Minecraft wiki entry for Defeating_an_End_city, associated text: This is not recommended, as blowing up the city wastes time and important resources, a better way is to collect the resources and important blocks before leaving if you don't want the end city as your base or you already have a base somewhere else. The best way of doing this is blowing the city up with TNT since purpur blocks cannot catch fire. Try to pillar jump to the desired block. place TNT, light up the TNT using flint and steel, and jump down using a water bucket or an ender pearl before it explodes, and pillar jump again to another part of the city. Using an ender pearl might not be a good option as you can land somewhere else and fall down the end city. Keep on blowing up the city until it's gone.