Enderman

Health points	40 × 20
Behavior	Neutral
Attack strength	Easy: 4.5 × 2.25 Normal: 7 Hard: 10.5 × 5.25
Hitbox size	Normal: Height: 2.9 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks Angry: Height: 3.25 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Spawn	Overworld and The End: Light level of 7 or less The Nether: Light level 7 or less Nether Wastes Soul Sand Valley Warped Forest

An enderman is a neutral mob found in all three dimensions. Endermen can teleport and pick up blocks.

Spawning[]

An enderman can spawn on any solid surface that has at least three empty spaces above at light level 7 or less. They are the only mob that spawns in all 3 dimensions.

Overworld[]

Endermen spawn uncommonly in the Overworld in hauntings (groups) of two. They can rarely spawn in hauntings of three.

Nether[]

Endermen spawn rarely in soul sand valleys, uncommonly in Nether wastes and most commonly in warped forests.

End[]

Endermen spawn commonly in hauntings of up to four, anywhere in the End dimension.

Drops[]

Endermen drop:

0–1 ender pearl. The maximum is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-4 with Looting III.‌^{[Java Edition only]} / 0-1 without looting or nothing with looting ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}^[1]
5 when killed by a player or a tamed wolf.
Any block being held (see § Moving blocks for more information)

Behavior[]

Enderman can step up one full block without having to jump. The enderman's eyes are still visible when an enderman is under the Invisibility effect.

Endermen are hostile to endermites within 64 blocks but are passive with the others unless provoked.

An enderman can be provoked by a player or other mob attacking them by a player looking them in the eyes then looking away. They can be provoked by eye contact from up to 64 blocks away. Endermen open their mouths and begin to shake‌^{[Java Edition only]} angrily if provoked; they also make loud and lengthy sounds while being stared at. If the player continues to maintain eye contact, the enderman does not move, although it may teleport away. Once the player stops looking at the enderman, it runs toward the back of the player to attack, although it ceases if hit by another player or mob.^[2] An aggravated enderman runs fast and often teleports to the location of a player or mob up to 32 blocks away (orthogonally). Endermen are not provoked by a player viewing it through a transparent block or while wearing a carved pumpkin.

Endermen can be harmed by melee attacks, water, lava, fire, splash water bottles, or rain. They are not damaged when standing in a filled cauldron. Endermen teleport away when they take damage from any of natural sources (1), continuing to do so until they find a dry location. They also teleport while taking damage from other sources, such as suffocation, poison, or wither.

Ranged attacks are ineffective against endermen; projectiles are hard-coded to not hit them. Endermen teleport when a projectile should have hit them; arrows‌^{[Java Edition only]} and tridents appear to bounce off an enderman who is unable to teleport. In Bedrock Edition, arrows go straight through endermen that are unable to teleport.

An aggravated enderman pursues the player until it is either killed or distracted by exterior elements, such as rain or fire. They do not take damage from sunlight like undead mobs, but teleport randomly around until finding a shady spot if not already pursuing a player. During rain or daybreak, they teleport away to underground locations, such as caves. An enderman in a player's vicinity prevents the player from sleeping in a bed at night as if any hostile mob were nearby. If the player is already asleep in a bed, it is possible for an enderman to teleport on it and wake players.

The endermen's aggression range for being viewed is reduced when the player is invisible. This reduction depends on the number of armor pieces currently worn and whether the player is sneaking or not.

Detection range, in blocks, of an endermen while the player is invisible in function of the number of armor pieces worn by the player, and whether the player is sneaking or not
Number of Armor Pieces	Sneaking	Normal
0	3	4
1	8	11
2	17	22
3	26	33
4	35	44

Teleportation[]

Endermen do not teleport in the daytime if on soul sand unless they are damaged.

