How to summon The Wither in Minecraft

Minecraft has quite a few boss mobs that have made their place in the game very well-known to players. The Enderdragon rules over The End, while the Warden haunts anyone who ventures into The Deep Dark. There is only one boss in Minecraft that you must actively summon who can cause widespread destruction around the overworld. Here is how to summon the ever-dangerous Wither in Minecraft.

Related: How to find the Warden in Minecraft

How to find The Wither in Minecraft

To summon The Wither in Minecraft, you need to acquire four Soul Sand/Soil blocks and three Wither Skeleton Skulls. Both items can only be acquired in the Nether. Soul Sand and Soil are scattered randomly throughout the realm, but you can find biomes filled with the stuff. If you find a Nether Fortress, you can grab it underneath Netherwart gardens.

The Wither Skeleton Skulls are what will take the most time for you to acquire. Wither Skeletons appear in Nether Fortresses. When you find them, you need to defeat them for a minuscule chance at the item dropping. You can slightly increase it with the Looting enchantment put on your weapon, but it is still a less than 6% chance of dropping.

When fighting Wither Skeletons, be careful about them touching you. If they damage you, your health bar will go black and slowly drop until you die on top of any damage they deal to you. This is called the Withered effect. If you have a Bucket of Milk on you, you can eliminate the effect.

When you have the four Soul Sand/Soil blocks and three Wither Skeleton Skulls, you are ready to summon The Wither. Be sure you are ready for a fight because this will be challenging. Place your Soul blocks in a T and place the Skulls on top of them. Make sure they are all facing straight forward. The Wither will appear and build up its health before causing an explosion around it and then attacking any players or mobs in the area.

How to kill The Wither in Minecraft

Defeating The Wither will be quite difficult. Whenever it glows blue, it is charging up an explosion. It will fly around and fire explosive skulls at you, so getting close to it can be both challenging and dangerous. We recommend having as good of armor as possible with plenty of enchantments, potions, and healing items on you. Make sure you have a Milk Bucket to get rid of the Withered effect when hit.

If you have enough ammunition, shooting The Wither with arrows can be a good, but drawn out way to defeat it. When it gets in range, hit it with your Sword to do the quickest damage, but be ready to run away for a retaliation attack. If you are able to endure its attacks and defeat it, it will charge up for one more large explosion and always drop a Nether Star for you to use on creating a Beacon.