Ender pearls are an incredibly useful item in Minecraft that allow players to teleport. Having a good supply of ender pearls is essential for exploring the End dimension, finding strongholds, and avoiding danger. But how many ender pearls should you gather to be prepared? Here are some quick answers to that question:
Quick Answers
- For casual players: 20-30 ender pearls
- For fighting the Ender Dragon: At least 2 stacks (64 ender pearls)
- For exploring the End Cities: Several stacks (100+ ender pearls)
- For long-distance teleportation: 1+ stack(s)
The number of ender pearls you should get really depends on what you plan to use them for. Casual players that just want a few for emergencies will only need around 20-30 pearls. But for major objectives like the Ender Dragon fight or End exploration, much more is recommended.
Ender Pearls for Casual Use
If you just want some ender pearls available for occasional teleportation or other minor uses, 20-30 pearls is plenty. Here are some examples of casual uses for ender pearls:
- Escaping a dangerous situation like lava or mob ambush
- Quickly descending from a towering build
- Skipping across the tops of trees or other obstacles
- Retrieving distant items
- Short-range teleportation while exploring
For most players’ day-to-day adventures, having around 1-2 stacks of pearls in their inventory is sufficient. You won’t constantly be using them, but it’s good to have some on hand for when you really need them.
Preparing for the Ender Dragon Fight
If you plan to summon and defeat the Ender Dragon, you’re going to want a lot more ender pearls. When fighting the formidable Ender Dragon, ender pearls are extremely helpful for:
- Dodging the dragon’s attacks
- Quickly moving between obsidian pillars
- Teleporting back onto the central island platform
Because the dragon fight requires so much rapid teleportation and evasion, it’s recommended to bring at least 2 full stacks (64) of ender pearls. Having some spare pearls in your Ender chest inventory is also a good idea.
In addition to their tactical use, ender pearls are necessary to locate the End portal and activate the fight in the first place. You’ll need approximately 12 ender pearls to locate the stronghold, then several more to fill and activate the End portal frame.
Summary for the Ender Dragon Fight
- ~12 pearls to locate stronghold
- 12+ pearls to activate end portal
- 2+ stacks for tactical use fighting dragon
- Total: Minimum of 2 stacks (64) recommended
Exploring the End Cities
After defeating the Ender Dragon, epic loot awaits explorers willing to travel to the outer islands of the End dimension. On these islands generate End Cities full of valuable treasures. To reach the End Cities, you’ll need to build long bridges or constantly throw ender pearls.
End cities are often extremely far apart – sometimes over 1000 blocks away from the main island. Trying to bridge these huge distances would take ages. Ender pearls are by far the best method of transportation.
When exploring to loot multiple faraway cities, it’s smart to bring at least a full stack of pearls, or even several stacks. You can easily burn through 50+ pearls just trying to reach one distant island. And if you’re very unlucky, you may occasionally miss your target and lose pearls in the void.
It’s also a good idea to keep spare pearls in shulker boxes, ender chests, or your main inventory. That way you can refill your hotbar if you start to run low while island hopping.
Summary for End Cities
- Bring 1+ stack(s) to start
- Refill from spare supply often
- 100+ pearls recommended
Long-Distance Transportation
Ender pearls can also be utilized for very long distance transportation and teleportation within the overworld. The main limit is render distance – you can only throw an ender pearl as far as you can see.
Some examples of long-range pearl teleportation include:
- Connecting faraway bases/outposts
- Quickly reaching distant biomes
- Teleporting across large ravines or oceans
- Scaling mountains
- Escaping faraway threats
For these types of long distance pearls throws, you’ll want at minimum 1 full stack. But even just 64 pearls may not get you very far if you’re traveling thousands or tens-of-thousands of blocks.
The more distant your destination, the more pearls you should stock up on. For really long journeys across the entirety of a large world, having 10+ stacks of ender pearls is recommended.
