Creeper

"These lanky lime horrors will gaze upon you with a look of utmost sadness. You'll soon have a similar facial expression, if you let it get close."

- Tom Stone

Creepers are common green, stealthy hostile mobs who silently approach players and explode shortly after coming within 3 blocks of their targets. Due to their distinctive appearance and high potential for killing unwary players as well as damaging the environment and players' constructions, creepers have become one of the icons of Minecraft, notorious both among players and non-players.

Creepers are a major source of gunpowder as well as the only renewable way to obtain music discs. When struck by lightning, a creeper becomes charged, which substantially amplifies its explosion power.

Spawning
Creepers naturally spawn in the Overworld on top of solid blocks with a light level of 7 or less.

Drops
Creepers drop when killed:
 * 5 s, if killed by the player
 * 0–2 (or up to 5 with the Looting enchantment)
 * 1 random, if killed by a or
 * 1, if killed by a Charged Creeper

Behavior


Creepers chase after any player, as long as it is within a 16 block (±5%) radius and ±4 blocks vertically. The detection range of creepers is reduced to half of their normal range (8 blocks) when the player is wearing a creeper mob head.

Creepers can climb up ladders and vines like any other mob, but do not do so intentionally.

When within three blocks of a player, a creeper stops moving, hisses, flashes and expands, then explodes after 1.5 seconds. A creeper's detonation can be halted if the player leaves the blast radius of 7 blocks, including by knocking back the creeper or killing it.

Creepers can be forced to explode by using a flint and steel.

They flee from ocelots and cats if one is too close, until they are approximately 16 blocks away from the feline(s).

Normal creeper explosions have a power of 3.

If a creeper is inflicted with a status effect, its explosion creates an area effect cloud of the effect.

Creepers are never targeted by any mobs, other than withers, snow golems, and vindicators named "Johnny". If they are hit by a stray projectile, they retaliate only if not already chasing a player.

Charged Creeper


A charged creeper is a more powerful variant of a creeper.

A charged creeper is created only when lightning strikes within 4 blocks of a normal creeper or when hit by a trident with the Channeling enchantment during a thunderstorm, which significantly increases its explosive power. Charged creepers are distinguished from normal creepers by the blue aura surrounding them.

Their countdown timers are the same as normal creepers, both in terms of range and time. With a power of 6, an explosion caused by a charged creeper is twice as powerful as the explosion caused by a regular creeper (see image). How close the creeper was to the lightning strike does not affect the size of the explosion.

Charged creepers have the same entity ID as normal creepers. The only difference is that the value of the boolean "powered" tag is set to "1" (true).

Charged creeper explosions that kill zombies, skeletons, wither skeletons, or other creepers cause one of those mobs to drop the corresponding mob head. They do not drop their own head. Players or ender dragons do not drop their heads.

Data values
Creepers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia



 * Notch stated on Twitter that "I imagine [creepers] as being made out of leaves or similar. I'm not sure why they explode."
 * When asked to describe the physical texture of a creeper, Notch said they would feel "crunchy, like dry leaves".
 * Creepers are their bright green color because Notch tried to make them well camouflaged for the original classic Minecraft textures, which were very bright shades of green. This would make them extremely dangerous as they would be harder to notice from a distance.
 * In multiplayer, if a creeper is attacked by another player, and the other player runs out of sight, it will not attack any other players.
 * When asked how creepers trigger their explosive nature, Dinnerbone said "They're so nervous that they shake a lot, and then this sets them off the same way as how rubbing two sticks makes fire".
 * Creepers are faster when fleeing cats than when chasing players.
 * If a charged creeper is given invisibility, the "aura" effect is still visible.
 * A charged creeper explosion can inflict the greatest amount of damage any mob in the game can do at one time.

