Tutorial:Defeating the wither

The wither is one of the two bosses in Minecraft, along with the ender dragon. Defeating the wither drops the main ingredient in a beacon, the Nether star. This tutorial teaches you how to summon and defeat this formidable enemy.

In order to spawn the wither, you need to acquire three wither skeleton skulls. These are acquired by killing wither skeletons. In order to maximize your chances of acquiring wither skeleton skulls, it's recommended that you carry a sword with Looting on it. A sword enchanted with Looting III will increase the drop chance from 2.5% to 5.5%‌^{[JE only]}/8.5%‌^{[BE only]}, but you still may have to kill dozens of wither skeletons to get three of them. However, the only other ingredient needed to build the wither is soul sand or soul soil, which are both very abundant in soul sand valleys.

Alternatively, charged creepers can be used to kill a wither skeleton and recover their skull every time. During a thunderstorm, with a trident enchanted with Channeling, charged creepers can be created by striking a regular creeper using the trident. By setting up a Nether portal, you can lead a wither skeleton from a Nether fortress into the Overworld, charge a creeper, and have the charged creeper's explosion kill the wither skeleton. If you're playing Java Edition, Keep in mind that each charged creeper only causes one skull to drop, regardless of how many wither skeletons it kills, meaning you'll need at least 3 charged creepers to get 3 skulls; this is not an issue for Bedrock Edition. It's recommended to either do this far away from home, or if you are confident, to protect the terrain using obsidian or water, since the charged explosion causes a lot of damage to surroundings. A creeper's detonation can be forced with flint and steel. The average storm lasts 0.5 – 1 Minecraft day (5 – 10 min), and there is a 0.5 to 7.5 Minecraft day delay between thunderstorms (5 – 150 min). If the thunderstorm is too short for you, you can create a lot of charged creepers in one thunderstorm, keeping them persistent with name tags, and do the detonations whenever you want.

If you are fighting the wither on Bedrock Edition, it will summon wither skeletons when it gets below half health. If you are lucky enough, the spawned wither skeletons may drop their skulls, making it easier to summon another wither.

In order to spawn the wither, build a T-shape using your four blocks of soul sand or soul soil, and place a wither skeleton skull on top of each soul block. This configuration is pictured on the right. Note that the left and right of the bottom soul block must be air, and the last block placed must be one of the wither skeleton skulls, either by a player or a dispenser.

This method is the most common way to fight the wither. While this way is not recommended due to its difficulty, this method is common among players who don't know about more advanced strategies for killing the wither, or who want more of a challenge. It involves preparing a lot of late-game gear and materials in order to beat the wither in a fair fight.

There are many ways to fight the wither. The preparation you need to do to fight the wither depends largely on player skill and what equipment the player has. Because the wither is an undead mob, it is affected by the Smite enchantment and takes damage from healing potions. Here's a list of equipment a player should choose to bring to the fight:

Note that you will not need to bring every single optional item listed here into the battle; you should only bring which fits you and the fight the most.

If you are playing in Bedrock Edition, this may not be enough, as the wither has up to double the health, spawns wither skeletons on half health and can use the deadly Dash Attack.

Once you have obtained the skulls and prepared your equipment, the next step is to choose a place to fight. Each dimension and location has its own advantages and risks, so pick one that suits best to your abilities and gear. Additionally, you should choose areas that are reasonably distanced from your important locations to prevent having the wither destroy them.

The Overworld is vast, and has many types of terrain which may or may not be benefical for players. Some to be avoided are mountain peaks, swamps, oceans, or forests, which limit mobility and makes the player more vulnerable to falls or wither skulls. Flat terrains like plains or deserts are better for dodging attacks, while underground caves limit both the player and the wither's movements, allowing the player to attack it more efficiently. You can also make artificial terrain, like a long straight tunnel, which also prevents the wither's irregular movements and allows you to block the tunnel or quickly return to a safe location for healing and eating food.

