Minecraft/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Minecraft doesn't really have characters, but the player and mobs invoke many tropes.


The Player

Steve?

The player character, who wakes up on an island and does whatever he wants.

Tropes associated with Steve?:

Friendly Mobs

Wolves (tamed)

Wolves become friendly after becoming tamed. They will follow the player and attack whatever enemies (they will not go after Creepers) the player uses a melee attack on.

Tropes associated with tamed Wolves:

  • All Animals Are Dogs: They're awfully easy to tame, just requiring bones. That, and they get a cute collar after becoming friendly. And they bark.
  • Artificial Stupidity: Dogs have excellent pathfinding when it comes to navigating ledges, but have difficulty around hazard blocks. Oftentimes they'll get burned by lava, or will drown themselves stuck under ice, etc. Unless you design your base to OSHA standards they will die. Often.
    • Finally averted since Weekly Snapshot 12w03a.
  • Canine Companion
  • Loyal Animal Companion
  • Took a Level in Badass: They upgrade from 4 hearts to 10, and they deal two damage with every attack after getting that collar. Do the math.

Snow Golem

Created by building a tower of two snow blocks and a pumpkin head. Snow Golems "attack" hostile mobs by throwing snowballs at them, and leave trails of snow as they walk.

Tropes associated with Snow Golems:

Cats

Made when an Ocelot is tamed, can be told to sit down, and can be bred.

Tropes associated with Cats:

  • Artificial Brilliance: Cats will deliberately try to get on top of objects you want to use, like beds or chests, and will seek out lit furnaces to sit on to bathe in the heat.
  • Broken Record: Meow! Meow! Meow! (Although this is somewhat abated by their wide variety of different meows and purrs.)
  • Cute Kitten
  • Why Did It Have To Be Cats?: Creepers will run away from them.

Passive Mobs

Pigs

One of the first passive mobs in the game, the other being sheep. Drops raw porkchops upon death.

Tropes associated with Pigs:

Sheep

One of the first passive mobs in the game, the other being pigs. Drop one block of wool upon death, 2-4 blocks if sheared. They can be dyed a number of unnatural colours.

Tropes associated with Sheep:

Cows

The third passive mob added to the game. Gives milk if you have a bucket, and drops leather and raw beef upon death.

Tropes associated with Cows:

  • Dronejam: Due to their size, they have the biggest tendency of passive mobs to block the player's way.
  • Everything's Better with Cows
  • Like a Broken Record: Moo. Moo. Moo, I tell you! MOO!
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The cows make distinctly pained sounds upon being hurt, but the aforementioned noise pollution, and their capacity for causing obstructions, also guarantees a sense of great visceral satisfaction when they die. Plus after 1.8 they drop precious beef in addition to leather, giving you plenty of reasons to kill them.

Chickens

The fourth (and smallest) passive mob added. Randomly drops eggs, and drops feathers upon death. Immune to fall damage, as they just flutter down. Chickens after the 1.8 update now drop their meat when killed, making them another good source of food.

Tropes associated with Chickens:

Squid

The fifth - and only aquatic - mob in the game. Drops ink sacs upon death.

Tropes associated with Squid:

Mooshroom

A strange variety of cow that appears in the mushroom island biomes. They give milk when milked with an iron bucket, but they give mushroom soup when milked with a wooden bowl. They can be sheared to drop red mushrooms, which eventually turns them into normal cows. Otherwise has the normal features and drops of a cow.

Tropes associated with Mooshrooms:

  • Dronejam: Due to their size, they have the biggest tendency of passive mobs to block the player's way.
  • Everything's Better with Cows
  • Like a Broken Record: Moo. Moo. Moo, I tell you! MOO!
  • Our Monsters Are Weird: They're covered in mushrooms and give mushroom soup when milked. They may be normal cows corrupted by mushrooms, however.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential: The Mooshrooms make distinctly pained sounds upon being hurt, but the aforementioned noise pollution, and their capacity for causing obstructions, also guarantees a sense of great visceral satisfaction when they die. Plus after 1.8 they drop precious beef.

