Ender Dragon

Ender Dragon

Health points	200HP × 100
Behavior	Hostile
Mob type	Monster
Attack strength	Melee: Peaceful: 0HP (but still performs attack animation) Easy: 6HP Normal: 10HP Hard: 15HP × 7.5 Wings: Easy: 3HP Normal: 5HP Hard: 7HP Dragon's breath: 6HP per second Dragon fireball: 12HP × 6 per second
Hitbox size	Height: 8 blocks Width: 16 blocks
Speed	0.7
Spawn	The End

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            "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Hostile",
            "label": "Behavior"
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            "field": "(link to Monster article, displayed as Monster)",
            "label": "(link to Mob article, displayed as Mob) type"
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            "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
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            "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
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            "label": "(link to Attribute#movementSpeed article, displayed as Speed)"
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            "label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
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    "invimages": [
        "Ender Dragon Spawn Egg"
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    "images": [
        "Ender Dragon.gif"
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The ender dragon is a giant flying hostile boss mob found when first entering the End. It is the largest naturally spawning mob in the game. Defeating it activates the exit portal that allows return to the Overworld and spawns end gateways that provide entry to the outer end islands. Its attacks involve charging at the player and hurling its acidic breath at them.

Spawning

Initial spawning

The ender dragon spawns 20 game ticks (1 second) after an entity first arrives in the End, along with the bedrock frame for the exit portal.

Re-summoning

This image shows how the player can arrange end crystals to respawn the ender dragon.

Players can re-summon the dragon by placing four end crystals on the edges of the exit portal, one on each side. If the exit portal is ever destroyed, end crystals can be placed on obsidian blocks at the precise location where the original exit portal once stood. In Bedrock Edition, the crystals can be placed one block further away. When it is re-summoned, the four end crystals point to the tops of each pillar, setting off a series of explosions that resets the obsidian pillars, iron bars, and end crystals. The top of each pillar explodes, destroying any player-placed blocks. Eventually, all of the end crystals point at the coordinates of (0.0, 128, 0.0) and the ender dragon spawns there. The four crystals placed around the exit portal then explode. If the player does not pick up the dragon egg and starts to re-summon the dragon, the dragon egg disappears.

If the dragon goes through an end gateway, another immediately spawns at (0, 128, 0) while the other dragon flies to (0, 128, 0).

Drops

After the ender dragon is slain for the first time, the following events take place:

• First, it moves to the exit portal. During this final move, the dragon can still damage other entities, despite being "dead".
• When it reaches 0,0 it slowly ascends, its wings and body becoming more tattered until it disappears in beams of light erupting from its center. A loud sound, "Ender dragon death.ogg" is played. This takes 10 seconds.
• After about 9 seconds of that, there is an explosion of 12000XP experience points (ten drops of 960 and one drop of 2400) — enough to bring a player from no experience all the way up to level 68. Some of the experience orbs can drop into the exit portal and can then be retrieved in the Overworld.
• Shortly after, 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, or at world spawn if they didn't set a spawn point.
• At the same 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.
• An end gateway portal is generated 96 blocks away from the exit portal always floating at y: 75.

When a re-summoned ender dragon is slain, the same events occur, except that only 500XP experience points are dropped‌, and if there are already 20 end gateway portals, no more are generated. In Java Edition, the dragon egg appears only the first time the ender dragon is slain; in Bedrock Edition, it appears the first and second time (due to a bug).

Behavior

During the battle with the ender dragon, unique music called "Boss" plays, the edges of the screen darken, black fog appears, and chunks around the exit portal are constantly loaded regardless of render distance. These happen as long as there is at least one player within a Euclidean distance of 192 blocks from (0.0, 128, 0.0).

The ender dragon has a light purple health bar that appears at the top of the player's screen. Its health is restored by nearby end crystals, indicated by a white beam connecting the dragon and the crystal. Destroying an end crystal that is actively healing the dragon causes 10HP damage to it.

