Creepers.... Are They a BAD Mob???

I knew what a creeper was before I knew what Minecraft was.

I didn't know where they came from, but I knew what a creeper looked like, that it was called a creeper, that they exploded, and that they were a huge internet meme.

The creeper has been woven into the fabric of Minecraft's existence since the very start. So much so that even the logo of the game has a creeper face on it. Show the creeper face to almost anyone and they will recognise it. It's basically Minecraft's logo at this point. Those eyes with that blocky frowny face. There is absolutely no denying creepers are Minecraft's icon. Creepers are so iconic in fact, they are basically exempt from changes to their appearance or behaviour. Even the developers don't dare touch the creeper.

But creepers didn't get their status and reputation for standing around looking pretty. Creepers are not the Kardashians. They are an insanely powerful force of destruction. The creeper keeps players who have been playing for 10 years and know every block, mob stat, status effect, item, crafting recipe and biome off by heart... on their toes. Established hardcore players know well that one hiss and it can all be over. By the time the unsuspecting noob learns lesson 101, "never dig straight down", they've already learned lesson 100: NEVER HUG A CREEPER. Whether it's your first ever night in the world of Minecraft, or you've been playing since brick pyramids were a thing, hearing that hiss is a heart-stopping moment. And this is definitely a good thing. There definitely needs to be that WELL-KNOWN danger in Minecraft that always keeps you on your toes.

Creepers are THE icon of Minecraft. They can scare and even KILL veteran players. They end hardcore worlds all over the world. They have such an incredibly distinct design and attack... surely the creeper is by far the best mob in the game.

Right?

An Alternate Universe

Imagine an alternate reality where in 2009, Notch never screwed up the model of a pig. As such, the creeper never existed and was never woven into the fabric of the game. The Zombie went on to become the iconic mob of Minecraft, the zombie face appearing all over its merchandise, and even in its logo.

Would the game really be missing all that much? Would you be saying to yourself "damn, I wish there was a new monster at night which could sneak up on me, explode, do MASSIVE amounts of damage, possibly kill me in one blast, leave holes all over the world, damage my builds, blow holes in my floors and ceilings, and blow up my chests!"? 

Creepers definitely do add to the fear factor of the game, ESPECIALLY in ravines, but really... would the game REALLY be that different in the long run?

Now imagine in this alternate universe, the creeper was eventually added... but in 2021. The Caves & Cliffs update. How well would THAT go down? Not only would it violate all the modern design principles the developers have laid out, I can imagine people would genuinely HATE the mob. I mean, look at Phantoms. In terms of power and potential to ruin your world, they have NOTHING on the creeper. And yet they were so hated and so complained about, Mojang had to actually add an option to disable their spawning. Heck, even streaky iron was so hated it was reverted. F in chat for streaky iron please. I have absolutely no doubt that if a silent explosive mob was added this late on, it would be nerfed. HEAVILY. It would be more of a pop than a super deadly explosion. It would take at most 3 hearts, and may be specially coded to reduce explosion griefing. Or even have it not grief the terrain and builds at all. Essentially, it would be much more balanced and in-line with other mobs.

And yet people would probably still hate it and it would join the phantom as an option to remove. We accept the creeper because it has ALWAYS been in the game.

The Creeper's Stats are Totally Busted

If you look at its stats, they are SUPER broken. Here are some mob attack damages on Normal mode, Java:

Zombie: 2
Skeleton: 2-5
Spider: 2
Phantom: 2
Guardian: 6
Enderman: 7
Piglin: 8
Trident drowned: 8
Ender dragon: 10
Ravager: 12
Vindicator/Piglin Brute: 13 (2nd strongest mobs)
Creeper: 43

Yikes. That is INSANE. It is enough to one-shot you from full health in full iron armour at close proximity, on Normal mode! On Hard mode, it's even worse. They can one-shot you from full hearts and full iron armour at the standard "hiss" distance of 3 blocks!! Meaning on Hard Mode, EVEN in full iron armour, you hear that hiss, you will die if that creeper goes boom. You see why more than half of all hardcore runs end with a bang.

The creeper, compared to other mobs, is totally and utterly broken. That's just on pure damage power, not even taking into account the damage they do to the terrain and your builds. Not to mention the mob is so COMMON, being able to spawn in any area of darkness! When you compare the creeper's attack damage to that of other similarly common darkness mobs, the zombie, skeleton and spider, you really see how unbalanced the creeper is. The others do 2 damage (skeletons can do up to 5), but then you have the creeper coming in with the most powerful attack of any mob in all of Minecraft. Punishing you for the heinous crime of not lighting up your build by possibly killing you, your cat, and blowing a huge hole in your walls, windows and floors, and possibly wiping out your redstone contraptions too. Honestly, it can feel a bit like going to a chickenpox party and catching the bubonic plague.

Clever Game Design, Or A Cheap Death?

Believe it or not, Creepers have another mode of attack. And this has to be their most broken ability of them all. They can fall on you from high-up ledges and EXPLODE INSTANTLY. Since this explosion will be at point-blank, unless you have enchanted diamond gear, that will be an insta-death. Especially on hard mode. If this happens to you in the early game, you are 100% dead, and there is nothing you can do to avoid it other than avoiding ravines altogether.

And in my experience, it's quite a common occurrence. It happened to me twice in my latest survival world, one almost as soon as I entered the ravine. The second time, I had full diamond armour not yet enchanted, and I still died from being dive-bombed by a creeper. This is such an unavoidable attack, it really starts to feel more like a cheap death. They might as well add heart attacks to the game, it would be an equally cheap death. The game just randomly throws a "fuck you" just for going into a different type of cave generation. And in a game so dead set against random death events... this sure feels like one. 

If the creeper's normal attack isn't a cheap death, the dive-bombing mechanic DEFINITELY is.

So yes, I do consider the creeper divebombing mechanic to be a cheap death. And so is the fact on Hard Mode they can one-shot you even with full iron armour. There IS a difference between hard and downright unfair. Having a creeper jump on you or blow through your armour even at quite a distance is definitely moving towards unfair. 

But that doesn't mean the creeper is always bad. You do have to commend the creeper for being a genuinely terrifying entity in Minecraft. There really aren't that many genuine scares, and the creeper definitely does make for a good startle. I guess there does need to be SOME true threat in the game, or SOMETHING to fear, or else it wouldn't be much of a survival game. Not that it is anyway to be honest. The fact they sneak up on you and make no sound is a clever design choice in terms of the "terror" aspect.

So... Are They a BAD Mob?

They are certainly nowhere near my favourite mob, let's put it that way. Not in my top 10, or even in my top 20. I don't absolutely hate them, but I feel they do violate almost all the modern design principles. I do like how they add tension and suspense to the game, but I feel it's a little too much punishment for not watching your back. Being one-shot from full hearts with full iron armour seems a little excessive to me, as does having huge holes blown in your house for not lighting up a build to a certain light level. The divebombing feature is straight-up bad and needs to be removed or reworked. It's a complete random death event, especially as they blow up instantly when they hit the ground. And if they really want to have that feature, they should have it so their explosion does less damage when they divebomb. But I know they won't rework this feature, because the creeper is never going to change.

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