How to Get a Nether Star in Minecraft: Beat the Wither

You get a Nether star by killing the Wither. It always drops exactly one, and there’s no other way to get one in survival: no crafting, no trading, no chest loot. Since you build the Wither yourself, the work is all in the preparation.

What you need to summon the Wither

• 3 wither skeleton skulls. These are the hard part.
• 4 blocks of soul sand or soul soil. Both are common in the Nether’s soul sand valleys.

You place the soul sand in a T shape and put the three skulls on top; the last skull placed brings the Wither to life. Our Wither summoning guide shows the exact layout and the mistakes that stop it spawning.

Farming wither skeleton skulls

Wither skeletons only spawn in Nether fortresses. Each one has a 2.5% chance to drop its skull when you kill it. Looting adds 1 percentage point per level, so Looting III gets you 5.5%. That’s still around 18 kills per skull on average, roughly 55 for a full set.

Tips for the hunt:

• Patrol the fortress corridors and walkways, where they spawn most. Clearing other mobs from those halls helps more skeletons spawn.
• Wear a full set of iron or diamond armor and keep milk handy. Their hits give the Wither effect, which drains health.
• A Smite sword kills them quickly, and since they’re tall (almost 2.5 blocks), a 2-block-high tunnel stops them reaching you.

Fighting the Wither

The Wither is one of the toughest fights in the game. It has 300 health in Java and 600 in Bedrock, flies, fires exploding skulls, and gains armor against arrows once its health drops below half. When it spawns it charges up for about 10 seconds and then creates a big explosion, so don’t stand next to it.

What works:

• Fight underground. Summon it in a tunnel deep in the Overworld so it can’t fly away or wreck the surface.
• Bring the right gear. Smite V on a diamond or netherite sword, Protection armor, potions of healing and regeneration, golden apples, and milk to clear the Wither effect.
• Use a bow early, then switch to melee once its armor goes up at half health.

For its full attack patterns and edition differences, read the Wither mob page.

When it dies it explodes one last time and drops the star along with XP. Explosions can’t destroy a Nether star, so the drop survives.

What the star is for

The Nether star has one recipe: the beacon. One star, 5 glass and 3 obsidian make one beacon. Place it on a pyramid of iron, gold, emerald, diamond or netherite blocks and it gives you Haste, Speed, Strength, Regeneration and other permanent effects in a wide range.

Many players kill the Wither once, build one beacon and stop there. Others build a Wither farm for more stars, since soul sand is renewable through piglin bartering. More guides are on the guides hub.