Regardless of what terrain you choose, it is recommended that you have experience of the place; either by prior exploration or a quick scout before the fight. Patching holes with hard blocks like cobblestone or obsidian protects players from fatal falls, and placing torches prevents hostile mob spawns. Be careful of seemingly harmless elements which can prove detrimental like lava pools, which can burn you to death, or cactus, which can destroy even your netherite items.

The Nether is unforgiving and full of fatal hazards that even the most experienced players will have a hard time fighting a wither in. It is heavily discouraged to fight here, as players will easily get killed from falling onto either the lava sea or the ground, digging into lava pockets or tall caves, with items likely burned (except for netherite-tier items) and destroyed terrain that makes subsequent exploration much more dangerous, if not borderline impossible. One advantage of battling in the Nether is that nearby piglins will automatically attack the wither, which may assist you in taking it down.

If the fight must be in the Nether, it is a good idea to pick flat terrain. Soul sand valleys comprise blocks that slow the player, basalt deltas have difficult topography, and the crimson forest and warped forest have trees (though the latter has no hostile mobs besides endermen.) The location ought to be on thick platforms, or in a perfect scenario, flat terrain with no lava sea underneath. It is helpful, but not needed, to have your location far away from a Nether fortress to avoid unexpected attacks from blazes and wither skeletons.

Similarly, it is recommended that you modify the place to make it safer and have prior experience to help you fight the wither. It is also important that you have Feather Falling IV on your boots and two or three potions of Fire Resistance to help you through fall and fire hazards. Soul Speed on boots is also needed if you fight it in a soul sand valley biome.

Additionally, above the Nether's bedrock ceiling is a vast flat space, which is perfect for a wither fight‌^{[Java Edition only]}. In Bedrock Edition, you cannot place blocks up there, so the wither cannot be spawned if you decide to go there. The bedrock ceiling and floor is also useful for other wither killing methods, described below.

The End is a moderately safe place to fight a wither in. With End stone, which is hard enough to not break from black wither skulls, and flat terrain, it’s generally favorable for mobility. However, the End also has a large open access to the void, which is fatal to anything that falls in, including all of the player's dropped equipment and items. It is recommended that you find a large island to minimize any risk of falling to your death. Be aware that you cannot set a respawn point in the End, though a bed just outside the portal could work.

Similarly to the first two dimensions, patch up holes in the ground that could make you fall through. If you can, place some torches to prevent endermen from spawning.

Furthermore, the central island has multiple end spikes that can be used for easy sources of obsidian. Using the wither's block-breaking attacks, it is much quicker to gather them rather than mining them manually. Be mindful about your health and armor durability when obtaining obsidian this way, as the player will take much more damage from the wither skulls, and suffer even more damage with the wither's explosion at half health.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Once you pick a spot to fight, you should build a small base to serve as a healing spot, or a respawn point if you die. You should build the base out of obsidian or crying obsidian. Even though the wither can sometimes break these blocks, it can do so only with its blue skull. The common black skulls cannot break them, so they are the best block to use. Build the base in an open area, so that you can hide behind it if needed. Make the only entrance to the base narrow enough so that the wither cannot enter it. Make it one block wide and two blocks tall, just enough for you to fit through. A narrower entrance may also prevent the wither from shooting you through the door. The base can have three or more obsidian layers for extra insurance in case the wither fires its blue skulls.

Notes:

• For most bows and swords, a Tier IV or V Enchant is better than a Tier III Enchant of a higher category. For example, a Sharpness V sword is better than a Smite III sword. Another example would be an Infinity bow being more useful than a Power I bow.

Before fighting the wither, double check your location, terrain, equipments and general preparation. It is not advised to summon it if you have not done this check, as this may result in missing important items and dying to the wither in order to return to your base.

The remaining of this section is divided into two parts, one for fighting the wither in Java Edition and one for Bedrock Edition as it is considerably different and more difficult in the latter.