They play a sound exclusively at the teleportation destination.^[3]

Each teleportation attempt chooses a random destination 32 blocks along each axis (i.e. a 64×64×64 cube centered on the current position). It then seeks downward from the chosen destination, regardless of distance, until the block below is made of a movement-blocking material. The teleportation attempt succeeds if no liquid or solid blocks prevent them from standing at the destination. Thus, endermen need at least three non-solid blocks above the destination to successfully teleport, with a few exceptions such as a carpet that is not above a block made of a movement-blocking material, lily pads and snow layers stacked 10 blocks deep or more, as their materials are not flagged as blocking movement even though the blocks themselves do so. Endermen do not teleport to waterlogged blocks, unless there's a ceiling with a liquid above it.^[4]

Endermen always attempt to teleport upon taking damage. Most melee attacks are successful, but the enderman usually teleports a few blocks behind the player when hit, if there is space behind the player. Endermen can be attacked with projectiles if they are in a boat or minecart.‌^{[Java Edition only]} If all available blocks within teleport distance are removed or unavailable as a destination, it is possible to hit endermen in Java Edition with a projectile, although arrows may simply bounce off, dealing no damage. This is meant to happen.^[5] When teleporting due to damage, it makes 64 attempts to teleport.

An enderman cannot teleport while it is in a minecart or boat, although in rain and water it attempts to do so, always teleporting back repeatedly until death. This does not occur in Bedrock Edition.^[6]

Moving blocks[]

Unlike any other mobs, which cannot hold blocks except as items, endermen have a unique ability to pick up, carry and set down certain blocks. They silently^[7] pick up blocks in a 4×3×4 (xyz) region horizontally centered on the enderman and vertically encompassing it. An enderman cannot pick up blocks in a completely flat area. Endermen drop the block they are holding upon death as an item, although they do not visually let go of the block when dying.^[8]^[9] It does not despawn while holding a block. Endermen cannot place blocks onto bedrock or entities.

Endermen pick up the following blocks:

Data packs from Java Edition can change this list by modifying the minecraft:enderman_holdable block tag.

While carrying a block, the enderman sometimes silently^[10] place it in a 2×2×2 region horizontally centered on the enderman and vertically at the same level as the enderman itself if the target location is air with a non-air block beneath and the block is allowed to be placed at the target location.

Endermen can randomly breach walls, bridge fences, break redstone circuitry, set off explosions and kill themselves if they place a block of TNT on a power source and even construct golems by removing or placing blocks.

In Java Edition, users can summon an enderman holding any block (including the ones not listed above) using the carriedBlockState NBT data. For example, to summon an enderman holding a grass block with no AI where the player is standing:

/summon minecraft:enderman ~ ~ ~ {NoAI:1,carriedBlockState:{Name:"grass_block"}}

Sounds[]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Enderman vwoops	Hostile Creatures	Idling	`entity.enderman.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.enderman.ambient`	?	?	16
Enderman dies	Hostile Creatures	Dying	`entity.enderman.death`	`subtitles.entity.enderman.death`	?	?	16
Enderman hurts	Hostile Creatures	Getting Hit	`entity.enderman.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.enderman.hurt`	?	?	16
Enderman cries out	Hostile Creatures	staring	`entity.enderman.stare`	`subtitles.entity.enderman.stare`	?	?	?
Enderman screams^{[sound 1]}	Hostile Creatures	Screaming after being looked in eye or attacked.	`entity.enderman.scream`	`subtitles.entity.enderman.ambient^{[sound 1]}`	?	?	16
Enderman teleports	Hostile Creatures	Teleporting	`entity.enderman.teleport`	`subtitles.entity.enderman.teleport`	?	?	16

↑ ^a ^b MC-177523

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Translation key
Enderman	`enderman`	`entity.minecraft.enderman`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Resource location	Numeric ID	Translation key
Enderman	`enderman`	`38`	`entity.enderman.name`

Entity data[]

Endermen have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can become angry
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- carriedBlockState: Optional. The block carried by the enderman.
  - Name: The resource location of the block.
  - Properties: Optional. The block states of the block.
    - Name: The block state name and its value.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other platforms	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		Monster Hunter	Attack and kill a monster.	Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider.	15G	Bronze

Advancements[]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	`adventure/root`
Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

Video[]

History[]

