What is an enderman?
The enderman is a tall, thin, black mob with purple eyes that spawns in every dimension of Minecraft. It stands about three blocks high, leaves a trail of purple particles, and teleports with a loud “vwoop” sound. Most of the time it wanders around minding its own business and occasionally picks up a block of dirt or sand. It only becomes a problem when you look at it.
Endermen are neutral mobs. They do not hunt the player the way zombies or skeletons do. But once one is angry at you, it is fast, it hits hard (7 damage on Normal difficulty, or 3.5 hearts), and it teleports behind you every few seconds, so early-game players tend to die to endermen more often than the mob’s reputation suggests.
The reason anyone deliberately fights them is the ender pearl. Pearls let you teleport, and combined with blaze powder they become eyes of ender, which are the only way to locate and open the portal to the End. Every playthrough that reaches the dragon goes through endermen first.
Where endermen spawn
Endermen are one of the few mobs that spawn naturally in all three dimensions, and where you find them changes how many you find.
Overworld
In the Overworld, endermen spawn in the dark like any other hostile mob. Since version 1.18 that means a block light level of 0, so lit-up areas never spawn them. They are rarer than zombies and creepers and usually show up alone or in pairs. Because they are almost three blocks tall, they need three blocks of vertical clearance to spawn, which is why you rarely see one in a low cave tunnel but often see them standing in open fields at night.
Endermen do not burn in sunlight. When morning comes they do not die off the way zombies and skeletons do; they teleport around randomly and eventually despawn like any other mob out of range.
Nether
The Nether has a lot of endermen if you know where to look. Warped forests are their home biome, and it is common to find a dozen or more standing among the warped fungi. They also spawn in soul sand valleys and nether wastes, though in smaller numbers. A warped forest is one of the easiest places in the game to farm pearls early because the biome has almost no other hostile mobs to get in the way.
The End
The End is where endermen really live. They spawn in large groups across the main island and the outer islands, and other than the dragon and the shulkers inside end cities, they are the only mob you will meet there. Walking across the End with your crosshair up is a good way to aggro five of them at once, so most players either wear a carved pumpkin or keep their view pointed at the ground. See the guide to the End for what else to expect on arrival.
How endermen behave
Neutral until you look at them
An enderman becomes hostile in two situations: when you attack it, or when your crosshair rests on its head or upper body while you are within 64 blocks. When it is provoked it opens its mouth, starts shaking, and makes a long screeching sound. From that point it will chase and teleport after you until one of you dies, it takes water damage, or you get far enough away.
Looking at its legs does not trigger it. That is the basis of the “look at the feet” advice that veteran players give: keep your crosshair low when passing through a group and they will stay calm. It works, but it is easy to slip, so a carved pumpkin is the safer option. Wearing a carved pumpkin in your helmet slot means you can stare directly at endermen without provoking them. The trade-off is the pumpkin overlay covering most of your screen, and no armor value in that slot.
Teleporting
Endermen teleport constantly. They teleport at random while wandering, they teleport when they take damage from water, and when they are hostile they teleport toward you to close distance, often landing directly behind you. Each teleport can move them up to 32 blocks in any direction, always onto a solid block with enough room.
They also teleport away from projectiles. An arrow, trident, or snowball fired at an enderman almost never connects, because the enderman blinks out of the way as the projectile arrives. Bows are close to useless against them, which is the main reason enderman fights happen up close.
Picking up blocks
Endermen can pick up a limited set of blocks and carry them around. The list is mostly natural loose material: dirt, grass blocks, sand, red sand, gravel, clay, cactus, melons, pumpkins, flowers, mushrooms, and TNT among others. They cannot pick up stone, cobblestone, logs, planks, or anything you would normally build a house from, so the fear that an enderman will disassemble your base is mostly a myth. What they can do is leave a random dirt block on your roof or pull one out of your garden path. An enderman holding a block places it back down somewhere else later, and if you kill one while it is carrying a block, the block drops as an item.
Water and rain
Water hurts endermen. Standing in water, getting rained on, or being hit by a splash water bottle deals damage and makes the enderman teleport away immediately. This has two practical consequences. First, endermen are rare in the Overworld during rain because they keep teleporting out of it. Second, water is your best emergency tool. If an enderman is chasing you, jumping into a lake or placing a water bucket at your feet ends the fight, because it cannot follow you in and will teleport off as soon as it touches the water.
Endermen and endermites
Endermen hate endermites. When an endermite is nearby, endermen within range will target it and attack it instead of you. Endermites have a small chance (about 5 percent) to spawn where a thrown ender pearl lands, which is a mild annoyance during normal play and a very useful mechanic for building enderman farms in the End, where an endermite trapped in a minecart pulls endermen into a killing chamber.
How to fight an enderman safely
An enderman has 40 health (20 hearts), which is twice a zombie. Its attack deals 4.5 damage on Easy, 7 on Normal, and 10.5 on Hard. With no armor, three hits on Hard will kill you. With iron armor and a diamond sword it is a manageable fight; with nothing but a stone sword it is worth avoiding until you are better geared.
The two-block roof trick
This is the single most reliable way to kill endermen and it has worked since the mob was added. Endermen are just under three blocks tall, so they cannot enter any space that is only two blocks high. If you stand in a spot with a solid block two blocks above your head (a mined-out tunnel, a doorway, the underside of a tree, or three blocks you place yourself), a hostile enderman cannot reach you. It will teleport around outside, trying to get in, while you swing at its legs from safety.
