Tutorial:End survival

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This tutorial explains how to survive in the End after killing the ender dragon.

Prerequisites

Before continuing, please note that this page assumes that the player has already killed the ender dragon. If they have not done so, then it is strongly suggested for them to do, as it is extremely difficult to survive in the End with the ender dragon alive. (If they need help to do so, see Tutorials/Defeating the ender dragon). It also assumes that they are playing on Easy difficulty or above because playing in Peaceful makes it far less challenging than on other difficulties.

The End is less dangerous than the Nether, however, the player can die quickly without proper equipment.

Upon entering the End, the player is recommended to open as many gateways to the outer islands as possible for maximum efficiency in transportation, covering ground, and gathering the resources of each island. The gateways generate a maximum of 20, with new ones being created every time a respawned ender dragon is killed by the player.

The first dragon gives the most experience to the player, and is the most difficult to defeat. The first dragon can be defeated only with resources the player has brought to the End, but after the first gateway is generated, it allows the player to set up an outpost on the outer End islands. There, the player can bring:

Saplings and dirt for farming and growing trees (providing building material, charcoal for torches and smelting needs, and much more)
2 water buckets for pools to stay safe from endermen and fishing (which still works in the End)
composters to synthesize bonemeal (wheat and beetroots are great for growing in the end, as they always leave more seeds than the player needs and feed the composter with these. Cocoa beans are the most efficient plants for feeding a composter)
lava for a cobblestone generator.
Optional: a brewing stand to brew potions for combat while the player takes a recovery break and bamboo for easy scaffolding structures. However, unlike the above-listed items, potions are not renewable in the End (scaffolding is renewable as it requires bamboo, which can be grown indefinitely under enough light level, or bone meal and strings, which can be obtained as a junk item from fishing) and require the player to import the necessary materials from the Overworld and the Nether beforehand.

Once a base of this sort has been set up, and the player has a sufficient amount of ender pearls to teleport through the gateway, they can take a break from the battle at any time. The player can respawn the ender dragon—only this time, if the player has been sufficiently damaged, rather than dying they are able to teleport to the outpost to eat, recover, and—if they wish—brew potions and acquire new building materials as needed. The player can then teleport back through the gateway to return to battle the Ender Dragon at full health (see "pros" of living in the end for a list of all the renewable resources, combat gear, and food the player can bring with them into the End).

Pros and cons of living in the End

Pros

It has only two mobs after the defeating of the ender dragon: endermen and shulkers.
It has a lot of empty space for building.
It is flat and easy to see across.
It has a large amount of obsidian, and an unlimited amount of ender pearls and an unlimited amount of end stone, with the ability to respawn the ender dragon.
Unlike the Nether, it can have both water and lava in it for cobblestone. The player can also grow trees and crops.
The player can go to the outer islands, where they can find chorus fruits, chorus plants and end city-related things.
The End is the only place where the player can find an end ship, where they can get the elytra, an extremely useful item used for flying. It is also the only source of the invaluable resource of shulker shells.
On servers, it is usually the least heavily-trafficked dimension. Most people live primarily in the Overworld and use the Nether for rapid transport, leaving The End quiet.
Finally, The End can be made to be like the Overworld, and can be set up to provide infinitely renewable sources of almost everything the Overworld has. This includes water, iron, food, trees, stone (and its variant of cobblestone), bone meal, all resources collected from animals (including honey, wool and meat), and all resources collected from villager trading (including glass, glowstone, redstone dust, lapis lazuli, bottle o' enchanting, bows and arrows—which aren't much use in the End, but are still available—armor, tools, enchanted books, stone variants, block of quartz, and more. See "Farming" section for how to gain access to these).

Cons

A player falling into the void dies and lose all items unless the gamerule to keep inventory is enabled.
Endermen spawn infinitely; no matter how many they have killed, there are always more until players light the area sufficiently.
If players want to survive, they have to bring a lot of stuff with them that would otherwise be inaccessible unless they have an ender chest.
The player cannot set their respawn point in the End; beds and respawn anchors don't work and they explode and set fire to the area around the player if that player attempts to sleep in one or set their spawnpoint with one.
Players without either boots with Feather Falling or a potion of Slow Falling risk falling to their death after shulker attacks.
Nether portals don't work in the End. Therefore, the Nether cannot be utilized for fast travels.
The few players visiting the End often travel many kilometers in search of end cities, and likely take any loot they find there.
Gunpowder, an essential resource for making fireworks for elytra flying, is not renewable in the End, since creepers, ghasts and witches do not spawn here. The player has to return to the Overworld in order to renew their gunpowder supplies.

Endermen

Endermen can be annoying while in the End (more annoying than even creepers). They completely cover the island and are very hard to avoid looking at. Therefore, when traveling in the End, make sure to always carry a bucket of water. If an enderman tries to attack, place down the bucket where you are. It should walk into the water and then teleport away. It may also stop attacking‌, but even if it doesn't, it dies from the water.

