Enderman

An Enderman (plural Endermen) is a unique three-block-high humanoid neutral mob that densely populates The End, and spawns rarely in Overworld areas with a light level of 7 or less. Endermen will turn hostile when provoked. They are known for their spooky presentation and behavior, their unique abilities to pick up blocks and teleport, and their vulnerability to water.

Endermen can be provoked via an attack, but also become hostile towards players who merely look at them (placing the crosshairs on them). Endermen's lower legs can safely be looked at, but placing the crosshairs any higher, from up to 64 blocks away, will be considered provocation. When provoked, Endermen stand still, stare at the player with trembling, gaping mouths, and emit a long, loud, unsettling noise.

Endermen frequently spawn in The End, their home world, but they still require a light level of seven or less in order to spawn. They will also spawn in the Overworld, although about 10 times more rarely in comparison to other mobs. They spawn in pairs, and can be seen regularly at night in groups of up to five.

Appearance
Endermen have long limbs, thin bodies, black skin, glowing purple eyes, and emit the signature purple Ender particle effect (like Ender Chests, Nether Portals and Eyes of Ender). Sometimes holding blocks.

Behavior
Endermen always spawn in pairs, but sometimes pairs can mix and therefore appear to be a group, and likewise, one of the pair could teleport away, leaving a lone enderman. Endermen will take damage from coming in contact with water or rain. They can step up one full block without having to jump.

Endermen are neutral mobs that don't attack unless provoked, similar to Zombie Pigmen and Wolves. They have a unique ability to pick up certain block types and move them around, which they generally spend their time doing while neutral. Aside from attacking, if the player simply passes their crosshairs over the head or body (upper legs in SSP), Endermen will proceed to attack. This "staring" provocation can occur from a surprisingly long distance, so take caution when scanning an open area, like Plains or a Desert.

When provoked, Endermen will open their mouths and shake with rage. They will continue to shake even when the game is paused. If they are, staring at their torso will stop them from moving, and you can go up to them and attack, at which point they will teleport behind you. Provoking an Enderman will cause the player to hear a lengthy, threatening sound. This sound is not linked to the Enderman's current state; it will continue to play if the Enderman is pacified by water or sunlight, or even killed. Conversely, when the sound ends, it does not mean that the Enderman is pacified.

Endermen will continue chasing a player until they are either killed, sustain several hits, or become distracted by exterior elements like rain or sun; Endermen are likely to teleport away to underground locations at day break.

In Creative mode, Endermen can not be provoked by looking at them. They must be attacked.

If a Skeleton or the Ender Dragon attacks an Enderman that is attempting to attack the player, the Enderman will stop chasing the player, even after it has killed the offending attacker.

Endermen can't see the player through transparent blocks such as glass/glass panes.

Teleportation
Endermen always attempt to teleport when attacked. Melee attacks are usually successful, but are followed by an immediate teleport, generally to a point a few blocks behind the attacking player. It is nearly impossible to hit Endermen with projectiles, as they always teleport away just before projectiles hit. Endermen teleport when coming into contact with rain or water.

When teleporting, Endermen search for an air block within 32m (along each axis); if there is a solid block below that air block, they can teleport to it regardless of the downward distance. An Enderman can teleport onto nearly any solid block, exceptions being blocks directly beneath water or lava or blocks with less than 3 vertical spaces above.

An Enderman cannot teleport when it is in a minecart unless attacked or hit with rain, in which case it will teleport out of the minecart and then immediately teleport back (repeatedly until death, if rain continues long enough).

In Creative mode, if an Enderman gets stuck in a hole 3 blocks deep, and is aggressive, it will not be able to teleport out.

Moving blocks
Endermen will only pick up and move certain blocks, regardless of whether they were natural or placed by the player. They will pick up blocks horizontally and vertically nearby, within a short reaching distance similar to the player's (3 layers).

Endermen will not drop the block they are holding when enraged or slain. It will simply disappear.

Endermen can only pick up the following blocks:

Endermen cannot pick up entities, such as boats, minecarts, primed TNT, and mobs.

Because Endermen possess the ability to move blocks, they can cause damage to the natural environment and in some cases player-built structures. They can also allow fenced animals to jump out by placing blocks adjacent to fences. Their block handling is not purposeful, but they may randomly breach walls and the like.