Java Edition Beta
?					At first, when Notch was still designing the endermen, he thought they were not "creepy" enough, coming with the idea that having a situation that the player would want to avoid could make the enderman significantly more scary. This gave Notch the idea to implement the staring feature, where aiming the crosshair at the enderman's face would cause a suspenseful moment in which breaking eye contact would trigger an attack, as well as the enderman having the ability to teleport so that when the player has stared at the enderman, they would have to face a consequence for that action.^[11]
July 28, 2011					Notch described that enderman would be peaceful, unless you looked straight at them, then they would rush in to attack whenever you broke the gaze.^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]
August 26, 2011					In the Beta 1.8 demo at PAX, endermen dropped diamonds as a placeholder for ender pearls.
1.8		Pre-release			The enderman has been officially introduced.
					Endermen are able to pick up any full block, including bedrock and spawners.
					Endermen have green eyes and emit black smoke, they also have zombie sounds as a placeholder.
		Pre-release 2 ;)			The enderman eye color has been changed from green to purple.
					Endermen now emit portal particles, rather than smoke.
					Endermen no longer pick up unobtainable blocks including bedrock, double slabs, and spawners and also no longer pick up blocks with inventories including chests, dispensers, and furnaces but can still pick up any other full block.
		September 20, 2011			Notch indicated the block carrying was horrible and needed to be nerfed.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Before this update, endermen could be killed with the use of a bow. Now, arrows, snowballs, eggs and other ranged attacks do not hit them due to the fact that they teleport away before impact.
					Enderman now teleport away and become neutral if they are in water.
					Endermen no longer pick up any block; they are limited to certain blocks.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 3			Notch stated "Endermen suck because they're annoying, and because I nerfed them and made them too easy. I shall fix this."^[16] Because of this, endermen have been modified in this update to have 20 hearts instead of 10.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Endermen now have a realm of their own: the End, where they spawn frequently.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Endermen used to burn in sunlight, but as of this update, they instead randomly teleport around until they find a dark spot or despawn eventually. This makes it extremely hard to get close enough to kill them during daytime.
		RC1			Before the Sound Update, endermen used the sound effects of zombies as a place holder. Then, in Beta 1.9, the zombie sounds for the enderman were removed. On November 13th, 2011 endermen received their own audio scheme, most notably a long moan overlaid with static for when they are triggered hostile by the player. The noises are actually a person saying "Hi" and "Look for the eye" and "What's up" backward and distorted.^{[citation needed]}
1.3.1		12w22a			The enderman's behavior has been modified slightly. Now, the enderman stops in front of the player. When the player swings their sword, the enderman now teleports behind the player.
1.3.1		12w22a			Enderman now stalk the player when aggravated.
1.4.2		12w38a			The Enderman's sound now plays the full length sounds instead of shortened, now if the player looks at them (or they open their jaw), a static sound plays, similar to Slenderman.
1.7.2		1.7-pre			Endermen are no longer provoked when attacked by the player in creative mode.
1.8		14w06a			Endermen now pathfind as a result of their update to the new AI system.
		14w06a			Endermen now teleport after being damaged by any damage source, including suffocation damage.
		14w11a			Endermen now walk slightly faster.
					Endermen now spawn endermites when they teleport. The chance of producing one is 15%, minus 1% for each endermite already spawned. This was reverted in 14w28a.
					Endermen are naturally aggressive toward endermites.
		14w17a			Endermen are no longer hostile to non-pearl spawned endermites.
		14w28a			Endermites are no longer spawned from endermen.
1.9		15w31a			Endermen now remain aggravated toward the player despite being in contact with water.
					Endermen now drop the block they are holding when killed.
					Endermen now have an animation when attacking.
1.10		16w20a			Endermen now spawn in the Nether.
1.10		16w20a			Endermen now pick up netherrack.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from `Enderman` to `enderman`.
1.11		16w35a			Endermen are now dealt 1 damage by splash water bottles.
1.16		20w06a			The sounds of endermen are now heard at a shorter range.
		20w06a			Endermen now spawn in soul sand valleys and warped forests.
		20w07a			Endermen now pick up nylium, roots, and fungi variants.
		20w07a			Endermen no longer pick up netherrack.
		20w18a			Endermen prevent other endermen from spawning nearby in warped forests.
		20w22a			Endermen no longer despawn when holding a block.
1.16.2		Pre-release 1			Endermen no longer place their held blocks onto bedrock blocks.
1.16.2		Pre-release 2			Endermen no longer place their held blocks on entities.
1.17		20w46a			Endermen are now hostile toward all endermites, instead of just the ones spawned from ender pearls.
		21w13a			Endermen now pick up rooted dirt, flowering azaleas and flowering azalea leaves.
		Pre-release 1			Endermen no longer pick up flowering azaleas and flowering azalea leaves.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0		build 1			Added endermen.
		build 2			Endermen now have sounds.
		build 2			Endermen now teleport out of the way of projectiles.
		build 8			The enderman's attack strength is now the same as in Java.
v0.12.1		build 10			Endermen now avoid water.
v0.14.0		build 1			Endermen now drop the block they are holding when killed.
v0.15.0		build 1			Endermen now spawn in the Nether.
v0.15.0		build 1			Enderman now pick up netherrack.
v0.16.2					Endermen are now quicker, to match the Java and Console versions.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Endermen now drop ender pearls when killed.
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Endermen now spawn in the End.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		?			Endermen no longer shake with rage while aggravated.
1.2.0		?			On death, endermen now drop the block they were holding.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Endermen now spawn in soul sand valleys and warped forests.
					Endermen now pick up nylium, roots, and fungi variants.
					Endermen no longer pick up netherrack.
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.52			Endermen now pick up rooted dirt.
Legacy Console Edition
TU5	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added Endermen.
TU14		1.04			Endermen now open their mouths and shake when provoked.
TU14		1.04			Endermen now stop in front of the player. When the player swings their sword, they now teleport behind the player.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13		Endermen now spawn in the Nether, and now pick up netherrack.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added Endermen.

