How to Summon The Wither in Minecraft 1.18

People who think Minecraft isn’t challenging enough haven’t faced the Wither yet! The Wither is a mid-game boss in Minecraft who is undoubtedly the hardest one in the game, even harder than the ender dragon! That might seem like an overstatement, but the Wither really is a devastating foe.

Unlike the ender dragon which is always flying in the end when you reach there, the Wither isn’t floating in your world waiting for you to encounter it. Instead, you have to summon it by building a structure that looks like it. Let's see how we can summon the Wither and we’ll also give you some tips on how to beat it!

Wither boss

The Wither is a three-headed monstrosity that floats in the sky destroying everything in its path. I don’t mean this metaphorically; the Wither shoots heads on the ground that actually destroys blocks in Minecraft, so make sure you are really far away from your base or it’s going to get wrecked.

The Wither when summoned is blueish in color and is frozen for a small amount of time. Then, it explodes and goes on a rampage. It has two phases; the air phase, and the ground phase. 

The air phase comes first. It roams in the air shooting projectiles which gives the player the Wither debuff. The second phase starts when the wither is under half health, then it falls to the ground and continues attacking.

The Wither is so challenging because it inflicts the Wither effect. In addition to that, the Wither, if left alone, will start to regenerate its health. You’ll have to hit it with a bow in the first phase, which can be hard. In the second phase, you can use a sword, but you’re more likely to get hit by the Wither effect and lose health.

How to summon the Wither 

To summon the Wither, you’ll be needing 4 soul sand and 3 Wither skeleton skulls. Then you’ll have to arrange them in a specific arrangement as shown in the image above to summon the three-headed beast. But before you do that, you must collect the skulls and the sand. Head to the nether!

Wither skulls

Wither skeletons are like skeletons but are black in color. Killing them has a chance to drop a skull, but they won’t do so every time. Make sure you’re ready to kill many Wither skeletons as you have to collect not one but three Wither skeleton skulls.

Soul sand

While you’re in the nether, make sure you also grab some soul sand - 4 blocks, to be precise. Soul sand can be found in abundance in the soul sand valley. It can be mined with just a regular shovel. Once you get the soul sand and the skulls, head back to where you want to fight the Wither.

How to kill the Wither

There are two distinct ways to kill the Wither: you either try to beat it as the game intended, or you can cheese it. If you want a real challenge and want to have some fun, we recommend you just summon the wither in the open in a plains biome. 

To cheese the Wither, simply build a long tunnel underground. Then summon the wither in the tunnel. As the Wither approaches you, keep moving back in the tunnel and simultaneously shooting with your bow. The Wither will be dead in no time, with nowhere to hide.