Enderman (2024)

For the Smash Bros. edition, see Enderman (Super Smash Bros).

An Enderman is a neutralmob with unique teleportation abilities, who will only attack players who look at its eyes or attacked them first. Endermen have long legs and arms, purple eyes, and sometimes it picks up individualblocks and moves them elsewhere. It also emits purple-like particles.

Spawning[]

Endermen spawn inan area with light level 7 or less (11 or less in the End) on any solid surface having at least 3 blocks of empty space above. They spawn in groups up to 4. Endermen and endermites are the only mob that naturally spawn in all 3 dimensions, including Overworld, Nether, and the End.

A group of Endermen is called ahaunting by humans, and an End by Endermen.

Overworld[]

Spawn uncommonly on land and in caves. Up to 4endermenare attempt to spawn at once.

Nether[]

Spawn uncommonly in Nether wastes and soul sand valley, and frequently in the warped forest. They spawn with a single entity per attempt.

The End[]

Spawn commonly in hauntings of up to 4 Endermen, in End islands.

Appearance[]

Endermen are tall, dark, and thin. They have long, skinny legs, long, skinnyarms, pinkish-purpleeyes, and they're about three blocks tall. They emit purple particles, which are the same as those emitted from Ender pearls, End portals, and Nether portals.

Behavior[]

In the Overworld, endermen typically only spawn at night in groups of 1–2, but they can spawn in the Nether at any time of the day. In the End, encountering very large groups of endermen is verycommon. They make strange sounds when idle. Endermen wander and/or teleport around randomly, until a player attacks or "stares" at themfrom up to 64 blocks away. "Staring" at an enderman is defined as aiming the cross-hair at anywhere above the enderman's upper legs.^[1] Once a player looks at an endermanat the right spot, it becomes hostile toward that player (unless the player is wearing a pumpkin on their head).It'll open its mouth and begin emitting a screeching-like noise, and immediately either run or teleport towards the player. An enderman won't be alerted if a player is wearing a carved pumpkin. If stared at in creative mode, it will teleport away and make a trumpet-like sound for 15 seconds.

As of update 1.4.2, an enderman will make a trumpet-like sound for 15 seconds upon being provoked. The sound's similar to a loud running engine, and it's a warning for the player to brace for sudden attacks. Even if the sounds stopped, it doesn't guarantee the enderman's no longer aggressive. It may have teleported far away from a player, or become stuck somewhere (such as a nearby cave). If a player is being attacked by an enderman and at the same time,leaves the world and re-enters, the enderman may become neutral or teleport away. An aggressive enderman will be distracted from attacking a player if it is attacked by another mob or touched by sunlight. However, they won't be distracted by sunlight in 1.14.4. Endermen don't wander in bright areas, and will usually teleport to a cave or other covered location during daytime.

Endermen take damage from water (including rain), fire, or lava, and will teleport away when they take most types of damage. If it's raining, an Enderman will teleport wildly until they teleport to a location where the rain doesn't hit them, such as into a cave, or under a tree. Endermen cannot be hit by any projectile, such as arrows, snowballs, eggs, and splash potions. They will always teleport away immediately before getting hit. However, it is possible in the console versions of Minecraft to hit an enderman with an arrowby aiming slightly above them (this works, because the cross-hair technically is not aimed at them).

Endermen will occasionally pick up blocks at random (even when aggressive), and later place them somewhere else. If an enderman is killed with a block in its hand, it will drop the block, allowing any player to pick it up, though the dead enderman do not visually let go of the block during it's death animation. An enderman can pick up a block from a space of 4x4x3 centered on the enderman, and due to this reason enderman cannot pick a block from a completely flat area. However,it can pick up some unexpected blocks, such as cacti and TNT. This makes endermen especially annoying when near a player's base or near something that is built by a player. It's also not uncommon when players see the parts of a house scattered around. If a Player is wearing a pumpkin, Endermen can sometimes pick it up which means that the player is no longer protected whilst looking at the Enderman.

