Creeper

Creepers are one of the main antagonists in Minecraft. They are one of the most unique and iconic hostile mobs found within the game. A creeper can easily be recognized by its tall vertical structure (roughly the size of a player), its pixelated body covered in a range of greens to whites, and its four legs. It is one of the most dangerous mobs in the game, as it is not affected by sunlight like zombies and skeletons (but it can despawn after a while) and will always remain hostile (unlike the spider, which becomes neutral in daylight). This makes it a constant threat as it silently roams the map, searching for an unknowing player to explode upon. It should be noted, however, that most creepers do despawn during the day, along with spiders. It is often used as the game's mascot by Mojang.
==Origin==
The creeper was accidentally created by Notch, the creator of Minecraft. While Notch was trying to create the first-ever passive mob, the pig, a coding mistake was made, and he accidentally swapped the height and lengths of the pig's build. As a result, he got a tall, slim being with the face and torso in the shape of a player instead of a pig. With no arms and 4 stubby legs, this creature became known as the creeper, a mob that explodes within a distance from the player. It is one of the most recognizable Minecraft mobs and characters, another example being Steve.
==Behavior==
A creeper who has sighted a player within 16 blocks will creep up on that player until the distance between them is only a few blocks. It should be noted that creepers tend to walk to the right of a player. The creeper makes use of a suicide-bomb-like attack involving getting within close proximity of a player (usually 2-3 blocks) before exploding. A player's only warning to when the creeper is about to explode is a very distinctive hiss, as well as the swelling and white flashing of the creeper itself (similar to the animation by a lighted TNT), which starts about 1-2 seconds prior to the explosion. If a player tries moving away when a creeper is hissing, it will cancel the detonation; however, the harder the difficulty, the further away a player has to get. It takes three full seconds for the creeper to detonate. After it explodes, it will leave a large crater in the ground, ejecting all of it's shell and equipment to cause further damage. The size of this crater is solely dependent on what the terrain is made from. Typically, a hole in the topsoil is created; however, they can be powerful enough to destroy stone. A creeper's explosion won't create a crater if the creeper is in a water source, but it can still damage nearby mobs.
When a creeper is killed by an arrow shot by a skeleton, it will drop a random music disc, which can be played in a jukebox. It doesn't matter what dealt most of the damage, as long as the last blow was the arrow of a skeleton. Creepers cannot use doors although they can climb ladders and vines despite not having any arms, being the only hostile mob who can do this.
If a creeper has been inflicted with a status effect, it will leave that effect behind on the ground, similar to lingering potions.
Creeper drop 0-2 gunpowder, which is used to craft TNT, but only when killed from damage caused by players. A creeper who is killed by its own explosion drops nothing.
==Charged Creepers==
If struck with lightning, a creeper will become a "Charged Creeper". Charged creepers are stronger, and they have a larger blast radius than a normal creeper. They also have a visible, electric aura surrounding them.
===Attack Strength===
*Easy: 
*Normal: 
*Hard: 
==Strategy==
Creepers can be somewhat formidable foes when encountered as their stealth gives them the upper hand. Creepers are slow, and they will also reverse their detonation time if a player leaves their range. This can be used to a player's advantage in melee combat. A player can simply hit the creeper with their sword and then quickly back away before the creeper detonates which lets a player get at least two hits in before having to retreat. If this process is repeated, a creeper can be easily defeated. This is easily done by all players, even those who have started a new world.
The most effective and safest way to eliminate a creeper is to simply use a bow as ranged combat will surmount the creeper's slow speed. A player would need at least three arrows with a regular bow; however, this can be minimized with enchantments. Another effective way is to light the ground on fire with a flint and steel and lead the creeper up to it, or simply right-click the creeper and detonate it, but the player must run away as the detonation will not be cancelled if done by this method, and if the player chooses this strategy they will gain nothing, as creepers don't drop gunpowder when they explode. A player may also use a shield if they find themselves cornered. However, they must block at the right time, since the player will most likely die if they block too late.
==Tips==
*When in underground ravines when mining, be careful to make sure that creepers don't jump down on you from ledges. Whenever possible, try to minimize contact with creepers until a player has a ranged weapon, such as a bow, in order to fight them with. If a player only has a sword and a creeper does attack a player, move backward as well as moving either left or right while slashing to maximize the distance between the creeper. If a player has a sword enchanted with Knockback, the sword will knock the creeper several blocks backward depending on the level of enchantment, thus retreating and attacking again will no longer be needed (this can also be done by sprint-hitting the creeper). It is possible to prevent a creeper from exploding, by moving away from the creeper fast enough. The range of a creeper is determined by a player's difficulty mode.
*It should be noted that creepers do spawn unexpectedly and prowl silently, so it is not recommended to go out at night without protection. Look for an area where creepers cannot reach a player before quitting the game to ensure one doesn't sneak up on them when they return.
*Fighting creepers in water also gives a player an advantage, since they can swim faster than the creeper and easily knock it out of detonation range. Creepers can't do damage to structures or players if the creeper is in water.  A player can have a similar advantage if they get the higher ground while fighting on land.
*The more further away a player is, the shorter damage will be taken. The damage can be reduced also by blocking with a sword (or a shield in 1.9 or higher).
*If a player is blocking with a shield while a creeper is exploding, the player will take no damage.
*Creepers are theorized to be plant-animal creatures. Even Notch stated that Creepers are similar to dead grass.
