Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
(if you want setup info skip towards the end :] Most of this is just context for my own selfish indulgence)
Recently I released a video showing off a potential setup for a 1.12 ssg insta-kill(youtu.be/VMHl0SOFw_0). And while it was good enough for people to hit it, it left a lot to be desired in terms of consistency and speed. Originally I estimated that ~3.8% of dragons would give you enough velocity based on 5000 random end fights that perched and charged within 30 seconds. I then eyeballed that about 50% of those would bonk on terrain and lose the necessary velocity before you could use it. This left a rough 2% estimate of hitting it, but it was also slightly inaccurate
(fwiw, almost exactly 30% of end fights met the 30 second charge restriction, and almost all were insta-perches. Which makes sense, since the 1.12 dragon is so fast that it can get to the 7/8 node faster than it can register the end crystals(which takes 5 seconds). As a result it only rolls a 1/3 to insta-perch since it doesn't think there's any crystals up, similar to how the first holding path only ever routes to the middle nodes. And factoring in 1/8 & other 1/13s, you get ~30%.)
Anyway, while confirming my physics n stuffs, I noticed that the dragon almost always spawns with a yaw of 229.78471. I'm not entirely sure /why/ this is the case or if you can manipulate it, but it seems to come from the fact that it uses world random. Which conveniently gets reset right before dragon spawn if there's end island chunks that need to be generated(smthn smthn end city gen resets world random)(?). Regardless, it's pretty epic cuz it makes the dragon paths a bit more predictable than I assumed. And it actually brings my original setup up to a 5% to get the velocity, ignoring bonks.
And! Speaking of bonks, I took the time to simulate the full client/server physics interaction during the insta-kill. This let me get actual numbers on how often/where the player bonks, and all in all it gave an estimated ~3% chance of that original setup hitting(or maybe a bit higher I forget the exact decimal)
But anyway, now for this setup. It again works by using the end terrain/obsidian pillars to "strategically" slow down different dragons and create hotspots where a tickle spot is more likely to be. So by standing in one spot when the dragon takes off you can set its target to get the right path, and then you can get the best chance of hitting the insta-kill by standing elsewhere in a good hotspot. And using blocks is just the easiest way to align yourself and prevent getting launched by the initial velocity transfer
SETUP INFO!
Pickaxe is kinda required, and you can do the setup up as soon as you want, it's just hard to see. You just can't get much closer without sneaking or dealing with fireballs. All that matters tho is that you stand at (54.3, 59, 38.7)(Y important!) when the dragon takes off, and then move to (56.7, ~, 39.7) to shoot. Y isn't important there, but digging down in that corner is prolly best. This gives you a 7.00% chance of getting close to the tickle spot, and to help avoid bonking/snagging your Z server velocity you also want to place an endstone somewhere (47-55, 60, 39). Technically the lower X the better, but X 50 works fine. This gives you an overall 5.56% chance of getting enough velocity and not bonking, out of 100k end fights that perch and charge within 23 seconds of dragon spawn(vs 3.7% without the end stone). Of course this assumes you shoot tick perfectly(as shown in the vid, Keep in mind this timing is a few ticks later than the first setup cuz the dragon slowed), but again you only lose 9% of your velocity each subsequent tick. So better late than early, but it does get increasingly rarer to hit the later you are. This setup also averages 12.3 seconds from perch leave to death dance(12.2-12.55), vs 13.9(13.75-14.35) for the old setup. (oops the original times I had there were jank sorryyyy)
Anyway that's all for now. Hopefully better/faster setups coming soon, but maybe this can tide you over. I'd wait until I had something better but this is More Dramatic and Also I Felt Bad. I'm also considering looking at 1.9 setups(?) I'm hesitant cuz hunger sucks, but on the other hand there's potential for some silly stuff. It's the only version with the bug that directly ties the dragon's yaw to it's head/neck hitbox heights(they literally use the dragon's yaw in degrees to offset the hitbox y in meters). And since the dragon slows down partly based on those hitboxes, it might not slow down in scenarios where a 1.12 dragon would, or vice verse depending on wherever the head ends up. And since the dragon slowing down is what makes different setups good or bad, that could result in some fun stuff. Of course, I'd actually have to look into it to find out, but that's like the only version difference anyway
also! these %s includes the "backwards dragons," which always fail, and happen 4% of the time
(if you want setup info skip towards the end :] Most of this is just context for my own selfish indulgence)
Recently I released a video showing off a potential setup for a 1.12 ssg insta-kill(youtu.be/VMHl0SOFw_0). And while it was good enough for people to hit it, it left a lot to be desired in terms of consistency and speed. Originally I estimated that ~3.8% of dragons would give you enough velocity based on 5000 random end fights that perched and charged within 30 seconds. I then eyeballed that about 50% of those would bonk on terrain and lose the necessary velocity before you could use it. This left a rough 2% estimate of hitting it, but it was also slightly inaccurate
(fwiw, almost exactly 30% of end fights met the 30 second charge restriction, and almost all were insta-perches. Which makes sense, since the 1.12 dragon is so fast that it can get to the 7/8 node faster than it can register the end crystals(which takes 5 seconds). As a result it only rolls a 1/3 to insta-perch since it doesn't think there's any crystals up, similar to how the first holding path only ever routes to the middle nodes. And factoring in 1/8 & other 1/13s, you get ~30%.)