Another approach is to wear a pumpkin, and all the endermen ignore the player completely until the player attacks them. Unfortunately, the player can see only partially, but by pressing F5 (Ctrl + F5 or Fn + F5 on some computers), the player enters third-person mode, where the player can see fully again. Alternately, they can also toggle the HUD by pressing F1 to disable the blur caused by the pumpkin‌. However, this makes the hotbar and hunger bars disappear too. The final option is to use a resource pack that changes the pumpkin blur.

in Java Edition, a useful tip to avoid accidentally looking at endermen is to show entity hitboxes by pressing F3 + B‌. The white-colored hitboxes can help discerning endermen from the similarly colored purplish-black background of the End.

Buildings

Home

In the End, there are many ways to build a home. If the player is on multiplayer, one idea is to build the house underground, so that other players cannot find them. Also, underground houses are easy to make.

Another option is to hollow out one of the obsidian pillars, making a multi-level building. This may take a significant amount of time, as obsidian takes a long time to mine. However, keep in mind that if you or another player respawn the ender dragon, the obsidian pillars regenerate, completely destroying your base.

A obsidian pillar that has been converted into a house.

Whether building or digging the home, the player must take measures against endermen spawning in it. The simplest tactic is to make sure that all ceilings are no more than 2 ¹⁄₂ blocks high, so they don't have room to spawn or enter. Where this isn't practical, the player can make floors out of bottom slabs. Then, they can't spawn or teleport there, though they can still walk onto it if they have the headroom. In particular, if you want a secure roof, fence it and make it out of bottom slabs.

Note also the blocks that endermen can move. Because of this, the house should not be made of blocks that endermen can pick up, such as grass block. Instead, use stronger building blocks, such as any sort of stone or planks, that endermen can't move.

Also, the player can build a home in the outer islands where there are infinite islands.

Portal room

One thing the player should do is make a room or building for the exit portal. This prevents the player from accidentally leaving the End, and also prevents endermen from falling through the portal and appearing in the Overworld. Note that if the player updates the portal by respawning the dragon, the ceiling of the portal room disappears.

Island outpost

This is similar to the main house, to be used as an overworld-like base in the process of respawning 19 ender dragons to complete the circle of gateways. When the player has killed the first dragon, they have unlocked a single end gateway to the outer end islands. The player is teleported to an outer island, where they can build a simple house, farm and fish pond—all of which are easy to make. This outpost is intended to have basic renewable resources in or around it, and can include a farm for both crops and trees, water and lava for a cobblestone generator, furnaces, methods of storage (such as a chest, barrel, shulker box or ender chest), a crafting table and a brewing stand if needed. The house should not have a bed, as it is nothing more than a hazard, and could be any size the player chooses. The farm must be lit up with a decent light source, or the crops are not successfully planted. The player is also advised to stock up on arrows and bows, as these are difficult to renew in the end.

Once the outpost is set up, the player may teleport to this house through the gateway when their health is critical during the process of killing the respawned ender dragon. If it is not a priority, it can consist of no more than a farm and hole-in-the-ground shelter. However, if the player plans to beat all 19 remaining dragons, the base can be extended into a fully self-sustaining presence, even providing iron for weapons and armor. Through great difficulty, villagers may be transported to the outer island base (either by flying machine or pushing baby villagers through the gateway) and traded with for arrows, bows, and enchanted gear. Through a variety of creative loopholes, the outer island base may be expanded into a fortress so self-reliant that the player never has to leave.

The dragon egg

The player should also collect the dragon egg from the top of the portal. Before collecting it, the player should cover the portal with blocks, so when it drops it does not land in the exit portal and get sent to the Overworld world spawn point. After that, do not mine it. If the player does, the egg teleports away. One way to get the egg is to place a piston facing toward it and activate the piston, causing it to drop as an item. If you make the egg fall onto a torch, it is in item form as the egg is affected by gravity, like sand and gravel. It is possible to mine the egg by making a large 30×30×15 cube of blocks with the egg in the center. You need to tunnel to the center and make the passage out of transparent blocks like doors or fence gates as the egg cannot teleport to these blocks. You can break the egg with your fist and it drops. This method is not recommended because it requires many stacks of blocks.

When activated, a piston breaks the egg and drops it as an item.
The same situation with the piston activated.

Although the dragon egg is purely ornamental, it is still nice to have in the base as an ornament to remind the player of when their journey in the End began.

Farming

Overworld farms

In the End, the player can still make many of the farms they would typically make in the Overworld. One of the most important farms to make is a cobblestone generator. Here are two different designs for cobblestone generators that both require 1 lava bucket and 1 water bucket. The first design generates one block at a time, while the second design can generate 4 blocks at the same time, making it far more efficient than the other one.

A cobblestone generator that generates 1 block at a time.
Another cobblestone generator but this time generates 4 blocks at a time.

Another important farm to make is a tree farm. To make the trees actually grow, the player must place a torch or some glowstone near the tree, as the natural light level is too low for the tree to grow.

A tree farm in the End.
The same farm after the trees have grown.

