Ender Dragon

The Ender Dragon is the first official boss mob to appear in Minecraft (with the second being the Wither). It only naturally spawns in The End. This mob uses the dragon model Notch created, but utilizes a texture more reminiscent of an Enderman, being black and scaly with purple eyes. It is widely acknowledged as the main antagonist of the game.

Appearance
The Ender Dragon is a large, black dragon with purple eyes and four big, black paws with three toes on each one. It is by far the largest mob in the game, about 20 times as long as a pig, and is made of 61 cuboids, more than any other model. It has a few light gray features, such as the wings and various other parts of its body. Similar to Endermen and Spiders, the Ender Dragon's eyes are visible through darkness, so you can see it coming from anywhere in the End. (Note its eyes won't glow if you have consumed the potion of night vision, instead its whole body will glow light gray.) The black parts of its body (which is nearly all of its body) is a top layer, however there is a gray bottom layer with the eyes in the front. This is revealed in the "dragon" folder in the mob skin files.

Behavior
The Ender Dragon will destroy any block it comes into contact with, except Obsidian, End Stone, and Bedrock. Instead of destroying them, the Ender Dragon passes through them. When hit, an Ender Dragon makes roaring, growling and snarling noises. The flapping of its wings can also be heard as the dragon moves. Unlike Endermen, Ender Dragons don't take damage from water.

The Ender Dragon has a purple health bar that appears at the top of the player's screen. This bar indicates the remaining health of the resident Ender Dragon. Each End dimension houses a single Ender Dragon whose health is periodically healed by nearby Ender Crystals. Destroying an Ender Crystal while the Ender Dragon is being healed by it (indicated by a series of circles appearing between the Ender Crystal and the Ender Dragon) will cause the Ender Dragon to take additional damage instead of being healed.

Once killed, the Ender Dragon will appear to have beams of light spontaneously erupting from its body. It will then explode, dropping enough experience to bring a player from no experience to level 78 (12000 - 10 drops of 1000 experience, one drop of 2000 experience).

It will also spawn an exit portal with a Dragon Egg on top. Entering the portal will activate a text cutscene that lasts for an average of 8 minutes, 30 seconds. After the cutscene, the player will be teleported to their spawn point/Bed in The Overworld. The cutscene can be skipped by pressing the key, (B on Xbox 360 and O on PS3), and will instantly send the player to their spawn point/Bed in The Overworld. The player may return to the End after defeating the Ender Dragon, however there will be no new dragon.

When spawned in the Overworld, using the new /summon command, as of snapshot 13w38c, the Ender Dragon exhibits the same behavior when killed, however, the End Portal spawned leads to the End, where another Ender Dragon still resides, and no text cutscene plays. Also, it seems to orbit around the origin (0 x 0) when not attacking a player. Command: /summon EnderDragon.

The Ender Dragon will only attack the player normally, however it can accidentally attack an Enderman causing it to turn hostile towards the Ender Dragon, chase after it, and attack it, akin to when it is attacked by a player.

On both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 Editions, the Ender Dragon's behavior is slightly different. While flying, the Ender Dragon fires projectiles at the player. After flying for approximately 30 seconds, the Ender Dragon will come down and hover over the unfinished bedrock portal, and remain there for another 30 seconds. The Ender Dragon will spew out "Ender acid" on nearby players, which deals damage. Players may continually strike it with a weapon at this time. The Ender Dragon also fights Endermen during this time, implying the reason for returning to the "nest" is to stop the growing clusters of Endermen from stealing the egg.

Enderdragon Strategy
The Ender Dragon's most common strategy is to attempt to charge the character. The Ender Dragon can also be healed by Ender Crystals as mentioned before and will not be damaged by water, fire, or lava, unlike the Endermen.

Anti-Enderdragon Strategy
The most common and easiest strategy to defeat the Ender Dragon is to destroy all of the Ender Crystals before attempting to fight the Ender Dragon, as any damage done to the dragon can be quickly undone by the crystals.

After receiving damage, the Ender Dragon will fly away a small distance before charging again. Make usage of this to run back. It's recommended using the bow to damage the Ender Dragon from really long distances, because it will always fly away every time it attempts to attack you.

When the Ender Dragon charges the player, it is directly facing the player. This gives the player a good chance of attacking its head to deal the most damage; attacks that hit any other part of its body cause only one-quarter (plus one point) of their normal damage. If the player decides to attack it, he/she will have less time to try to avoid its attack. The impact of the Ender Dragon's body and wings cause damage to the player, as well as massive knockback. Diamond armor and weapons (preferably all enchanted) are recommended. Because of the Ender Dragon's speed and flight, projectiles are favored over melee approaches. The Ender Dragon's immense health and evasive nature require a large ammunition stockpile or an Infinity-enchanted bow. At least 2 full stacks of arrows are recommended since most will miss.

