Enderman

An **Enderman** is a *Minecraft* mob who, when a Player looks above its legs, will attack that player (with the only exception being if the player wears a Pumpkin), has long legs, purple eyes and can also pick up Blocks and move them around.

## Appearance

Endermen are tall, dark, and thin. They have long, skinny legs and arms, and loving eyes. They are about three blocks tall. They emit purple particle effects, which are the same as those emitted from Ender Pearls, end portals and Nether Portals.

## Behavior

Endermen will wander and will start to teleport around randomly, until a player attacks or "stares" at them at under 65 blocks.  "Staring" at an enderman is defined as aiming the cross hair at the enderman's head.[1] Once a player looks at an enderman in the right spot, it becomes hostile toward them (unless the player is wearing a pumpkin head). It will open its mouth and run or teleport to the player. An enderman will not be alerted if a player is protected by a method listed below.

As of 1.4, the enderman will make a sound upon being provoked. The sound sounds similar to a loud running engine and is a warning to brace for sudden attacks. Even if the sounds have stopped, it does not guarantee that the enderman is no longer aggressive. It may have teleported far away from a player, or gotten stuck somewhere such as a nearby Cave. If a player leaves the world and then come back while being attacked by an enderman, it may have calmed down or teleported away. An aggressive enderman can be distracted from attacking a player if it is attacked by another mob, or if it is touched by sunlight. Endermen don't like sunlight, and will usually teleport to a cave or other covered location during the daytime.

Endermen will take damage from both Water (including rain) and Fire or Lava, and will teleport away when they take most types of damage, but interestingly, they do not teleport away when coming into contact with fire or lava. If is raining, an enderman will teleport wildly until they teleport to a location where the rain doesn't hit them, most likely to a cave. Endermen cannot get hit by any type of projectile including arrows, snowballs, eggs, and negative splash potions. They will always teleport away immediately before getting hit. However, it is possible in the console versions of the game to hit an enderman with an arrow by aiming slightly above them so they don't teleport from being looked at.

Endermen will occasionally pick up blocks at random times (even when aggressive), and then later place them somewhere else. If the enderman is killed with a block in its hand it will drop it. 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. If a player is wearing a pumpkin head, an Enderman might even take off the pumpkin.

Endermen will attack Endermites (if the endermite was spawned from ender pearl teleportation) as long as there isn't a survival mode player nearby, in which case it prioritizes a player, even if it is not provoked.

If an Enderman attacks a player for an extended period of time, so long as neither of you have died, eventually it will stop attacking you and start teleporting randomly.

As of The Frostburn Update (for PC) and *Minecraft: Pocket Edition* 0.15.0, endermen can spawn in the Nether, making it almost impossible to avoid encountering endermen.

## Protection from Enderman

There are several ways to protect against enderman attacks. First, build "Enderman Proof Shelters", such as a pool of water or lava, as enderman will return to a neutral state once damaged by water or lava. A player can also build a two block tall house, as enderman cannot fit into a house too short.

The best method, however, to protect against from endermen is to prevent them from attacking altogether. The simplest method is to wear a pumpkin in the helmet slot; while it significantly hinders vision, endermen will not be provoked by staring. Pumpkins will not stop endermen from attacking if they have already been provoked. In bases, having windows made out of glass is also a good idea, as glass will block the staring.

If an enderman is already hostile and attacking, then being in a corner could potentially be a good idea, as the enderman will not be able to teleport behind one. After one has cornered themselves, remember that the best weapon against an enderman is surprisingly not a Diamond Sword, but rather, a Bucket of water.

## History

* In snapshot 14w11a, their movement speed was lowered.
* The enderman was introduced in Beta 1.8, as part of the Adventure Update.
* Endermen would burn in sunlight until the 1.9 pre-release 4.
* At first, when Notch was still designing the endermen, he thought that they were not "creepy" enough, coming up with the idea that having a situation which a player would want to avoid could make the endermen significantly scarier. This gave Notch the idea to implement the staring feature where aiming the crosshairs on the enderman's face would cause a suspense in which breaking eye contact would trigger an attack, as well as the enderman having the ability to teleport, so that when a player stares at the enderman, they will have to face the consequences. Also, when looking at an enderman, its mouth will open and its eyes turn to a pure bright violet color, as well as the mouth looking like it goes through the whole head, makes it even creepier.
* In the Beta 1.8 demo at PAX, endermen dropped diamonds as a placeholder.
* Endermen originally had green eyes and a smoke particle effect. The release of Beta 1.8 changed the eyes to purple, and the smoke particles have been replaced with purple particles, similar to the particles emitted from Nether Portals.
* In Beta 1.8 Pre-releases, endermen were able to pick up any block, including bedrock.
* Before the Sound Update, endermen used zombie sounds as a place holder. On November 13, 2011, endermen received their own audio scheme, most notably a long moan overlaid with static.
* The End dimension was not actually added until Beta 1.9.pre4frequently.
* Endermen were modified in Beta 1.9pre3 to have 40 hp (instead of 20), requiring 6 hits from a diamond sword to defeat. That, when combined with their teleportation aspect, gives players more incentive to be careful around endermen.
* Before Beta 1.9 pre-release, endermen could be hit by projectiles.
* Endermen were added to Pocket Edition in 0.9.0.
* When endermen were first added to Pocket Edition, they were actually attracted to water, and then later changed to be afraid of water and rain.
* When faced with water, endermen can teleport through blocks, even through bedrock.

## Light Blue/Green Enderman

This is a very very rare enderman to find, but apart from the color, this enderman have not other special abilities.

## Farlander White Enderman

This was a mob that was in the Devtest version, was a variant white of the Enderman.