Tutorials/End survival

This tutorial will tell the player how to survive in the End.

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 will likely 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 will generate a maximum of 20, with new ones being created every time a respawned Ender Dragon is killed by the player.

The first dragon will give the most experience to the player, and be the most difficult to defeat. The first dragon can only be defeated with resources the player has brought with them 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:

• eggs and dirt for farming and growing trees (providing building material, charcoal for torches and smelting needs, and much more)

• water buckets for pools to stay safe from endermen, 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 and scaffolding are not renewable in the End 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

 * 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 very 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. Also, they can find purpur-related blocks.
 * 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.
 * 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 very quiet.
 * Finally, The End can be made to be very much 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

 * If the player falls into the Void, they will die and lose all their items.
 * Endermen spawn infinitely; no matter how many they have killed, there will always be 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.
 * Beds and respawn anchors don't work and they will explode and set fire to the area around the player if that player attempts to sleep in one or set their spawnpoint with one.
 * The player might die frequently of fall damage when visiting an end city unless they have boots with Feather Falling, where it is guarded by shulkers.
 * Nether portals don't work in the End.
 * The few players visiting the end often travel many kilometers in search of end cities, and will likely take any loot they find there.

Endermen
Endermen can be very annoying while in the End. 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 with the player. If an enderman tries to attack them, place down the bucket where they are. It should walk into the water and then teleport away. It may also stop attacking them, but even if it doesn't, it will die from the water.

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

The 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 won't be able to find them. Also, underground houses are very 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 will regenerate, which will entirely destroy your base.

Whether building or digging the home, the player will need to 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 end 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 will disappear.

Island outpost
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. The player teleports to this house through the gateway when their health is critical in the process of killing the ender dragon. The difference is that this outpost is intended to have basic renewable resources in or around it, including 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. On one hand there is plenty of building room to be creative with, on the other, it is questionable how much space the player's outpost house needs. A shack no more than 3x3 blocks would likely be good enough.

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 will not land in the portal and get sent to the Overworld world spawn point. After that, do not mine it. If the player does, the egg will teleport away. One way to get the egg is to place a piston facing towards it and activate the piston, causing it to drop as an item. If you make the egg fall onto a torch it will be 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 30x30x15 cube of blocks with the egg in the very middle. You need to tunnel to the very middle 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 will drop. This method is not recommended as it will take many stacks of blocks.

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.

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 only 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.

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 will 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 will need to be pushed or lured through the End portal. The player is advised to block off the return portal, as this will teleport 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 will need to 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 will have to 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 will keep journeying through the void forever unless 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 will 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 availiable 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 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.

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 very easy to make an ender chest for each building or area of the End. To make that many ender chests, the player will need quite a few eyes of ender so don't forget to bring them when they enter the End. The player can also, collect blaze powder from blaze rods from the Nether, since players can combine them with ender pearls from the endermen. But don't forget that ender chests can be destroyed by the ender dragon.