The dragon can take damage only from explosions and player-based damage. In Java Edition it takes damage of (normal damage ÷ 4 + 1) when hit on any part that is not its head. In Bedrock Edition the dragon has similar armor, but is temporarily removed when a projectile hits its head. Thus making it the most resilient mob in the game despite it having less health than the wither. In Java Edition, although the particle is displayed, critical hits do not apply to the ender dragon, since it can be applied only to living entities. While the ender dragon is a living entity, the parts that are damaged are actually non-mob entities. Suffocation is completely non-applicable, as it either phases through or immediately destroys any block it touches.

The dragon is immune to all status effects, except for Instant Damage coming from the players (player-thrown splash or lingering potion of Harming).

The green hitboxes of the ender dragon.

By using the F3 + B shortcut, the dragon's bounding box appears.‌ However, it cannot be damaged at just any spot in this large volume: eight green sub-hitboxes are also shown, which indicate the locations where the dragon can take damage: the tail, body, head, and wings.

The ender dragon is immune to fire, falling, drowning, freezing, poisoning, and even the void.

Movement

The ender dragon is a flying mob and cannot stand on the ground. It flies around the End's main island.

The dragon can pass through all blocks and destroys most of them, but it can still be affected by flowing water, lava, and bubble columns. Blocks not destroyed are those that naturally generate on the central End island, such as end stone, and those that are intended to be indestructible, such as bedrock.

• Barrier
• Bedrock
• Command blocks
• Crying obsidian
• End stone
• End portal
• End portal frame
• End gateway
• Fire
• Iron bars
• Jigsaw
• Light block
• Moving Piston
• Obsidian
• Reinforced deepslate
• Respawn anchor
• Soul fire
• Structure block

In Java Edition, these blocks are marked under the dragon_immune tag, with the exception of light blocks and fire, which are marked as dragon_transparent.

Destroyed blocks are not dropped, although containers other than shulker boxes drop their contents.

Attacking

The dragon performing its toxic breath attack.

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

The ender dragon has four main states of behavior:

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, it takes damage and there is an increased chance of the dragon switching states.

Targeting

• Whenever the dragon finds itself less than 10 blocks or more than 150 blocks from its current target, it attempts to choose a new target. When damaged it targets a point just behind itself, causing it to turn away and choose a new target.

Strafing

• Upon the destruction of an end crystal, the dragon switches to strafing. As soon as it is within 64 blocks, it 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 never seems to perform this attack mid-flight in game, it only seems to do it when exiting the portal.
• The dragon resumes circling after this state, whether or not it actually hit the player.

Perching

• While Guarding and the dragon has reached the end of the path, it 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).‌ The dragon circles above the exit structure while slowly descending in Java Edition, or dive from the obsidian pillars in Bedrock Edition. If there is no block in (X=0, Z=0) the dragon freezes right when it switches to perching.‌ The dragon is immune to arrows in this state; they all catch fire and bounce off. In Java Edition it is also immune to thrown tridents in this state.

Dragon's breath

• After 1.25 seconds, if a player is within 20 blocks of the exit portal structure, the dragon roars and use its 3-second breath attack, damaging players similarly to a lingering potion of Harming. This does not happen on Peaceful difficulty in Java Edition. An area of visible particles in the shape of a horizontal disc one block tall and 5 to 6 blocks in diameter appears where the breath attack strikes, either on the ground or floating in the air, at whatever point the breath attack struck a block. The harming effect zone where the player takes damage is confined to a smaller area in the center this visible cloud, covering about 3 to 4 blocks.
• The harming effect portion of the purple clouds emitted from the dragon's breath attack can be collected in a glass bottle to obtain dragon's breath. Each bottle of dragon's breath collected removes one block from the lingering damage zone of the breath attack. The visible clouds remain for 3 seconds whether the dragons breath is bottled or not. By rapidly collecting all of the harmful blocks, usually around three, even a direct hit from the breath attack can be mostly and even entirely negated before the player suffers any damage.

Charge

• If the player is not near the portal within 5 seconds of the dragon's landing, it 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, it takes off from its perch. In Java Edition, it 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 50HP × 25, the dragon takes off and resets the damage accumulator. The accumulator is not reset if it does not take enough damage.
• The dragon resumes circling after this state.

In Java Edition, when the dragon takes a fatal blow, it flies toward the exit portal structure before dying, unless it cannot find it within 150 blocks, or it is inside blocks.

