Mob Menagerie: Ender Dragon

The Ender Dragon is a huge, hostile monster that attacks you as soon as you set foot into the End. It’s black and grey, with glowing purple eyes just like an Enderman, and it flies around assaulting players with fireballs and breath attacks. 

To handle this beast, you’re gonna need some specialist equipment. A sword, ideally enchanted, is a must – you’ll also need a bow or crossbow with plenty of ammunition so you can hit it while flying. Wear your strongest armour, and bring plenty of healing items – golden apples or healing potions. You’ll also likely want to bring some empty glass bottles to collect dragon’s breath.

The fight is tricky, but very much possible. Run to the centre of the island and try to stay within the circle of towers to avoid falling off into the void. You can start shooting arrows at the dragon if you want, but you’ll quickly see that it heals up damage through the crystals on top of the towers. Destroy the crystals with your ranged weapons as fast as you can (ideally while they’re healing the dragon because it’ll cause a burst of damage if you do).

Once the crystals are destroyed, it’s finally time to slay the dragon itself. While flying you can shoot it with a bow, but sometimes it’ll fly down and hover over the portal – and here it’s immune to arrow damage. Instead, rush in with your sword and try to get in as many hits as you can. 

Eventually after doing enough damage, the beast will be slain. You’ll get a tonne of XP orbs, a dragon egg, the End Gateway portal which allows you to access the End’s outer islands, and a portal back to the Overworld. When you jump into the exit portal, you’ll get to read the End Poem, written by Irish poet Julian Gough, and the credits - which mark the official “End” of the game. Completionists, your work here is done.

But this is Minecraft, so of course you can play on – if you want to. There’s lots more to explore in the End, the Nether, and the Overworld, and you can even respawn the Ender Dragon if you want to. You do this by surrounding the exit portal with End Crystals. It’s fun to finish the game, but the world you’ve created will live on, and on, and on.