Minecraft Mobs Explained: Enderman

They’re scary, they’re tall, you better not look at them. The teleporting enemies known as Endermen in Minecraft are no easy fight and can be quite difficult to understand. Here are some tips on how to deal with Endermen. 

Pulling Some Inspiration

With the large craze of Parsec Production’s 2012 smash hit game “Slender: The Eight Pages”, you can very easily tell where Notch pulled a large amount of inspiration for his new addition to the Minecraft mob team. With various nods to the Slenderman, the Enderman creates a suspenseful experience. As Halloween rolled around, Mojang’s Xbox 360 Edition of Minecraft attained a texture pack where the Enderman had been redesigned to appear as if he was the Slenderman.

Biology

Endermen are commonly found spawning on blocks at a light level of less than 8. In the Overworld of Minecraft, you will find Endermen spawn in hauntings of anywhere from 1 to 4 Endermen. However, in the home dimension of the Endermen, The End, they will spawn in Hauntings of 4. Endermen spawn at much lesser of a percent rate than other mobs. It’s definitely more of a challenge to find an Enderman versus a mob like a Skeleton.  

Staring Contest

For a player to provoke an Enderman, the player must stare directly at the upper body of the mob or attack it. This will cause the Enderman to become angry, staring at the player. If the player breaks eye contact with the Enderman, the Enderman will begin teleporting around until close enough to attack the player. If a player does not act quickly enough in killing the mob, the Enderman will teleport again to create confusion in the player and to potentially get a sneak attack. Enderman will not stop attacking the player unless they are killed, hit by rain, notice the sun is coming up, burned by a fire, or if they are hit several times and admit defeat.

If you are afraid to make eye contact with an Enderman, try placing a Pumpkin on your character’s head. Placing a Pumpkin on the head may obstruct your direct vision, but it will guarantee you to not be attacked by Endermen by accidentally staring. Alternatively, you can use an invisibility potion to prevent agitating the Enderman with eye contact.

Reap your Rewards

When an Enderman is killed they will drop various items. Endermen have a chance of dropping anywhere from 0 to 1 Ender Pearls if attacked naturally without Enchantments. They will drop 5 experience when killed by the player and will drop any block they are holding.

In Conclusion

Enderman are a fascinating mob with much more to learn about through actual gameplay. Reading about Enderman versus experiencing these mobs first hand are very different and should be treated as such. Test your might against these large teleporting creatures and learn what makes them tick!