Dragon Fireball

Dragon Fireball

• 

  Java Edition

• 

  Bedrock Edition

Hitbox size	Height: 1 block Width: 1 block

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    "title": "Dragon Fireball",
    "rows": [
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            "field": "Height: 1 block<br>Width: 1 block",
            "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
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Dragon fireballs are special fireballs that the ender dragon fires while strafing. They cannot be deflected unlike ghast fireballs, and they do no impact damage. Instead, they deposit purple effect clouds across the ground that damage players the same way a lingering potion of Harming II does. This means that the ender dragon's fireballs deal magic damage, which ignores any damage reduction that comes from the player's unenchanted armor. However, its damage does get reduced by armor enchanted with the Protection enchantment. The purple effect cloud's hitbox slowly grows larger in diameter until it disappears.

As with its close-ranged breath attack, the purple clouds can be bottled to obtain the dragon's breath.

Unlike lingering potions of Harming, the effect cloud does not shrink when affecting mobs.

Sounds

Java Edition:
Ender dragons use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events. Dragon fireballs use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Dragon roars	Hostile Creatures	Randomly	entity.ender_dragon.ambient	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.ambient​	5.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Dragon growls	Hostile Creatures	While an ender dragon is on its perch	entity.ender_dragon.growl	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.growl​	2.5	0.8-1.1	16
	​Dragon growls	Hostile Creatures	While an ender dragon is being resummoned	entity.ender_dragon.growl	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.growl​	64.0	0.8-1.1	16
	​Dragon dies	Hostile Creatures	When an ender dragon dies	entity.ender_dragon.death	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.death​	5.0	1.0	16 (technical) / ∞ (effective)
	​Dragon flaps	Hostile Creatures	Periodically depending on the ender dragon's speed	entity.ender_dragon.flap	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.flap​	5.0	0.8-1.1	16
	​Dragon hurts	Hostile Creatures	When an ender dragon is damaged	entity.ender_dragon.hurt	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.hurt​	5.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Dragon shoots	Hostile Creatures	When an ender dragon shoots a fireball	entity.ender_dragon.shoot	subtitles.entity.ender_dragon.shoot​	10.0	0.8-1.2	16
	​Explosion	Hostile Creatures	When a dragon fireball impacts	entity.dragon_fireball.explode	subtitles.entity.generic.explode​	1.0	0.9-1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Hostile Creatures	Randomly and randomly while being resummoned, except while the pillars are being recharged	mob.enderdragon.growl	640.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When an ender dragon dies	mob.enderdragon.death	640.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When an ender dragon is damaged	mob.enderdragon.hit	560.0	0.8-1.2
	Friendly Creatures	Periodically depending on if the ender dragon is perching	mob.enderdragon.flap	400.0	0.8-1.2

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	[hide]Translation key
Ender Dragon	ender_dragon	None	entity.minecraft.ender_dragon
Dragon Fireball	dragon_fireball	impact_projectiles	entity.minecraft.dragon_fireball

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	[hide]Translation key
Ender Dragon	ender_dragon	53	entity.ender_dragon.name
Dragon Fireball	dragon_fireball	79	entity.dragon_fireball.name

Entity data

Ender dragons have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Java Edition:

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template[show]
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template[show]
  • [Int] DragonPhase: A number indicating the dragon's current state. 0 means circling. 1 means strafing (preparing to shoot a fireball). 2 means flying to the portal to land (part of transition to landed state). 3 means landing on the portal (part of transition to landed state). 4 means taking off from the portal (part of transition out of landed state). 5 means landed, performing breath attack. 6 means landed, looking for a player for breath attack. 7 means landed, roar before beginning breath attack. 8 means charging player. 9 means flying to portal to die. 10 means hovering (flapping wings without moving) with no AI (default when using the /summon command).

Dragon fireballs have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template[show]
  • Tags common to all fireballs see Template:Nbt inherit/fireball/template[show]
  • Tags common to all projectiles see Template:Nbt inherit/projectile/template[show]

Command details

A dragon fireball spawned by a command (left) and the damage and the explosion it caused (right).

