How to summon and beat the Wither in Minecraft

You summon the Wither yourself with 4 Soul Sand and 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls, and it drops the Nether Star you need for a beacon. It is the hardest fight to prepare, not to win: with the right arena and a Smite sword, the 300 health of the Java Edition 26.3 Wither go fast.

Wither Skeletons spawn in Nether fortresses. With cheats on, /locate structure minecraft:fortress gives the nearest one. Each Wither Skeleton killed by a player has a chance to drop its skull:

Their hits inflict the Wither effect, so carry a Milk Bucket. Pick up 4 Soul Sand or Soul Soil in the same trip; any mix of the two works.

• Netherite or diamond armor with Protection.
• A Netherite Sword or Diamond Sword with Smite V: the Wither is undead, so Smite V adds 12.5 damage per hit.
• A Bow with Power for the first phase, and Arrows.
• Golden Apples, a few Milk Buckets against the Wither effect, and food.
• Splash Potions of Healing: healing hurts undead mobs, so they damage the Wither. A Potion of Regeneration and a Potion of Strength help too.

Its skulls hit for 8 damage on Normal and 12 on Hard and inflict Wither II, which drains your health and turns your hearts black:

One second after each hit it takes, the Wither breaks the blocks around its body, and in Java Edition only bedrock and a few technical blocks resist; Obsidian does not stop it. Fight far from anything you built. A long tunnel deep underground works well: the Wither has less room to fly away and stays in sword range. On a server, /gamerule mob_griefing false keeps it from breaking blocks (Bedrock Edition: /gamerule mobgriefing false), but the same rule also stops creepers, endermen and villagers from changing blocks, so turn it back on after the fight.

Stack the Soul Sand in a T: one block on the ground, three in a row on top of it. Put the 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls on the top row, one on each block. The last block you place must be a skull. The two spots on each side of the bottom block must be empty: grass, a flower or a snow layer there stops the summon.

Do this on Easy, Normal or Hard: on Peaceful the Wither vanishes at once.

The new Wither grows for 11 seconds (220 ticks). It cannot be hurt and its health bar fills up. Then it explodes with a power of 7, stronger than TNT, and starts fighting. Run at least 10 blocks away and turn around before the blast.

Above half health the Wither flies around and fires skulls at every living mob that is not undead, you included. Shoot it with the bow, throw Splash Potions of Healing and hit it with the Smite sword whenever it comes close. It heals 1 health per second, so keep up the pressure. With Smite V, a fully charged sword hit does about 19 damage after its 4 armor points: roughly 16 hits for the whole fight in Java Edition.

At 150 health it gets its wither armor: from then on Arrows, thrown Tridents and Wind Charges no longer hurt it. Put the bow away and finish it with the sword, eating Golden Apples and drinking milk between waves of skulls.

Bedrock Edition is tougher. Its Wither has 600 health, and in this second phase it can charge at you and call in Wither Skeletons. Bring more food and potions there, and fight in the open only if you can dodge.

The Wither drops one Nether Star when it dies. In Java Edition the star stays on the ground for 10 minutes and survives explosions, but pick it up right away anyway. Its main use is the Beacon: one star per beacon. More on the boss itself on the Wither page.