First image.
First image but brightened.
Second image. Endermen near village prototype.
Second image but brightened.
A green-eyed enderman from the adventure update trailer.
A green-eyed enderman looking at the player.
A green-eyed enderman at night.
A green-eyed enderman at dawn.
A preview of a haunting of endermen on the nether fortress next to a warped forest biome.
A preview of an enderman holding a warped nylium in the warped forest.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Enderman" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

The developers have stated that the belief that enderman sounds are backward distortions is just speculation.^[17]
Notch claimed in public that the enderman 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.^[18]
The collective noun for a group of endermen is "a haunting of endermen," as stated by Dinnerbone.^[19] Additionally, in the third episode of Minecraft: Story Mode, The Last Place You Look, a player is given the option to correct the grammar of other characters by specifying that the collective noun for a group of endermen is "a haunting of Endermen." In the fourth Minecraft novel Minecraft: The End, the collective term used by endermen themselves is "an End of Endermen".
Switching to spectator mode and taking an enderman's point of view adds a shader that inverts colors, suggesting that they see the End as an island of blue cobblestone (as end stone is a yellowish version of cobblestone with inverted colors) in a white sky, with white pillars, white endermen with green eyes and a white ender dragon, also with green eyes. They also see cobblestone as end stone.
The texture for an enderman's eyes is located in a different texture file than the body, allowing their eyes to glow. Because the two textures do not line up perfectly, forcing an enderman to look straight up causes its eyes to turn blank white.
The enderman teleportation sound also plays when a player teleports using an ender pearl‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} or chorus fruit.
The enderman is a playable DLC character in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an alternate costume for Steve, though with altered proportions to be at Steve's height. Additionally, there is an enderman "spirit" that makes the user vulnerable to damage by water, as are regular endermen.

Gallery[]

A haunting of endermen in a desert biome.
Three endermen in a village.
A haunting of endermen attacking a player.
Endermen in the End.
An enderman under the effects of invisibility.
Through the eyes of the enderman. Note that the "invert" shader is being used.
Enderman riding in a minecart.
As long as user's cursor does not land on an enderman's torso, a user can get fairly close to the enderman without damage.
Haunting of endermen in plains biome during the day.