Most hostile mobs die to the same three habits: keep a shield up, wait for the attack cooldown to refill before swinging, and attack while falling to land critical hits. What differs between mobs is the range you should fight at and the one thing that will kill you if you ignore it. Damage figures below are for Normal difficulty.
The full table
| Mob | Health | Damage (Normal) | The one thing that matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zombie | 20 | 3 | Comes in groups; fight in a corridor, never in the open |
| Husk | 20 | 3 | Applies Hunger; does not burn in daylight |
| Drowned | 20 | 3, or 9 with a trident | Never fight one in deep water |
| Skeleton | 20 | 2–5 per arrow | Shield up, then close the distance |
| Stray | 20 | 2–5 + Slowness | Slowness stops you disengaging |
| Bogged | 16 | 2–5 + Poison | Carry milk or honey |
| Creeper | 20 | up to 49 at contact | 1.5 seconds from hiss to blast; sprint away or shoot it |
| Spider | 16 | 2 | Climbs walls; neutral in daylight |
| Cave spider | 12 | 2 + Poison | Fits through 1-block gaps; block the spawner first |
| Enderman | 40 | 7 | Neutral unless you look at its head |
| Witch | 26 | Splash potions | Heals itself; close fast or leave |
| Slime | 16 large | 4 large | Splits when killed; clear the small ones last |
| Silverfish | 8 | 1 | Calls others out of stone; kill in one hit |
| Endermite | 8 | 2 | Spawns from thrown ender pearls |
| Phantom | 20 | 2 | Dives from above; sleep and it never appears |
| Blaze | 20 | 6 melee, 5 per fireball | Fireballs come in threes; break line of sight |
| Ghast | 10 | Explosive fireball | Punch or hit the fireball back at it |
| Magma cube | 16 large | 6 large | Splits like a slime; immune to fire |
| Wither skeleton | 20 | 8 + Wither | Wither blocks regeneration; back off and heal after |
| Piglin | 16 | 5 | Wear one piece of gold and they ignore you |
| Piglin brute | 50 | ~13 | Always hostile, gold or not. Fight in a doorway |
| Hoglin | 40 | High, huge knockback | Repelled by warped fungus and nether portals |
| Zoglin | 40 | High | Attacks everything; no way to pacify it |
| Guardian | 30 | 6 laser | Laser needs line of sight; break it with a block |
| Elder guardian | 80 | 8 laser | Inflicts Mining Fatigue III; bring milk |
| Shulker | 30 | 4 + Levitation | Levitation then fall damage is what kills you |
| Vex | 14 | 9 | Flies through walls; kill the evoker instead |
| Evoker | 24 | 6 per fang | Summons vexes and fangs; rush it |
| Vindicator | 24 | 13 | Highest ordinary melee in the game |
| Pillager | 24 | 5–9 crossbow | Slow reload; close in during it |
| Ravager | 100 | 12 | Disables shields with its roar; do not stand still |
| Breeze | 30 | 1 + heavy knockback | The knockback into hazards is the damage |
| Warden | 500 | 30 melee, 10 sonic boom | Do not fight it. Sneak away |
The habits that apply to everything
Use the cooldown. Since the combat update, attacking before the cooldown bar refills deals a fraction of full damage. A sword resets in about 0.625 seconds; an axe takes roughly a full second but hits harder. Spam-clicking is a damage loss, not a gain.
Critical hits. Attacking while falling — not sprinting, not on the ground — deals 50% extra damage. Jump, then swing on the way down. Sprinting cancels criticals, so a sprint-jump attack gives you knockback instead.
Shield discipline. A raised shield blocks all melee damage, arrows, tridents, fireballs and a large share of explosion damage from the direction you face. It does nothing against attacks from behind, and an axe hit — from a vindicator, a piglin brute or another player — disables it for five seconds. A ravager roar does the same.
Fight in a doorway. A 1-block-wide corridor turns three attackers into one attacker. This single positioning trick handles zombie hordes, brutes and vindicators.
Mob by mob, where the table is not enough
Creepers
The 1.5-second fuse is the whole fight. Options in order of safety: shoot it with a bow from more than 8 blocks, hit it once and immediately sprint backwards (which resets the fuse), or hit it with the shield raised and take the reduced blast. Never trade a second melee hit for a first — the second hit is what kills you.
