Ender Dragon

The **Ender Dragon** is a hostile boss mob that appears in The End. She is a dragon creature that spits fire and can fly with ease.

## Overview

Since Beta 1.9 pre-release 6, a single ender dragon appears in each world's End, and can be fought and killed. She swoops at a player, destroying any blocks she passes through, except Obsidian, indestructible blocks (such as Bedrock), Iron Bars, and End Stone. Once an ender dragon is killed, an End Gateway appears in the vicinity, with a dragon egg on top. The end gateway leads to the "Outer End".

Upon defeat, the ender dragon performs an exploding animation and drops around 12,000 Experience Orbs (which take a player with no experience to around level 78), activates the Exit Portal, and spawns a dragon egg on top of the portal frame.

When one Ender Crystal is placed on each edge of the exit portal—for a total of 4—then the dragon will respawn. However, when defeated, she drops a lot less experience and no dragon egg.

## Appearance

The ender dragon is a large, black dragon with glowing purple eyes. She is the third-largest mob in the game. Only the unimplemented giant is larger. She has a few dark gray features, such as the wings, and various other parts of her body. Similar to the eyes of endermen and Spiders, the ender dragon's eyes are visible through darkness, so a player can see her coming from anywhere in The End.

## Behavior

Ender dragons attack by charging at a player's lower waist, with their wings tucked in and diving downward. If hit with anything while swooping towards a player, even a fist, she will turn around and fly away. Ender crystals that sit on top of the obsidian towers will heal her. The ender dragon flies around the sky and shoots purple fire charges (Ender Acid). After a while, she will go down and hover above the inactive End Portal while constantly spraying ender acid out of her mouth, similar to how a dragon breathes fire when attacking.

## Strategy

* The 5×5 obsidian platform spawn point may not be directly connected to the center island of the End. As such, a bridge may need to be built. It is a good idea to bring scaffolding blocks to the End, particularly ones the ender dragon cannot destroy (e.g., obsidian and iron bars), so that a player can access the main island. The alternative is to bring  Ender Pearls. Once they have entered the End, it is crucial to destroy as many of the ender crystals as possible before going after the boss, preferably with a  bow or  Snowballs, although it will be necessary to climb some of the towers to break iron bars around some of the crystals.
	+ However, climbing the obsidian towers can be extremely dangerous, as there is a high chance of falling off and dying, and even if a player does not fall off, the Ender Dragon will likely knock a player off anyway. A way to mitigate the damage from this is to have boots with a high Feather Falling enchantment.

* Afterwards, a player must defeat the actual ender dragon. A skilled archer with a powerful bow can deal a lot of damage to the dragon. However, when the dragon is perched on the exit portal, it becomes necessary to use a sword. Standing under the Ender Dragon's head will allow a player to strike her while encountering minimal risk of injury or death from the dragon's breath.

Here are a few tips for fighting the dragon:

* Take anything to the End that could be possibly needed. The worst thing about The End is the potential to run out of resources and get stuck.
* Wear a Pumpkin in The End so that Endermen won't attack, but beware that this reduces how much armor a player can have and severely impairs vision.
* Pay attention to the Endermen, as well as the ender dragon. The endermen are just as likely to kill a player as the ender dragon if a pumpkin isn't being worn.
* Never stay in one place. If timing movements accordingly, it is very hard for the ender dragon to score a hit.
* Have enchanted weapons and armor. Enchanted bows and swords cause more significantly more damage to Endermen and the Ender Dragon, while enchanted armor offers more protection from damage.
* If possible, fight the dragon as a group. Attempts to kill the Ender Dragon with just one person is considerably more difficult.
* Hitting the head of the dragon deals the full damage of the weapon; hitting her anywhere else deals a quarter of the regular damage.
* Look up as much as possible to limit attention received by Endermen if not wearing a pumpkin.
* The only way out is death if there are no more resources.
* Beds used in the End explode. Caution should be exerted in doing this, but exploding beds when the Ender Dragon is perched on the Exit Portal may be prudent.
* The best time to open the inventory is right after dodging an attack, as it will be the greatest between the ender dragon's next attack—which could even kill the unaware.