In the Overworld, signs of Enderman activity will become apparent in frequently loaded chunks in the form of misplaced blocks. In desert areas, Endermen may also propagate cacti by removing blocks and placing them on fresh sand, gradually increasing the population of cacti in frequently loaded deserts.

Endermen do not spawn in well-lit areas, but they may wander or teleport into lit areas from adjacent dark ones, particularly if rain or water causes them to teleport. It can be risky to stay awake at night, as an Enderman can teleport into your house. This is more apparent in large buildings, where rain may cause the building to be invaded by multiple Endermen seeking shelter. Therefore, lighting your structures with torches is not a guaranteed defense. However, they will not teleport into areas where they won't fit, so two-block high ceilings will keep them out.

The Enderman's ability to pick up TNT means that if an Enderman is standing on area lit by redstone, as soon as it places TNT down it will blow itself up.

Xbox 360 Edition
Endermen on the 360 have all the same attributes as the PC Endermen. Endermen will not teleport inside a space that is less than 3 blocks tall, as this tip should be remembered when constructing a house. If you discover an Enderman near your home, do not panic and make sure you know where the nearest source of water is located. Look at its face and then dash into the water. The Enderman will take damage and teleport away, resuming its neutral behavior. Another strategy is to use an Enchanted sword, preferably with Fire Aspect II.

Preventing attacks
The only way to get an Enderman to chase the player is to hit it, or look at its face/upper body with the crosshairs. As Endermen are 3 blocks tall, the player can keep his or her house's interior 2-2.5 blocks tall to prevent Endermen from teleporting into it. Endermen are usually only encountered in relatively open spaces, as well; although they will still spawn, you're much more likely to see other mobs in cramped caves underground, before you see Endermen.

As of Minecraft 1.3, Endermen will return neutral once they take damage from water, but they will also teleport away. This makes a bucket of water very useful for chasing off an accidentally provoked Enderman, or for clearing out crowds in The End. Also, if the player is in a body of water, no closer than 2-3 blocks away from dry land, and at least one block deep, and provokes an Enderman, it will become aggressive, but rather than charge and attack when the player moves the crosshairs away, it will stand in one spot for at least 30 seconds, then either teleport into the water, take damage, and teleport away, or continue to stand in one spot. Also, if the player continuously stares at the Enderman for at least 30 seconds, it may teleport away, or try to attack, and then teleport away upon coming in contact with water. After at least 90-120 seconds, if the Enderman has not tried to attack or teleport away, it will turn neutral again.

Endermen will become neutral and teleport away if they walk into a fire, or when hit with a fire aspect sword.

If the player wears a pumpkin on his or her head and looks at an Enderman, it will not turn hostile when looked at. Once provoked, however, wearing a pumpkin will not prevent it from attacking or teleporting, though it will not teleport away if the player is within melee range.

If an Enderman is in the player's house or another area where the player wants it out from, the easiest method to remove it is to shoot it with an arrow, snowball, or egg while the Enderman is still non-hostile. This causes it to teleport away. An attempted shot to the head or torso lowers the chance of an Enderman teleporting to 35%, but an attempted shot to the arms, lower legs, or upper legs is a guaranteed teleportation. All arrows that do not make the Enderman teleport will simply bounce off. This tactic is quite useful for archers.

Another good method of getting rid of Endermen inside the player's house is to have a water source inside it and to use a piston to open and close this water source. When an Enderman enters the house, the player should open the gate, stand inside the running water, and look at the Enderman. It will come towards the player, teleport away from the water, come back, and eventually die.

Because Endermen take damage from water, building a moat is useful for preventing an encounter and an attack, although with the ability to teleport to you, this does not always work. The player could also try flooding the outside of his or her house with water so they cannot get in, though that means that the player needs a door to get in and out and stop flooding from the inside of his or her house. The player must also put blocks around his or her house in order to stop the flooding from spreading too far. This idea also stops creepers from blowing up the player's house, and mobs cannot get inside.

When provoked during the day, Endermen will usually teleport away rather than attack the player or just open their mouths and shut them. This is more common.

If an Enderman comes nearby an active Creeper it will teleport away for a moment right before the Creeper explodes, giving you a small amount of time to get away.

