How to kill Creepers in Minecraft

Creepers are probably the most notorious of all Minecraft mobs. They relentlessly pursue the player before blowing up, potentially killing you in one hit whilst also doing untold damage to your buildings.

Dealing with Creepers is an important part of Minecraft, as it’s inevitable these enemies will trouble you at some point. Creepers are relatively quiet (hence the name), meaning most players will have had the harrowing experience of turning around to see one unexpectedly about to blow up.

Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to kill Creepers, and numerous other ways to mitigate the damage and prevent their attacks altogether. And we’ve got it all covered in our guide below.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to kill creepers in Minecraft, including how to kill creepers without exploding.

When do Creepers explode?

The most annoying thing about Creepers is that they will explode when they get too close to the player. Not only can this seriously harm players, but it can do damage to things in the vicinity as well.

Creepers will stop when they get within 3 blocks of a player, and start making an ominous hissing sound before changing colour, expanding and exploding. You will have exactly 1.5 seconds in between the Creeper stopping and exploding, which is the time you have to either flee from the detection radius (ie. 3 blocks), kill the Creeper or knock it back outside of the blast radius.

If you manage to get away from the Creeper before it explodes, then it will pause its explosion and start pursuing you again. The radius where Creepers pursue players is 16 blocks, so it will likely keep chasing you unless you quickly get far away.

NOTE: It actually is possible for a Creeper to explode just as you leave the explosion range, resulting in no damage. However, this needs to be timed perfectly and isn’t advisable.

How to kill creepers in Minecraft without exploding

Here are a few of our top tips of how to kill Creepers in Minecraft without them exploding.

Use a Bow and Arrow

The safest way to defeat Creepers is to use a Bow and Arrow. You can craft a bow with 3 Sticks and 3 String, which shouldn’t be hard to find. You can also get them from Skeletons, Fishing or Villagers.

Back off and pull the Bow all the way back to do more damage, before releasing the arrow and hitting the Creeper. With the most basic bow, you will kill a Creeper within 3 hits. If you have stronger weapons, this can be even less.

Attacking them from outside their 3-block explosion range obviously makes it by far the most preferable option, allowing you to take them out before any real danger strikes. If you see the Creepers in advance it is easy enough, but becomes more difficult when they ambush you unexpectedly. On these occasions, you are better served running to a safe area before picking them off.

Back off after every melee hit

If you don’t have the luxury of a Bow and Arrow at your disposal, you can still defeat Creepers with melee weapons like swords and axes. You just have to be a lot more careful about keeping your distance.

Sprint towards the Creeper and hit them whilst still moving. This will knocked them back, giving you a better chance to get away.

After every hit, you should also back off, keeping the distance more than 3 blocks. As soon as the Creeper is back within 3 blocks, strike as quickly as possible and back away again. You can land multiple hits before an explosion but don’t get greedy with this or you will come unstuck. Most basic weapons will take about 4 hits to defeat a Creeper, but it’s probably only safe to get two hits before an explosion.

Add the Knockback enchantment to your sword to make it even more effective at pushing Creepers back. This enchantment is one of the best tools of tackling Creepers, so you should try and acquire it as soon as possible.

Build a dirt tower in an emergency

Since the explosion radius of Creepers is only three blocks, you should actually hold onto some dirt blocks as a contingency plan.

If you are struggling to get away from the Creepers, or simply want to get out of their range quickly, you can jump up and place a dirt block on the ground whilst looking directly down to get elevated. Do this a few times as quickly as you can and you’ll have a little dirt-tower that will get you high enough to escape the Creepers.

They will still pursue you (unless you get really high) but they won’t explode, giving you the opportunity to safely pick them off with arrows. Alternatively, you can reduce the height of your tower so the Creepers aren’t within explosion range, but will still try and jump up to get you. When they jump, strike them with melee weapons to kill them.

Beware – if Skeletons are around, they can shoot you with their own arrows, potentially knocking you down into the range of the explosions.

Lay traps for Creepers

It’s actually a bit harder to trap creepers than the early days, since their AI update that enables them to avoid fire, lava and damaging drops. Previously, it was quite straightforward to lure them into holes, or toss a Bucket of Lava in their path to burn them. Nonetheless, it’s still possible to trap creepers with a bit of imagination.