Endermen will attack Endermites if the Endermitewas spawned from ender pearl teleportation. However, if there is a player nearby, it could attack the player instead even if it is not provoked.

If an enderman attacks a player for an extended period of time and the player is able to stay alive, eventually it will stop attacking, and resume teleporting randomly. Endermen are naturally aggressive to endermites and will attack any in sight, allowing players to create a ender pearl farm by having an Endermite in a minecart on a pillar with a hole underneath it. When the Endermen try to attack it, they will fall to their deaths.

Protection from Endermen[]

There are several ways for a player to protect themselves from endermen:

1. Build "Enderman-proof shelters." Being surrounded by a pool of water or lava is safe, as endermen return to a neutral state once damaged by water or lava.
2. Building a house with a ceiling only two-blocks-tall is also effective, as Endermen require 3 block-tall spaces to fit.
3. Having glass windows in a shelter is also a good idea. Staring at an Endermen through glass will not provoke them, while still allowing the player to easily see outside their shelter.
4. Wearing a pumpkin in the helmet slot will allow a player to freely stare at Endermenwithout provoking them. Unfortunately, wearing one significantly hinders vision. However, pumpkins will not stop Endermen from attacking if they have already been provoked.
5. If an Enderman is already hostile and attacking, standing in a corner could offer some protection, as the Endermanwill be unable to teleport behind the player.
6. If the player is able, theycan build low hanging ceiling that stands two blocks high. Endermen will be unable to enter an area with less than three blocks along the y-axis. This tactic is commonly used when farming Endermen for ender pearls or experience.
7. The best weapon against Endermen is surprisingly not a Netherite Sword, but a bucket of water.
8. Put cobwebs around your base to trap them.

History[]

While still designing endermen, Notch thought they were not "creepy" enough, and wanted to make them significantly scarier. This gave him the idea to implement the staring feature. The idea was that it would add suspense, by forcing the player to continue staring, without breaking eye contact, or they would trigger an attack. The teleport ability was also meant to affect players with unpredictable behavior, adding extra challenge and consequences.^[2]

The enderman was introduced in Beta 1.8 pre-release as part of the Adventure Update.^[3][4] They were able to pick up any block, including bedrock. They had green eyes and emitted black smoke, and had zombie sounds as a placeholder. In the Beta 1.8 demo at PAX, endermen dropped diamonds as a placeholder for ender pearls.

In the release of Beta 1.8, the enderman eye color was changed to purple and they now emit portal particles instead of smoke. At some point between Beta 1.8 and Beta 1.9, endermen were "nerfed" so they could no longer pick up all blocks.

Prior to the first Beta 1.9 pre-release, endermen could be killed with the use of a bow. Since this update, arrows, snowballs, eggs, and negative splash potions will not hit or affect them. They also now teleport away and become neutral if they come in contact with water.

Endermen were modified in Beta 1.9 pre-release 3 to have 20 hearts instead of 10. In Beta 1.9 pre-release 4, they were given their own realm: the End. In 1.0.0 RC1, the zombie sounds were replaced with their own audio scheme.

In 1.7.2, endermen could no longer be provoked by the player in Creative mode. In 1.8 they now walk slightly faster and at one point spawned endermites when they teleported.

In 1.10, endermen can spawn in the Nether and pick up Netherrack.

Endermen were added to the Pocket Edition in Alpha 0.9.0.

Trivia[]

• If an Enderman gets stuck in a cobweb, it cannot teleport away unless an arrow is shot at it, or it comes into contact with water (as both of these always trigger teleportation).
• The exact size of an Endermanis 0.6×0.6×2.9 blocks.
• If an Enderman dies from a cause other than water, and its body falls in water, it will still teleport immediately before death.
• When an Endermangets aggressive, it cannot fit in 3-block spaces because its head is raised.
• If an Enderman picks up a partial block (such as a flower or mushroom), it will appear as if they are floating.

