How to beat the Ender Dragon: beds, crystals, arrows

To beat the Ender Dragon, destroy all ten End crystals first, then wear down its 200 health with arrows while it flies and with bed explosions when it lands on the portal in the middle of the island. Stay inside the ring of towers, and stay out of the purple cloud. Below are the numbers behind each step, what Java 1.21.4 changed about head shots, and how an AI’s six-hour dragon fight actually went.

All game facts in this post are for Java Edition 1.21.x unless a line says Bedrock.

What you’re up against

The dragon has 200 health points (100 hearts) ^[1]. It only takes damage from players and from explosions; fire, falling, drowning, poison and status effects don’t touch it (the one exception is a Harming potion you throw) ^[1]. Sword critical hits don’t land either on Java, because the parts you hit aren’t living entities ^[1].

Hits on anything but the head lose about three quarters of their damage, so a dragon you never hit in the head effectively has 800 health ^[1].

How it hurts you:

Those numbers are health points from the wiki’s infobox ^[1]. Wing hits also throw you into the air on Java, sometimes high enough to kill you or off the island ^[1]. Its breath and its fireballs leave purple clouds that do magic damage, the kind armour doesn’t reduce, although the Protection enchantment does ^[1].

Before the portal: what to bring

There is no portal back from the End until the dragon dies ^[2]. You arrive on a 5×5 obsidian platform that can generate on the island, inside it or a short pearl throw away from it ^[2]. Pack for the whole fight:

• A bow and plenty of arrows. You’ll shoot crystals and the flying dragon.
• Beds, a stack’s worth if you can. They are the cheapest big damage in the End (see below).
• Blocks. A stack of cobblestone or End stone to tower, wall and cover. End stone is one of the blocks the dragon can’t destroy as it flies through ^[1].
• Ender pearls to get back onto the island or up a tower ^[3].
• A water bucket for fall clutches and for endermen ^[3].
• Food, a pickaxe, a sword, your best armour, and empty glass bottles if you want dragon’s breath for lingering potions ^[3].

Getting there is the long part. Our guides on finding a stronghold, getting blaze rods and getting ender pearls fast cover the eyes of ender you need first.

Step 1: destroy the End crystals

There are 10 End crystals, one on top of each obsidian tower, and two of them sit in cages of iron bars ^[4]. Any crystal within 32 blocks of the dragon heals it by 1 health every half second, shown by a white beam ^[4]. As long as one crystal is left, the dragon can heal indefinitely ^[3].

How many End crystals are there, and how tall are the towers?

Ten towers stand in a circle around the exit portal. Their tops run from Y=76 to Y=103, and the caged crystals sit on the second- and third-shortest towers ^[5].

Shooting the open ones

A crystal explodes when it’s hit by almost anything, even an attack that does no damage, so one arrow or a snowball is enough ^[4]. Aim just above the crystal, and listen for the blast if you can’t see it ^[3]. Breaking a crystal while it’s healing the dragon also deals the dragon 10 damage ^[4].

Each crystal’s explosion has power 6, as strong as a charged creeper ^[4], so don’t stand next to one when it goes. After every crystal you break, the dragon switches to strafing and fires a fireball at you once it’s within 64 blocks ^[1].

The two caged crystals

Arrows don’t get through the bars, so you have to get up there. The wiki’s tutorial suggests pearling up rather than towering, because the dragon can knock you off a tower on the way up; then break into the cage and hit or shoot the crystal ^[3]. It advises against beds on the cage: they can’t sit on iron bars, and their explosion is instant, so you’re unprotected ^[3]. If you tower anyway, put water at the foot so a knock-off doesn’t kill you ^[3].

Step 2: shoot the dragon while it flies

With the crystals gone, the dragon circles inside the ring of towers ^[1]. Shoot at the space just ahead of it so it flies into the arrow ^[3]. Keep near the middle of the island: the void below the edge kills you and destroys your gear ^[3].

From time to time it flies to the exit portal and lands, which the wiki calls perching. Each time it finishes a lap, the chance is 1 in (3 + crystals still alive) ^[1]. With all crystals gone that’s 1 in 3, and with all ten still up it’s 1 in 13.

Step 3: blow beds when it perches

A bed you try to sleep in outside the Overworld explodes with power 5, stronger than TNT’s 4, centred on the bed’s head ^[6]. That explosion hurts the dragon, and a perched dragon’s head is low enough to catch it. Blown on a perched dragon, one bed can take up to a quarter of its health ^[3].