Villager

With the advent of randomly-generated NPC villages comes these guys. As of snapshot 12w21a, they will buy and sell items to the player. The more the player makes trades with the villagers, the more items they will offer in future deals.

Tropes associated with Villagers:

  • Ambiguously Human: They look more like Neanderthals than normal humans. And in blocky form.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Some of them have specially-colored robes depending on where they're found.
  • Gag Nose: Comparable to that of Squidward.
  • Sacred Hospitality: It's probably due more to limited AI then anything else, but they don't seem to mind if you crash in one of their houses or harvest their wheat for bread (while also preferably replanting it).
  • We Buy Anything: Villagers will be specific on what items they are willing to buy off you, but it can be almost anything, ranging from wheat, paper, and even rotten zombie flesh. However, villagers tend to buy your items for very cheap prices. For example, 20 pieces of paper will net you only a single emerald.
  • Why Did It Have to be Zombies?: In the 12w06a snapshot testing, villagers will freak out and run away from zombies as the zombies pursue them. Probably because Zombies are the only mobs that are instantly hostile towards villagers.

Ocelot

A big cat that lives in the jungle biome, can be tamed with raw fish to make kittens, added in the 12w04a snapshot.

Tropes associated with Ocelots:

Hostile Mobs

Zombies

The first hostile mob added to the game. They make moaning sounds and drop rotten flesh when they die, which can be used in place of pork to heal tamed wolves.

Tropes associated with Zombies:

  • Everything's Deader with Zombies
  • Night of the Living Mooks
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The ones featured here have the classic arms-forward walk, greenish-gray skin, and burst into flames when exposed to sunlight. They used to drop drop feathers when killed but since the 1.8 update, they drop rotten flesh instead, making chickens the only source of feathers now.
  • Rare Random Drop: Zombies have a small chance in dropping Iron Swords, Iron Shovels, Iron Ingots, and Iron Helmets. The tools and armor also have a shot at being enchanted already.
  • Throw It In: Notch needed something to drop feathers before chickens were introduced, so he made zombies drop feathers until they were given their own drops.
  • Weakened by the Light: Zombies are set on fire by the sunlight, and torches can prevent them from spawning.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: Many of the fans believe this is the game's plot. The game's creator maintains that they're just another enemy.
    • Interestingly, according to Minepedia, Notch has confirmed he'll be adding a mode called Zombie Siege. Not much is known, but the zombies apparently have the ability to destroy blocks.
    • The trope applies more if zombies discover a village since they will chase and attack villagers. Zombies can now bang on doors and destroy them on Hard or Hardcore difficulty.
  • Zombie Gait: They slowly shamble towards you with their arms stretched out.

Skeletons

Skeletons that wield bows. They drop arrows and bones upon death. They make rattling noises when not on the attack.

Tropes associated with Skeletons:

  • The Archer
  • Bottomless Magazines: Skeletons will always have infinite arrows to shoot you with, but only drop 1 or 2 arrows when killed.
  • Dem Bones
  • Head Swap: Skeletons and zombies share very similar faces.
  • Nerf: After 1.8, skeletons take more time to line up their shots than they used to. Before then, they'd turn you into a pin cushion rather quickly.
  • Night of the Living Mooks
  • Rare Random Drop: Skeletons have a very small chance in dropping their bow and it may already be enchanted if you are lucky enough. The mostly drop arrows and bones as common loot.
  • Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: If a skeleton hits another mob with its arrows, they will start fighting each other instead of going for you. Handy if you happen to be chased by more than one enemy. Also, having a Skeleton kill a Creeper is how you get records. Easier said than done, since it won't count if the Creeper deliberately explodes.
  • Stock Femur Bone: The bones they drop.
  • Weakened by the Light: Skeletons are set on fire by the sunlight, and torches can prevent them from spawning.