When exploring caves with few torches, a player can spot an Enderman by its glowing eyes. A player can use this characteristic to avoid accidentally staring at an Enderman.

When you encounter Endermen in the desert, you can hide behind a cactus or build some around you (Please note that if you stand too close to the cactus, you will be harmed). The Enderman will be pricked to death trying to chase you. But this chance is very slim because Enderman can easily teleport behind you. Another good way to defeat a hostile Enderman is to build a 3-block high cactus, put a block on top of the cactus and stand on it. The Enderman will be pricked to death. Be prepared and have sword on you because the Enderman may lift the cactus away.

Combat
Endermen are damaged by attacks, falling, fire, lava, water, and poison. They are one of the most dangerous mobs in the game to fight, dealing the same amount of damage as a non-enchanted Diamond Sword in Normal mode (if comparing to PVP). To complete the game, however, Ender Pearls must be collected to make Eyes of Ender. Thankfully, they do not use their block-moving ability coherently -- if they breach your defenses, it's by accident -- but their teleportation is bad enough.

Ideally, you want your back against a wall. If you hit Endermen, they will often teleport behind you. Their melee attacks hit hard enough that you want to avoid being hit by them as much as possible. Get a sword and armor, made from the best material you've got. A flint and steel may also help, as difficult as it is to use it effectively. Focus on hitting their legs, and try to time your attacks so that the Enderman is continually knocked back, so that it will not be able to hit you. This will usually kill them fairly quickly.

You can perform preemptive strikes against Endermen by keeping your crosshair over them, which will cause them to stay still for several seconds, or until the Enderman is hit, whichever comes first. A player can also get in the first hit by looking only at the Enderman's legs until they attack - though once hit, the Enderman will become aggressive as normal.

A height advantage of at least one block or more will also help keep the Enderman at bay as you hit it.

Endermen that wander into fire or lava will not teleport away, nor will they become aggressive to the player. This can be used to weaken or kill them, though the second will require that they be set on fire twice (likely by placing fire with a flint and steel) due to their high hit points.

Arrows, snowballs, and eggs will usually not hit them due to the fact that they usually teleport away before impact. However, shooting an Enderman with a bow carrying the "Flame" enchantment will still light it on fire, even though it will take no direct damage from the arrow. This can be an effective method of holding off and killing Endermen from range. Projectiles will not cause Endermen to become hostile because they do not get hurt. They will become hostile to the source of the damage if a projectile does manage to somehow damage an Enderman, such as an accidental arrow hit from a skeleton while they are attacking the player.

Fishing lures will hit an Enderman and "snag" them on the end of the line. However, the Enderman teleports away when the lure hits them (possibly behind a wall or into caves), so this is only sometimes useful as a tool for killing them. If you manage to pull it forward, it will travel a remarkable distance.

Hostile Endermen will teleport away after a player hits them, though they may attack first. Similarly, Endermen may teleport away several seconds after attacking. When this happens in a small underground space, the Enderman may teleport into inaccessible caves or to the surface and may or may not teleport back. The Endermen may also teleport behind the player, so caution is recommended. Endermen teleportation can be tracked by looking for the glowing teleportation trail they leave behind.

You can make a roof 2 blocks high (and at least 2 deep) that allows you to walk through, but stops Endermen from walking through due to their height. However, other mobs will have easy access to you, so make sure that you have your back covered. Obviously, they can still hit you if they're right next to you, so make it deep enough that they can't reach you. (Usually you'd put a 3&times;3 roof in an open area, as you can always retreat to the middle or far side.) Removing any pillar you used to place the roof will help keep your line of sight clear. If they teleport away, be careful, especially if you can still hear them -- they are likely to reappear and attack from behind, as soon as you emerge from shelter.

Another effective way of killing an Enderman is to make a 4-block high pillar underneath yourself, then look at an Enderman. The Enderman will run toward you and come into melee range. You will be in range to attack them, but they will not be in range to attack you. Make sure that there are no skeletons nearby (within 16 blocks), as they will shoot you off your pillar and make you a vulnerable target.

A very simple way to kill an Enderman is to attack its legs, as they do not teleport when their legs are attacked.