How to do it without killing yourself:

1. Wait until the dragon has landed on the portal. Placing early wastes the bed.
2. Stand low, inside the exit portal’s frame, and place the bed.
3. Put a block next to the bed between you and its head, then use the bed. The blast doesn’t reach your legs, and the block shields your head ^[3].
4. Back off before the breath comes.

After 1.25 seconds on the perch, the dragon breathes at any player within 20 blocks of the portal, for 3 seconds ^[1]. The damaging part of the cloud is about 3 to 4 blocks wide, inside a larger visible cloud ^[1]. It leaves the perch after four breath attacks, or as soon as it has taken more than 50 damage on that perch ^[1], so two good beds usually end a perch.

The wiki’s tutorial also offers End crystals placed on the portal as a safer and pricier alternative to beds ^[3].

After the kill

When it dies, the dragon flies to the portal, rises and dissolves over 10 seconds. The first kill drops 12,000 experience, opens the exit portal home, places the dragon egg on top of the portal, and builds an End gateway 96 blocks away at Y=75 ^[1]. Later dragons, summoned with four End crystals on the exit portal, give only 500 experience, and on Java only the first kill leaves an egg ^[1].

Nixi’s angle: run 1’s dragon fight, from her logs

Nixi is an openly AI VTuber whose bot plays Minecraft on its own; how an AI plays Minecraft explains the setup. Run 1 was played on Easy with keepInventory on. Everything in this section comes from her play logs, her death records and the run’s notes.

She entered the End at 05:28:55 on 3 October 2026 and killed the dragon at 23:12:12 the same day: 17 h 43 min in the End. Two of the three interventions in the whole run happened here: twice the dragon got stuck circling without attacking or landing, and its flight phase was reset by hand.

Crystals. Her bow broke eight crystals, the first at 05:45 and most of the rest in a burst between 09:53 and 11:51. For the two caged ones she towered up (12 and 10 blocks), put a bed beside each cage and blew it, at 17:16 and 17:20. Her skill logged 10.6 and 15.3 health lost on those two climbs, which is why the wiki tutorial warns against exactly this.

The damage. Her arrows took the dragon to 126.8 health between 18:13 and 18:16 (the first logged reading, at 18:13, was 187.8). At 18:24 she blew two beds on a perched dragon: 118.8 → 69 → 19.2. That’s 49.8 damage per bed, right at the tutorial’s “up to a quarter” of 200.

The stuck part. Then the dragon sat at 19.2 health for almost five hours. Her bow kept missing, and the fix was found in her own code: in the End, her gaze was capped downward so she wouldn’t look endermen in the eye. Her bow inherited that cap and buried arrows in the ground, and her aim also sat above the dragon’s body. The fix shipped at 22:50. On the trip after it, three short bursts of 4 arrows each took the dragon from 19.2 to 11.2, 6.2 and 1, and it died at 23:12:12.

The cost. Her death records show 14 deaths to the dragon in the End that day: 11 to its breath or fireball clouds (“using magic”), 2 knock-offs to their death and 1 direct hit. One more death in the End was a drowning. A breath reflex was added after viewers watched her stand in the purple cloud.

The lessons match the wiki’s advice: crystals first, beds only on a perched dragon, and stay out of the cloud. Hers add one more: if your arrows aren’t landing, check your aim before you blame the dragon. You can follow her current run on her run status.

FAQ

How many End crystals are there?

Ten, one on each obsidian tower around the exit portal. Two of them are protected by iron-bar cages ^[4].

How much health does the Ender Dragon have?

200 health points, or 100 hearts. Because hits on its body lose about three quarters of their damage, it effectively has 800 against body hits ^[1].

Can you shoot the Ender Dragon while it’s perched?

Not with arrows or thrown tridents: they bounce off a perched dragon. Firework rockets shot from a crossbow still hurt it ^[1]. Use beds or a sword while it sits.

How do you kill the Ender Dragon with beds?

Wait for it to land on the exit portal, place a bed close to its head, put a block between you and the bed’s head, and use the bed. Each explosion can take up to a quarter of its health ^[3].

Does the Ender Dragon heal?

Only from End crystals: 1 health every half second from the nearest crystal within 32 blocks ^[4]. With all ten crystals gone, it can’t heal.