Start by building the wither spawning formation but leave one wither skull. After that, consume your long duration potions and food (like potions of Strength, golden apples or possibly even enchanted golden apples). Ensure your health, hunger and armor durability are at the maximum before you fight the wither. Filling your hidden saturation bar is useful too, as it heals your health very quickly and increases the time before you have to eat again.

Once ready, place the last skull. The wither will spawn immediately and starts its on-spawn animation. Run away from it until you are at least 16 blocks far from the wither, if not, raise your shield at the wither to block the incoming explosion. Failing to do either will result in massive damage taken and likely will kill the player.

After the explosion, the wither will now be hostile to any mobs nearby and most likely the player. If it is not, attack it so it targets you. Use your bow to attack the wither (or a sword if you can reach it), while moving around to dodge some of the wither skulls which would deal more damage and inflict the Wither effect if directly hit. Take note of your health, hunger and surrounding terrain every so often, and eat your foods at every possible opportunities as it is a powerful regeneration source. Heal yourself with golden apples when your health dropped to around half or more, and splash yourself with potions of healing when you are critically low. Do not leave your health unattended; the wither effect makes it much harder to check your health so you may miss critical moments when you need healing or shelter. Make sure to avoid leaving familiar terrain as it will result in undesired falls and burns.

When it reaches half health and activates its wither armor, quickly attack it by your sword so it drops well below that threshold, preventing it from regenerating above 50% health and hover above your reach again. Start using your sword and land as many critical hits as you can, all the while taking even more care about your health and hunger, as you will take more damage from direct skull hits. Keep attacking the wither and heal yourself until it dies.

Start by building the wither in your chosen location, except for one skull. Drink or splash long duration potions, fill your hunger bar with something like steak or golden carrots, make sure you're ready, and place the final skull.

Back away from the wither as it spawns; the explosion can easily kill an unprepared player. The wither will fire 3 black skulls and 1 blue skull at you for each spot it moves to; count them and dodge accordingly. Shoot at the wither with your ranged weapon of choice; climbing up to it for melee attacks is ill-advised at this stage. Be sure to trigger its second phase from a distance, as it'll explode again.

It will tunnel deep down into the ground when it enters its second phase, and you can either chase after it or just wait for it to come back to the surface. If you brought a Strength II potion, you'll want to use it at this point. When it has the wither armor, it cannot be damaged by ranged attacks and should instead be attacked in melee. If you're taking too much damage while attacking it, retreat and heal --though, this is easier said than done, as the wither has a dash attack that lets it break through most blocks and deal high damages.

The wither should die fairly quickly once you're hitting it in melee.

Another way to kill the wither is described below.

Spawn the wither, and quickly run away as far as possible, putting a large distance between the player and the wither. Do not stand near the wither when it is growing into its normal size. It will create a massive explosion when it is finished, instantly killing any unsuspecting players nearby. The explosion is larger than that of TNT or even a charged creeper.

After the initial explosion, walk back and shoot at the wither, occasionally use the Instant Health II splash potions and eat the golden apples. When the wither drops to 50% health, use the Strength II potion and hit the wither with your sword until the wither is defeated. This is a very effective way to beat the wither, defeating it in less than five minutes with not too much struggle.

In Bedrock Edition, you want to be careful once the wither drops down to half health; it makes a charged-creeper-like shield and summons 1-3 wither skeletons. You also want to avoid getting directly hit by skulls as much as possible.

An easy, albeit risky way of killing the wither on Hard difficulty without armor is to have an enchanted diamond sword (Smite V), a potion of Strength II, a potion of Night Vision (optional), an enchanted golden apple, a shield, and a bucket of milk. Go underground at least 20 blocks below surface and dig a room 3 blocks high by 4 wide and 10 long, and build a 2×2 stone wall about 5 blocks away from one end. Drink a Strength II potion and spawn the wither at one end then hide behind the 2×2 wall. When the wither is nearly spawned, eat an enchanted golden apple and switch the hotbar selection to sword and block with a shield for the initial explosion. Run at the wither and hack it to death; it should die in about 10 hits (20 hits for Bedrock Edition) if the player gets some critical hits. Make sure the player kills the wither within the 30 seconds of Regeneration from the apple. As soon as the wither is dead, drink the milk to cure the wither effect.

