-CLICK HERE TO SKIP THE DRAGON GUIDE TO GET TO THE SURVIVAL PART-
(new)The Dragon
Before you jump in to fight the dragon, you might want to prepare. The dragon may not be hard for everyone, but it is better to over-prepare than to under-prepare. This is a sample inventory that works well:
Two of the potions in the first column are 8:00 level 1 swiftness potions, the remaining two in that column and all in the second are 1:30 swiftness 2 potions. The three potions in the third column are 2 minute regeneration potions, and the ones in the fifth and sixth columns are splash instant health 2's.
You'll want to bring an enchanting table and bookcases as well as materials to make tools (the diamond blocks and wood) so you can use the XP from the dragon to get enchanted items (XP is reset any way of traveling back from the End, including the post-dragon portal).
(new)Tips
-Shoot the dragon with the bow as it charges before it hits you as many times as you can, preferably with full strength. When hit, the dragon changes direction, so you can easily avert the dragon without having to run out of the way.
-The sword is not for the dragon. Don't even try to use it as such. It may work some of the time, but fully charged arrows are just about as powerful as a sword, easier to use, and don't require getting too close to the dragon. Then what is it for, you ask? Endermen. If you accidentally look at an endermen, you won't want to have to punch it to death (arrows don't work well on endermen).
You can run, but you can't hide! If you go into the whitestone ground or completely to the underside of the ender world, the dragon will fly right through the ground and get you anyway. The only way you can stop enderdragon attacks is to go so far away from the island that the enderdragon freezes (like all mobs do), but this isn't realistic on survival mode.
Don't get all the XP dropped by the dragon all at the same time. Quickly gather 50 levels worth of XP, set up an enchanting table, enchant something near level 50, get another 50 levels, etc, just make sure you don't take longer than 5 minutes to finish gathering it. Because lower levels require less XP, you will overall get more levels by staging it like that, and since nothing is more than level 50, getting it all at once wastes quite a lot of XP.
If nothing else in the way of potions, bring swiftness potions. Even if you are able to successfully avert endermen attacks and dragon charges, you will find it useful to be able to speedily charge after the dragon and go from pillar to pillar quickly.
Survival After the Dragon's Death
First off, the resources renewable in the End:
-Cobblestone (cobblestone generator, allows for stone tools and sturdy housing)
-Wood and wood products (yes, trees do grow bonemeal-free in the End, in sufficient lighting)
-Torches and charcoal (from burning wood in a furnace)
-Wheat, Pumpkins, and melons (food, snowmen, anti-enderman hats)
-Eggs, feathers and chicken (meat)(from chickens which are from throwing eggs)
-Experience points, from endermen, pigs, and chickens, for enchanting.
-Water, from two sources diagonally placed
-Snow balls and snow blocks (snowmen)
-Porkchops (spawner with silk touch)
-Sugar and bookcases (sugarcane)
-Cacti (make sure to bring sand)
-Lava (a +/empty cube surrounded by 4 source blocks).
Although there is technically a limited supply of whitestone, since experience and tools are renewable, whitestone can be gathered until it all runs out (which would take a very long time).
What you should bring:
-At least one stack of saplings, for variety you might want to bring one of each kind
-A stack or two of eggs (bring to few and you might not get a chicken)
-Some dirt (a fair amount, it isn't renewable but is very useful and isn't consumable)
-Two buckets of water (or two blocks of ice, which is more compact)
-At least one bucket of lava for a stone generator
-Pumpkin, melon, and wheat seeds
-Both kinds of mushrooms
-Sugarcane
-An enchanting table
-Cacti and some sand
-Snowblocks for snowmen
-Grass and mycelium (silk touch)
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Optional, but quite useful, things to bring:
-Some tools to start off (if you have the silk touch pickaxe you used to get grass, pig spawners, and so on, you might want to bring it, since it will take a while before you can get another enchanted in the End)
-A number of pistons and redstone pieces (necessary for a lot of contraptions that will make your life easier by allowing for functional enderman farms, better cobblestone generators, and more). You can also try bringing iron blocks and redstone ore instead, then just assembling the pistons there, to get a lot more out of your inventory.
-Materials to make rails and minecarts (iron blocks, perhaps a stack of gold blocks, and redstone), for transportation and for enderman traps and grinders.
