kill you outright on Hard difficulty if your positioning is off by even a block. To attempt this safely, make sure you have Blast Protection IV on your chestplate or helmet (it stacks and significantly reduces explosion damage taken), crouch behind a block between you and the bed, and only attempt it when the dragon's head is directly over the portal. Beginners are better served learning the sword perch rotation first — beds are a high-risk shortcut, not a requirement.

06Rewards: Dragon Egg, XP, and What Comes Next

When the dragon's health reaches zero she dissolves in beams of light, and several things happen simultaneously:

• 12,000 XP floods out from where she died — enough to push a level-0 character straight to level 68 in one go. That's by far the most XP from any single event in the game.
• The dragon egg appears on top of the exit portal fountain. The egg teleports one or two blocks away whenever you click it directly, making it awkward to collect. The cleanest method: place a torch on the block directly below the egg, then break the block the egg sits on. With nothing solid to rest on, the egg falls onto the torch and breaks into a collectible item.
• End gateway portals appear around the island's edge — small 3×3 bedrock structures with a purple beam. Throw an Ender Pearl into one to teleport roughly 1,000 blocks out to the outer End islands, where End Cities generate. End Cities contain Shulkers (which drop Shulker Shells for shulker boxes) and End Ships, each carrying an Elytra in an item frame — the closest thing Minecraft has to a pair of wings.
• The End poem / credits play the first time you defeat the dragon. You can skip them with Escape, but it is worth watching at least once.

The exit portal also opens permanently, letting you return to the Overworld at any time. If you want to fight the dragon again for the XP or fun, craft four End Crystals (each requires seven glass, one Eye of Ender, and one ghast tear) and place one on each of the four cardinal sides of the exit portal — the dragon will re-summon along with fresh healing crystals on all ten pillars. Repeat kills award roughly 500 XP rather than the full 12,000.