Enderman

An Enderman (plural Endermen) is a three-block-high, humanoid, neutral mob that will turn hostile when provoked. Endermen are known for their unique abilities to teleport and pick up blocks.

Along with those abilities, they have a peculiar way of becoming provoked; as well as being provoked when attacked, Endermen will become hostile when a player looks at their upper legs, torso, or head. This occurs even when looking from 25 blocks or so away (twice that before Minecraft 1.4). When a player provokes an Enderman by looking at it, the Enderman will open its mouth and stare at the player until that player looks away from the Enderman. When provoked through any means, including looking at them, a threatening sound will be played for several seconds, similar to that heard when Zombie Pigmen and wild Wolves are provoked.

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 and a thin body. They have black skin with a pattern that looks similar to fur (though it is hard to see), and glowing purple eyes and emit a purple particle effect similar to Nether portals or an Ender Chest.

When aggressive their mouths will open and their bodies will shake violently as they rush towards you. A distinct sound will play when you have an aggressive Enderman rushing you. When they do teleport, they have a tendency to appear behind the player.

Endermen were based off of the urban myth Slenderman, which is why they become aggressive when viewed and teleport behind the character.

Behavior
Endermen will take damage from coming in contact with water and rain. . They 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 are neutral mobs that don't attack unless provoked, like Zombie Pigmen. The difference is how they can be provoked. Aside from attacking one, if the player simply passes their crosshair 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 be careful 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 they will teleport to behind you. Since 1.4.2, 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 are unlikely to give up a chase once made hostile; even when moving several hundred meters from them they will continue to follow until killed or distracted by exterior elements such as water or rain. Be very wary when a hostile Enderman suddenly disappears. They are still angry at you, but may have teleported too far away, into a nearby enclosed area, or are stuck. If you are lucky, they will teleport into water or lava, which will render them neutral. Sometimes you may find Endermen while mining, so it is advisable to have a bucket of water.

Endermen become passive during daytime, teleporting away from the player rather than attacking, so Endermen become relatively harmless while on the surface during the day. However, Endermen are fairly quick to retreat underground at dawn, so you are unlikely to see one aboveground by day.

In creative mode, you can't provoke Endermen by looking at them, only if you hit them.

If a skeleton or the Ender dragon attacks an Enderman while attempting to attack the player, the Enderman will completely 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.

Endermen's notable traits are the ability to pick up and move blocks and teleport.

Teleportation
When teleporting, an Enderman will usually leave a faint trail of particles similar to those of a nether portal leading to itself from where it teleported. However, if an Enderman is holding a block, it will not leave a trail. Endermen teleport when coming in contact with rain or water. Endermen can step up one full block without having to jump. The range in which an Enderman can teleport is 32 blocks in most cases, however informal testing on superflat worlds shows they can travel much further on the Y axis. An Enderman can teleport onto any solid block, exceptions being blocks directly beneath water or lava. They can also not spawn on half-slabs and in spaces less than 3 blocks vertically.

An Enderman cannot teleport when it is in a minecart. However, if it is hit with a projectile, it will teleport out of the minecart and then immediately teleport back. It is nearly impossible to hit it with a projectile, even glitched. A flaming arrow will miss the Enderman, but it will still light the Enderman on fire. Likewise, when water falls on an Enderman while it is in a minecart, it will repeatedly try to teleport out of the minecart, but then will immediately teleport back into the cart. It will continue this until it eventually dies or the water is stopped. Endermen can also teleport into houses. In creative, if an enderman gets stuck in a hole 3 blocks deep, and is aggressive, it will not be able to teleport to get 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.

On the Overworld signs of Endermen 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 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. 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, although as of 1.0.1 there is no 'End' dimension, so no Ender dragon in the Xbox version yet. However, End portals can still be found in Strongholds, and so can End stone blocks and portal frame blocks in Creative mode. The Endermen's rarity on the Xbox is tweaked slightly, to make it easier to acquire Eye of Enders. Also, when provoked, Endermen don't always open their mouths and shake with rage, however this does not mean they aren't provoked. This makes it more difficult to tell if Endermen are provoked or not. One sign of a provoked Enderman is it will stiffen its head and stare at the player when stared at. Another sign is it will teleport while staring at the player. Endermen also have a 5% chance of glitching and having white eyes, making it hard to tell if it is staring or not during the night.

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 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 teleport away rather than attack the player.

If Endermen 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.

Combat
Endermen are damaged by attacks, falling, fire, lava, water, and poison. These 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. (Only in multiplayer, the enderman will only Teleport somewhere inside a player's view.) Their melee attacks hit sufficiently hard, 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 although lighting them on fire is difficult, it will likely still help you kill them, if you can manage it. 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. Because they do not get hurt, projectiles will not cause Endermen to become hostile. 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, they will become hostile to the source of the damage.

Fishing lures will hit an Enderman and "snag" them on the end of the line. However, as the Enderman teleports away when the lure hits them (Possibly behind a wall or into caves) 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.

Because of the Endermen's extra height, 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 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 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 their 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 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.

