You're wandering through the tall grass at night, the moon is high, and suddenly you hear that distinct, haunting "vwoop" sound. Your heart sinks. You accidentally looked just a hair too high, and now a three-block-tall shadow is screaming and vibrating with pure rage. Learning how to kill an enderman in minecraft is basically a rite of passage. It isn't just about swinging a sword until the thing drops an eye; it’s about understanding the weird, twitchy physics of one of Mojang’s most iconic mobs.
Endermen are weird. They don't play by the same rules as zombies or skeletons. If you try to shoot them with an arrow, they just teleport away before the projectile even touches them. If you try to run, they’re faster. If you try to hide in a hole, they might just pick up the block you're hiding behind and stare you down.
Why Endermen are the Ultimate Early-Game Wall
Most players need to farm Endermen because of Ender Pearls. You can't get to the Stronghold without them. You can’t craft Eyes of Ender. You can’t finish the game. But early on, when you've only got iron armor and maybe a stone sword, an Enderman is basically a death sentence if you don't know the tricks. They hit hard—up to 10 points of damage on Hard difficulty. That’s five hearts in one smack.
The first thing you have to understand about the how to kill an enderman in minecraft struggle is their pathfinding. They are tall. Specifically, they are 2.9 blocks tall. This is their greatest weakness. While they can reach you from a distance, they can't fit into spaces where you can.
The Two-Block Ceiling Strategy
This is the "old reliable" method. It’s what speedrunners do, and it’s what you should do if you’re caught in the middle of a field with no backup.
Basically, you just need to place a few blocks over your head. If you build a 3x3 platform of dirt or cobblestone exactly two blocks off the ground, you can stand under it and be completely safe. The Enderman will run up to the edge, screaming and flailing, but because it's nearly three blocks tall, it physically cannot enter your little "safe zone." You can just stand there and hack away at its legs.
It’s almost funny how helpless they look. Just be careful not to stand too close to the edge, as their reach is surprisingly long. Stay in the center. Swing. Repeat.
Using Water as a Defensive Perimeter
Everyone knows Endermen hate water. It’s their kryptonite. When they touch a water block or even rain, they take constant damage and immediately teleport away to find dry land.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, carry a water bucket. Honestly, you should always have a water bucket on your hotbar anyway—it’s the most versatile tool in the game for MLG clutches and lava management. If an Enderman aggros on you, just dump the water at your feet. The water flows out, creating a barrier. The Enderman will keep trying to pathfind to you, hitting the water, taking damage, and teleporting.
It won’t necessarily kill them quickly, but it gives you breathing room to eat some food or get your bearings. If you want to actually get the kill, you’ll have to step out of the water, bait them in, and then retreat back into the flow. It’s a bit of a dance.
The Boat Method: The Most "Cheesy" Way to Win
If you want to know how to kill an enderman in minecraft with zero risk, use a boat. I’m serious.
Boats in Minecraft have a weirdly "sticky" hitbox for mobs. If you place a boat on the ground and an Enderman walks into it, they get stuck. They can’t teleport out. They just sit there, looking grumpy.
- Craft a boat (any wood works).
- Place it between you and the angry Enderman.
- Wait for it to "vwoop" right into the seat.
- Once it's seated, you can just stand behind it and hit it at your leisure.
Since the Enderman is trapped in the boat, its AI doesn't trigger the teleport-on-hit response. You can punch it to death with your bare hands if you really want to. This is the best way to farm pearls early on if you find a lone Enderman wandering around the Plains or Desert.
Critical Hits and Sword Enchantments
Once you move past the "hiding under a roof" phase, you'll want to kill them faster. Endermen have 40 health points (20 hearts). That’s double the health of a standard zombie.
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To take them down efficiently, you need to master the critical hit. Jump and hit the mob on your way down. You’ll see those little star particles, meaning you dealt extra damage. If you have a Sharpness IV or V Diamond sword, you can potentially two-shot an Enderman.
Fire Aspect is a controversial choice here. While it deals extra damage, the fire ticks often cause the Enderman to teleport randomly around the map. It makes the fight much more annoying because you have to keep spinning around to find where they went. Personally? I prefer a "clean" kill with high Sharpness and no fire. Looting III is also essential if you're hunting for pearls, as it significantly increases the drop rate.
Hunting in the End: The Endermite Trick
Eventually, you'll reach the End dimension. This is the motherload. There are Endermen everywhere. But fighting them one by one is slow.
If you're building an Enderman farm—which you should do for the insane XP—you use an Endermite. Endermen hate Endermites. They will prioritize attacking an Endermite over the player every single time.
By trapping an Endermite in a minecart over a deep pit, you can trick hundreds of Endermen into sprinting toward it and falling to their deaths. It’s the ultimate way to master how to kill an enderman in minecraft on a massive scale. If you're doing this manually, just remember to stay away from the edge. One knockback hit from a stray mob and you're falling into the void, losing everything.
Fighting in the Rain or Sea
Don't bother.
Seriously, if it’s raining, Endermen will be teleporting so fast and taking so much environmental damage that you’ll never consistently land a hit. The pearls will likely end up in a spot you can't reach, or the mob will despawn out of pure frustration. If you see an Enderman you want to kill and it starts raining, just let it go. It’s not worth the headache.
Similarly, if you're near an ocean, they will often teleport into the water and die naturally. The downside? You don't get the XP, and the Ender Pearl often sinks to the bottom or disappears.
The Strategy for Bedrock vs. Java
It's worth mentioning that the "feel" of the fight is a bit different depending on your version. On Java Edition, you have the attack cooldown (the little bar under your crosshair). You can't just spam click. If you spam, you do almost no damage, and the Enderman will just shred you. You have to time your swings.
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On Bedrock Edition, you can click as fast as your finger allows. This actually makes killing Endermen a bit easier because you can keep them in a "hit-stun" loop where they struggle to retaliate.
Regardless of the version, the golden rule remains: Never look them in the eye unless you are ready to fight. If you wear a Carved Pumpkin on your head, you can look at them all you want. They won't aggro. The trade-off is that your vision is severely limited by the pumpkin overlay. It's a great "safety first" method, but most experienced players find it too annoying to use for long.
Step-by-Step Summary for Your Next Encounter
To make sure you actually survive your next encounter, follow this specific progression:
- Assess the terrain: Look for a 2-block high overhang or carry a bucket of water.
- The Aggro: Look at their head to start the fight on your terms, rather than letting them sneak up on you.
- The Strike: Aim for the legs. For some reason, hitting an Enderman in the legs seems to reduce the frequency of their teleports in certain versions of the game.
- The Loot: Check the ground immediately. Ender pearls have a 50% base drop rate, so don't be discouraged if you don't get one every time.
Now that you've got the tactics down, go grab a sword and start hunting. Just keep your back to a wall and your ceiling low.
Pro Tip: If you're in the End and things get hairy, just look at the floor. If you don't make eye contact, they generally leave you alone unless you've already hit them. It’s all about controlling the "aggro." Once you master that, the Enderman stops being a nightmare and starts being a delivery service for the best fast-travel item in the game.