Enderman in Minecraft: Safe Fights and Ender Pearls
Endermen attack when you look at their face. How to fight one safely under a two-block roof, which blocks they steal, and getting ender pearls for the End.
Endermen are tall, black neutral mobs that leave you alone until you look at their face or hit them. Then they scream, teleport around you and hit hard. They’re the main source of ender pearls, which you need for eyes of ender to find the End portal.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 40 (20 hearts) |
| Attack | 4.5 / 7 / 10.5 (Easy / Normal / Hard) |
| Behavior | Neutral |
| Spawns | Overworld at light level 0, Nether (warped forest mostly), the End everywhere |
| Drops | 0-1 ender pearl (+1 per Looting level), held block; 5 XP |
What sets them off
An enderman turns hostile if you attack it, or if you look at its head for a quarter of a second from up to 64 blocks away. Anywhere on the head counts, even the back. In Java, sneaking or Invisibility shortens that range. Wearing a carved pumpkin on your head stops the stare from counting at all, which is why people wear one in the End.
They’re also aggressive toward endermites, which is how pearl farms in the End lure them in.
Fighting one safely
Angry endermen hit for 7 damage on Normal and keep teleporting behind you. You have a few clean options:
- Get under a two-block-high roof. Endermen are almost three blocks tall and can’t follow you into a two-high gap. Dig into a wall, and hit their legs when they come close.
- Stand in water or next to it. Water hurts them, and they teleport away from it. A water bucket at your feet ends most fights.
- Use melee, not arrows. They dodge arrows and tridents by teleporting. Snowballs are absorbed with no effect.
- In Java, stare back. Holding eye contact with an angry enderman from inside 16 blocks freezes it in place, though it still screams.
Rain also hurts them: during a storm they keep teleporting until they find shelter.
Ender pearls
Each kill drops zero or one ender pearl, and Looting raises the maximum by one per level. Pearls let you teleport by throwing them, and combined with blaze powder they make eyes of ender, which point the way to a stronghold. You need 12 eyes at most to fill a portal.
The End is the best farming spot: endermen spawn there in groups of four across every island, day and night. Many players build an XP farm there after beating the Ender Dragon.
In the Nether, warped forests are thick with them and are the only biome where you’ll see them in large numbers. Trading with piglins is the other main pearl source.
Moving blocks
Every enderman can pick up certain blocks: grass, dirt, sand, gravel, clay, flowers, mushrooms, pumpkins, melons, cactus, TNT, mycelium, podzol, mud and a few others. They carry the block and occasionally put it down somewhere else. Kill one holding a block and you get that block, even grass blocks you’d otherwise need Silk Touch for.
Endermen holding a block don’t despawn. If chunks of your dirt house keep disappearing, that’s why; set the mob griefing game rule to false (mob_griefing on Java 1.21.11+, mobGriefing on Bedrock) or build with blocks they can’t take.
Edition notes
Endermen spawn in groups of up to four in Java and up to two in Bedrock. In Bedrock they also teleport randomly at any time and whenever something hits them. Java endermen chase you indefinitely while loaded; Bedrock ones eventually lose interest.
Common questions
How do you stop endermen getting angry?
Don't look at their head, or wear a carved pumpkin, which lets you look at them safely. Sneaking reduces the range at which a stare counts in Java.
Why do endermen take blocks?
They randomly pick up certain blocks like grass, dirt, sand, flowers and pumpkins and place them elsewhere. A carried block drops when the enderman dies.
Can you shoot an enderman with a bow?
Not normally. Endermen teleport away from arrows and tridents. Melee works, and splash potions still land.
Sources & verification
Facts on this page are checked against these references and in-game behavior for the stated edition(s). how we verify.
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