Creeper



The creeper is a type of mob, found in Survival, Infdev, Indev, and the newest Alpha version. Like the skeleton, the creeper differs heavily from one version to another. The creeper design is based on a failed attempt to make a pig model, hence the four legs. Creepers make no idle noise therefore you will only know if one is nearby if you see it first.

Indev/Infdev/Alpha
The creeper is a slow-moving kamikaze mob. Upon getting close enough, it will let out a loud "burning fuse" sound and detonate after 1.5 seconds, but never make any other noises. This count-down can be halted; if the player moves out of the creeper's blast radius, the creeper will cancel its detonation, run up to the player, and start again. This can be useful by smacking the creeper, moving back so it follows you, smacking it again, and so on until it is defeated. The player can also get close enough to a Creeper from above to hit it with a melee weapon without the Creeper's detonation being activated. Killing the creeper before this countdown starts or finishes will not cause the creeper to detonate. The creeper will cause a 4x4x4 spherical crater upon detonation. Unlike in Survival mode, the explosion caused by a creeper in Indev mode can destroy stone and other hard materials but the harder the material, the less effective the explosion. Creepers do not catch fire when daylight comes. They were given a new taking damage sound after the Halloween Update.

If Creepers are hit by a Skeleton's arrow the detonation will be activated, regardless of the players distance to the Creeper, unless the Skeleton's shot actually kills the Creeper (see below).

Creepers can drop records. How they get hurt does not matter, as long as the final blow is made by a skeleton. The most efficient way to do this is to hit a creeper with an iron sword twice, and have a skeleton shoot it after.

Survival
The creeper behaves much like a zombie, except its attack deals only two hearts worth of damage instead of three. After taking some damage, it flashes, showing it is about to detonate. Upon being killed, it causes an explosion which can hurt the player, and leaves a small crater, destroying plenty of blocks. Currently, their explosions have no effect on "hard" materials such as rock, cobblestone, ore, or metal tiles. Unlike the zombie, it does not wear armour. In groups, they can cause a chain reaction of explosions, which can be very dangerous to the player. The creeper is worth 200 points.

Notch has described Creepers as "being crunchy, like dry leaves".

Warning: on hard mode you can escape creepers before they explode; however, it is more difficult to do so than on easier difficulties. Also, creepers are infamous for sneaking up behind unsuspecting players just as they think they're safe.

Drops
Alpha:
 * 0-3 units of Gunpowder
 * 1 Record (when killed by a skeleton)