The End is Minecraft's final frontier. A dark, floating island suspended in the void, home to the Ender Dragon — the game's ultimate boss. For many players, defeating the dragon is the goal of their entire survival world. But the End offers much more than a boss fight: it's also where you'll find End Cities with some of the best loot in the game, including the coveted Elytra. This guide covers everything from your first steps into the End to looting the cities beyond.
Getting There: Finding a Stronghold
The End dimension is accessed through a End Portal, which is located inside a Stronghold — a massive underground dungeon structure. There is no other way in.
How to Find a Stronghold
The fastest way to find a stronghold is by throwing Eyes of Ender. Here's how:
- Craft Eyes of Ender using Blaze Powder (from Blaze Rods) and Ender Pearls.
- Hold an Eye of Ender in your hand and right-click to throw it.
- The eye will float through the air in the direction of the nearest stronghold, then either fall to the ground (pick it up — there's a ~80% chance it survives) or shatter.
- Follow the direction the eye traveled and repeat.
- When the eye goes downward instead of forward, you're standing above the stronghold.
Dig down carefully and explore the stronghold until you find the End Portal Room.
Activating the End Portal
The End Portal Room contains a frame of 12 portal frame blocks arranged in a rectangle. You need to place an Eye of Ender into each empty frame block to activate the portal. Some frames may already have Eyes in them — the number varies per world.
Once all 12 frames are filled, the portal activates and a black void opens in the center. Jump in.
Preparing for the End
Before you jump into the portal, make sure you're ready. The Ender Dragon fight is one of the hardest encounters in vanilla Minecraft if you go in underprepared.
Gear Checklist
Bring your best equipment:
- Diamond or Netherite armor — Enchanted with Protection IV on all pieces is ideal.
- A strong sword — Diamond or Netherite with Sharpness V.
- A bow — This is essential. Stock up on at least 200 arrows or bring an Infinity-enchanted bow with one arrow. The bow is your primary weapon against the dragon.
- A pickaxe — You'll need it to break the End Crystal cages.
- Blocks — Bring at least 64 building blocks for pillaring up to the obsidian towers.
- Golden apples — Bring 3–5 for emergency healing.
- Food — Cooked beef or salmon works great. Bring at least 20 pieces.
- Ender Pearls — 10–15 for getting around and escaping bad situations.
- A bucket of water — Saves you from fall damage in a pinch.
Enchantments to Prioritize
If you can only enchant a few things before going in, prioritize: Feather Falling IV on your boots (fall damage is the number one cause of death in the End), Protection IV on your armor, and Power V on your bow.
The End Island: What You're Dealing With
When you arrive, you'll spawn on a large central island made of End Stone. Endermen wander everywhere — don't make eye contact unless you're ready to fight. In the center of the island stands a massive obsidian pillar structure, and at the top of each pillar is an End Crystal.
Surrounding the central island is an outer ring of smaller islands, separated by a vast empty void. Tall Chorus Plants grow on the outer islands and can be harvested for Chorus Fruit.
Phase 1: Destroying the End Crystals
End Crystals sit on top of the obsidian pillars and heal the Ender Dragon. While any crystal is active, all damage you do to the dragon is wasted. Destroy every crystal before you seriously attack the dragon.
How to Destroy End Crystals
You can destroy a crystal by hitting it once with anything — an arrow, a sword strike, or even a thrown egg. However, when a crystal explodes, it deals massive damage to you if you're nearby. Always destroy crystals from a safe distance with your bow.
Some crystals are inside iron bar cages. Use your pickaxe to break the bars, then shoot the crystal inside.
Pillar Strategy
For low pillars, you can shoot crystals from the ground. For tall pillars, you'll need to pillar up — place blocks beneath your feet rapidly to climb, destroy the crystal, then Ender Pearl back down to the ground. Time your shot carefully; the crystal explodes when destroyed.
Phase 2: Defeating the Ender Dragon
Once all crystals are destroyed, focus on the dragon. It has two main phases:
Flying Phase: The dragon circles the island, occasionally swooping or shooting Ender Acid balls at you. Shoot it with your bow when it flies overhead. Aim for the head for full damage — hitting the body does reduced damage.
Perching Phase: Periodically, the dragon lands on top of the central bedrock pillar and begins charging a breath attack. This is your chance to deal massive sword damage. Rush in, hit it as many times as you can, but back off before the breath reaches you. Ender Acid deals lingering damage and is hard to avoid at close range.
Repeat this cycle: shoot while flying, rush in while perched. A fully equipped player can defeat the dragon in roughly 10–15 minutes.
The Victory: Dragon Egg and Portal
When the dragon dies, it explodes in a spectacular display. A fountain of experience points erupts — this is one of the largest XP drops in the game. The central bedrock pillar opens, revealing the End Portal back to the overworld, along with the Dragon Egg on top.
The Dragon Egg
The Dragon Egg is a purely decorative trophy. You can't simply pick it up — clicking it teleports it to a random nearby location. To collect it, place a torch or other non-solid block on the side of the obsidian below it, then break the obsidian. The egg falls onto the torch and pops as an item you can pick up.
The Outer End: Finding End Cities
After defeating the dragon, you can reach the outer End islands — and that's where the real treasures are.
Look for the large obsidian gateways (called End Gateways) that appear around the edge of the main island when the dragon dies. Throw an Ender Pearl into one to teleport to the outer islands. You can also bridge out 1000+ blocks, but the gateway is much faster.
End Cities
End Cities are tall, palace-like structures made of Purpur Blocks and End Stone Bricks. They're rare but spectacular. Inside you'll find:
- Shulkers — They shoot levitating projectiles and their shells drop Shulker Shells, needed to craft Shulker Boxes (the best portable storage in the game).
- Chests with enchanted armor and weapons — End City chests are some of the best loot in the game, frequently containing diamond and netherite-tier gear with strong enchantments.
- End Ships — Some End Cities have a ship floating beside them. The ship contains an Elytra hanging in an item frame and a Dragon Head as a trophy.
Getting the Elytra
The Elytra is arguably the most important item in the game's late-game. It lets you glide through the air and, when combined with Firework Rockets, allows unlimited powered flight. Always check End Cities for their ship — if there's a ship, the Elytra is guaranteed to be there.
Tips for Surviving the Outer End
The outer islands are dangerous. Shulkers can be brutal in groups, and the gaps between platforms are lethal. Keep these tips in mind:
Never sprint on narrow paths. One misstep sends you into the void with no recovery.
Bring Ender Pearls for mobility. Pearl across gaps rather than bridging everything.
Kill Shulkers from range first. Clear a room of Shulkers before looting chests to avoid getting sent floating into the ceiling and dying from fall damage.
Bring a Totem of Undying if you have one. The outer End is one of the few places in the game where having a last-resort save is worth equipping.
Coming Back: Respawning the Ender Dragon
You can fight the Ender Dragon again as many times as you want. To respawn it, place four End Crystals on the top edges of the central bedrock fountain (one on each side). The crystals explode, heal the pillars, and the dragon respawns. Each additional kill drops less experience, but the dragon egg only drops on the first kill.
Final Thoughts
The End is one of the most rewarding places in Minecraft. Defeating the Ender Dragon marks a major milestone in any survival world, and the loot waiting in the outer islands makes every return trip worthwhile. Go in prepared, destroy the crystals before engaging the dragon, and don't skip the outer islands — the Elytra alone will transform how you play the game.
Good luck out there.