Have some cobblestone in your hotbar so the player can pillar upward if the wither gets out of reach.

You can also bring to battle a power IV or V bow to attack it until it activates its wither armor.

This is not an effective strategy in Bedrock Edition, as the wither explodes when entering its second phase.

To use snow golems most effectively to beat the wither, dig out a 10×10×3 room with walls from obsidian and spawn 30 or more snow golems. The golems act as a target for the wither, as well as knocking it back. Accompany this with the best sword, preferably with the Smite enchantment, armor, and potions, and the player can kill it in under a minute while taking little or no damage. Keep in mind that this will not work in the Nether, because the snow golems will melt.

This is not an effective strategy in Bedrock Edition.^[verify]

A tactic that is relatively easy to pull off is to dig down near bedrock, and dig a long 1×2 tunnel (longer than 30 blocks). At the end of the tunnel, construct a small room. Spawn the wither in this room, then run back into the tunnel. Occasionally pop out and shoot an arrow or two at the wither. As the wither crunches its way toward the player, just walk backward through the tunnel. Once the wither has reached its "armor" stage, jump out and begin hitting it with a diamond sword. As long as the player frequently throws down splash potions of instant healing, the player should be able to survive even with iron armor.

A somewhat more complicated yet very enjoyable variant of this tunnel strategy is to rig the tunnel the player have constructed with TNT. The player could, for instance, build a tunnel as illustrated by the figure above; the idea behind this is that the player can anticipate when the boss will crunch his way to a point sufficiently close to a pair of TNT blocks the player has placed, and if they are accurate, they can have the TNT explode at that very instant, dealing a lot of damage. Be sure not to place the first pair of TNT right next to the room in which the player will spawn the wither, as the initial explosion would just destroy these. The drawbacks of this strategy are that it can be difficult to tell when to ignite the TNT; if the player is too fast, the TNT will not have the desired effect. If the player is too slow, the wither will simply destroy the TNT prior to its detonation. In addition, the player might need a lot of TNT to completely kill the wither, and thus they will have to dig out a long tunnel. Therefore, it is strongly advised that the player to use a bow and a sword when the "armor" stage has been reached in the sections of the tunnel where there's no TNT to do the hard work. Also, if the player doesn't have enough TNT, be sure to dig out an extra tunnel as an extension of the TNT-triggered one, so as to finish the wither off with arrows or swords should needs be.

A very easy method is to spawn the wither, push its head in a bedrock ceiling in the Nether, then kill it. The player needs only an axe, lever, and piston.

1. Find a 3×3 bedrock field in the ceiling of the Nether with an air pocket above the center block.
2. Go 2 blocks down and place a block of obsidian.
3. Place the spawning blocks sideways with the bottom of the soul sand "T" on the obsidian block.
4. Kill the wither.

Note: This technique along with others in this wiki are shown in this video for Java Edition 1.16

The best way to find this situation is getting to the top of the Nether, but is dangerous as the Nether has random lava source blocks scattered in the netherrack. More information can be found in this video:

Another alternative is to use the end exit portal to trap the wither:

1. Make sure there is a 2-block high gap between the bottom of the exit portal and the end island. This can be done either by digging or by placing blocks.
2. Find the block on the floor that is in line with the central axis of the portal and mark it.
3. Spawn the wither by placing the blocks on the floor, and make sure that the soul sand "tail" block is directly above the marked block, otherwise the wither will go to the Overworld and wreak havoc there.
4. Run away more than 14 blocks to prevent the explosion on creation from damaging the player.
5. Kill the wither.