In Java Edition, the /summon ender_dragon command, by default, summons a harmless ender dragon that hovers in place. Setting the DragonPhase tag (by issuing either the /summon ender_dragon ~ ~ ~ {DragonPhase:0} or the /data merge entity <selector> {DragonPhase:0} commands) starts the ender dragon's ordinary behavior, although the health bar does not appear because it is managed by the ender dragon fight status rather than by the dragon entity itself. If spawned away from the center of the map (x=0, z=0), it flies to the center then resumes normal behavior (see #Behavior).

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider.	15	Bronze
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	—	20	Silver
		The End	Kill the Enderdragon [sic]	Enter the end exit portal.	40	Bronze
		The End... Again...	Respawn the Enderdragon [sic]	—	30	Silver
		You Need a Mint	Collect dragons [sic] breath in a glass bottle	Have a dragon's breath bottle in your inventory.	30	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand also counts for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	Free the End	Good luck	Kill the ender dragon. If multiple players are involved in the dragon fight, only the player that deals the final blow to the dragon receives the advancement.
	Is It a Plane?	Look at the Ender Dragon through a Spyglass	—
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Kill one of these 37 mobs:[hide] Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Kill each of these 37 mobs:[hide] Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	–
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
	The End... Again...	Respawn the Ender Dragon	Be within a 192 block radius from the coordinates (0.0, 128, 0.0) when an ender dragon is summoned using end crystals.
	The Next Generation	Hold the Dragon Egg	Have a dragon egg in the inventory.
	You Need a Mint	Collect Dragon's Breath in a Glass Bottle	Have a bottle of dragon's breath in the inventory.

