Full Version of Minecraft 1.0 is OUT!

Hurray!

On October 18 (Friday), the full version of Minecraft came out! Now I have lots of bragging rights, because I've played through Alpha, Beta, and the full version. :P

They added lots of new things. 1.9 was kinda mixed together with the full version (they're the same thing), so now you can use potions and enchantments. On my server (Yes, I own a server, might do a post about that later on), I have a Sharpness III (extra damage) and Fire Aspect II (sets mobs and players on fire) sword, which is awesome. They also added Nether Fortresses, which are basically strongholds in the nether made of NetherBrick, NetherFence and NetherStairs (new items). They're the only place where you can find Blazes that drop Blaze Rods, an essential ingredient for potion-making and stronghold-finding. They also have Magma Cubes in the Nether, which are basically red slimes that set you on fire. Monsters are now a lot harder- it now takes 1 or 2 more hits with a diamond sword to kill them.

But I haven't gotten to the main attraction- The End. The End, as the name says, is the final piece of the game, and you need to have mastered both the Nether and the Overworld to find it. In strongholds, there is now a mysterious portal. Activate it and go through it, and you shall enter the End, domain of the Endermen and the powerful Ender Dragon. The Ender Dragon is the final boss- beat it, and you will have completed the game. Here's a picture of the Ender Dragon:

The Ender Dragon- Way bigger than you.

The End is made out of EndStone (the ground) and these GIANT obsidian pillars with End Crystals on top of them. 

The Ender Dragon may seem easy to beat- until you realize that those crystals regenerate the dragon's health.

When the Ender Dragon flies past a pillar, a beam of light will shoot out from the crystal towards the dragon and restore it's health. So, before you bring the fight to the dragon, you have to get to the top of every obsidian pillar and break the crystals (You can also shoot the crystals with an arrow). Every once in a while, though, the Ender Dragon will dive towards you, and if you are on a pillar, knock you flying and make you fall to the ground. Once you break every crystal, you can start attacking the dragon. It's almost impossible to hit the dragon with a sword (except when it's diving towards you) so your main weapon will be a bow and STACKS AND STACKS of arrows. The dragon has 100 hearts, so it will take a long time to kill it. When you finally kill it, beams of purple light will shoot out of it and it will disinegrate, leaving behind a dragon egg, a portal back to the real world, and THOUSANDS of experience points. When I beat the Ender Dragon, I collected all the experience and went from level 10 to level 97. When you hit the Dragon Egg, it will teleport- the only way to collect it is to put a torch under the block the egg is on and break the block it's on. Currently, the dragon egg has no use (maybe it'll hatch into a tame baby ender dragon?), but it will most likely have one later on. When you go through the portal, the credits play, along with a poem that makes barely any sense at all. Then you spawn back in the Overworld, and you have beaten the game

Also, moon phases have been added :D

It's been a long time since I first started playing Minecraft (About a year!), and it's come a long way- first the Nether, then dogs, then the Adventure Update, and finally the End. I hope the future updates will be just as amazing.