However, you will likely to need to construct mechanisms that will force a creeper to fall against their will, like a switch-operated trapdoor or a trapdoor bridge that is released when they are walking across.

You can also build structures around the Creepers by laying blocks whilst circling them, which is a bit more risky. Just remember that most blocks will be destroyed by their blasts (with the exception of Obsidian) so don’t completely rely on them for protection.

Defend against the damage with a shield

If all is lost, then the best way of reducing damage against Creepers is to craft a shield and block the explosion with it. This works really well, as long as you don’t get completely caught by surprise.

A shield can be crafted with 6 Planks and 1 Iron Ingot. The Planks can be mixed and matched, and do not need to be the same colour. As such, it’s a relatively easy item to obtain and it will make all the difference against Creeper explosions.

Crouch down whilst raising the shield to avoid the Creeper explosion damage altogether, making shields essential if you are having trouble with Creepers. Technically they are exploding this way, but it gets rid of them without dealing any damage to you.

Other tips for dealing with Creepers in Minecraft

Here’s some more general advice for dealing with Creepers that doesn’t necessarily involve killing them.

Beware of Charged Creepers

If a creeper is hit by lightning and becomes a Charged Creeper, this makes them even more dangerous. You’ll know it’s charged by the blue energy surrounding its body (see the picture above).

Charged Creepers have twice the explosive power as normal Creepers, making them arguably the most dangerous enemies in the entire game. You can easily be killed in one hit, and the blast can level multiple nearby structures.

Otherwise, their behaviour is exactly the same so be doubly careful when you see a Creeper covered in blue.

Lure Creepers away from your buildings

The most devastating thing about Creepers is their ability to leave a carefully-crafted home in a pile of rubble.

Whilst you can use the tactics discussed above to kill Creepers before they explode, prevention is always better than cure.

Creepers are only after you, and will not explode unless they are within range of the player. Run away from anything you wish to preserve as fast as you can, and only engage with Creepers once you are out of range.

If you’re dealing with Charged Creepers, then all the more reason to get out of there, as the increased blast radius will cause huge damage.

Tame some cats to scare Creepers off

The best companions for any Creeper attack are cats and ocelots. Both of these creatures terrify Creepers, causing them to flee if the animal is within a 6-block radius.

This will give you an opportunity to pick off the Creepers as they run away with Arrows, or you can simply let them escape and breathe a sigh of relief. Cats don’t actually attack Creepers, but their mere presence is enough to send them packing.

It’s important to note that Creepers will not flee from cats and ocelots who enter the radius after the Creeper has started its explosion animation. Therefore, if you see a creeper exploding, get out of there!

Given the effectiveness of cats (or ocelots) against Creepers, you should consider collecting as many cats as possible to surround your house or village. Once tamed, cats can be told to sit down in a specific spot, essentially allowing you to create a Creeper-barrier with your cats.

Wear a Creeper head to reduce their detection range

If you get your hands on a Creeper head, this can be worn as a disguise and helps to escape Creepers.

Creepers aren’t entirely fooled by the disguise, but wearing the Creeper head will halve their detection range. This means they will have to come within 8 blocks to start chasing you, rather than the usual 16.

The problem is that Creeper heads are quite hard to acquire. A Creeper head is dropped by a Creeper who is killed by a Charged Creeper explosion. You can either wait for a thunderstorm, or create Charged Creepers yourself with a Trident.

Since you will have to allow the Charged Creeper to explode near another Creeper, you are best advised to use a shield to mitigate the damage when multiple Creepers are approaching, including at least one Charged Creeper. When the Charged Creeper explodes, a head from any nearby Creeper will be left on the ground for you to collect.

Creepers only spawn in dark, but can survive the light

You can mitigate the risks of Creepers appearing near your buildings by keeping the entire area well lit. Creepers will only spawn when the light level is 0.

Beware – this doesn’t ward them off altogether. They can still spawn away from the light and then later walk into well-lit areas. Therefore, you should not be lured into a false sense of security. Unlike some hostile mobs, they will survive during the daytime.

A well-lit area will at least stop the Creepers spawning right on your doorstep, and hopefully give you a head-start to deal with them.

That’s all of our tips of how to kill Creepers in Minecraft. Hopefully you will be able to get the better of these frustrating hostile mobs and protect your buildings in the process. For more Minecraft hints and tips, check out the articles below.