History

June 14, 2009							Notch believed that Survival mode should have some sort of goal, which he had not yet formulated: "While it could be fun to just see how long you can survive in survival mode, I believe there might be a need for some kind of goal. Make the most money in a month? Kill a big evil mob in the shortest time? I don’t know yet."
June 30, 2010							In a video called "Minecraft Flight" posted by Notch on YouTube, he mentioned that dragon lairs may be an addition in the video description.
August 31, 2010							Later in an interview on MinecraftCon 2010, Notch hinted at dragons as a possible planned mob. Then, for about one year, there was no more mention of it and dragons solely remained a potential work-in-progress.
June 18, 2011							Notch has stated in the past that if dragons are added, they would not be mountable as it would put too much pressure on multiplayer servers.
September 1, 2011							Notch stated that "dragons will be added eventually".
October 6, 2011							The name "ender dragon" was first made known through a tweet by Notch reading "raqreqentba", which could be decoded using the ROT13 cipher, translating to "enderdragon".
October 7, 2011							Notch reveals a screenshot of the "progress so far" on the ender dragon: the dragon flying through the skies of the End. He also shared an album of images of the ender dragon in flight through the Overworld, showcasing its animation.
October 9, 2011							Notch tweets an example of a "texture packer tool" he wrote for the purpose of giving the ender dragon its skin. He shared his progress midway through designing the skin, later announced when the base texture was done, and posted when he had enlarged the wings.
October 10, 2011							Notch released a video showing a small clip of the End that also shows the ender dragon fly into the top of the frame.
October 12, 2011							In a Reddit post Notch also said, "They will be different dragons. The Ender Dragon will probably become larger, and the ones in the main world will be this size, won't go through terrain, and will be red because dragons are red."
							Notch stated in a Twitter post that "Dragons have 6 limbs", consisting of 2 wings, and 4 legs.
[hide]Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4				Added the ender dragon.
							The ender dragon currently exists in the code, mostly functional, however, the dragon has not been enabled in-game yet and players are unable to damage it. Certain mods can allow the spawning of the ender dragon, but again, no physical interactions are currently available.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5				Added the ability for players to damage ender dragons. Ender dragons require mods or a mob spawner to be brought into the game, however.
							The ender dragon's health has been changed to 1HP to test its new death animation.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6				Ender dragons have been officially implemented into the game. This includes a single ender dragon as a boss battle, spawning naturally when the player first enters the End.
April 28, 2012							Jeb mentioned that he wouldn't be adding any more boss mobs until he makes the ender dragon "more fun first".
1.3.1			12w24a				The bug in which the ender dragon would be unable to damage the player after the player was attacked once has been fixed.
							The experience drop of ender dragons has been reduced from 20,000 to 12,000.
1.4.2			12w34b				"Boss Health" now says "Ender Dragon".
			1.4				Before this update, ender dragons used the same damage sound as the player. Ender dragons now have their own sound.
							The wither was added, despite jeb saying he would not add another boss until the ender dragon was revamped.
1.5			13w09c				A bug where swords take no damage when used on the ender dragon has been fixed.
1.5.1			13w11a				Before this snapshot, the gamerule mobGriefing didn't prevent the ender dragons from destroying blocks when they fly through them. Now, mobGriefing from the /gamerule command prevents the ender dragon from destroying blocks at their sight.
2013 Music Update							A music track now accompanies the ender dragon boss fight.
1.8			14w20a				The ender dragon no longer breaks barriers.
1.9			15w31a				The ender dragon boss fight has been revamped to be similar to the Legacy Console Edition.
							The ender dragon can now be re-summoned by placing clay in a creeper face pattern in the End.
							The ender dragon no longer destroys iron bars.
							The ender dragon produces a fireball during its attack.
			15w32a				The ender dragon's fireballs now give off ender acid particles upon exploding and no longer light ground on fire.
							The ender dragon's charge/knockback attack has now returned.
							The ender dragon's wings now damage the player, prevent side and back melee attacks when the dragon lands on the exit portal.
							Dragon breath from the ender dragon now shoots out farther.
							The ender dragon now immediately charges at the player after finishing the ender acid attack.
							The ender dragon's ender acid attack now goes around the whole exit portal.
							The ender dragon no longer stops attacking from single hits.
							The ender dragon now flies back to portal before finishing the death animation.
							The ender dragon no longer takes damage from snowballs, eggs, or other attacks that normally do no damage.
			15w32b				When fatally damaged, the ender dragon now flies to the exit portal and dies rather than resetting to 1HP and landing.
			15w33a				The ender dragon's wings no longer deal damage while the ender dragon is landed.
							The ender dragon is now immune to arrows while landed.
							The ender dragon no longer destroys end portal blocks, end portal frame blocks, or end gateway blocks.
							The ender dragon's breath attack now lasts longer.
							The ender dragon's fireball attack is now more or less equivalent to a lingering potion of Harming II.
			15w33c				Respawned ender dragons now drop 500 experience.
							Respawning the dragon also respawns the end spikes and end crystals.
			15w44a				Respawning ender dragons now require placing 4 end crystals near the exit portal.
							The ender dragon can no longer be re-summoned using clay.
			15w49a				The ender dragon no longer travels through portals.
							The ender dragon no longer rides rideable entities such as minecarts or boats.
							The ender dragon is no longer affected by status effects.
1.11			16w32a				The entity ID of the ender dragon has been changed from EnderDragon to ender_dragon.
							The fireball's entity ID has been changed from DragonFireball to dragon_fireball.
			16w35a				Hitboxes of the damageable portions of the ender dragon are now visible using F3 + B.
			16w40a				The tags xTile, yTile, zTile, inTile and inGround have been removed from the dragon fireball entity data.
							The life tag of ender dragons is no longer used for anything, but still saved/read.
			16w43a				The ender dragon is now able to draw from its own loot table.
1.14			19w08a				Target selectors for the ender dragon (@e[type=minecraft:ender_dragon]) now target a total of 9 entities per dragon.
			19w08b				The ender dragon no longer dives straight down to the fountain, instead it slowly descends.
							The ender dragon's AI in general has been heavily altered due to a typo in the dragon's vertical velocity while flying
1.15			19w39a				The ender dragon no longer has a separate texture for the bottom of its wing anymore.
			19w41a				A black dot on transparent parts of wing texture has been removed from ender dragons.
							A texture for part of wing bottom in the exploding ender dragon has been removed.
			19w46a				The texture of the dragon fireball has been changed.
1.17			20w45a				Target selectors for the ender dragon target 1 entity per dragon once again.
1.19.3			22w44a				Added spawn eggs for ender dragons, which can be obtained only with commands as to avoid potential destruction of Creative builds.
1.21.2			24w34a				Dragon fireballs no longer go through the world border if hit.
[hide]Pocket Edition
1.0.0			alpha 0.17.0.1				Added the ender dragon.
							The ender dragon produces a fireball during its attack.
			alpha 1.0.0.2				The ender dragon now goes to the nearest end crystal.
?							Dragon fireballs no longer make a glass sound on impact.
1.1.0			alpha 1.1.0.0				The entity ID of the ender dragon has been changed from dragon to ender_dragon.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of the dragon fireball has been changed.
1.19.20			Preview 1.19.20.22				Ender dragons can no longer destroy crying obsidian, respawn anchors, light blocks, allow and deny blocks, borders, and jigsaw blocks.
1.19.60			Preview 1.19.60.20				Added spawn eggs for ender dragons.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU9	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added the ender dragon with new attacks (dragon's breath and ender charges).
							The ender dragon produces a fireball during its attack.
TU10							Before this update, ender dragons used the same damage sound as the player. Ender dragons now have their own sound.
TU14		1.04					The title of the ender dragon's health bar has been changed from "Enderdragon" to "Ender Dragon".
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			Ender dragons now share their spawn limit category with the wither, meaning that the wither cannot be spawned in the end when the ender dragon is alive.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		The ender dragon no longer takes damage from snowballs, eggs, or other attacks that normally do no damage.
							Dragon fireballs now create dragon's breath on impact. Previously dragon's breath was only created by the ender dragon above the exist portal.
							Dragon's breath now only deals damage every second instead of every half second.
							Dragon's breath now deals knockback away from the ender dragon.
							Dragon's breath can now be collected with a glass bottle.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	The spawn limit for boss mobs has been increased, meaning up to 4 withers can now be spawned in the end while the ender dragon is alive.
TU60	CU51	1.64	1.64	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	The texture of the dragon fireball has been changed.
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10							Added the ender dragon.
							The ender dragon produces a fireball during its attack.