Lava is useless, as it is immune to fire damage. Water is also useless, as it will take no damage from water and will destroy the source block; however, it can be used to make a "safe zone" which Endermen will teleport out of. Knockback enchantments are useless unless the enchantment is on grade 8 or higher (this is possible in SMP with modifications). Snowballs have the potential to stun-lock an Ender Dragon as its recovery time is slower than the firing rate of snowballs. Due to a quirk of how it reduces damage taken, snowballs and other projectiles, such as Ender Pearls and Eggs, that normally cause no damage to entities will deal one point of damage to the Ender Dragon. Beds, which explode in the End, can be detonated when the Ender Dragon is nearby, causing considerable damage to it. Snow and iron golems are some what ineffective and rarely attack the dragon if at all.

Negative splash potions do not seem to affect the Ender Dragon. The potion hits and detonates as per normal, but the dragon does not flash red like when hurt and no apparent effect is seen on it. (Tested in SSP, and with Splash Potions of Poison, Instant Harming, Slowness and Weakness.)

To avoid fighting the Endermen, do not look at them with your crosshair. Alternatively, equip a pumpkin in the head gear slot which covers up your cross hair allowing you to look where ever you want. This strategy's downfall is that it obstructs your vision making it hard to keep an eye on the dragon. Invisibility will also prevent aggression by Endermen. However, since you have to remove your armor in order for invisibility to be effective, and the Ender Dragon itself ignores invisibility, this is a dangerous strategy. A large force of snow golems can serve as a distraction for the surrounding endermen: the sheer amount of snowballs fired at them will make them teleport constantly, lessening their threat potential. The Ender Dragon may kill or knock back many of them, so a large army and replacement golems are recommended if this strategy is used. Iron golems can also be used in the same way, and as a bonus actually kill endermen instead of making them teleport; however, they are much more expensive and hard to replace if knocked back or killed.

Cheating Crystal Strategy
If cheats are enabled, you may use the /gamemode 1 command to switch into Creative, and you can destroy the Ender Crystals. Then get plenty of weapons and armor from the Creative inventory. Wear the armor and prepare for battle. Potions are useless to the dragon (read above). If you do not wish to use this method, then you don't have to. The first few Ender Crystals are reachable by bows, but the last few will be surrounded by iron bar cages. That's why this method is useful for the last few crystals. However, this is considered cheating to some players, as the title says.

Ender Dragon in the Overworld or Nether
Using the summon command or the export-import feature of an external editor like MCEdit, it is possible to place one or multiple Ender Dragons into an Overworld or Nether map.

In the Overworld, the Ender Dragon employs much the same attack strategy, flying and wheeling and recoiling if hit by arrows or snowballs. Generally the Dragon remains above the player, making holes in any hills it may encounter and when charging the player it can plough a track across the terrain launching any mobs or entities it may encounter into the air in much the same manner as when striking the player. If the player retreats underground, the dragon continues to attack, mainly from above the horizontal plane the player is in, and in the process gouging large tunnels through the landscape and doing a lot of damage to the terrain.

In the Nether the effect is much the same. The Ender Dragon carves tunnels through both Netherrack and Nether fortresses, and over time can carve out quite a large volume. If it flies through water or lava, like most other blocks, they are replaced by air and do no apparent damage to the Ender Dragon. In essence, it can pass through the landscape with impunity.

If multiple Ender Dragons are present, only one health bar shows. Only bars within range of the player will show, priority going to the first spawned. For example, spawning one Ender Dragon will show one health bar. When a player moves out of range of the Ender Dragon, the health bar will disappear and another health bar can show, should the player spawn another Ender Dragon. If, then, the second Ender Dragon moves toward the first (and the player along with it), the second one's health bar will be replaced by the first's.

Console Edition
As of the TU9 Update for Xbox 360, the Ender Dragon spits out "Ender Acid". The Ender Acid is purple, much like the particles around the Enderman. They also fire a type of Acid Ball similar to Ghasts, Blazes and Fire Charges, but with a more purple texture, which cannot be deflected. Like the PC version, they can also destroy/grief blocks placed by the player.

Also, instead of the portal being spawned underneath the Ender Dragon's death, it is spawned in the middle of the island as soon as you enter the End. However until the Ender Dragon is defeated, it will remain deactivated, and the Dragon Egg will not be on its podium. Until it has been killed, this is used by the Ender Dragon as a nest, where it will hover over it and attack the player with "ender acid".

One final difference between the Console and PC versions is that some of the Obsidian Pillars have iron bars surrounding the crystal. This prevents the player from shooting it from a distance with a bow, ensuring the player has to climb some of the Pillars.

Video
''Note: The video states the Ender Dragon is the only boss. It was made before the Wither was implemented.''

History
Originally, dragons were a possible planned mob, hinted at by Notch during the Spider Jockey update. He also mentioned that dragon lairs may be an addition. They remained a potential work-in-progress until the Ender Dragon was announced.

