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I love building in minecraft just as much as I love the idea of random mobs attacking me while I build. However, I don't like it when I'm just walking out my door after a snooze and a creeper didn't get the memo and was hiding on one side of my house and sneaks up behind me as I walk out and does an amazing job of remodeling my front door wall.

What I'm hoping for is something that will prevent this terrible thing from happening. I've tried fences but they still blow up if you are on the border of the fence and you happen to be unsuspecting of their approach. Some good building techniques would be great for anticreeper measures.

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    You realize that as new features are added to Minecraft, you will have to fix the current answer accordingly right? Because the fight against creepers will never end.
    – user28379
    Dec 16, 2012 at 23:33
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    Yes, I fully agree. I'm not questioning what you spend your reputation on, I just find the topic interesting as well. I, for one, enjoy pushing creepers around with pistons, then landing them on a pressure plate connected to a command block, teleporting them into the void. Of course, its very annoying when you get stuck in the machine too :).
    – user28379
    Dec 16, 2012 at 23:40
  • haha, exactly the kind of thing im looking for @Jeffrey Lin
    – Paralytic
    Dec 16, 2012 at 23:41
  • While the game around you has changed how to deal with creepers really has not. Regardless of what you build wall/defense wise the answers below focus on keeping the inside of that wall/defense safe from a creeper spawn and how to deal with a creeper if one does make it past them. I hope you find what you are looking for but I am not sure you are asking a new question.
    – James
    Dec 19, 2012 at 17:23

14 Answers 14

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A list of things to help with creepers:

  • Light up the outside yard to reduce the chance that a creeper can spawn and randomly walk into awareness range
  • Always allow your entrances to have a clear view of the outside area so you can see what is there.
  • Always use those clear views to check for creepers.
  • When you leave your house, dash.. Get some good distance between you and the house. (While not directly a building thing, this is more of a consideration to make sure You can run some where :))
  • Always -always- have more than one exit from a place. Preferably on different sides of the house/dwelling/whatever.
  • Creepers can not blow up Obsidian blocks (but obsidian is a pain in the ass to build with)
  • Creepers will still damage you but not blocks if they are in water, even in a stream of water seems to work with this.. However its quite a bit more of a pain in the ass than building in obsidian to build things with water covering all/most of it.
  • Become that creepy person with tons of cats around.. But also be aware they will not halt/hinder/interrupt an already hissing creeper.

At the end of the day just putting up enough torches and making sure you can see whats around the doors is your best bet. There really is no way to make a house creeper proof. If it can get to where you are and you are next to your house, chances are it will blow up and take something with it.

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  • can you explain the "above step" you mentioned, also is there a way to get cats cuz i have never seen any since the patch.
    – Paralytic
    Mar 15, 2012 at 7:30
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    By the above step I simply mean to make sure you actually Do look outside before you go outside. Cats are rare and spawn only in jungles. You have to get close enough to them with fish in your hand then stand still and let them come to you to feed them the fish. Any movement, even turning too fast will cause them to run away again.
    – James
    Mar 15, 2012 at 7:32
  • Edited to make it clearer
    – SevenSidedDie
    Dec 16, 2012 at 18:10
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James seems to like the defensive. Being defensive around creepers just allows them to build up. The best way to deal with creepers around your property is to dispose of them.

  • Create an anti-creeper perimeter, fences are good but glass (and glass panes) are just as good.
  • Have bows and arrows ready to shoot down creepers from a distance. All they can do is hiss and complain at a distance.
  • Create a waterless moat underneath your anti-creeper perimeter. If your head is at their feet level, they can't see you. Get your sword out and start swiping.

For a demo of creating an anti-creeper zone, see the "murder holes" in this video:

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  • We do this on our server for walkways and similar things. Simply raise them by one, add a fence on the edge, job done. Doesn't stop spiders and the like, but gives you enough time to deal with them.
    – Ric
    Mar 15, 2012 at 11:34
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    Just a word of warning, with the new AI enemies do not fall in moats as often as they used to. they pretty much have to see no other way to get to you than hopping off a ledge before they will do that.
    – James
    Mar 15, 2012 at 21:27
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+100

If you're willing to put in the effort, try a self-repairing wall:

Slice view of wall

The difficulty of making this is getting the lava, since every lava block has to be a source block. However, it's pretty impervious to explosions, first with the water absorbing the blast, then the lava replacing the wall.

