How to Spawn a Wither in Minecraft

The Wither is a terrible and fearsome beast that can only be summoned through the use of rare, arcane items found deep in the Nether. The Wither will destroy everything in its path, but the rewards for defeating it are great. Make sure your finest weapons are close at hand and see Step 1 below to learn how to summon the Wither into your world.

1. Travel to the Nether. In order to find the materials you need, you will need to go to the Nether. This is a very dangerous area, so make sure you are properly prepared to survive while you're gathering what you need. This means having good equipment, plenty of food, and your wits about you.
- See this guide for more information on surviving in the Nether.
- You will not be able to spawn the Wither if you are playing on Peaceful difficulty or have any mods installed.

2. Gather your materials. You will need three Wither Skeleton Skulls and four blocks of Soul Sand.
- Wither Skeletons can only be found in Nether Fortresses, and even then they don't drop very often. Use the "Looting" enchantment to help you gather the three Skulls you need. You will probably need to kill around 100 Wither Skeletons to find the three Skulls.
- Soul Sand can be found in a variety of places in the Nether. Dig it up with a shovel.

3. Prepare for the fight. The battle with the Wither will be a long one, so you'll want to make sure you're prepared. Since the fight can take a while, and may end up underground, it is recommended that you prepare a couple Potions of Night Vision. This is because the Wither will most likely destroy your torches. Potions of Regeneration, Healing, Strength, or Golden Apples (especially enchanted ones) also greatly help.
- It is highly recommended that you have a Diamond Sword with Smite V, Diamond Armor with Protection IV, as well as a Bow enchanted with Power IV or V. It is also recommended to fight the wither in the nether, but in a smaller area. That way, the Wither will not destroy anything of value, as said below.

4. Find a good summoning location. The Wither will destroy every block it touches, and its projectiles also cause explosions. Make sure you don't start the fight near any structures or characters you want to protect.
- If you've beaten the Ender dragon at The End, this may be a good place to summon the Wither. The Wither will focus its attention on the Endermen. You can either let the Wither kill the Endermen indefinitely for a good supply of Ender Pearls, or get the Wither to half health so that it can't fly anymore, allowing the Endermen to finish it off. See Step 8 for more details.

5. Build the base of the model. Create a "T" out of Soul Sand by placing one block on the ground and then three across the top.

6. Place the Skulls on the summoning base. Place the three Wither Skeleton Skulls on top of the Soul Sand "T", one on each block. As soon as you place the last Skull, the Wither will be summoned.
- You cannot use pistons to place the summoning objects, but you can place the skulls with dispensers.

7. Run away! When the Wither first spawns, it will be surrounded by a blue glow and will have half its health. It will grow in size until its health bar reaches maximum, and cannot be damaged yet. Once the Wither reaches its full health, it will explode. You'll want to be a fair distance away when this happens, or you could find yourself dead before the fight even starts.[1]

8. Start the battle. Fighting the Wither is no easy task. Not only is it deceptively fast, but it's pretty much impossible to hide from it as the Wither can and will destroy every block it touches. Pummel the Wither with arrows until it reaches half health. At this point it will activate the Wither Armor which will make it invulnerable to arrows. It will also fly down to your height, so you can start beating it with your sword.
- The Wither has three heads, each of which can attack on its own. The Wither fires Wither Skulls, which will cause an explosion and the Wither effect when you get hit. This will slowly drain your health until you are dead, and turn your hearts black, making it hard to tell how much health you have left. This will also heal the Wither by 2.5 hearts. The Wither will also attack all other mobs except undead mobs, so you can distract it in this way.
- The Wither regenerates 1/2 a heart every second.
- When killed, the Wither drops the Nether Star, an item used in crafting a Beacon, .[2]