Respawn the Ender Dragon
Bring the Ender Dragon back with four End crystals: what you need, where the crystals go, why it may not start and what a repeat kill drops.
Once the Ender Dragon is dead, you can bring it back for another fight. Place four End crystals around the exit portal in the End, and the game rebuilds the dragon's pillars and spawns a new dragon. This guide covers what you need, where the crystals go, why a respawn sometimes will not start and what a repeat kill gives you.
Checked against Minecraft Java Edition 26.3, October 2026.
What you need
- A dead dragon. The game only starts the sequence after the dragon has been killed once.
- Four End crystals. Each one is crafted from seven glass, an eye of ender and a ghast tear. In the crafting grid the glass fills every slot except the middle one and the one below it. The eye goes in the middle and the tear goes below it.
- Somewhere to stand in the End. The fight only runs while a player is within 192 blocks of the middle of the island.
If you are short of crystals, give some to a player from the Console tab, using their own name. The player has to be online.
give Alex end_crystal 4Place the crystals
- Go to the exit portal, the bedrock structure in the middle of the End island.
- Place one End crystal on each of the four sides of the portal frame, on top of the bedrock. If part of the frame has been destroyed, place obsidian where the bedrock was and put the crystal on that.
- Step back and let it run.
When the fourth crystal goes down, beams shoot from the four crystals to the top of each pillar in turn. Each pillar is rebuilt along with its own crystal. When every pillar is done, the beams swing to a point high above the middle of the island and the dragon appears there.
Breaking any of your four crystals before the dragon appears cancels the respawn.
If it does not start
- The dragon is still alive. The game ignores the crystals until the dragon has been killed.
- One side is missing a crystal. The game looks for a crystal on each of the four sides and does nothing until all four are there.
- A crystal was destroyed mid-sequence. The respawn is cancelled. Place a fresh set of four and start again.
- Nobody is in range. The island is only kept loaded while a player is near it. Stay on the island until the dragon appears.
What a repeat kill gives you
The first dragon drops 12,000 experience points. A respawned dragon drops 500. Each kill adds another End gateway, up to 20 in all, and a new gateway sits 96 blocks from the portal. In Java Edition the dragon egg appears only after the first kill, so a respawned dragon does not give a second one.
On your server
The respawn is part of the game itself, so it needs no setting and no plugin. If your players cannot reach the End at all, it may have been switched off on Paper. Disable the Nether and the End shows where that setting lives. Resetting the whole End dimension is a different job, covered in Reset the Nether and the End.
To hand out gear or crystals before a fight, use give from the Console tab. Use your server console explains how that tab takes commands.
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