Do Endermen teleport along valid paths?

Question

When an Enderman teleports, either by accident or after being angered, does it follow a continuous path to the destination? If so, what are the requirements for such a path?

Minecraft wiki made me think that they teleport similar to spawning, only with limited range. Like they pick a spot within 32 blocks, then disappear and appear at that spot. However, after some in-game observation, I'm now under the impression that their teleportation is the same as any mob's movement, only very fast (and perhaps with the ability to jump a little higher).

To give more specific example:

• there's a room with ceiling 3 blocks above (enough to fit an Enderman)
• the room is well-lit (mobs can't spawn)
• walls are made of cobblestone (Endermen can't grief their way through)
• one side is open, but a deep ravine (let's say, 70 block deep and 4 block wide) with no way around it lies between the room and a place where Endermen can spawn

Will they be able to teleport into this room? If true, then I suppose they don't need a path after all.

Answer 1

From a decompiled 1.7.10 a teleportRandomly function is present in in the Enderman defintion. it is called if the Enderman is:

• wet
• on fire
• in daylight & not fighting
• is fighting & is closer than 16 blocks to their target

(in the last case there is a delay on how often this can be done).

The function generates an X, Y and Z coordinate and places the enderman to that location. The function calls rand.nextDouble() or rand.nextInt(64) to generate a value within ±32 of the original value for each of X,Y and Z. It then calls another function a teleportTo() using these values

(Alternatively if they are fighting and further away from their target, there is a teleport to entity function.)

Therefore, an enderman, without being aggressive, can teleport anywhere within a cube of 64 blocks of itself (subject to having a floor, head room and not ending up in a liquid).

So, to answer the question, no pathing is considered, this teleportation is based on moving directly to a random location.

TL;DR If the room is within 32 blocks of a liquid or daylight and the ceiling is atleast 3 blocks high, an enderman "could" get in randomly without you having any previous contact with it.

Answer 2

Endermen can teleport to any air block which has a solid block beneath it (provided they can fit there and avoiding water and lava) within 32 blocks of their original location, measured not as a sphere, but as a 64x64x64 cube centered on the original location. To make sure no Enderman will ever appear in your room you need to make sure no Enderman can get closer than 32 blocks to the room (either by using water or by filling all air blocks or by making all ceilings only 2 high, etc.).