There are other models based on pistons, but I prefer this one because the water shield prevents damage, and it uses fewer rare resources (only buckets and cobble needed, instead of iron and redstone). And, if a gaping hole is made in the wall, it has a much faster repair time.

However, finding that much lava may be a challenge, as well as moving all that lava. Also, entryways are weak points in this design, but a well-placed entryway should have blasts absorbed by water.

Hope this helps!

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  • Haha I love these things, at one time I had a complete house (roof) included that was self repair, took forever though.
    – Paralytic
    Dec 17, 2012 at 18:26
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    now I want to build this and see if it can eat a tekkit nuke
    – legacy
    Dec 17, 2012 at 21:32
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Cheap answer: build your buildings in a mushroom biome. Monsters do not spawn there, so you will only have to deal with migrants from a nearby biome, if any.

This won't protect your existing buildings, but it's quite refreshing to wander around outside at night in solitude.

Edit to add even Cheaper answer: Cats. Lots of Cats. Creepers will turn and run from cats, to the point where if you chase them you can slash them in the back (be careful, after a certain range they will not be afraid. Be prepared to sprint, and be prepared to turn around after one hit.)

Note: If you're using Linux, I don't recommend chase-&-slash. The "Linux Cruise Control" bug (it acts like a stuck key) has led to a lot of holes just outside the fear radius of my cats, because I'm not able to backpedal out of range in time to get the creeper to not explode.

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  • nice any advice in finding them, ive never seen one before.
    – Paralytic
    Mar 15, 2012 at 16:05
  • @Paralytic besides using a seed like lost or 4, no.
    – Unionhawk ♦
    Mar 16, 2012 at 12:12
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Go the the jungle biome with some raw fish (around 3-6). Find some wild cats and be really still (holding the raw fish) and wait for them to come to you and feed it to them. They will become your pet cats and if you command them to sit around your house the creepers won't bother you. The creepers will always run from cats even if a player is near.

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It really depends on how far into the game you are.

If you have both a diamond pick and a lava source (and a LOT of time on your hands) Try fortifying your Walls with obsidian, like the diagram below.

W= the material you wan't your house to be made out of. O= Obsidian

                   ---
                   WOW
                   WOW
                   WOW
                   ---

This is quite expensive, and takes a while. it also makes your house bulkier, with three-block thick walls. otherwise you just need to light up the area around you liberally. Remember that Torches stop monsters from spawning for 14 blocks all around them, and glowstone lights up 17. rememeber that the aggro range is 16, (the range at which mobs "See" you and will advance on you) so making a 32-large light are stops slight wandering from coming into the aggro range.

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    Torches light up 13 blocks around them, but the range that is bright enough to prevent mob spawning is only 6 blocks. Glowstone lights 14 blocks away (not 16), and the no-mob range is 7 blocks.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Dec 19, 2012 at 0:58
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If setting up a small bukkit server isn't too much of a hassle for you, you could do as I do: Use WorldGuard. It can be set up so that creeper explosions cannot destroy anything, or only spare the region around your favourite building.

The EM-creeper plugin works for that as well.

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Some good ways to stop creepers:

-Cats, Cats and more cats. If you're on Creative, spawn some ocelots then hold a fish, right click on the ocelots to tame them. If you're on Survival, you're going to have to get off your butt and into the jungle to look for them. This can prove difficult since ocelots are pretty rare. Hence, the next way:

-Make rivers of water and lava come together, where they will become obsidian. When they do, put on some armour with fire resistance, and start mining. This can be tricky beacause lava could be flowing underneath, so it's a good idea to choose shallower rivers. If you're on creative-YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING!Just build the obsidian layer onto your house! This is largely time consuming, so you might as well read the next (and easiest) way to stop creepers.

-Get some torches (Not redstone, they barely even shine) and glowstone (if availible) and make a a layer of it outside your house by covering the existing wall (Yes yes, making your base bulky and fat, but it's better than a hole in your base, letting zombies find their way in!), then making a one block high wall of glass or just fence your base.