All of the normal farms (like potato farms, sugar canes etc.) work as they do in the Overworld, however they may need to place a light source next to the farm for it to function properly. Nearly all renewable resources of the Overworld can be infinitely renewed in the End, with a few caveats:

The player must bring the necessary materials and mobs from the Overworld to start. However, once these are in place, the player can make a colony so self-sustaining that it requires no transport to the Overworld for supplies. When enough ender dragons have been killed to open as many gateways as the player is comfortable with, they can start by taking with them some dirt (with optional grass blocks to make the islands more like the Overworld), a few buckets of water and lava, and seeds. Crops and trees can grow normally in the End (unlike the nether, which has fire hazards and no water for the crops) so they do not need anything done differently to care for them, as well as the cobblestone generator.

Second, once the buildings and infrastructure are in place, the player can transport animals and villagers to the island. Chickens can be brought in the form of eggs and hatched anywhere in the world, but other mobs must be pushed or lured through the end portal. The player is advised to block off the return portal, as this teleports any mobs who fall through it to the player's spawning spot in the Overworld. Provided that the player has brought villagers through the gateway, it is possible to build iron farms in the End, giving the player infinite iron to make weapons and armor to fight the Dragon with once the initial farm is set up on an outer island.

Building farms on the outer End Islands has several advantages, the biggest being safety from being destroyed by the ender dragon. If the player is seeking to colonize the outer End Islands, they must take many difficult steps to get animals and villagers there. Pigs are under a block tall, and can be pushed/lured up a staircase or elevator to the end gateway to be pushed through to the other side. For other mobs such as cows, villagers and sheep, the player must push baby versions of the mobs through the gateway. Building a flying machine out of sticky pistons and slime blocks has several advantages, such as being able to transport adult mobs and able to cover far greater distances than end gateways. The flying machine travels through the void until it collides with something or is broken en route by the player, and can be built high above the end's tallest structures to avoid collisions. If wanted, a player could take flying machines with villagers and animals millions of blocks away from the center, making for great secret bases on servers.

Since almost everything works the same in the End as it does in the Overworld, the player can then set up the farms they would in the Overworld without great difficulty, once the animals or villagers required for it are in place. (Beds explode if a player tries to sleep in them, but villagers follow a normal day-night cycle in the Nether and End, and sleep in beds without issues, allowing for iron farms and artificial villages to function normally). Villagers still trade glass, glowstone, redstone dust, lapis lazuli, bottle o' enchanting, bows and arrows, armor, tools, enchanted books, stone variants, block of quartz, and more, and the player can gain the emeralds they need by trading the crops or smooth stone already available in the End—effectively making the End a closed-loop system that eventually needs nothing from the outside world.

End exclusive farms

One of the advantages of living in the End is that it is far easier to build an enderman farm or grinder. These take a lot of effort to make but are extremely useful after making them. If the player wants to learn how to make one, see enderman farming. Enderman farms are useful, as enderman drop experience as well as ender pearls, which can be used to teleport or crafted into eyes of ender, which are used to make end crystals and ender chests.

An enderman farm in the End.

Another advantage of living in the End, or at least going to gather chorus fruits, is to make a chorus fruit farm (The player can make it in the Overworld too). Chorus fruits can be used as food, items for making purpur blocks, and its popped variant also make end rod.

Ender chest

The ender chest is one of the most useful items in the game. The items inside of one ender chest are accessible in all other ender chests. Due to the massive amounts of obsidian present in the End, it is easy to make an ender chest for each building or area of the End. Blaze powder or rods used to make ender chests must be collected from blazes beforehand. Also, don't forget that ender chests can be destroyed by the ender dragon.

Video

End Survival Challenge

This challenge is like "Starting in the Nether" but begins in the End. It's shorter, but more dangerous. Use cheats to teleport to the outer End islands. Play on Hardcore mode; dying sends you to the Overworld, which is just cheating. Don't set your spawn in the End; the exit portal always returns you to your original spawn.

With no wood or animals, your first goal is food. Gather 2 stacks of chorus fruits from chorus trees. It restores 4 hunger points but teleports you randomly. Next, find an end city for tools, weapons, and armors. You don’t need to kill the shulkers. Just block their bullets by punching them. In tall towers, let one bullet hit you to float up, then block the rest. At the top, loot 2 chests with enchanted armor/tools. Avoid armor with Curse of Binding, you will not be able to remove it after you wore it. Use a silk touch pickaxe to break the ender chest. Collect all treasure and kill shulkers. If you have a pickaxe, mine end stone and purpur. If there’s a ship, bridge to it, loot the elytra and potions, and kill the shulkers. Manage inventory carefully—no crafting table means no shulker boxes. Raid more cities to gather more loot. Then, find a return end gateway or bridge 1000 blocks to the central island.

At the central island, kill the ender dragon. Pillar up to towers, block with end stone, and punch crystals to reduce damage. For caged towers, break iron bars from below and punch crystals. Without a bow, stand in the exit portal and hit the dragon when it perches. Avoid fireballs and keep attacking until it dies. Collect the XP.

To get the dragon egg, get a torch from the exit portal. Punch the egg so it teleports onto end stone. Dig 2 blocks down next to it, break the block under the egg, place a torch, and break the block it's on. The egg drops. Now, return to the Overworld and continue normally.

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