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Creepers in Minecraft can be pretty scary if you're playing in survival mode. These monsters sneak up on you and can blow you up in seconds. Most of the time, you want nothing to do with creepers, but they provide the rare creeper head block. This is essentially their decapitated head, which you can place on the ground or equip yourself.
To get a creeper head, a charged creeper will need to blow up a normal creeper. Although this sounds simple, it can be quite difficult. As we all know, creepers explode when you are nearby. With proper armor, the explosion won't kill you. However, charged creepers have bigger explosions, making them more deadly. First, let's go over how to prepare for getting a creeper head.
Updated May 12, 2023, by Sean Murray: We can't have newbies blowing themselves up just to get a creeper head, so we've updated this guide with better formatting and a few helpful tips to make getting that creeper's cranium that much easier.
Preparing To Get A Creeper Head
Prior to obtaining the head, you will need to do some preparation. You should bring the following materials with you.
- A Good Set of Armor - Preferably enchanted with blast protection, in case the creeper blows up
- Flint and Steel
- Trident - Enchanted with channeling
- Sword - To defend yourself if things go wrong
With the items above, you should be good to go. Overall, you want to be prepared for the worst-case scenario: both creepers blowing up and killing you. This is why you should bring good armor and a weapon.
You can also enchant your armor with blast protection, further ensuring that you won't die.
Making A Charged Creeper
To make a charged creeper, you will need to throw a trident enchanted with channeling at a normal creeper during a thunderstorm.
Channeling is an enchantment that summons a lightning bolt when it hits a mob which is added using an enchanting table. Be sure to check out our complete guide on enchanting for more information.
Alternatively, an enchantment book can be obtained by trading with librarian villagers.
With your newly enchanted trident, you will need to wait until a thunderstorm happens in the world. This is an uncommon weather condition; there is no way to force a thunderstorm, you just have to patiently wait. Once it starts to thunder, the skies will darken and mobs will start spawning.
At this point, all you need to do is find a creeper, stand back, and hit it with your trident. If you have loyalty on your trident, it will return, so you don't have to go get it.
Igniting The Charged Creeper
Now that you have a charged creeper, it's time to find a second creeper. There is no easy way to move creepers, so you will need to essentially lead them to each other. To lead a creeper, you will need to be within the range for it to follow you, but far enough away that it won't blow up.
Place a boat in front of the charged creeper and stand nearby. The creeper will walk towards you and then get stuck in the boat. This will ensure that the charged creeper doesn't wander and accidentally blow up.
After finding a second creeper, keep a fair distance, but make sure that it is following you. Lead the normal creeper to the charged creeper and then quickly run away. The normal creeper may move around, but it won't get too far.
You can also build a small fenced-in area if you are worried about the creeper wandering too far.
With the creepers close together, you will need to run up to the charged creeper and interact with it while holding a flint and steel. This will ignite the creeper, causing a delayed explosion.
Once you ignite the charged creeper, run! Their explosion is huge, so you will need to run to a safe distance. The charged creeper will explode, killing the normal creeper and causing it to drop its head. In the image above, you can see the massive hole left by the charged creeper, along with the creeper head at the bottom.
This method will work for skeletons and zombies as well. For example, if you use a charged creeper to kill a skeleton, you will obtain a skeleton head.
What To Do With A Creeper Head
Overall, creeper heads are used for decoration. You can place them around your base, or wear one on your head. If you are playing on a multiplayer server, you can put on a creeper head to give others a fright.
By combining a creeper head and one piece of paper, you can also make a creeper banner pattern. This is a pattern shaped like a creeper's face that can be applied to banners from a loom.
That's all there is to know about getting a creeper head. This can be a dangerous task, so be sure to prepare. If you have never done this before, it may take you a few tries, but don't give up!