Note: More information can be found in this video:

A more advanced tactic that is very rewarding would be to construct a cobblestone generator-powered grid above the player, spawn the wither about 15 blocks away, and stand under the grid. The wither will fly toward the player, but it would be kept at the edge of the grid, constantly being pushed back by the cobblestone which is generating faster than what the wither can break. This allows the player to stand still and shoot the wither without retaliation, until the wither is at half health, where it will fly toward the player through the grid, allowing the player to easily kill the wither with a sword. In addition to that, the player can rig dispensers about 15 blocks away to periodically shoot splash potions of health, which heal the player and damage the wither.

It is also possible to kill the wither by summoning it in a small obsidian chamber. When it escapes, have several people fire bows at it from all directions. This negates its explosion and forces it to attack one target at a time.

This method is extremely quick. Firstly, dig straight down about 14 blocks where you will most likely be surrounded by stone (high blast resistant block). Then dig a 3 by 1 by 3 space in front of you and place a block on top of you. Spawn the wither horizontally in the space and wait. Once it is spawned, time the sword hit so that it gets hurt right after its damage immunity ends, if the player hits it too late, the wither will break the block above and kill the player.

This method is easy to pull off in Bedrock Edition, where the withers can't be immobilized by pushing it into bedrock. It works by getting the wither up into an uneven bedrock ceiling, where it cannot hit the player, but they can hit the wither. This method is much easier than a regular wither fight, and you can do it even without potions or apples.

To pull this off, go to the Nether and dig up into netherrack until you start seeing bedrock. The player want to be 2 levels down from the first layer that has bedrock blocks (Y level 121). Dig out a 3×3×3 room for the wither to spawn in, as well as a 1-block wide 2-block high tunnel for you to hide in while waiting for the wither to grow. A tunnel of about 40 blocks deep should do. Now, spawn the wither in the 3×3 room, and run into the tunnel until the player is 15 blocks away. After the explosion, it is likely that the wither will be floating up into the uneven bedrock ceiling. The player should be able to get a vantage point where they can shoot it with arrows until it drops to half health. At this point, it is possible that the wither may hit the player occasionally with a skull, but ideally it is trying to fire at you through bedrock blocks and thus not able to get you. If they get hit, retreat a little and heal. Most importantly, try to stay on the same level that they started out with, because if you have descent too far, the wither will do so as well and there will be no more bedrock blocks to block the skulls it fires.

Once the wither has dropped to half health, try to get close enough such that you can sneak in hits with a sword. Here too the wither should be trying to fire directly at the player, with bedrock blocks between them and the wither. Try to hit its tail. This will trigger an animation where the wither won't shoot, and the tail ends up being in the same location again. You can hit it over and over until it's dead.

On Bedrock Edition, there are specific locations in the bedrock floor that are both shared across worlds and allow a player to easily suffocate withers. These locations are surprisingly common and occur in both the Overworld and Nether. However, most locations that can be found manually are sub-optimal because they do not have enough bedrock to fully contain the wither and flying wither skulls. Instead of searching for locations manually, players can rely on lists of known locations of safe wither killers. This works on Bedrock Edition because the height of floor bedrock at a location depends on dimension and biome, but not world seed.

For example, if coordinate X=-1069, Z=2099 in the Overworld is not near a desert or a beach, it can be used to safely kill large quantities of withers in rapid succession. To use this location dig down to Y=-62, and dig two blocks north such that you create at least a 1x3x1 pocket. Then place one soul sand block at X=-1069, Y=-61, Z=2097, and three soul sand blocks at X=-1069, Y=-62 to -60, and Z=2098. This will form a rotated, T-shaped body of your wither. Then place wither skeleton skulls at X=-1069, Y=-62 to -60, and Z=2099. When the last skull is place, the wither will spawn at X=-1065, Y=-62, Z=2100 and suffocate in the cross of bedrock that is there. You do not need to wait for one wither to finish spawning or dying before spawning the next one, and this process can be repeated in rapid succession. With a little bit of experience, you can produce a stack of Nether stars every 10 to 15 minutes.