Spiders

Large black spiders that jump at the player and climb up walls. During the day, they turn passive and only attack if you attack first. They drop string upon death. They are identified by the "skeee" noises they make.

Tropes associated with Spiders:

  • Big Creepy-Crawlies
  • Giant Spider
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Spider eyes glow red. All six of them. Fortunately, this makes them easier to see in the dark.
  • Wall Crawl: Added to them in the Beta 1.2 update.
  • Weakened by the Light: They turn passive in the sunlight, only attacking if they already are after you or you provoke them.
  • Face Full of Alien Wingwong: Although of course they aren't, Minecraft's spiders have a tendency to behave like facehuggers, in the sense that even before being given vertical movement, they still preferred higher elevations, and always leap on or at the player's head or face.

Spider Jockey

A rare enemy that has a 1/100 chance to appear when a spider spawns. It consists of a skeleton riding a spider, and has the health and abilities of both monsters. It also tends to kill itself by accident.

Creepers

Tall green... things. Arguably the most recognized (and infamous) mob in all of Minecraft and possessing the ability to explode, Creepers will make your life miserable. They drop gunpowder upon death. If struck by lightning, they will become "supercharged" and will have a much larger blast radius and detection radius.

Tropes associated with Creepers:

  • Action Bomb
  • Glass Cannon: A supercharged creeper has a much deadlier blast than the norm. However, the fact they took damage from the lightning strike that supercharged them means you can be certain they at least have less than full health.
  • The Croc Is Ticking: Their infamous hiss.
  • Mad Bomber
  • Made of Explodium: Since all the other mobs drop body parts when they die, this implies that Creepers have gunpowder as part of their anatomy.
  • Mascot Mook: Creepers are the most well-known of all the mobs.
  • Nightmare Face: Their frown is considered an iconic part of Minecraft.
  • Suicide Attack: They explode when they approach the player. Even if the player escapes the blast, it can damage or destroy defenses or pathways the player relies on.
  • Throw It In: They were the result of a failed pig model.
  • The Voiceless: They make no sound other than footsteps, making locating one by sound difficult. For those unfamiliar with the series, the "ssssss" is the sound of gunpowder burning, not an actual hiss.
    • They actually make a faint slithering noise when hurt, but otherwise they're soundless.
    • They previously made a loud hiss while chasing you. This was Dummied Out to make them stealthier.
  • When Trees Attack: They're green, they have multiple legs but no arms, and according to Word of God their hide feels like leaves. This makes them strongly resemble mobile, explosive plants. Yahtzee refers to them as "suicide shrubs."
  • Why Did It Have To Be Cats?: Their new weakness as of Snapshot 12w05a, to balance out their new AI.

Slimes

The fifth mob added to the game, slimes are gelatinous cubes that only spawn in caves, but don't require darkness. They drop slime balls upon death. They hop around making slimy slapping sounds.

  • Asteroids Monster: They come in four sizes: Small, Normal, Big, and Huge. The larger ones will split into smaller ones when they take enough damage.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Small slimes are incapable of harming you, instead just following you around and pushing you back slightly. As such, they were the closest thing to a pet NPC before wolves were added.
  • Shout-Out: Possibly, according to this bit of trivia from Minepedia:

"Slimes may have been inspired by a number of classic gaming monsters: Their shape and size resemble that of Gelatinous Cubes from Dungeons & Dragons, and their splitting behavior resembles that of Zols from The Legend of Zelda and Puddings from Nethack. The name and the large, cartoonish face may be an homage to Yuji Horii's iconic Slimes from the Dragon Quest series."

Silverfish

Rare, strange bugs that have a very small chance of popping out of mined stone blocks.