• Endermen were the first three-block-tall mob ever added to Minecraft.
• If Endermengetattacked by the Ender Dragon in the end (not on purpose), they will attack back at it.
• Endermen take less damage from fire and lava than they do from water.
• Endermen were the eleventh mob added to the game, and they were added at the same time as jukeboxes and note blocks.
• Enderman idle noises are actually sound clips of various people saying "Hi," "Hey," "What's up?" "Hello," and "Thank you!" when a player kills the Ender Dragon, all of which are human voices being distorted. On one of the sounds, you can hear a "Look for the eye". Creepy, right?
• When an Enderman has the Invisibility effect, its eyes will still be visible, same goes for all mobs with light colored eyes.
• Endermen is actually inspired by the slenderman creepypasta.
• Endermen is currently theonly mob that can naturally spawn in all 3 dimensions.
• In theory, it is possible for an Endermanto create a Snow Golem if it happens to place two snow blocks on top of one another, and a pumpkin on top of them both. However, the chances of this randomly happening are astronomically unlikely. The same goes for Iron Golems.
• Skeletons can harm Endermenif they happen to step into the path of a fired arrow. This will cause the Enderman to become hostile toward the skeleton.
  • A similar situation can occur in the End, if the Ender Dragon's breath hits an Enderman.
  • Rarely, it can also occur in the Nether, with a ghast or blaze's fireball.
• Endermen will always drop ender pearls when killed by an Iron Golem.
• Endermen see the world in inverted colors, which can be observed by using Spectator Mode on one (currently only possible in the Java Edition). For example, to an Enderman, the End has a light-colored sky, white obsidian pillars, and a white Ender Dragon. It also may be why Endermen are provoked when a player looks at them.
• When faced with water, Endermencan teleport through blocks, even through bedrock.

• In the End, Endermen can be found in groups larger than any other mob in Minecraft.
• Endermen will try to kill any endermite nearby, especially when the endermiteis spawned from an ender pearl that was thrown.
• Enderman can be damaged by firework rockets shot from crossbows.
• The Enderman might have been based on a creature dubbed SCP-096, a tall, lanky creature that kills anything that gets in its way when one looks at its face.
• Sometimes you could see Endermen trying to damage the Ender Dragon. However, it is most likely immune to Endermen attacks and could easily knock them back with its wings, just like what it does to players.
• Despite teleporting away from arrows shot by a player, they can still get shot by arrows shot by a Skeleton.
• If you stare at them directly without moving they will freeze in place and won't teleport to you and attack you until you look away from it.
• Enderman are 4 blocks tall counting their hitbox.
• Enderman's ability to pick up blocks was highly limited after several players complained that the Enderman were ruining their creations.

Gallery[]

References[]

Mobs in Minecraft
Passive Mobs
Bat	Cat	Chicken	Cow
Fish (various)	Fox	Glow Squid	Horse
Mooshroom	Brown Mooshroom	Ocelot	Parrot
Pig	Rabbit	Sheep	Snow Golem
Squid	Strider	Turtle	Villager
Wandering Trader
Neutral Mobs
Axolotl	Bee	Dolphin	Enderman
Goat	Iron Golem	Llama	Panda
Piglin	Polar Bear	Spider	Cave Spider
Wolf	Zombified Piglin
Hostile Mobs
Blaze	Creeper	Drowned	Ender Dragon
Endermite	Evoker	Evoker Fang	Ghast
Guardian	Elder Guardian	Hoglin	Husk
Magma Cube	Phantom	Piglin Brute	Pillager
Ravager	Shulker	Silverfish	Skeleton
Slime	Spider Jockey	Stray	Vex
Vindicator	Warden	Witch	Wither
Wither Skeleton	Wither Skeleton Jockey	Zoglin	Zombie
Zombie Villager