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.

Damage
Creepers have 20 health points (10 hearts) which is the equivalent of a player. Two fully-charged arrows will almost do it; if the creeper has taken a bit of damage beforehand it will go down, otherwise even a weak attack will finish it off.

Managing the Explosion
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. Creepers will also run away if close to a cat or ocelot, preventing an explosion.

Below is an image showing the likelihood 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 (e.g. looking up vs. looking straight ahead).

Bows
Two fully charged arrows will kill an already-damaged creeper, or reduce a healthy one to a one-hit kill (with anything but fists). Enchantments can help, but see "Fire" below.

Swords
On easy and normal difficulty, it's entirely possible to kill a creeper with a sword, as long as it's not above you and you have room to maneuver: Run up to hit it (indeed, sprint-hits are better), then back off a square and wait for it to cooldown. As it starts to approach you, repeat. A sprint hit, or a Knockback enchantment, makes this much easier, as you won't even need to retreat. Likewise, if the creeper is in water, it will be knocked back far enough to cool down. (But if you're in water, you probably can't get close enough to hit it before it blows.) On hard difficulty, you'll need that knockback, or a lot more room to back off. (Knocking it off ledges can also help.) Lacking enchantments or critical hits, a stone or iron sword will need four hits to kill the creeper, while a diamond sword will only need three.

Pillars
See a creeper near your home, but have nothing other than wooden sword and some blocks? This method is a bit risky, but quite feasible, and likely to avoid explosion.
 * 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. Do this away from any ledges or rises that would let it match your level.
 * Wait until the creeper comes next to your pillar. You are above its visual range, so it shouldn't trigger.
 * Now you can kill it without it exploding.

Suffocation
If a creeper is lurking below you, you may be able to drop a couple of blocks of gravel or sand on it, then wait until it suffocates.

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. Flame enchantments can also set creepers afire. Note that fire and lava don't count as "player attacks", which means that if a mob dies of fire, it won't drop experience orbs unless you've also attacked it directly (sword/tool or bow) within the previous 3 seconds.

Tips

 * Don't get greedy. Killing a creeper with lava or fire, or knocking it into a chasm, will forfeit its experience and perhaps the gunpowder.  But it also gets rid of a sneaky, explodey creeper....


 * Iron armor is recommended, and the enchantments Protection or Blast Protection help more.


 * 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 can trigger and escape the explosion, it may take out the other mobs too.


 * 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.


 * 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.


 * As of 1.3.1, creepers do drown. Of course, it's hard to actually GET them in the water, and they can swim to the surface, so this is not paricularly easy.


 * 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 aggressive mode can see through solid surfaces.