Tutorials/Defeating the wither

Because the Wither inflicts a great deal of damage, the best equipment for combat is a diamond sword (Preferably enchanted with Smite. The best sword for the fight is one enchanted with Smite V, or Sharpness V if you anticipate outside mob intrusion.) Instant Health II Splash Potions, Strength II Potions, one or two enchanted golden apples, a Bow (Preferably enchanted with Power, the best bow for the fight would be Power IV or V, Punch II, and Infinity I) and Diamond Armor (Protection IV protects from the withering effects. The 'Thorns' enchantment may also be an advantage, but it is expensive and not as important as proper protection). Make sure to bring about a stack or two of arrows if you don't have the Infinity enchantment. Fire enchants do not work on the Wither.

Bringing or summoning allies (Wolves, Snow Golems and Iron Golems) may or may not be advantageous: on one hand, they provide a diversion and will cause damage to the Wither: on the other hand, they may die easily because of the explosions and get affected by the Withering effect, healing the boss far more than they damage him. If you create the Wither in a small and completely enclosed underground area that isn't too large (three blocks tall), three Iron Golems are sufficient to kill one without aiding them.

Method 1
Spawn the Wither, and quickly run away as far as possible, putting a large distance between you and the Wither. Do not stand near the Wither when it is growing into its normal size. It will create a massive explosion when it is finished, much larger than that of TNT or a (charged) Creeper.

When it is finished, walk back and shoot at the Wither, and occasionally use your Instant Health II Splash Potions and at some point, eat your Enchanted Gold Apples. When the Wither drops to 50% health, use your Strength II Potion and hit the Wither with your diamond sword until the Wither is defeated. This is a very effective way to beat the Wither, defeating it in less than five minutes with not too much struggle.

Method 2
A way of killing the Wither is to have a full set of diamond armor, a diamond sword (Smite or Sharpness V or IV), a potion of Strength II, potion of Night Vision and an Enchanted Gold Apple. Find a cave system and go down to about y:11 (this is the deepest point excluding under lava lakes). Spawn the Wither, drink your potions and eat the Enchanted Gold Apple last. As soon as it spawns, run towards it and slash at it with your sword. (Night Vision allows you to see underground, Strength gives you extra damage, and the Enchanted Golden Apple gives you so much protection, it makes you almost invulnerable. it should take less than a minute as the low ceiling prevents the Wither from flying too high above you. Make sure you don't kill the Wither above Lava, as the Nether Star will disintegrate.

Method 3 - Snow golems
Using snow golems can help to beat the Wither is to dig out a 10x10 by 3 tall room and spawn 30 or so Snow Golems. The Golems act as a target for the Wither, as well as attacking it. Accompany this with your best sword (preferably with the Smite enchantment), armor, and potions and you can beat him in under a minute taking little or no damage.

Method 4
A tactic that is relatively easy to pull off is to dig down near bedrock, and dig a long 1x2 tunnel (Longer than 30 blocks). At the end of the tunnel, construct a small room. Spawn the Wither in this room, then run back into the tunnel. Occasionally pop out and shoot an arrow or two at the Wither. As the Wither crunches its way towards you, just walk backwards through the tunnel. Once the Wither has reached its "Armor" stage, jump out and begin hitting it with a diamond sword. As long as you frequently throw down splash potions of instant healing, you should be able to survive even with iron armor.

A somewhat more complicated yet very enjoyable variant of this tunnel strategy (doubly so when you manage to kill the Wither using it) is to rig the tunnel you constructed with TNT. You could, for instance, build a tunnel as illustrated by the figure below; the idea behind this is that you can anticipate when the boss will crunch his way to a point sufficiently close to a pair of TNT blocks you've placed, and if you're accurate, you can have the TNT explode at that very instant, dealing a lot of damage. Be sure not to place the first pair of TNT right next to the room in which you will spawn the Wither, as the initial explosion would just destroy these. The drawbacks of this strategy are that it can be difficult to tell when to pull the levers; if you're too fast, the TNT will not have the desired effect. If you're too slow, the Wither will simply destroy the TNT prior to its detonation. In addition, you might need a lot of TNT to completely kill the Wither, and thus you'll have to dig out a long tunnel. Therefore it is strongly advised that you still use a bow (and a sword when the "Armor" stage has been reached) in the sections of the tunnel where there's no TNT to do the hard work. Also, if you don't have enough TNT, be sure to dig out an extra tunnel as an extension of the TNT-rigged one, so as to finish the Wither off with arrows/swords should needs be.

Method 5 - Nether suffocation
A very easy method is to spawn him, push his head in a bedrock ceiling in the Nether, then kill him. You will only need a sword, lever, and piston.

1. Find a 3x3 bedrock field in the ceiling of the nether with an air pocket above the center block.

2. Go 3 blocks down, dig a hole in the ground and put a piston there. Put a lever next to it. 3. Build a wither on top of the piston like so: 4. Flick the lever. 5. Kill the wither!

Note: The best way to find this situation is getting to the top of the Nether, but is dangerous as the Nether has random lava source blocks scattered in the Netherrack.

Method 6 - Cobble generator suffocation
A more advanced tactic that is very rewarding would be to construct a cobblestone generator-powered grid above the player, spawn the Wither about 15 blocks away, and stand under the grid. The Wither will fly towards the player, but it would be kept at the edge of the grid, constantly being pushed back by the cobblestone which is generating faster than what the Wither can break. This allows the player to stand still and shoot the Wither without retaliation, until the Wither is at half health, where it will fly towards the player through the grid, allowing the player to easily kill the Wither with a sword. In addition to that, the player can rig dispensers about 15 blocks away to periodically shoot splash potions of health, which heal the player and damage the wither.

Method 7 - Fully automatic
It is also possible to kill the wither with a fully automatic machine, requiring no combat from the player. The most conventional design suffocates the wither with a cobblestone generator