An Enderman is a neutral mob with unique teleportation abilities, who will only attack players who look at its eyes or attacked them first. Endermen have long legs and arms, purple eyes, and sometimes it picks up individual blocks and moves them elsewhere.
Appearance
Endermen are tall, dark, and thin. They have long, skinny legs, long, skinny arms, pinkish-purple eyes, and they're about three blocks tall. They emit purple particles, which are the same as those emitted from ender pearls, End portals, and Nether portals.
Behavior
In the Overworld, endermen typically only spawn at night in groups of 1–2, but they can spawn in the Nether at any time of the day. In the End, encountering very large groups of endermen is very common. They make strange sounds when idle. Endermen wander and/or teleport around randomly, until a player attacks or "stares" at them from up to 64 blocks away. "Staring" at an enderman is defined as aiming the cross-hair at anywhere above the enderman's upper legs.[1] Once a player looks at an enderman at the right spot, it becomes hostile toward that player (unless the player is wearing a pumpkin on their head). It'll open its mouth and begin emitting a screeching-like noise, and immediately either run or teleport towards the player. An enderman won't be alerted if a player's protected by one of the methods listed below.
A large group of hostile Endermen.
As of update 1.4.2, an enderman will make a trumpet-like sound upon being provoked. The sound's similar to a loud running engine, and it's a warning for the player to brace for sudden attacks. Even if the sounds stopped, it doesn't guarantee the enderman's no longer aggressive. It may have teleported far away from a player, or become stuck somewhere (such as a nearby cave). If a player is being attacked by an enderman and at the same time, leaves the world and re-enters, the enderman may become neutral or teleport away. An aggressive enderman can be distracted from attacking a player if it is attacked by another mob, or if it's touched by sunlight. Endermen don't wander in bright areas, and will usually teleport to a cave or other covered location during the daytime.
Endermen take damage from water (including rain), fire, or lava, and will teleport away when they take most types of damage. Interestingly, they do not teleport away when coming into contact with fire or lava. If it's raining, an Enderman will teleport wildly until they teleport to a location where the rain doesn't hit them, such as into a cave, or under a tree. Endermen cannot be hit by any projectile, such as arrows, snowballs, eggs, and splash potions. They will always teleport away immediately before getting hit. However, it is possible in the console versions of Minecraft to hit an enderman with an arrow by aiming slightly above them (this works, because the cross-hair technically is not aimed at them).
Endermen will occasionally pick up blocks at random (even when aggressive), and later place them somewhere else. If an enderman is killed with a block in its hand, it will drop the block, allowing any player to pick it up. An enderman can pick up a block from any space directly adjacent to it (including above its head, or below its feet), and it can pick up some unexpected blocks, such as cacti and TNT. This makes endermen especially annoying when near a player's base or near something that is built by a player. It's also not uncommon when players see the parts of a house scattered around. If a Player is wearing a pumpkin, Endermen can sometimes pick it up which means that the player is no longer protected whilst looking at the Ender man.
Endermen will attack endermites if the endermite was spawned from ender pearl teleportation. However, if there is a player nearby, it could attack the player instead even if it is not provoked.
If an enderman attacks a player for an extended period of time and the player is able to stay alive, eventually it will stop attacking, and resume teleporting randomly. Endermen are naturally aggressive to endermites and will attack any in sight, allowing players to create a ender pearl farm by having an endermite in a minecart on a pillar with a hole underneath it. When the endermen try to attack it, they will fall to their deaths.
Protection from Endermen
An Enderman being hurt in Rain
There are several ways for a player to protect themselves from endermen:
- Build "Enderman-proof shelters." Being surrounded by a pool of water or lava is safe, as endermen return to a neutral state once damaged by water or lava.
- Building a house with a ceiling only two-blocks-tall is also effective, as Endermen require 3 block-tall spaces to fit.
- Having glass windows in a shelter is also a good idea. Staring at an Endermen through glass will not provoke them, while still allowing the player to easily see outside their shelter.
- Wearing a pumpkin in the helmet slot will allow a player to freely stare at Endermen without provoking them. Unfortunately, wearing one significantly hinders vision. However, pumpkins will not stop Endermen from attacking if they have already been provoked.
- If an Enderman is already hostile and attacking, standing in a corner could offer some protection, as the Enderman will be unable to teleport behind the player.
