Ender Dragon

The ender dragon is a gigantic flying hostile boss mob found when first entering the End. She is the largest naturally spawning mob in the game and is widely acknowledged as the final boss of Minecraft.

Once slain, the Ender dragon slowly ascends, her wings and body becoming more tattered until she disappears, while beams of light erupt from her center. There's an explosion of 12,000 experience points (ten drops of 960 and one drop of 2400) — enough to bring a player from level 0 to level 68. In subsequent completions of the Ender dragon fight (after she is re-summoned via the End crystals), only 500 experience points are dropped. In Java Edition, the slain Ender dragon flies back to the central and tatters into nothingness. In Bedrock Edition, the slain Ender dragon stays where she is slain and tatters into nothingness.

After the dragon is slain for the first time, a dragon egg appears above the island's central bedrock structure. If a block exists right above the center of the central bedrock structure, then the dragon egg spawns 1 block above the highest block at (0,0). If the highest block is at the height limit, then the dragon egg does not spawn. The bedrock structure fills in with an End portal interface to become the exit portal, enabling the player to transport back to the Overworld and respawn at their spawn point.

Every completed dragon fight also creates an End gateway portal floating within 75–100 blocks of the exit portal, up to a maximum of 20 gateway portals.

The dragon never targets any entity but the player. Other mobs may turn hostile to the dragon when struck. Any entities hit by her wings are dealt 5 damage (or 10 damage if hit by her head), and in Java Edition, are thrown into the air, sometimes to fatal heights or even off the island. Neither of these effects is applied for 1⁄2 second after the dragon takes damage.


 * Guarding
 * The dragon begins in this state, circling the ring of obsidian pillars on either the outside if there are still End crystals or the inside if the crystals are destroyed.
 * With each crystal's destruction, she takes damage and there is an increased chance of the dragon switching states.


 * Targeting
 * Whenever the dragon finds herself less than 10 blocks or more than 150 blocks from her current target, she attempts to choose a new target. When damaged she targets a point just behind herself, causing her to turn away and choose a new target.


 * Strafing
 * Upon the destruction of an End crystal, the dragon switches to strafing. As soon as she is within 64 blocks, she shoots a fireball at the player.
 * The dragon resumes circling after this state.


 * Diving
 * The dragon dives onto the target player's position, taken at the start of the dive.
 * The dragon resumes circling after this state, whether or not she actually hit the player.


 * Perching
 * While Guarding and the dragon has reached the end of the path, she has 1 in (3 + crystals alive) chance (~7.7% up to 33%) to go to the exit portal structure (approaching from the side opposite the player if possible) and lands on the highest block of the coordinates (x=0, z=0), up to (y=101).‌[Bedrock Edition only] If there is no block in (x=0, z=0) the dragon freezes right when she switches to perching.‌[Bedrock Edition only] The dragon is immune to arrows in this state; they all catch fire and bounce off. In Java Edition she is also immune to thrown tridents in this state.
 * Dragon's Breath
 * Unless the player is in Peaceful difficulty, after 1.25 seconds, if a player is within 20 blocks of the exit portal structure, the dragon roars and use her 3-second breath attack, damaging players similarly to a lingering potion of Harming.
 * The purple clouds emitted from the dragon's breath attack can be collected in a glass bottle to obtain dragon's breath.
 * Charge
 * If the player is not near the portal within 5 seconds of the dragon's landing, she charges at players within 150 blocks.
 * Take-off
 * After four consecutive breath attacks, or if the dragon fails to locate a player within 150 blocks, she takes off from her perch. She always takes off in Peaceful difficulty, making it difficult to land melee hits.
 * The dragon resumes circling after this state.
 * Escape
 * If cumulative damage taken while perched exceeds 50 × 25, the dragon takes off and resets the damage accumulator. The accumulator is not reset if she does not take enough damage.
 * The dragon resumes circling after this state.

When the dragon finally takes a fatal blow, she flies toward the exit portal structure before dying, unless she cannot find it within 150 blocks, or it is inside blocks.‌[Java Edition only]