A quick, effective way to kill an Enderman is to quickly run towards one with or without a weapon (and without looking at its head), attack its legs once, and have four or more tamed wolves to finish it off.

Sword enchanted with Fire Aspect is especially useful for killing Endermen, as it sets them on fire and they burn for a short time while teleporting around you.

A quick and easy way to kill Endermen is to push them off the edge of a cliff. However, this is only useful for when you are near a long drop or on a map like skyblock. This tactic has the added bonus of not aggravating them.

One way to get Ender Pearls without the Enderman becoming hostile toward you is to quickly trap the Enderman on a single square and drop gravel or sand on its head, crushing it. You may also use an anvil to kill one by dropping the anvil from a certain height.

Endermen also cannot teleport when riding a minecart, even hitting them with an arrow will not cause the Enderman to teleport away (Though they will flash red and disappear for a second, as if trying to teleport unsuccessfully.) This is one potential way to kill them at a distance.

Endermen cannot teleport while falling. Thus an effective way to kill them quickly is to draw them to the edge of a slope and attack them while facing the slope. The attack will knock them backwards, and followup attacks can be performed before the Enderman can teleport away.

Sound is also important to pay attention to, an attentive player with an appropriate sound system can hear where the Enderman teleported to, preventing sneak attacks from behind.

Iron golems will attack Endermen, and will kill one in two hits. Endermen will hit the iron golem once before the iron golem kills it.

Another complicated method using brewing to kill them is to use a splash potion of poison II (16 seconds). When poisoned they will not become alert and quickly be lowered to 1 health. Next hit them with a sword to kill them in one hit. Make sure to carry a milk bucket to cure self inflicted poison and be cautious that it may take two hits to kill them if the poison is administered wrong.

Trivia

 * Notch claimed in public that the Endermen is a "(subtle)" reference to "the Slenderman", a similar looking monster with a similar name. Given the later development of the End, it is possible he already had the name in mind, and did not choose it because of the Reddit thread in which their name was revealed.
 * If an Enderman is in his aggressive state, you can prevent him from walking/going anywhere if you stare at him (you can freeze the endermen as long as your cursor remains on him). However, if attacked in this state, the endermen may teleport away.
 * The Enderman seems to use a re-colored version of the player's face texture, much like blazes, zombies, and skeletons.
 * The exact size of an Enderman is 0.6x0.6x2.9 blocks(1.9x1.9x9.5 feet).
 * Endermen sounds seems to stem from reverse audios:
 * the "idle1" sound is a reversed “here”
 * the "idle2" sound is a reversed "hiya"
 * the "idle3" sound is a down-pitched “whats up?” or "this way!"
 * the "idle4" sound is a down-pitched reversed "forever!"
 * the "idle5" sound is a reversed "uh oh!"
 * Even in an aggressive state, they can still pick up blocks, which at times made it seem as though they were tearing through walls to reach the player. However, they will never pick up blocks to reach the player.
 * If a Mob Spawner is tweaked to spawn Endermen, the model inside will have its head jutting out the top of the frame.
 * The purple particles the Endermen emit are hard-coded into the game, so they cannot be re-textured without mods.
 * Endermen are able to create snow golems and iron golems if they pick up a pumpkin and set it on already placed snow or iron blocks.
 * After 12w38a Snapshot update, the previously unused stare.ogg and scream.ogg can now be heard without use of any mods. Stare.ogg plays whenever the player is staring at an Enderman, and Scream.ogg plays when Enderman is chasing a player.
 * Amusingly, if an Enderman is set on fire, they may try to put it out by teleporting into water, and therefore committing 'suicide', because they take damage from it.
 * Amusingly enough, if an Enderman is caught in rain, he will continuously teleport in random directions. Players can sometimes, during rain, see Endermen teleport in front of them quickly and teleport off the moment they take damage.
 * If you throw a Potion of Invisibility to an Enderman, the Enderman will be invisible, but you can still see the eyes. This is because the eyes, like spiders, are in a seperate texture file.
 * Burning Endermen will teleport randomly; similar to if they are in rain.
 * If you go to sleep in a bed it is possible for an Enderman to teleport on it and knock you off. You will still continue to go to sleep as if you were in a bed.

Beta 1.8+
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