Bugs

 * They seem to have limited ability teleporting vertically.
 * Endermen don't take rain damage on half slabs, Soul Sand, or stairs.
 * They can sometimes spawn shaking, even when you don't look at them.
 * They can sometimes be seen shaking and with their mouth open, but otherwise behave normally.
 * Endermen will teleport rapidly as if it is raining when set on fire.
 * When using a custom texture pack, Endermen will be bright white overlapping their texture. This is caused by the blank spaces of their enderman_eyes.png file. If you create a custom texture pack you must make sure that you only change the 6 pixels actually used by their eyes. An alternative would be to use the original png from the minecraft.jar in your pack. Using the most recent release of MCPatcher also fixes this bug. This can also be avoided by making the enderman_eyes.png translucent, even only slight translucency will fix this.
 * If a hostile Enderman is attacked by another mob and kills the attacker, it resets to being neutral towards the player.
 * If an Enderman picks up a flaming block and then places it again, the block will be extinguished, but the Enderman will be on fire.
 * If you quit a game while being attacked by a hostile Enderman, and re-join the game, the Enderman will return to being neutral.
 * If caught with a fishing rod while neutral, an Enderman will remain neutral even after being pulled in, though the fact that they teleport away when hit with the fishing lure makes this of limited potential use.
 * When an Enderman picks up TNT, the TNT block's texture is reflected (TИT). (Note that this happens in SMP when other players hold TNT.)
 * If you fire an arrow at an Enderman who is in a mine cart, it will teleport away and reappear in the same mine cart. Also, at times it will turn red as if it had taken damage, but it will not die from arrow shots.
 * If you look through the mouth of an enderman you can see underground structures, making them a good tool for finding structures such as abandoned mineshafts and caves.
 * When you shoot an Enderman with a bow enchanted with flame, the Enderman teleports, but it is on fire so it is an easy way to kill them from long range.
 * In SMP, when you look at the eyes/head of the Enderman, it won't turn hostile, if you look at its upper legs/body it will become hostile.
 * When an enderman is stuck in water, taking damage, and cannot teleport away, shooting at it with an arrow will make the enderman deflect it, instead of taking damage.
 * In SMP, Endermen seem to float for a while when drawn in upwards with a fishing rod.
 * When an Enderman places down a cactus or flower, it is not checked if it is being put on an appropriate block, possibly resulting in plants on unusual blocks.
 * In SSP, if you use a mod or creative mode to fly, you can look through the Enderman's mouth. If you look at water through its mouth, you will see air in its place.
 * If an Enderman is standing on a cobweb, they will not take damage from rain or teleport away.
 * If a hostile Enderman teleports into direct sunlight, it will forget about you.
 * In 1.3.1 and up, if you punch an Enderman in creative (they will get aggressive from staring in survival) from around 5-6 blocks away, it will turn into its hostile state, but will not chase you. It become neutral when it holds a block.
 * In creative, if an enderman gets stuck in a hole 3 blocks deep, and is aggressive, it will not be able to teleport to get out.
 * In 1.4 when you provoke an enderman and it snarls, when you pause the game you will still hear the snarling noise until it ends
 * If the player traps an enderman in an area made of blocks it cannot pick up, from time to time it will pick up a dirt or grass block.
 * In 1.4.6, the bug for Endermen not teleporting away when set on fire was fixed. However, this led to a new bug. When killed with a fire aspect sword, the Enderman will teleport away in its death, making it extremely difficult to retrieve the experience it dropped. However, Endermen will still drop the Ender Pearl where it was killed.
 * On the Xbox 360, when hit with a fishing rod they will teleport once every quarter of a second until realeased.

Trivia

 * 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 stare animation will still play while the game is paused or when attaching a sign.
 * 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).
 * Notch claimed in public that the Endermen is a "(subtle)" reference to "the Slenderman, a similar looking cryptid 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.
 * Endermen sound 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!"(oh no")
 * In their texture, their jaw is separated from their skull. This makes the Enderman the first mob with the ability to physically open their mouths without simply switching to a different texture. Due to the player's perspective, however, the player sees the back of the Enderman's head when it opens its mouth, making it difficult to tell that it is open. If a player is one block higher, they see through the Enderman's open mouth. They open their mouths by moving their skulls higher than their jaw.
 * If an Enderman is hit by a flaming arrow, it will be set on fire, but will not take damage from the arrow itself, nor will it become hostile.
 * An effective, though difficult to achieve, way to gain lots of experience and ender pearls is to go the End, make a 1x1x4 tower, stand on top of it, look at Endermen and have them teleport to you while you slaughter them. They cannot reach you because the tower is too tall. Another way is to create a 3x3 platform at 3 above the ground (leaving 2 blocks space for you to stand under) Endermen are 3 tall, and will not get under the platform while you can still hit them, but you are not in the risk of falling like with a tower.
 * 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.
 * Even though water/rain is harmful to them, it will still put out a burning Enderman.
 * If a Mob Spawner is tweaked to spawn Endermen, the model inside will have it's 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.
 * When in third-person front view, if there is an Enderman behind the player, it won't become aggressive if the cursor is placed over it. Turning so that the crosshair would be on the Enderman in first-person will provoke it, despite it not being onscreen.
 * If an Enderman is focusing on another player, a different player can still look at its hostile points without the Enderman attacking the player afterwards. However, if you try shooting an arrow at it, it will ignore the creature it's attacking and focus on the one who shot the arrow.
 * 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.
 * When in The End, it is possible to get Endermen to target the Ender Dragon. Shoot the Ender Dragon with an arrow, then, when it comes to attack you, place yourself so there are Endermen between you and the Ender Dragon. When the Ender Dragon makes contact with the Endermen, it will do damage, causing them to target the Ender Dragon. They do not seem to do any damage, however, they can be quite useful, as the Ender Dragon can not pass through Endermen. One can stand behind many Endermen and strike at the Ender Dragon while it is being blocked by the Endermen.
 * 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 an Enderman is trapped in a 4 block tall structure, he cannot teleport.

Beta 1.8+
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