Issues

Issues relating to "Ender Dragon" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• If low enough on health, the ender dragon emits beams of light without dying, as if cracked.
• The player cannot use name tags on an ender dragon.
• The ender dragon's hitbox, especially its wings, is larger than the ender dragon itself, causing players to be pushed away from it from farther away than usual.
• If the player kills a summoned dragon in the Overworld or the Nether, it does not create the exit portal or a dragon egg.
• In Spectator mode, the player cannot view the perspective of the ender dragon, unlike any other mob. However, it is possible through the use of commands (like /spectate). When this happens, the player's camera appears about 1 block over the dragon's body.
• In Legacy Console Edition, the ender dragon's death sound is bass-boosted.
• Using F3 + B‌ to show hitboxes reveals that the ender dragon's head rotation faces in the opposite direction to where its real head faces. This is also why the ender dragon faces the wrong way when set in a monster spawner.
• When an ender dragon is spawned in the Overworld, it flies to coordinates X=0 and Z=0 and dives at the ground or does the same behavior as if in the End. If end crystals are placed in the Overworld, they heal the dragon as normal, but it does not perch anywhere and continues to fly around forever.
• In Bedrock Edition, there is an unused texture file for a dragon fireball item.
• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, one of the spirits that comes with the Steve/Alex DLC is the ender dragon. It appears as a Legend-class "spirit" that makes the user breathe fire for a long time at the start of each battle.
• If commands or Creative mode are used to get end portal frames and eyes of ender, a player can skip to the end poem.
  • If a player destroys ender crystals or even hurts the dragon and then uses a player-made portal, upon returning, the player retains their progress.‌