Publicity
Creepers have a formidable reputation in the community because of their potential to hurt players and destroy structures. Their distinct appearance and destructive abilities have made them a widely-recognizable Minecraft icon. Creepers are referenced in several of the items available at the Minecraft merchandise depot, and have become an internet meme complete with fan art, web comic references, and demotivational posters. A central part of the meme is the creeper's unofficial catchphrase derived from the mob's tendency to sneak up on the player and hiss before detonating:

"That'sssss a very nice you've got there... It'd be a ssssshame if anything were to happen to it..."

Merchandise
Creepers have been portrayed in many Minecraft products including but not limited to:
 * Stuffed toys.
 * Action figures.
 * Bracelets.
 * T-shirts
 * The creeper anatomy T-shirt reveals the insides of a creeper, and also reveals its scientific name: Creepus Explodus.
 * LEGO Minecraft
 * Papercraft
 * Minecraft Facebook profile image
 * In the goodie-bags given out at Minecon 2011, creepers were given as a fold-able and tapable decoration for ones room or collection, along with diamond and grass.

Appearances
TV series
 * Several creepers have appeared on TV during episodes of the TV show Mad (Criminal Minecraft and ThunderLolcats ) In ThunderLolcats they use the catchphrase, saying "That'ssss.. a nice wall you've got there."

YouTube content
 * YouTube hosts many videos that feature creepers, including review videos, "Let's Play"'s, cartoons, and cameos in many other videos. When searching for the query "Minecraft Creeper", YouTube returns a lot of videos.

Console/PC games
 * In Borderlands 2, creepers appear in a mineshaft in the most north-west part of Caustic Caverns, including dirt, coal ore, stone, gold ore, and a "Badass creeper" that is twice the strength and size of a regular Creeper.
 * In Airmech, creepers appear as a unit "skin" for the suicide bomber unit the boomer. Creepers can be either green, blue, or red, depending on the color of the team that makes them.
 * In Octodad: Dadliest Catch, a creeper head is seen on a shelf in the grocery store along with 2 Pickaxes and some grass blocks. It is part of a collection known as "Mintcraft".
 * In Awesomenauts, one of the playable characters (Clunk) has a "skin" referencing the creeper, complete with hissing and explode sound effects.
 * A creeper can be seen and interacted with in a level from the game McPixel.
 * Seen as a Halloween costume in Terraria.
 * In Evoland 2, a game designed as a tribute to many classic games, "Dreaded Creepers" can be found as a mob in The Mine, present era. If you get killed by a Dreaded Creeper, you unlock the sssSSSSSss BOOM! achievement.

Flash games
 * In Stealing the Diamond, when Henry Stickmin sneaks up to the museum's outer wall with a pickaxe, a creeper comes up behind him and explodes, destroying part of the wall instead.
 * At the far end of the map in Stick RPG2, a smiling creeper can be seen in a hole at ground level.
 * One of the things the player can hit in Katawa Crash is a creeper.
 * In the game Transformice, there is a creeper head that the player may purchase as a hat for their mouse.

Other games
 * In a game called Quube Twodee made by Universal Chicken in Adelaide, Australia, one of the levels has a creeper face.
 * PixelJunk Shooter 2 for the PS3 shows a small creeper in the title screen hidden among other enemies native to Shooter 2.
 * In a Notch-designed custom level for VVVVVV, "Pyramid Escape", a creeper's face can be seen carved into the background to the far left of the pyramid.
 * In Torchlight II, the creeper appears in an uncommonly generated side area of Act III's Sundred Battlefield called "Notch's Mine". As expected, the creeper's found inside run toward the player and explode, leaving behind several dirt blocks. A chest at the end of the area can contain one of five Rare swords with their own unique attributes.
 * In a game called Strollin, there is a purchasable creeper item, which makes bombs throw the player farther.
 * In Geometry Dash', beating level 16 (Hexagon Force) on normal mode rewards the player a creeper face cube. This can also be colored to make it look like a normal one.
 * A small game notch made in 48 hours, called Minicraft, also includes creepers. What is interesting about them in the game, is that it has harder types the deeper the player goes underground.

Other
 * On Monday, June 18, 2012, a creeper was sent above the clouds into space.