What is the strongest mob in Minecraft?

Many Minecraft players consider themselves both fighters and explorers. This mentality in the Minecraft community raises the question - what is the strongest mob to fight in Minecraft?

This has been a long-term question in the Minecraft community, as new mobs and game mechanics are constantly added and updated by developers. Originally the Ender Dragon was by far the strongest mob in Minecraft, but with new updates, mods, and spawnable mobs, the Ender Dragon may have some competition.

What is the strongest mob in Minecraft?

Defining what makes a mob strong

Two main factors contribute to the strength of a mob. These features are how much health they have and how much damage they inflict on their enemies.

Ender Dragon

Ender Dragon illustration (Image via wallpapercave)

Many players consider the Ender Dragon to be the strongest mob in Minecraft. This is because, for a long time, the Ender Dragon was the strongest and hardest mob to defeat.

The Ender Dragon was the entire purpose of Minecraft, and once players traveled to the end dimension to slay the dragon, the game would theoretically be completed and an end screen monologue would appear to congratulate the player.

But the Ender Dragon is no longer the strongest mob in Minecraft. Other newer mobs rival the dragon's power. The Ender Dragon only has 200 health points, which is less than another mob called the Wither.

The Dragon's attacks

Ender Dragon ready to attack (Image via mcpedb)

The Ender Dragon's attacks are also lackluster compared to other powerful Minecraft mobs. The Ender Dragon has four different attacks: Melee, Wings, Dragon's Breath, and Dragon Fireball.

The Melee does 6 damage points on easy, 10 on normal, and 15 on hard mode. The Wings do 3 damage points on easy, 5 on normal, and 7 on hard. The Dragon's Breath attack does 3 damage points per second. The Dragon's breath can last up to 3 seconds, for a total of 9 damage points, but combined with the dragon's other attacks, these 3 seconds of dragon's breath can be fatal.

The last attack is the dragon fireball, which can inflict 6 damage points per second. The fireballs themselves do no damage to the player and cannot be deflected. When the fireballs hit the ground, they break open into a toxic purple mist.

This purple mist acts as a poison status effect and inflicts 6 damage points per second to players caught in the mist. This purple mist can also be bottled and collected for further player use.

Despite the strength and health points presented by the Ender Dragon, there's one other Minecraft mob that can rival the power of the Ender Dragon. This mob is the Wither.

The Wither

Seconds before death (Image via mokokil)

The Wither is the Ender Dragon's greatest rival. The Wither has two distinct versions - the Minecraft Bedrock Edition one and the Minecraft Java Edition one. Each Wither varies in attack strength and health points.

Attacks

Wither wallpaper (Image via wallpapersafari)

The Wither has quite a few different attacks to harm the player with. These attacks don't vary between the Java and Bedrock versions of the Wither.

The first attack players will see is the Birth Explosion. This explosion happens when the Wither officially spawns into the world. There's usually a few seconds of delay before the Wither creates its massive explosion, and if the player doesn't run far away in those few seconds, they will definitely die from the blast.

This birth explosion doesn't harm any of the blocks around it, but it can definitely harm entities. In easy mode, the birth explosion does 50.5 damage points, 99 on normal, and 148.5 on hard mode. This is well over the amount of damage needed to kill a player instantly.

If the player manages to avoid the Wither birth explosion, they'll then have to avoid the deadly Wither skulls. Wither skulls are small explosive skulls that Withers use to attack players. There are two different types of Wither skulls - the black ones and the blue ones.

Black Wither skulls move fast and have a blast power of 1, which is the same as a Ghast's fireball. Blue Wither skulls move slower and are far more destructive to the terrain. These skulls can break almost any block.

Both skull variants inflict 5 damage points on easy, 8 on normal, and 12 on hard. On normal and hard mode, the Wither skulls also inflict the Wither 2 poison status effect. On normal mode, this lasts for 10 seconds and drains the player's health by 1 heart per second. On hard mode, this lasts for 40 seconds and drains the player's health 1 heart per second. The player will know they have been given the Wither 2 effect when all of their hearts turn black and slowly start to drain.

The Bedrock Version

Blue wither (Image via planetminecraft)

The Bedrock version of the Wither is significantly stronger than both the Ender Dragon and the Wither on the Java Edition.

The Bedrock Edition Wither has 600 health points and can do massive amounts of damage with its attacks. These Withers are not only more difficult to kill, but many players believe they have stronger attacks as well. This may be because, on the Bedrock Edition, the Wither has another attack, called the Dash attack. This attack does up to 15 damage points to players.

Which mob is stronger?

The Ender Dragon mid-death (Image via minecraftforum)

The Wither is a stronger mob than the Ender Dragon. Withers have deadlier attacks and significantly higher health points. They're capable of killing a player within seconds, and most of their attacks are unavoidable. The Ender Dragon, on the other hand, can definitely be beaten, and some players have even mastered this feat.

The mod exception

In Vanilla Minecraft, it's clear that the Wither is the strongest mob, however, many mods add in stronger mobs than the Wither. It's impossible to cover each mod that adds in stronger mobs, but some top pick mods with the strongest mobs found in Minecraft include RLCraft, Twilight Forest, and Mowzie's Mobs.

Each of these mods adds in far more difficult mobs for players to defeat. Some of these mobs are so powerful that players often won't even know what killed them. Any player looking to battle extreme mobs should consider any of the mods listed above and are encouraged to check out other articles about mods for mobs in Minecraft.