- If the player is able, they can build low hanging ceiling that stands two blocks high. Endermen will be unable to enter an area with less than three blocks along the y-axis. This tactic is commonly used when farming Endermen for ender pearls or experience.
- The best weapon against Endermen is surprisingly not a diamond sword, but a bucket of water.
- Put cobwebs around your base to trap them.
History
While still designing endermen, Notch thought they were not "creepy" enough, and wanted to make them significantly scarier. This gave him the idea to implement the staring feature. The idea was that it would add suspense, by forcing the player to continue staring, without breaking eye contact, or they would trigger an attack. The teleport ability was also meant to affect players with unpredictable behavior, adding extra challenge and consequences.[2]
The enderman was introduced in Beta 1.8 pre-release as part of the Adventure Update.[3][4] They were able to pick up any block, including bedrock. They had green eyes and emitted black smoke, and had zombie sounds as a placeholder. In the Beta 1.8 demo at PAX, endermen dropped diamonds as a placeholder for ender pearls.
In the release of Beta 1.8, the enderman eye color was changed to purple and they now emit portal particles instead of smoke. At some point between Beta 1.8 and Beta 1.9, endermen were "nerfed" so they could no longer pick up all blocks.
Prior to the first Beta 1.9 pre-release, endermen could be killed with the use of a bow. Since this update, arrows, snowballs, eggs, and negative splash potions will not hit or affect them. They also now teleport away and become neutral if they come in contact with water.
Endermen were modified in Beta 1.9 pre-release 3 to have 20 hearts instead of 10. In Beta 1.9 pre-release 4, they were given their own realm: the End. In 1.0.0 RC1, the zombie sounds were replaced with their own audio scheme.
In 1.7.2, endermen could no longer be provoked by the player in Creative mode. In 1.8 they now walk slightly faster and at one point spawned endermites when they teleported.
In 1.10, endermen can spawn in the Nether and pick up Netherrack.
Endermen were added to the Pocket Edition in Alpha 0.9.0.
Trivia
- If an enderman gets stuck in a cobweb, it cannot teleport away unless an arrow is shot at it, or it comes into contact with water (as both of these always trigger teleportation).
- The exact size of an enderman is 0.6×0.6×2.9 blocks.
- If an enderman dies from a cause other than water, and its body falls in water, it will still teleport immediately before death.
- When an enderman gets aggressive, it cannot fit in 3-block spaces because its head is raised.
- If an enderman picks up a partial block (such as a flower or mushroom), it will appear as if they are floating.
- Hostile endermen will move in single player mode, even when the game is paused.
- Endermen were the first three-block-tall mob ever added to Minecraft.
- If endermen get attacked by the ender dragon at the end (Not in purpose) Endermen attack back the ender dragon
- Endermen take less damage from fire and lava than they do from water.
- Endermen were the eleventh mob added to the game, and were added at the same time as jukeboxes and note blocks.
- Enderman idle noises are actually sound clips of various people saying "Hi," "Hey," "What's up?" "Hiya," "this way," "forever!" and "uh oh!", all of which are backwards. On one of the sounds, you can hear a "Look for the eye"
- When an enderman has the Invisibility effect, its eyes will still be visible.
- Endermen are inspired by the slenderman creepypasta.
- Endermen are currently the only mob that can naturally spawn in all 3 dimensions.
- In theory, it is possible for an enderman to create a Snow Golem if it happens to place two snow blocks on top of one another, and a pumpkin on top of them both. However, the chances of this randomly happening are astronomically unlikely. The same goes for iron golems.
- Skeletons can harm endermen if they happen to step into the path of a fired arrow. This will cause the enderman to become hostile toward the skeleton.
- Endermen will always drop ender pearls when killed by an Iron Golem.
- Endermen see the world in inverted colors, which can be observed by using Spectator Mode on one (currently only possible in the Java Edition). For example, to an enderman, the End has a light-colored sky, white obsidian pillars, and a white Ender Dragon.
- When faced with water, endermen can teleport through blocks, even through bedrock.
Enderman attacking Endermite.
- In the End, endermen can be found in groups larger than any other mob in Minecraft.
- Endermen will try to kill any endermite nearby, especially when the endermite is spawned from an ender pearl that was thrown.
- Endermen can be damaged by firework rockets shot from crossbows.
- Despite teleporting away from arrows shot by a player, they can still get shot by arrows shot by a skeleton
