How To: Defeat the Ender Dragon in Minecraft the Easy Way

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As of the 1.0 release, Minecraft has an end. That is to say, The End and the The End has Dragons. This guide is for those of who are want to visit The End and kill an Ender Dragon without weeks of building up an arsenal of potions and super-soldier enchantments.

Get to the End

This sounds pretty straightforward, but is really the most time consuming part. As you may know you'll need to access and use an Ender Portal located in one of the Strongholds generated in the game. To do this you need to combine Blaze powder from Blaze mobs and Ender pearls from Endermen. The fastest way to do this is to make a trap for the Ender pearls and to just go kill about a dozen Blaze. There's no need to muck about in advanced Blaze grinders at this point, but that option is available. For more information on traps, consult our guide. 

Once you have enough Blaze powder and Ender pearls, combine them to make Eye of Ender. You're going to need quite a bit to be successful here, as it usually takes about twelve Eye of Ender to activate an End Portal and even more to successfully find the portal.

To find an End portal simply throw your Eyes of Ender in the air and follow them where they go. An Eye of Ender usually has about three to five throws in it before it breaks so use them wisely. 

Once you're at the end portal, you'll need to fill in each slot with an Eye of Ender (at least twelve.)

Tips for Finding Strongholds

• Strongholds usually occur between 600 and 1000 Y on any given generated map. Be prepared to travel long distance. 
• Since Ender pearls break often, I suggest moving 40 blocks or more between each throw.
• As SOON as an Ender pearl no longer floats as high as its predecessors, you've hit the mark!

Some Things You'll Need

Now that you've plunged into the End and are ready for some Dragon blood on your sword, I should warn you: without enchantments and potions this can be hard. Be prepared to take your time with this boss battle, as you'll need to be thinking tactically. 

What to bring with you to the End:

• Diamond armor and diamond swords (at minimum)
• Diamond pick axe (optional)
• Bow and lots of arrows (as a minimum)
• Food
• Obsidian
• Water buckets

Those giant obsidian totems are topped with some kind of magical item that heals the Ender Dragon as he flies by. So naturally, to defeat him you'll need to destroy each and every one.

The Easy Way to Safely Destroy the Dragon Totems

There's an easy way and a hard way for everything, and I know which one you're here for.

Step 1 Use a Bow

The magical cubes on top of totems that heal the Ender Dragon are easy to destroy. The only problem is they explode on contact, so you need to use a bow with plenty of arrows.

Step 2 Build a Tower Next to Each Totem

This may seem obvious, but there is a catch. You need to be sure that the Ender Dragon is out of sight before you go breaking his health totems to peices. It's simply not worth the risk, as he'll explode your tower (probably killing you) as he flies by.

Step 3 Shoot the Health Totem and Get to Hiding

As soon as you're in range of the health totem, you'll need to shoot it and get out of doge before the dragon returns. That's what the water is for. Either before or after you've climbed your one block wide tower, you may wish to place water for a safe and quick descent. 

Step 4 Be Patient

Destroying each totem and killing the Ender Dragon without enchantments, potions, and days preparation took me about an hour. Expect for this to take at least forty minutes or more. Take your time, find cover when injured, and for goodness sake, don't get into any fights with Endermen. 

To Recover Health

If you are ever seriously injured during these attempts at breaking totems, killing or harming the dragon, find cover. The only block an ender dragon cannot break is obsidian. Even then he can destroy items you place inside an obsidian structure.  I suggest either breaking into a totem with a diamond pick axe and creating a temporary base, or digging into the the End stone and making channels of homes running to each totem. Remember, if you're doing this the quick way without enchantments or potions, you'll just need to be patient.

Killing the Ender Dragon

Once you've deposed all the totem idols and robbed the dragon of his health recharge, let's do some damage. Now you could just wait for him to come to you and swing that diamond sword like an idiot, but unless you've charged up your armor with super enchantments, this will get you killed. The proven safest method of killing an Ender Dragon is the bow.

As I warned earlier, this is going to take some time so be prepared. 

Defeating the dragon this way is simple. Wait for him to come to you, charge your bow and fire. I would not suggest missing at this point, so make your shots count. If you hit the Ender Dragon with a fully charged bow shot, he should pull up on his flight path and avoid doing serious harm to you. It's really that simple. If he doesn't get out of the way (if you miss), be prepared to run to the left or right. Do not try to run backwards away from him, it won't work. 

Since it takes the Ender Dragon about ten to thirty seconds to return on each flight and since an un-enchanted bow does so little damage, you may be fighting this dragon upwards of an hour. That's okay! In the long run this is faster than grinding for hours to craft enchanted items. 

Killing the dragon with a bow should take about thirty to fifty hits, I'm not sure the exact number, as I tend to lose count when running for my life.

Victory!

Once you've landed that final blow you'll experience an some really cool fireworks as the Ender Dragon comes undone! 

Congratulations miners, you've arrived at the end of Minecraft. Once you've defeated the dragon, a portal with appear and when you jump in you'll be treated to a game wrapping-up poem on dreams, the universe, and reality. The ending really is magical. 

To me, the most moving thing is the silence. After all those hours, days, and weeks of toil, after all your hard work is completed, when those credits roll by in their eerie silence you may find yourself changed. No fanfare, no screaming beast dying at your hands—just five minutes of silence and some end-game poetry. The meaning that the story in the credits holds is different for every player. I, for one, have always believed that video games could be "high art" and there is no better contemporary example of this than Minecraft. Not only as a work of art, but as an artistic medium. 

One thing is for sure, no matter how moved you are, you'll never walk through that world the same again.

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." —Pablo Picasso

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