Notch has stated in the past that if dragons are added, they will not be mountable as it would put too much pressure on SMP servers.

In September 2011, Notch stated that "dragons will be added eventually."

On October 7, 2011, Notch revealed the existence of the Ender Dragon.

On 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. 

On October 11, 2011 A player named stropping_notch asked Jeb if Dragon riding is an idea, to which he replied it is. It is not clear whether this means it is an idea under consideration or not, however, or whether it would apply to the Red Dragons or the Ender Dragon.

On 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."

On October 12, 2011, Notch stated in a twitter post that "Dragons have 6 limbs", consisting of 2 wings, and 4 legs.

On April 28, 2012, Jeb mentioned that he wouldn't be adding any more boss mobs until he makes the Ender Dragon "more fun first". Despite this, the Wither was added before any major changes were made to the Ender Dragon.

Trivia

 * Name Tags cannot be put on an Ender Dragon.
 * Of the three blocks that the Ender Dragon cannot break (Bedrock, Obsidian, and End Stone), it can only go through End blocks, meaning if you were to make a house out of bedrock or obsidian, the Ender Dragon would not be able to destroy anything placed inside. (Only works on Xbox version. In PC version, it goes through all blocks)
 * Contrary to popular belief, the Ender Dragon cannot be harmed by any mob other than a player or explosions. Therefore, the dragon will never purposely attack another mob, including a Wither.
 * Sword enchantments have NO effect on the Ender Dragon.
 * The Xbox avatar item 'Ender Dragon Pet' has the description 'A cuter, friendlier version of his bigger, less playful Minecraft sister.'- revealing that the Ender Dragon is female.
 * The Ender Dragon has its own separate mob folder containing separate designs: the old gray skin and the newer black skin.
 * The Ender Dragon flies at 10 times the player's normal walking speed.
 * An Ender Dragon's attack can cause Endermen to chase after it and attempt to attack it to no avail, should they survive the devastating attack. This also works with blazes, wolves, and zombie pigmen (only works in creative due to spawn eggs being available to creative only or if you push the mob into the End Portal).
 * The Ender Dragon's hitbox is larger than the Ender Dragon itself, causing players to be pushed away from it.
 * You can get a plain white spawn egg that reads Spawn Ender Dragon by typing /give [player] spawn_egg 1 63, which is the item ID. However, when you try to spawn it, you cannot and it does not really work as anything.
 * As long as the Ender Dragon is alive, the space texture of End Portals, as well as the player's view in the End, will have a slight multicolored static overlay to it.
 * If you go beyond the "island" in the End, the Ender Dragon will constantly attack you instead of circling around before striking.
 * If the Ender Dragon is killed when there is no solid ground below, the portal to the Overworld will appear approximately where the Ender Dragon died.
 * If you spawn the Ender Dragon in a world and turn the difficulty to peaceful, the Dragon will stay and not disappear, but will not be able to hurt player.
 * The Ender Dragon can't destroy Minecarts with Chests, making them a good alternative to store your items while in the End.
 * If you set a Superflat world to the End biome (9), and go to 0,0 either by teleporting or moving there, the Ender Dragon will be there, and killing it will drop a portal to the real End. There will be a separate Ender Dragon in the real End, the same goes for if you use third parties or the /summon command.
 * Ender Dragon makes the same crackling sound as a firework when it dies.
 * The Ender Dragon from the TU9 update is the only version of it that actually has a working projectile.
 * Ender Dragons can push other Ender Dragons around.
 * There is a possible glitch in Version 1.5, where another Ender Dragon can spawn if the player exits the game in Creative while facing the Ender Dragon.
 * Ironically, the Ender Dragon can destroy End Portal Frames (including those with Ender Eyes inserted).
 * If enough damage is dealt, it is possible to kill the dragon without destroying the crystals. However, this is very difficult without mods. If the Ender Dragon dies while near an Ender Crystal, it will still draw a healing beam from the crystal as it slowly disintegrates.

Notch-related trivia

 * The name "Ender Dragon" was first made known through a tweet by Notch reading "raqreqentba", which could be decoded using the ROT13 cypher, translating to "enderdragon".
 * On Reddit, Notch referred to the Ender Dragon as a she, and suggested her name to be "Jean?" in the same manner he called the Player "Steve?".
 * Notch joked about how Minecraft was "going next gen" when deadmau5 mentioned this.
 * Before it was textured, Notch reported that he was afraid to texture it 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.
 * In terms of how difficult the Ender Dragon is to defeat, Notch tweeted that his design guideline for the dragon is " [If] I can beat it at all, it's too easy."
 * Notch has uploaded a video showing why Ender Dragons will not spawn in the main world, as they would destroy any block they come into contact with.
 * On Reddit, Notch explained why Ender Dragons destroy matter.