With render distances of 16 chunks (256 blocks), you can teleport approximately 1400 blocks in one throw. To travel 10,000 blocks, you would need around 7 stacks, assuming optimal throwing.
Summary for Long-Distance
- 1+ stack for shorter trips
- 10+ stacks optimal for very long journeys
Finding Ender Pearls
Now that you know how many ender pearls you need, where do you get them? Ender pearls can be obtained by:
- Killing Endermen – Endermen have a chance to drop 0-1 pearls upon death. But the drop rates are low, around 10-20%.
- Bartering with Piglins – Piglins will sometimes offer ender pearls in exchange for gold ingots.
- Trading with Cleric Villagers – Cleric villagers have a trade to exchange ender pearls for emeralds.
- Chest Loot – Ender pearls can rarely be found in dungeon, woodland mansion, desert temple, and end city chests.
By far the most reliable renewable source is killing Endermen. But trading with Piglins and Villagers can also yield pearls at a more predictable pace. Below are some estimates on rates from each method:
| Method | Ender Pearls/Hour |
|---|---|
| Killing Endermen | 30-50 |
| Piglin Bartering | 60-100 |
| Cleric Trading | 100-200 |
As you can see, trading with villagers is the fastest method if you have an established village and plenty of emeralds. But killing endermen works decently too.
Tips for Maximizing Ender Pearls
Here are some tips to get ender pearls faster:
- Use looting swords – A looting III sword significantly boosts enderman pearl drop rates.
- Trap endermen – Trapping endermen in boats or minecarts makes killing them faster and safer.
- Find enderman farms – Auto enderman farms provide a constant supply of pearls.
- Cure zombie villagers – Curing zombie villagers provides major discounts on clerics trades.
- Trade in bulk – Trading in larger batches minimizes merchant price increases.
Storing Ender Pearls
Once you’ve built up a large supply of ender pearls, you’ll need a storage system to hold them. Here are some tips for efficiently storing your pearls:
- Ender chests are perfect portable storage for pearls and other valuables.
- Regular chests can store pearls as well, but are less secure.
- Shulker boxes let you transport large stacks of pearls.
- Keep spare pearls in multiple locations for quick refilling.
Ideally have some pearls readily available in your main inventory, while the bulk of your surplus supply goes into secure storage like ender chests.
Farming Ender Pearls
For players looking to build up very large stacks of ender pearls, creating pearl farms is the best approach. Here are some effective designs to farm ender pearls:
Enderman Farm
Enderman farms focus on spawning and killing endermen automatically. Popular designs include enderman towers in the end dimension or overworld enderman farms.
These farms can generate 30-50+ ender pearls per hour when running efficiently. Overnight afking can yield shulker boxes worth of pearls.
Piglin Bartering Farm
Piglin bartering farms automatically trigger piglin gold trades and collect the items. By equipping piglins with gold armor, you can maximize pearl trades.
Well-designed piglin farms can produce 60-100+ pearls per hour. Hopper minecarts under the farm collect all the items.
Villager Trading Hall
Trading halls with many cured clerics allow you to trade for pearls emeralds at high rates. With enough clerics, over 100+ pearls per hour is possible.
Sorting items with water streams makes trading faster. An iron farm provides infinite emeralds for trading.
Overall, a balanced approach is best. Having both an enderman XP farm and villager trading hall ensures a constant abundant supply of ender pearls.
Conclusion
Ender pearls are incredibly useful items for teleportation in Minecraft. The number of pearls you’ll need varies based on your goals:
- Casual players only require around 20-30 pearls.
- Fighting the Ender Dragon takes a minimum of 2 stacks.
- Exploring the End Cities can burn through 100+ pearls.
- Long-distance travel may need 10+ stacks.
Killing Endermen and trading with Piglins/villagers are the main renewable methods to obtain pearls. Creating efficient enderman or piglin farms generates a constant passive supply.
Storing surplus pearls in ender chests or shulker boxes ensures you always have backups. With enough preparation and farming, you’ll never need to worry about running out of those precious ender pearls again!
