Tutorials/Creepers

Do creepers keep on blowing you up? Not any more! This page has tutorials that will teach you how to kill those pesky creepers and collect gunpowder.
 * Requirements: Bow, Arrows, Stone Sword or better.
 * Find a Creeper, make sure you have some armor (this is heavily recommended).
 * Get in range of the Creeper or on a Sniping Tower. Shoot the creeper with the bow fully charged
 * Sprint-hit it with your sword
 * Repeat until the Creeper is dead.

Damage
Creepers have 20 health points (10 hearts) which is the equivalent of a player. Below is table with the recommended tools to kill a creeper with related information.

These tools are only recommended as they are the most efficient. It is possible to kill creepers with other tools, including shovels, pickaxes, and even punching them, but these methods are inefficient. The longer you are around a creeper, the more likely it is for the creeper to explode and hurt you.

Exploding
If there is 1 block or less between you and the creeper and it knows you're there, it will start its 1.5 second countdown before it explodes. Hitting it and moving back or sprint-hitting it will move it far enough away that it stops its countdown, and starts its cooldown. The length of the cooldown is equivalent to how long it was counting down. So, if it had been counting down for 0.75 seconds when it moved out of range, then the cooldown will last 0.75 seconds as well. If there are 2 blocks between you and the creeper, you're safe unless it has already started his countdown.

Below is and image showing the likeliness of a creeper exploding. The white square in the center with an 'X' is the creepers location. This grid uses the block system for distance and it is used by 'placing' your player on the relative colored square. Please note that you may think that you are two blocks away in the game, but actually you may be closer, depending on your graphics or perspective (eg. looking up vs. looking straight ahead).

Easy Way to Kill a Creeper
See a creeper near your home, but have nothing other than wooden sword and some blocks? You can kill it without worrying about exploding, just follow these steps :

Or
 * Make sure you have at least 3 or 4 dirt/sand blocks in your inventory
 * Check if there are any skeletons or spiders (If so, kill them first)
 * Walk slowly towards creeper, and then it will start walking in your direction
 * Make a 3-4 block pillar of dirt/sand by pillar-jumping
 * Wait until the creeper comes next to your pillar
 * Now you can kill it without it exploding
 * use the knockback enchantment (when on easy only knockback 1 is needed) just stand and hit

Fire
It is possible to kill a Creeper with the use of fire. You can either use flint and steel to set fire to the ground and then lead a creeper through it. This will cause it to catch on fire and thus deal damage. You can also lead it through flowing lava, which has the same effect. Avoid deep lava, because then the dropped gunpowder will be destroyed.

Tips

 * Creepers will sometimes circle around you, always moving to your left while still moving closer to you. A way to counter this is to aim with your sword just in front of where the Creeper is and wait until it moves in front of your sword.


 * If there are multiple Creepers after you, try to get one Creeper to explode a safe distance away from you and damage the other Creeper(s). (Note: This is very dangerous, especially if you do not have armor on)


 * If there are multiple types of mobs after you at once (say a Creeper, a Skeleton, and a Zombie), the Creeper should always be your priority. It is capable of one-shotting you if it explodes right next to you, so try to finish it off with a Bow or Sprint-hit it repeatedly.


 * If you are playing multi-player, have one person stand a safe distance from the creeper and you attack from behind. Once the creeper turns, it is the other person's turn to attack. Bow and Arrow is recommended, as it lets you be far away from the Creeper.


 * Dig a pit that is at least 2 blocks deep and try to lure the creeper into falling in. Once it is inside the pit, you can suffocate it with sand, or attack from a fairly safe distance. As of 1.2, the new AI causes creepers to avoid pits. Placing a sign on the top block inside the pit should fix this.


 * Creepers avoid cats--find a jungle and tame some ocelots to follow you around. Creepers won't come near you.


 * If you are facing a creeper on an elevated surface, you can build a trap in which it falls off the mountain, giving it fall damage. This is a bit risky as you may fall off as well.


 * Though not proven, you can attempt to drown a creeper. To do this, dig a pit that is at least 3 blocks deep and then make the creeper fall in. Now quickly pour in water one block below the surface. Then seal off the top with a block.


 * The knockback enchantment is highly effective when you don't have any room to Sprint-hit one, giving you time to run or to pull out your bow and arrow.


 * Having a set of iron armor enchanted with protection I or blast protection I will protect you even from point-blank creeper explosion.


 * You can also kill the creeper without alerting it. To do this, build a wall around you and destroy the blocks on the bottom layer. Then strike the creeper. Use glass as creepers in aggresive mode can see through solid surfaces.