Nether stars do not despawn and cannot be damaged by withers. They can be collected after all withers have finished dying. Most Nether stars can be found on top of the bedrock cross where the wither spawns, but some of them will move around, especially when spawning many withers at a time. If some Nether stars cannot be found, check around the bedrock cross, especially in any 2 or 3 deep holes.

The first video explains bedrock generation, how natural wither killers work, and how to use them as a player. It also provides the coordinates of over a hundred usable locations. While not every location will exist on a specific world, most locations will and any player can find one that works.

This second video is a followup that demonstrates how to spawn multiple withers in rapid succession and provides the coordinates of additional locations that work for high-volume Nether star production.

This method allows for suffocation of withers without actually using any weapons. It does require that the player have defeated the Ender Dragon, and have access to an outer End City island with an alternate way back to the main End Island.

Previously, the player could destroy the end gateway using a dispenser with a water bucket, but the player now needs to summon a non-trapped wither. In addition, the player no longer obtains the End gateway block.

This method utilizes the underside of the main end portal in the End to suffocate the wither. It requires that the player has killed the Ender Dragon.

Dig out a 5×5×2 hole underneath the bedrock of the End portal. Make sure to leave a staircase to exit easily. Replace the exact center 3×3 area 3 blocks underneath the bedrock with obsidian. This is very important, as if it is not the center of where the portal is, the wither can escape the portal and start blasting the endermen. Place soul sand on top of the center obsidian block, and place three more soul sand on any side of the obsidian. Place three wither skeleton skulls on the side of the 3 soul sand, and the wither will spawn. Run away to avoid the explosion. After the explosion, you can simply run back and hit the wither with your sword. The wither will be unable to hit you back.

Warning: This is not guaranteed to work, since the wither can escape by going through the End portal. Do this at your own risk.

(Note: This does not work in Bedrock Edition 1.15)

(You can fix this design by making the gap 2 blocks under the portal instead of 3, confirmed in Bedrock Edition 1.16.1)

(This does not work on Minecraft mobile in 1.16.1)

These are strategies made by the community that are shared in this wiki:

(Tested on Java Edition)

What you will need is the following items:

• A bunch of golden apples.
• Netherite armor with Protection IV.
• A sword with Smite (Optional)

When the wither is created, run away from it to avoid the explosion, then wait until the wither pursues you. Then, you can just sit where you are eating golden apples to stop the wither effect. Your netherite armor can almost nullify wither damage, as the skulls will damage the wither itself. If you want to make quicker work of it, then you can use a sword to kill the wither while it has a shield; You should hopefully be able to effortlessly kill the wither in two minutes.

(Tested on Java Edition)

You will need 64 iron blocks, 16 pumpkins, and a pickaxe (no armor or weapon needed.)

You need to find a cave, preferably with a dead end, spawn lots of iron golems, then spawn the wither inside of the iron golems. After that you need to run away as to not get killed by the explosions and wait, this method is pretty much risk free, but requires lots of iron. The wither is killed in about 15 seconds using this method.

(Tested on Bedrock Edition 1.18.xx )

You will need at least enchanted iron armor, preferably diamond. A diamond or netherite sword. A bow, and a stack of arrows (unless you have Infinity). A pickaxe for getting underground, and a shield for blocking attacks.

Tunnel down to where stone starts to give way to deepslate, tunnel at least 20 blocks from where you land and carve out a 6×6×6 chamber, here you will spawn the wither. Build the soulsand structure and place two of the skulls. Turn the difficulty to "Easy". Then place the last skull, when the wither is charging, run back to the end of the tunnel, if you cannot get far enough, use the shield to lessen the damage. After it explodes, move towards the wither until you see its tail. Shoot at the wither's tail with your bow as you maintain careful distance, move back in the tunnel if you can. When it has half health, charge at it with your sword and strafe hit so the skulls will not hit you. When the wither's last damage point is depleted, it will explode after several seconds. Move back into your tunnel to avoid this, possibly using your shield if you are too close. Collect the Nether star and return above ground.