Now, some other tips:
Bring LOTS of dirt. Its not renewable and your life practically depends on it. Dirt is almost the most useful thing in your home (far) away from home for crops (you can hardly survive without the food) and wood (for making just about everything you need or want to break the monotony). Remember, bonemeal is non-renewable in the End. To sustain your self on crops and wood, you're going to need more than a few blocks of dirt for each.
-Have a simple plan. No, I don't mean carefully mapping out your buildings, counting blocks, etc, but just figure out a few things first. For example, whether you want to start underground, build a house out of wood above ground, whether you plan on bringing aesthetic blocks such as wool or if you want to maximize your inventory space for useful things.
Do you want to start underground? Make sure to bring a sturdy pickaxe and, if you want the whitestone instead of tons of cobblestone, make sure to enchant it. It might be worth your inventory space to bring a single slot's worth of diamond or iron blocks (depending, of course, upon your budget) to get your base started smoothly until you run out. Also, note that whitestone takes a long time to mine. But you'll also want to note that
What about aboveground? You might want to bring a couple stacks of blocks to get you started, or you may prefer to build using dirt and later recycle it for use towards crops, replacing it with a sturdier material. If you brought iron, gold, or diamond blocks, you can use those and replace them to use the blocks for other things.
Make sure you are using the most compact method of bringing materials. You can bring blocks of iron, gold, and diamond instead of bringing ingots or gems (or the things they make, such as pistons, rails, and tools, which can be assembled afterwards). If you have a pickaxe with silk touch, I'd highly recommend bringing redstone ore blocks instead of regular redstone, for use in pistons, rails, redstone circuitry, and more. See the next section for a complete list.
Protect your dirt! Dirt is one of the few things endermen can pick up. You'll pay dearly later if you let endermen whittle down your supply of dirt to the point where you have to cut back on growing wood and bookcases (sugarcane) for large projects and instead just support your life through edible crops. How would you go about protecting it, you might ask? There are many solutions available. You may want to uses fences, a wall, a moat, a trench, or just build the farm underground, even if the rest of your base is above ground. Or you could build it in the air or on top of a pillar, that's a possible solution as well!
You may want to drop off some items before you make your last trip. It is entirely possible that you may want to try on a single inventory, and, remember, trying with less is more fun (In my opinion, at least), but if you really want to develop the land and don't care too much for the extra challenge (or if you got bored after the first round with a single inventory) you can bring two inventories or more by dropping off the first load, killing yourself, then coming back.
Tips on compacting your inventory:
-Diamond, iron, and gold blocks instead of ingots: 9 times the amount per slot than ingots and gems.
-Redstone ore blocks instead of redstone dust pieces: I find that redstone runs out extremely quickly for building even simple things like automatic stone generators.
-Ice blocks instead of water buckets: Saves but a single slot, however, that slot can be used for a lot of useful things.
-Bones instead of seeds: doesn't save any space, but you can get seeds from bones as well as flowers and grass for decoration.
-Raw materials(not including the renewable ingredients, you can get those in the End) instead of pistons, rails, and minecarts
A graphic on a possible starting inventory
This is the inventory I brought with me. It's hard to start out with, but it is a good long term combination. I brought the silk touch pick used to mine some of the materials I brought, because the enchantment would take forever to get in the End. See the notes below for further optimizing your inventory.
Notes on this inventory from my experience:
-It would be better to use one lava bucket instead of multiple lava buckets unless you want infinite lava; for the generators, just separate the flows into different units for faster production.
-Since slimeballs have no use other than to put on pistons (and potions), it would be more efficient to bring a stack sticky pistons instead.
-Bringing bones is better than bringing seeds, not only can you get seeds from bones, you can also get giant mushrooms, flowers, and quick trees and wheat early on.
-Obsidian is unnecessary as of now, although it may become useful with dragons.
-Enchanting tables are also unnecessary if you have diamond blocks (because you can get books from sugarcane and obsidian from mining the pillars with a diamond pickaxe).
-Melons can be brought instead of melon seeds to get quick food and seeds.
- A pumpkin can be brought in the helmet slot instead of pumpkin seeds to save an inventory slot.
A Revised Inventory
Based upon my experience, this is is better inventory to bring. It may not be the best for you, your inventory should also be based upon your playing style.
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Anyone want to try to live in the End? See anything useful I'm missing?
If you found this useful, click the +1 at the bottom of the page.
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Take your time. Go enjoy camp.
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I'll just leave this here.
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