Updated to 1.20
Killing an Enderman is necessary sooner or later, but damn, do they put up a fight! An Enderman can kill you in 3 hits if you don’t wear an armor, and their ability to teleport next to you makes them a very scary opponent. But it is actually possible to kill them in very safe ways, without having to worry to be hit by them.
The best and safest way to kill an Enderman is to place a Boat close to them. The Enderman will sit on the Boat and will not leave it or attack you back if you hit them. You can also wear a Carved Pumpkin as an helmet, which will let you look at them directly withouth them turning hostile.
Today we are here to see where to find an Enderman, how not to kill an Enderman, how to approach them safely and the 3 best ways to kill them. Let’s start!
How to find an Enderman
Endermen can spawn in every dimension at a light level of 7 or less (related topic: Torch spacing: how to do it efficiently in Minecraft?). They are very easy to find in the End.
If you want to find an Enderman in the Nether you should go to a Warped Forest, where they spawn more often.
In the Overworld there is not a biome where you can find more of them,. On the other hand, it will be much easier to spot them in Deserts than it would be to find them in a Jungle or in a Dark Forest: in Deserts there are not trees that will obstruct your vision and the Enderman’s black color will be in contrast with the Sand.
If you can’t find any of these biomes, you can use the locate biome command. To use commands you will need to have cheats allowed in your Minecraft world. If cheats are not allowed in your world, there is a workaround. You can check here how to still use cheats in that Minecraft world.
To find for example a Desert, you just need to open the commands and type:
/locate biome minecraft:desert
And you’ll see a message appearing with the coordinates ot the closest Desert.
Now what you have to do to get there is just closing the gap between your coordinates (that you can see by pressing F3) and the coordinates of the biome that you want to go to.
How to not kill an Enderman
You will only waste your time if you try to kill an Enderman in the following ways:
- using a Bow (related topic: How to repair a Bow in Minecraft: 4 ways to do it)
- by pouring a Bucket of Water on them
If you try to kill an Enderman either way, they will just teleport away.
How to approach an Enderman safely
Usually if you look directly at an Enderman, they will turn hostile and they will start attacking you. This doesn’t happen though if you wear a Carved Pumkin on your head.
Wearing a Carved Pumpkin also limits your visibility:
But it can be very helpful when you want to get closer to an Enderman without being attacked. It is also useful in the End, if you want to fight the Ender Dragon without being bothered by Endermen.
You can make a Carved Pumpkin by right-clicking on a regular Pumpkin while holding Shears in your hand. To craft Shears you will need 2 Iron Ingots.
Then you can wear it like every other helmet in the game.
How to kill an Enderman safely
1 – Build or carve a shelter
Endermen are 3 blocks tall, one block taller than players. You can take advantage of this difference by building (or carving on the side of a hill) a 2 blocks tall shelter.
When your shelter is ready, you just need to turn an Enderman hostile by looking at them directly. Then, while the Enderman is getting closer to you, get covered in your shelter. The Enderman will not be able to attack you or follow you inside the shelter, so they will just stand still in front of you.
Now you can hit the Enderman easily.
2 – Get in the water
Endermen get damaged if they touch water, rain included. This means that if you are followed by one of them, you can jump in a pond or in the sea or any body of water. The Enderman will not be able to follow you and will once again stay still in front of you, ready to be hit to death.
3 – Use a Boat
This method works for many other mobs too, like Zombies and Skeletons.
To craft a Boat you need 5 Wooden Planks (of any kind of wood).
If you can place a Boat in front of an Enderman, they will likely sit on it.
Once they get on the Boat, you can get close to them, look at them and attack them freely. They will keep staying on the Boat and they will not be able to attack you.
Conclusions
The best and safest way to kill an Enderman is to place a Boat close to them. The Enderman will sit on the Boat and will not leave it or attack you back if you hit them. You can also wear a Carved Pumpkin as an helmet, which will let you look at them directly withouth them turning hostile. Thank you very much for reading the article this far and I hope I’ll see you again around here. See you and take care!