The steps are simple. Dig or build a pocket that is two blocks tall, step into it, and look at an enderman to make it angry. When it teleports up to you, hit it. It cannot get close enough to attack back. Repeat until it dies and its pearl drops at your feet.
Boats
Endermen that teleport into a boat get stuck in it. A boat placed in an open area in the End or a warped forest will eventually catch an enderman that blinks into it, and once seated it cannot teleport out. You can then kill it at your leisure. This is more of a trick than a strategy, but it is a fun way to collect pearls without a fight.
Other tips
- Fight in the rain or next to water. The enderman keeps teleporting away, which gives you breathing room, though it also makes the kill take longer.
- Do not bother with a bow. The enderman dodges almost every shot.
- A sword with Looting increases pearl drops, and Sharpness speeds up the kill. Smite does nothing here, because endermen are not undead.
- Keep your back to a wall. The most dangerous thing an enderman does is teleport behind you while you are looking for it.
- If you are on a high ledge in the End, back away from the edge before you fight. Endermen hit hard enough to knock you into the void.
What endermen drop
Each enderman drops zero or one ender pearl when killed by a player, plus 5 experience. Looting adds up to one extra pearl per level, so a Looting III sword can drop as many as four pearls from a single enderman. If the enderman was holding a block, that block drops as well.
Pearls do not drop if the enderman dies to something other than a player, such as water or fall damage, and endermen killed by other mobs do not drop XP either. Any farm you build needs the final hit to come from you.
Ender pearls and eyes of ender
The ender pearl is the reason endermen matter. Thrown from your hand, a pearl teleports you to wherever it lands, at the cost of 5 damage (2.5 hearts) on arrival. Pearls stack to 16, have a one-second cooldown, and are the fastest way to cross a ravine, escape a fight, or climb a cliff you did not bring blocks for. Careful players use them in the End to reach the outer islands without building a bridge across the void.
Combine one ender pearl with one blaze powder in the crafting grid and you get an eye of ender. Throw an eye of ender in the Overworld and it flies toward the nearest stronghold, then drops back down (or shatters, about one time in five). Follow enough eyes and you find the stronghold; inside it is the end portal, which needs up to 12 eyes of ender placed in its frame blocks to activate. That is why the standard pre-dragon checklist calls for something like 12 to 20 pearls: enough to fill the portal with some left over for the search.
Eyes of ender also craft ender chests (one eye surrounded by eight obsidian), which give you a personal inventory you can open from any ender chest in the world. If you would rather not fight for pearls, expert-level cleric villagers sell them for emeralds, and piglins in the Nether will barter ender pearls for gold ingots.
Once you are through the portal, the ender dragon fight is next, and after it, end cities and their shulkers are the reason to keep exploring.
Common mistakes
The mistake most new players make is panicking when an enderman opens its mouth. Running into the open is the worst response, because the enderman is faster and will teleport ahead of you. Backing into a two-block gap, or simply into water, ends the danger.
The second mistake is trying to fight in the End without a pumpkin or without keeping the crosshair down. One angry enderman is fine. Four angry endermen, on an island with a void on every side, while a dragon is breathing on you, is how most first End trips end.
The third is building a base with lots of dirt and sand exposed and then being surprised when holes appear. Endermen do not target your builds, but they will grab loose dirt if it is the nearest pickable block. Cobblestone, stone bricks, and planks are all safe.
Java vs. Bedrock
Enderman behavior is nearly identical between Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. Both versions have the look-to-aggro rule, teleporting, water damage, the carved pumpkin exemption, and the same health and drops. The two-block roof trick works on both, and enderman farms in the End are the standard XP farm on both. The exact list of blocks an enderman can pick up is not the same on the two editions, so if you are relying on that list for a build, test it on your own version. For everything a normal player does, the advice in this article applies to either edition.
Frequently asked questions
Why do endermen attack when you look at them?
Looking at an enderman’s upper body with your crosshair, from within 64 blocks, counts as provoking it. This is hard-coded behavior with no in-game explanation. Looking at its legs does not count, and wearing a carved pumpkin on your head disables the trigger entirely.
Can endermen pick up any block?
No. They can only pick up a short list of natural blocks such as dirt, grass, sand, gravel, clay, cactus, pumpkins, melons, flowers, mushrooms, and TNT. They cannot pick up stone, cobblestone, logs, planks, or ores, so a normal house is safe.
Do endermen take damage from water?
Yes. Water, rain, and splash water bottles all damage endermen and force them to teleport away. Standing in water is the easiest way to escape one.
How many ender pearls do you need for the End?
The end portal has 12 frame blocks, and each needs an eye of ender, though some frames generate with eyes already in them. Plan on 12 to 20 pearls so you have extra for throwing eyes to locate the stronghold, since a thrown eye can shatter.
Can you hit an enderman with an arrow?
Almost never. Endermen teleport away from incoming projectiles, so bows, crossbows, and tridents are not practical against them. Use a sword.
Why do endermen make that scream?
The long screech is the sound an enderman makes when it becomes hostile toward you. If you hear it, an enderman has been provoked and is coming, even if you cannot see it yet.
Where is the best place to farm ender pearls?
Before the End, a warped forest in the Nether has the most endermen and the fewest other threats. After the End is open, a farm on the main End island using an endermite or a raised platform is the standard way to get pearls and XP in bulk.
Bringing it together
The enderman rewards calm play. Keep your crosshair down when you do not want a fight, stand under a two-block ceiling when you do, and keep a water bucket on the hotbar in case it goes wrong. Do that and the pearls come easily, and the trip to the End becomes a matter of when rather than if.