A creeper struck by lightning becomes charged and doubles its explosion. If a storm is running, keep away from creepers entirely, or use it deliberately to farm mob heads.
Skeletons and their variants
Skeletons lead their shots, so strafing sideways beats backing away. Close to melee and they switch to a slow retreat you can walk down. A bogged applies Poison, and a stray applies Slowness — the second is more dangerous because it stops you from leaving.
Endermen
They are neutral. They aggravate only when you look directly at the head, or attack them. Once provoked, an enderman teleports to you repeatedly and hits for 7, and it cannot be shot with arrows — it teleports away from projectiles.
Three reliable counters: stand in water (they take damage from it and teleport away), stand under a 2-block-high ceiling so they cannot reach you, or wear a carved pumpkin, which prevents the look-based aggro entirely at the cost of your view.
Ghasts
10 health, so almost anything kills them, but they hover at range over lava. The elegant answer is to hit the fireball back: attacking an incoming fireball with any melee swing reflects it, and a reflected fireball kills a ghast in one hit. Failing that, a bow works — a single arrow at close range is often enough.
Blazes
Blazes fire three fireballs in a burst, then pause for about five seconds. Fight them from behind cover, stepping out during the pause. Fire Resistance makes the fight nearly free, and a snow golem will not survive the Nether to help you.
Blazes are the only source of blaze rods, which you need for brewing stands and eyes of ender, so this is a fight you will have.
Raid mobs
Vindicators hit for 13 on Normal — that is more than half your health in one swing — and they disable shields. Evokers summon vexes that fly through walls, so killing the evoker is always the priority; vexes expire on their own. Ravagers have 100 health and knock you back hard, and their roar disables shields in an area.
The correct raid setup is a walled arena with a one-block entrance, a bow, and Protection IV armour. Fighting a raid in the open at full village size is how well-equipped players die.
The warden
500 health, 30 damage a hit through full netherite armour, and a sonic boom that ignores armour and shields. There is no reasonable way to kill one with survival gear. It tracks vibrations, so sneak — sneaking generates none — avoid sprinting and block placement, and use wool to muffle a path. If it emerges, run more than 30 blocks away and stay quiet; it digs back into the ground after about a minute.
Weapon choice
| Weapon | Damage | Attack speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diamond sword | 7 | 1.6/s | Everything; sweep attacks hit groups |
| Netherite sword | 8 | 1.6/s | Everything, slightly better |
| Diamond axe | 9 | 1.0/s | Single high-value targets; disables shields |
| Bow | up to 9 fully drawn | — | Creepers, ghasts, anything at range |
| Crossbow | up to 11 | — | Pre-loaded burst; Multishot for crowds |
| Trident | 9 melee | 1.1/s | Underwater; Impaling against aquatic mobs |
| Mace | 6 base, scales with fall | 0.6/s | Falling onto a target from height |
A sword out-damages an axe over time because of its faster reset, but an axe wins any single exchange and strips shields. Most players carry both.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to kill a creeper safely?
A fully drawn bow shot from more than 8 blocks, or a crossbow you loaded in advance. In melee, hit once and immediately sprint backwards — the fuse resets when the creeper loses contact — then hit again. Two cycles kill it with an iron sword.
Does armour protect against creeper explosions?
Yes, substantially. Explosion damage is reduced by armour points and further by Blast Protection, which gives twice the enchantment protection factor per level against explosions that Protection does. A full diamond set with Protection IV turns a point-blank creeper from lethal into survivable.
Which mobs ignore my shield?
Nothing ignores a correctly aimed shield outright, but several things get past it. An axe hit or a ravager roar disables the shield for 5 seconds. The warden's sonic boom passes through it. Attacks from behind or from a steep angle are not blocked, and status effects from potions and area damage such as wither roses are unaffected.
Should I use a sword or an axe?
A sword for general survival: faster reset, sweeping attacks that hit multiple mobs, and more damage per second. An axe when you want one big hit — against a piglin brute, a vindicator, or any player with a shield. Enchanting both is affordable once you have a working enchanting table.
Do mobs get stronger over time?
Not with world age, but regional difficulty rises the longer you stay in one chunk and the longer the world has been played, which affects the chance of zombies spawning with armour, of a zombie being a zombie villager, and of mobs picking up dropped equipment. Difficulty setting matters far more: Hard roughly doubles zombie damage compared with Easy and allows zombies to break wooden doors.