-Make yourself a Bow and collect yourself a whole stack of arrows, you're gunna need them in the battle between you and the creepers who can't wait to blow you up. Make a small defense tower on top of your house, where you can snipe out any creepers (at a distance they just hiss and rage if hit instead of exploding). The gunpowder collected from them could then be useful in other things.

-If you're on creative-BLOW 'EM UP. Place some TNT close to (but a good distance from) your house, build some obsidian huts near the TNT, put some tripwire hooks and levers (which can be safely used from within your hut), and connect them to the TNT with redstone. The next time a creeper happens to stroll by with destruction in mind-BOOM, GOES THE TNT!

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make a moat out of lava and then put pistons so it can go up and down with a lever.

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Well other than getting cats or making moats or walls. If you have enough time and resources (I know I do) then make some dispensers with arrows or potions about every 3 blocks, weakness would be good because it's easy to make and it makes a creeper blast radius lower and easier to kill. At least in 1.5.1 it did. Not sure about 1.5.2

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Put a lot of villagers between you and the creeper, let the creeper kill them instead of you.

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    This isn't really answering the question.
    – SevenSidedDie
    Jun 27, 2013 at 5:34
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PULL A SPIDER-MAN.

This is really simple, though it may involve you to build some more or even possibly relocate, it will probably work well for you.

You can use obsidian to build towers as tall as the roof of your base, and a hole in your roof with ladders going up to it. Go onto your ceiling at any hissing sound. Check for creepers. If there are, and they're right near your door, having a nice "chat" with your friendly neighbourhood zombie, then this is where the plan really takes wing. Go onto the roof, and jump from your house onto one of the towers, then repeat, swinging from tower to tower, until you are a safe distance away. You can choose to put beds in the towers for night use, by digging a ditch into your beam, placing the bed and some torches, then closing it off with a trapdoor. This is completely un-needed unless you happen to be on the bad side of an army of spiders and skeletons, or even worse-spider jockeys, then that is a must,

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A very cheap method would just be to make a moat around your house 2-3 blocks deep with water on the bottom and a trap door draw-bridge going to your door. When inside raise the trap door and any approaching creepers will fall into the water. Not the most amazingly fool-proof, but extremely quick and easy to make (works great if playing survival as a nomad).

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  • And if the creeper does blow up (like you accidentally jump in with him), there will be no damage to your building because the explosion was on water. There could still be damage to yourself.
    – musicwithoutpaper
    Jul 10, 2013 at 2:17
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one thing that you can try if your fairly near a desert biome, or have a lot of gravel lying around that your not using as a flint source, is to make a ""technologically challenged self repairing wall". build the gravel/sand about 1.5 or 2 times the height of your house along the wall. when the creeper explodes and ruins your house side, there will still be a wall of sand/gravel to act as a final barrier from other foes. camp inside your house till morning, and when the sun rises and most enemies have gone, repair the damage

one fun method in creative mode is to line your house with dispensers on the outside, so that all you have to do is press a button and waves upon waves of arrows (or, if you still want some risk of destruction, fire charges) will take care of your exploding "paparazzi members"

this one's main disadvantages are that it takes at least a day to make, and about half that time to repair, and about a second and a half to decimate entirely. it can also be difficult to get all that sand/gravel

what some players do is just surround their house with water. this is very time consuming, and can sometimes make spiders an issue, but makes creepers virtually incapable of destroying your stuff

one interesting strategy a friend of mine usually does when his armor is low and such, is have a latter that goes as high up as you possibly can be, that doesn't necessarily have to lead to anything. the point is that if you stay far enough away from the creepers at your door, for a long enough time, they will eventually de-spawn. the bad new is your light time outside that you can use will be cut virtually in half...

if you have enough materials, I suppose you could always just light up the area around the area within 40 blocks of your house, but that's a little high maintenance

or you could do what everybody does who brags about never dying on hard mode; sleep through the night and don't let them spawn, but hey, what's the fun in that???

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  • paragraph 3 and 2 should be swithced
    – gideon jura
    Aug 16, 2013 at 19:47
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    You can and should edit your answer yourself to fix that.
    – Kevin Reid
    Aug 16, 2013 at 20:03

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