Tropes associated with Silverfish:

  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: Gigantic silverfish aren't that common in media, but this is an exception.
  • Wall Master: With the exception of the spawner they pop out from, Silverfish never spawn naturally like any other mob, but they hide inside blocks instead. Silverfish that are hiding in certain stone blocks look exactly like any other regular stone block and if you wind up exposing the Silverfish hiding inside, its cry will alert other Silverfish that are hiding and they will swarm you. While you can't visually tell what block contains the mob, the only way to know for sure is to hit the block with something other than a pickaxe. If the block starts to break quickly, it contains a Silverfish.
    • If your pickaxe has the Silk Touch enhancement, you can actually harvest the blocks with Silverfish inside without setting it off and place the block elsewhere as a trap or prank for your friends.
  • Zerg Rush: When attacking a silverfish, a lot of its pals will come to help it.

Ghasts

One of the two mobs exclusive to the Nether, Ghasts are large, jellyfish-esque creatures that spit exploding fire balls. They drop gunpowder and tears upon death.

Tropes associated with Ghasts:

  • Berserker Tears: They cry all the time, even when they're attacking you.
  • Death From Above: Happens all too often when trying to traverse the Nether.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Even moreso if you read the creepypasta that explains their initial creation...
  • Eyes Always Shut: Ghasts only open their eyes to attack.
  • Fireballs
  • Glass Cannon: If your arrows manage to reach them, they go down in two shots.
  • Mad Bomber
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Although their eyes are closed most of the time, they open when attacking, revealing their blood red eyes.
  • Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: If a ghast hits a zombie pigman with a fireball, the zombie pigman will attempt to kill it.
  • Swiss Army Tears: Tears they drop have healing properties when used in potions.
  • Tennis Boss: You can reflect Ghast fireballs with melee attacks, arrows, fishing rods, or even snowballs. Good thing, too, since they love to float out of range of your conventional weapons.

Cave Spiders

A blueish, venomous variety of spider that only appears in the abandoned mineshafts. They are much smaller than normal spiders, being able to fit through 1-block-wide openings, and are capable of inflicting poison with an attack.

Tropes associated with Cave Spiders:

  • Giant Spider: Even though they're about a quarter of the size of their black counterparts, they're still pretty large.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Cave spider eyes glow red. All six of them. Fortunately, this makes them easier to see in the dark.
  • Standard Status Effects: Poison in this case -- it slowly reduces the player's health down to as much as half a heart, but no less.
  • Wall Crawl: As with the normal spiders.

Magma Cubes

Cubic creatures that are only found in the Nether in the 1.9 prerelease. They behave exactly like slimes.

Tropes associated with Magma Cubes:

Blazes

Strange-shaped yellow creatures found in the Nether in the 1.9 prerelease. They fly around and shoot fireballs which ignite the player.

  • Airborne Mook
  • Fireballs: And unlike the Ghast's lava bombs, these ones can't be deflected.
  • Playing with Fire
  • The Legions of Hell: Heavily implied to be demons of some sort, since they fly, have fire based powers, are always on fire, make metallic and inhuman sounds when breathing, have yellow skin, and are only found in the hell-like "Nether" dimension.
  • Pinata Enemy: They're sought after as they drop blaze rods which is a very effective fuel source and is used to make various brewing-based items. They're also necessary to defeat to get to The End. In addition, blazes drop a lot of experience.
  • Vader Breath

The Enderdragon

The first, and so far, only boss mob, the Enderdragon is a large black dragon that lives in "The End", which is also home to the Endermen.

  • Attack Its Weak Point: There are crystals nearby that zap it with healing magic. It receives massive damage instead if you destroy a crystal mid-zap.
  • Critical Existence Failure
  • Final Boss
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: The Enderdragon can only be found and fought in The End.
  • Giant Space Flea From Nowhere: Seriously, it's given no explanation for existing. Then again, neither is any other mob in Minecraft, and you need to invade another dimension just to find this one, but still...
    • Ingame wise, the only hint at it's existance is one of the random title screen splash texts stating:

"Kind of dragon free!"

