Mob Menagerie: Enderman

Finding an Enderman should be easy. They’re the only mob that spawns naturally in all three of the game’s dimensions – the Overworld, the Nether, and the End. But actually they’re quite rare in the first two of those. My advice for finding one in the Overworld is to head somewhere where the terrain is relatively flat so you can see a good distance, then pillar up beyond the range of skeleton bows and wait for night time.

Once the sun sets, begin to look out in all directions. Eventually, you’ll spot one – shuffling around, perhaps with a block in its hands. But be careful with that crosshair. Endermen really don’t like it when you look directly at their face. If you do, they’ll start screaming and shaking, and as soon as you look away it’ll begin teleporting towards you and begin to attack.

They’ll also teleport in a couple of other situations. If you try to hit one with a projectile, the Enderman will zip away juuuust before it makes contact. This means that you’ll need a melee weapon to take one down. Also, Endermen don’t really like liquids or bright sunlight – if they come into contact with either, they’ll begin teleporting randomly, often ending up in caves below the surface where they lurk until it’s dark again.

You don’t have to fight Endermen, you know. These strange, tall beings will happily ignore you if you ignore them and their habit of quietly moving blocks around from one place to another. But if you want to complete the game you will need to end a few, so here are a few useful things to know.

First, Endermen hit hard – about twice as hard as a zombie. They also have twice the health of a zombie, meaning that you’ll want to be prepared before taking one on. Second, Endermen are tall enough that they won’t fit under a two-block high ceiling. You can often hide below a tree and attack one without it being able to hit back very effectively.

Finally, when ended an Enderman, they will drop any block that they’re holding as an item, and will also sometimes drop an Ender pearl – a strange object that grants the holder the Endermen’s power of teleportation, as well as access to the End dimension. That’s where you’ll find the Ender Dragon – the closest thing that Minecraft has to a final boss. So get some practice in on the Endermen, and good luck – you’ll no doubt need it.