==Trivia==
*If a skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, or another creeper is killed by a charged creeper, the mob will drop its head; however, this is capped at one head per explosion.
*In hard difficulty, a creeper does 27 hearts of damage with full clean diamond armor, 9 1/2 hearts with full protection IV diamond armor, and 5 hearts with full blast protection diamond armor.
*If you sprint/run through a creeper's body in survival mode, it will start the detonation process of the creeper. If the player has no movement status effects (speed, jump boost etc.) then the creeper will explode. The explosion will most likely propel the player forward if they are sprinting, otherwise the explosion will damage or kill the player.
*If one displays the ambience sound Cave14.ogg ("steaming sound") as a wikipedia:en:spectrogram, a creeper face can be seen.
*Like spiders, the creeper can survive sunlight, but unlike spiders, creepers stay hostile even during the day.
*A creeper's explosion is less powerful than TNT; however, a charged creeper's explosion is more powerful than TNT.
*You can hear grass steping sounds not caused by you when inside your house, that means a creeper is creeping around somewhere near your home.
*The Charged Creeper, on Hard Mode, could kill the Ender Dragon in two shots on the latter's he
*The creeper gets its name because it creeps up behind people, and then explodes.
*Iron Golems don't attack creepers (in versions 1.7.10 and earlier) because of the explosion damaging the village, but if a creeper gets in an iron golem's way, the iron golem could attack the creeper, making it blow up. In 1.8, however, iron golems will attack creepers anyway.
**This can be prevented by using the /gamerule mobGriefing false command.
*Creepers will try to jump on top of a player if they are above them. They explode when they land on top of a player.
*If a user summons a creeper with the NBT tag,{ExplosionRadius:127}, then the explosion will affect a ton of blocks, making the terrain look rugged when leaving the epicenter. But after a certain distance, the terrain will look completely normal.
*Creepers are scared of ocelots and cats, and when a creeper spots one, it will deliberately try to flee from wherever the ocelot or cat is, ignoring a player completely, so it is highly recommended that if a player must explore at night, a cat or leashed ocelot is brought along.
*Charged creepers will do up to 49 (x 24.5) damage on easy, 97 (x 48.5) damage on normal, and roughly 145 (x 72.5) damage on hard.
*When people asked what the texture of a creeper would be like, Notch said: "crunchy, like dry leaves"https://twitter.com/notch/status/27464490580 - Notch on Twitter. This leads to the assumption that they are part plant. This is actually viable because, in the plant world, there is a plant called peat moss which grows spores that explode violently.
*If a creeper explodes in water, no damage will be done to the surrounding blocks. Damage can still be done to other mobs if they are close enough, but will not damage a player with no armor on.
**Players can take advantage of this by allowing a creeper to explode in the water near them, throwing them a certain distance. This distance is greatest vertically if the creeper is directly below a player when it detonates.
*If a creeper stands on a slab, only that slab would explode.
*Creepers used to explode when attacked in creative mode, back in Minecraft 1.2.5.
*There is a glitch where sometimes the creeper will suddenly stop chasing a player, and start walking around in circles, oblivious to a player. The only way of getting the creeper to stop "spinning" is to hit it.
*As of version, 1.6 players can "ignite" a creeper with flint and steel.
*Wolves will not attack creepers. Instead, they will flee until the creeper has been dealt with.
*On some shirts in the Jinx store featuring creepers, a block of TNT is shown inside the head or torso of the creeper (the shirt has now been removed, but other apparels there link creepers with TNT). It is unknown if this is actually how creepers work, but would explain why they drop gunpowder.
*A boat with a sail made of green and black wool blocks, arranged to look like the face of a creeper, can be found in the PS3, Xbox 360 and PS4 tutorial worlds (this is outdated as the tutorial worlds have been updated multiple times, so the boat is no longer present).
*There used to be an old cartoon-like sound when the creeper exploded.
*Creepers have half the fuse time of TNT.
*When an anvil drops on a creeper, the former will prevent most damage from the latter's explosion.
*If a player clicks on a creeper in Spectator Mode it will provide a player with the creeper vision. Everything in the creeper vision is green and a little more pixelated.
*The aura surrounding the charged creeper will still be visible even if the creeper has an Invisibility potion effect.
*In Minecraft 1.8, mobs used to run away from creepers when they were about to explode. This was removed in the Minecraft 1.8.1 update, due to it making the game laggy.
*A creeper's fuse countdown will last longer if the creeper is stuck in a cobweb.
*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 to how rubbing two sticks makes fire."https://twitter.com/i/status/408694324927676416 - Dinnerbone on Twitter
*In the Survival Test version of Minecraft, creepers jumped around and attacked the player with a melee attack, only exploding upon death.
*A creeper's face can be seen on the back of a Cleric villager's apron.
*There is a creeper on one of the paintings.
*The Creeper, when it was first added, did not have any color to its texture.
*A Charged Creeper can do enough damage to excavate a large hole. 
*In Minecraft: Story Mode, Creepers are charged for an unknown reason in season 2 and they can be seen in the forest being sucked in the tractor beam. 
==Gallery==
==Video==
File:Creepers - Minecraft Micro Guide
File:Minecraft Mobs Creeper
File:Creeper Explosion - Slow Motion|A slow motion video of a Creeper exploding
==References==
Category:Overworld Mobs
Category:Hostile Mobs
Category:Overworld
Category:Entity
Category:Explodable