Neutral Mobs

Zombie Pigmen

The other mob that resides in the Nether. They spawn in groups, and unlike other hostile mobs, they will only attack if you do first. Attacking one causes the whole group to become hostile, and will take some time to become passive again. They drop gold nuggets and rotten flesh upon death.

Tropes associated with Zombie Pigmen:

  • Baleful Polymorph: If a pig is struck by lightning, they transform into a zombie pigman. They behave the same way as they do in the Nether.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies
  • Messy Pig
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: It has the face of a pig, but walks upright and carries a sword, like a man. It's clearly undead, but unlike regular zombies or skeletons, it's not indiscriminately violent, but is actually intelligent enough to defend itself and others like it. They will walk into any safe buildings you make. They used to drop cooked porkchops, which made them a good source of food to heal, but now they drop gold nuggets and rotten flesh instead after the 1.8 update.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Zombies that are pigmen, with half of their flesh rotten and green, with some missing so you can see their skeleton. They also wield gold swords.
  • Pig Man: A zombie version.
  • Rare Random Drop: There's a rare chance that zombie pigmen can drop Gold Ingots, Golden Swords and Golden Helmets and there's also a chance the sword and helmet may already be enchanted.
  • Zerg Rush: If you attack one, even inadvertently, they begin to swarm you and attempt to slice you to death with swords from all directions.

Wolves (wild)

Wolves spawn only in forest or taiga biomes. They can be tamed by feeding them bones, after which they will become friendly. On the other hand, they will attack if attacked first.

Tropes associated with Wolves:

Endermen

Tall, dark, slender creatures that spawn in the dark. They like to pick up and rearrange blocks. Normally neutral, but if you just look at them, they'll attack you. They have a small chance to drop Ender Pearls on death.

Tropes associated with Endermen:

Iron Golem

A mob introduced in snapshot 12w08a. Iron Golems spawn naturally in villages and act as guardians to the villagers. They walk pretty slow and their faces look similar to a villager, but their swinging arms are extremely damaging to anyone that gets hit and can launch mobs or players high enough for them to suffer fall damage. They are also extremely durable, making it hard for them to be killed.

Tropes associated with Iron Golems:

  • Ambiguous Robot: It definitely gives off the vibe of one, with its noises and metallic appearance, but it's clearly just a magical being.
  • Badass: They have five times as much health as a typical hostile mob. They do the most melee damage, up to ten hearts, not counting fall damage. They are very effective against most enemies, which is why a big village only needs a single golem to defend it every night. On top of this, they can't even drown. Case in point...
  • Berserk Button: If anyone dares to attack a villager in its presence, the Iron Golem will make short work of the attacker.
  • Gentle Giant: You can occasionally see them handing roses to children.
  • Golem: Duh!
  • Made of Iron: Literally. You can even craft your own golem by using 4 blocks of iron (that's 36 iron ingots) and a pumpkin for the head. Iron Golems also have 50 hearts worth of health, which makes killing them difficult, even with a diamond sword (unless it has a high level sharpness upgrade) or TNT. If an Iron Golem is killed, they will also drop some iron ingots and maybe roses. They're also immune to fall damage. While you can farm for iron by killing the golems, it's generally safer to just mine for iron in caves, which are much more abundant overall.
  • Mighty Glacier: They slowly wander around villages, but if they see something attacking a villager they speed up and can kill it in three seconds flat. You will rarely see one die at the hands of any enemy, and if you incur their wrath, you'd better stay out of range.
  • Papa Wolf: They will defend villagers from you and zombies.
  • Shout-Out: Iron Golems will occasionally offer roses to Villager children, which is a reference to Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: Iron Golems are one of the few mobs incapable of swimming, so falling into water was originally a death sentence, but the release of Minecraft 1.2 inverted the trope and made drowning impossible for them.
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