Since this involves changing difficulty, this may be frowned upon or not possible on other players' servers. But if you want a Nether star on a single player without much risk (especially on Bedrock, or if you have no prior experience), then this is a considerable option.

(Tested on Bedrock Edition; most likely works on Java)

Bring several milk buckets, golden apples, an Elytra and a stack of fireworks, an enchanted diamond or netherite sword and enchanted diamond or netherite armor. A Riptide Trident may be needed.

1. Equip your Elytra and non-chestplate armor and have everything else in the hotbar.
2. Find a large ocean biome to fight the wither in.
3. Summon the wither on the surface of the water and fly away.
4. After the wither finishes spawning, fly at it with your fireworks and attack using your sword. Remember to drink milk and eat Golden Apples if the wither hits you.
5. Once the wither reaches half health, equip your chestplate and fall back down to the ocean.
6. Hack at the wither with your sword. If the wither uses its dash attack, follow it with your Trident. Repeat until the wither is slain.

(tested on Java Edition)

You will need at least 16 end crystals and obsidian. Having maximum blast protection armor (three pieces of Protection IV and one of Blast Protection IV) is advised. It is much easier to do this method in Easy difficulty rather than Hard, as End crystals' damage to other mobs stay the same regardless of difficulty.

Summon the wither on a bed of obsidian to minimize terrain damage. Once it is summoned, simply crystal the wither until it dies. The crystals will heavily damage the wither, as it flies above them, while it will do heavily reduced damage to you, given that you do not jump onto the same elevation as the crystal itself. To avoid almost all damage from the crystals, stay 2 blocks below them and place them by aiming at the side of the obsidian. Ensure that your crystals explode close enough to deal meaningful damage; because the wither receives knockback from the crystal’s explosion, it is necessary to periodically place obsidian underneath the wither, as the crystals exploded on top will deal far more damage to it than they would if placed elsewhere.

This strategy is more effective if you manage to place and punch the crystal quick enough, as it will increase damage taken before you have to place another obsidian block. It is recommended that you use your keyboard to select the obsidian and End crystal more quickly.

(Bedrock only)

Here's what you need to use this strategy.

• Trident (Impaling IV or V, Loyalty of any kind)
• Protection 4 armor (any armor)
• Food (something like steak)
• Rain (Very important)
• Strength 2 potion (technically not necessary, but it helps a lot)

While it's raining, summon the wither on the surface in a relatively flat and spacious biome (plains or similar). Keep a fair distance and dodge the skulls while throwing your trident at it. Aim for its ribcage. When it goes into its second phase, let it tunnel down and wait for it to come back up. Splash your strength potion and crit it out. On Hard, it'll take 7-8 crits to kill it. On Easy, it'll take 4-5. Tridents in Bedrock are strong; the Impaling enchantment applies to all entities underwater or in rain and deals a ludicrous amount of damage.

1. Mace, density V greatly recommend.
2. A ~70 block tall tower (higher with a lower level of density or if on a non-easy difficulty on bedrock)
3. A way to get up said tower quickly (a bubble column is the simplest), or another player to spawn the wither with you already on top of it.
4. Backup gear in case you don't get the one-shot.
5. Backup saves in case you miss and now have a wither on the loose.

Once you have everything set up, spawn the wither at the base of your tower, scale the tower, and time your jump to hit the wither as soon as it is vulnerable, while dodging the initial explosion. If you hit the wither with your mace before it ascends too high, you can kill it in one hit, but you should still bring decent backup gear in case you hit it after it ascends a bit, and have to finish it off.

This strategy has a few advantages: it requires relatively few resources (getting a mace is a grind, but you don't need good gear besides one), is easy to perform once set up, and gives you the achievement "over-overkill" in addition to all the achievements pertaining to summoning and killing the wither.