Anyway, while confirming my physics n stuffs, I noticed that the dragon almost always spawns with a yaw of 229.78471. I'm not entirely sure /why/ this is the case or if you can manipulate it, but it seems to come from the fact that it uses world random. Which conveniently gets reset right before dragon spawn if there's end island chunks that need to be generated(smthn smthn end city gen resets world random)(?). Regardless, it's pretty epic cuz it makes the dragon paths a bit more predictable than I assumed. And it actually brings my original setup up to a 5% to get the velocity, ignoring bonks.
And! Speaking of bonks, I took the time to simulate the full client/server physics interaction during the insta-kill. This let me get actual numbers on how often/where the player bonks, and all in all it gave an estimated ~3% chance of that original setup hitting(or maybe a bit higher I forget the exact decimal)
But anyway, now for this setup. It again works by using the end terrain/obsidian pillars to "strategically" slow down different dragons and create hotspots where a tickle spot is more likely to be. So by standing in one spot when the dragon takes off you can set its target to get the right path, and then you can get the best chance of hitting the insta-kill by standing elsewhere in a good hotspot. And using blocks is just the easiest way to align yourself and prevent getting launched by the initial velocity transfer
SETUP INFO!
Pickaxe is kinda required, and you can do the setup up as soon as you want, it's just hard to see. You just can't get much closer without sneaking or dealing with fireballs. All that matters tho is that you stand at (54.3, 59, 38.7)(Y important!) when the dragon takes off, and then move to (56.7, ~, 39.7) to shoot. Y isn't important there, but digging down in that corner is prolly best. This gives you a 7.00% chance of getting close to the tickle spot, and to help avoid bonking/snagging your Z server velocity you also want to place an endstone somewhere (47-55, 60, 39). Technically the lower X the better, but X 50 works fine. This gives you an overall 5.56% chance of getting enough velocity and not bonking, out of 100k end fights that perch and charge within 23 seconds of dragon spawn(vs 3.7% without the end stone). Of course this assumes you shoot tick perfectly(as shown in the vid, Keep in mind this timing is a few ticks later than the first setup cuz the dragon slowed), but again you only lose 9% of your velocity each subsequent tick. So better late than early, but it does get increasingly rarer to hit the later you are. This setup also averages 12.3 seconds from perch leave to death dance(12.2-12.55), vs 13.9(13.75-14.35) for the old setup. (oops the original times I had there were jank sorryyyy)
Anyway that's all for now. Hopefully better/faster setups coming soon, but maybe this can tide you over. I'd wait until I had something better but this is More Dramatic and Also I Felt Bad. I'm also considering looking at 1.9 setups(?) I'm hesitant cuz hunger sucks, but on the other hand there's potential for some silly stuff. It's the only version with the bug that directly ties the dragon's yaw to it's head/neck hitbox heights(they literally use the dragon's yaw in degrees to offset the hitbox y in meters). And since the dragon slows down partly based on those hitboxes, it might not slow down in scenarios where a 1.12 dragon would, or vice verse depending on wherever the head ends up. And since the dragon slowing down is what makes different setups good or bad, that could result in some fun stuff. Of course, I'd actually have to look into it to find out, but that's like the only version difference anyway
also! these %s includes the "backwards dragons," which always fail, and happen 4% of the time