Notch-related

• On Reddit, Notch suggested the ender dragon's name to be "Jean?" in the same manner he called the player "Steve?".
  • Dinnerbone later stated that he thinks the name is officially "Jean?".
  • Despite this, an article on Minecraft.net states that "uttering its true name would unleash a destructive force that would obliterate not only the End, but the Nether and the Overworld at the same time."
• Also on Reddit, Notch referred to the ender dragon as a she, as well as this the Xbox avatar item Ender Dragon Pet has the description "A cuter, friendlier version of his bigger, less playful Minecraft sister", however it has been later confirmed by Notch, Brandon Pearce and Jeb that all mobs in Minecraft have no gender, which includes the ender dragon.
  • Despite this, the ender dragon continues to be referred with feminine pronouns in Bedrock Edition's in-game encyclopedia.
• Before it was textured, Notch reported that he was afraid to texture the ender dragon as it was a complicated model. In the end, the dragon model was so complex Notch stated that he gave up making the texture manually and wrote a texture packer tool to aid him in adding the texture to the model. Notch also uploaded the code for the tool so others could use the pack. (Link to the texture packer)
  • Notch joked about how Minecraft was "going next-gen" when deadmau5 mentioned this.
• Notch has uploaded a video showing why ender dragons do not spawn in the main world, as they would destroy any block they touch.
  • On Reddit, Notch explained that ender dragons destroy Overworld matter because "trying to make an AI to properly navigate arbitrary terrain before the code freeze next tuesday [sic] isn't feasible".

Gallery

Gameplay

• 

  The ender dragon after defeat.

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  A dragon egg and the exit portal after the ender dragon is defeated.

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  An ender dragon being healed by an end crystal.

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  The ender dragon flying over the End.

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  The ender dragon attacks a player while being healed.

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  Dozens of player-spawned ender dragons and withers fighting each other.

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  More ender dragons fighting withers.

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  The ender dragon's death inside netherrack.

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  The ender dragon dying from the explosion of the end crystal it was using.

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  The dragon perching on the exit portal.

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  The dragon firing a fireball at the player.

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  The dying dragon quickly charging toward the exit portal to roost. A pool of acid lies in the foreground.

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  The green hitboxes, visible when F3 + B is toggled.

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  Four end crystals placed at the exit portal to respawn the ender dragon.

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  Comparison between the ender dragon and the wither.

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  Screenshot of a possible glitch resulting in the spawning of two ender dragon.

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  An ender dragon taking damage in the Overworld.

Animations

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  The ender dragon defeated.

Java Edition only

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  The ender dragon with the Glowing effect.

Bedrock Edition only

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  The ender dragon dying as seen when the player has Night Vision.

Textures

• 

  Ender Dragon texture file.

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  Ender Dragon eyes texture file.

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  Ender Dragon exploding texture file.

Development

• 

  The first screenshot of the ender dragon.

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  The same screenshot, only brighter.

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  The ender dragon before being textured.

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  The ender dragon before being textured.

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  The ender dragon before being textured.

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  The ender dragon before being textured.

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  The ender dragon before being textured.

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  The first ender dragon texture.

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  The ender dragon with its first texture.

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  The ender dragon's texture taking shape.

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  The ender dragon with its first semi-complete texture.

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  The ender dragon's texture at this stage.

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  The ender dragon with wings more closely resembling their modern form.

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  The ender dragon's texture at this stage.

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  The ender dragon's head and neck were lowered to make it look more "evil".

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  The ender dragon flying over the Overworld.

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  The first screenshot of the ender dragon in Xbox 360 Edition.

In other media

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  The ender dragon in promotional artwork for the Ender Update.

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  The ender dragon artwork in the official Minecraft site.

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  Artwork for Realms Stories depicting Ari and Sunny defeating the Ender Dragon.

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  The ender dragon pictured in the Mobestiary.

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  The ender dragon micromob from LEGO Minecraft.

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  LEGO Minecraft ender dragon minifigure.

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  The ender dragon spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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  The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate ender dragon spirit.

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  An ender dragon plush in Minecraft.

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  An unboxed ender dragon plush in Minecraft.

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  Official T-shirt artwork "Enderdragon" featuring Steve fighting the ender dragon. Made by JINX.

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  Official T-shirt artwork "Heroes Crest" featuring an iron golem and an ender dragon. Made by JINX.

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  Official T-shirt artwork "Battle" featuring a creeper, an enderman, Steve, a ghast, and either an ender dragon or a red dragon. Made by SamCube.

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  Official T-shirt artwork "The End is Nigh" made by JINX.

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  A newer version of "The End is Nigh." The text is the Standard Galactic Alphabet, which translates to its title.

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  Ender dragon plush made by JINX.

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  An officially licensed ender dragon headlight.

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  Players fighting the ender dragon.