In Defense of Minecraft's Most Hated Mob

Ask anyone what their least favourite mob in Minecraft is. Most players who have played for more than three years will say "the phantom".

Ask someone what they voted for in MineCon Live 2017 and they'll say one of two things: "I voted mob A/C/D, but that stupid phantom won. Worst choice ever" or "I voted mob B, the phantom, and seriously regret it. Worst choice ever". 

Look at any mob ranking or tiering video or post, phantoms are at the bottom tier or last ranked. 

The phantom is the mob we all love to hate. The phantom is the epitome of bad game design. The phantom is super annoying and gamebreakingly bad to the point Mojang added an option on the menu to disable phantoms spawning. The phantom needs to die and never come back.

The phantom was added in 2018.

Now let's imagine the phantom had been added in 2009, by Notch himself, alongside skeletons, zombies and creepers. Would people still hate the phantom? 

Don't get me wrong, the phantom IS annoying. But do you know what else is annoying? Going outside at night and having 7 zombies and a baby attacking me all at once. Take down one zombie and 2 more appear. I can't even move forward because I have a hoard of zombies surrounding me. There is nothing exciting or fun about this, I am just grinding through endless zombies just so I can cross the 50 block gap between my two houses.

What else is annoying? Being shot off my build by a skeleton. Being mauled by a spider that is moving so damn fast. Having an enderman take a block from my house.

What else is annoying? How about having a hole blown in my land? Having my glass shattered?? Having a hole blown in my floor or ceiling??? Having my chest blown up???? Getting insta-blown up when IT drops down on me from above in a ravine?????

ALL the night-time mobs are pretty bloody annoying. Honestly, I don't see how the phantom is any worse. Do I like phantoms? Hell no. Do I think they're the worst mob in the game? Hell no. I honestly do not think the phantom is much worse than the other mobs - it's just that we are less used to them.

If you've been playing Minecraft since the days of Beta, you will have had 7 years to get used to the zombie, skeleton, spider and creeper before the phantom crashed the party. By 2018 you were so used to these mobs they simply didn't even register with you. You've even maybe learned to like them. But what happens when the new kid joins the school after everyone's already made friends? Nobody wants them.

If the game had always had phantoms, we probably would have accepted them as much as we accept the fact creepers blow holes in our buildings and grief our land. People complain that the phantom is really annoying when travelling long distances, but so are all the other night-time mobs you have to face when travelling long distance. I never saw anyone saying Mojang needed to remove skeletons because they ruin night-time travelling. 

If creepers had been added not in 2009 but instead in 2018, I'm sure many would have simply stopped playing Minecraft. Creepers would not be the most famous and iconic and even celebrated mob in the game. It would be the most hated, hands down.

There are other qualities I like about the phantom. Firstly, when they were first added, it was the first time in years that I found a new mob genuinely frightening. It almost felt like my first night again, when I was a noob back in 2012. I liked that. I liked that the game had a new surprise up its sleeve and there was a new variety to the old usual bunch.

Also, I am a sucker for dynamic difficulty, and this feels like an element of that. After X nights, the game gets that little bit tougher. 

They also drop Phantom Membranes which make a REALLY GREAT (if not maybe a little TOO powerful) potion of Slow Falling.

All this being said, there definitely are things that maybe COULD be tweaked (but to be honest I think most night-time mobs need a bit of a rework as they are getting a little dated now). Phantoms could maybe be a little less persistent, and maybe they could hold off phantom spawning till the 4th night. Or even have them take more nights to spawn on easier difficulty settings and have 3 nights be the time for Hard mode.

So all in all, I really don't think the phantom is that bad. At least, no worse than any other night-time mob. I'll take a phantom nipping my flesh to a creeper blowing a hole in my house any day (or night).

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