Badass: Punches down trees, swims up waterfalls, builds entire towns, carts around thousands of pounds of equipment, slaughters hundreds of monsters with nothing more powerful than swords and a bow, travels to (the) Hell(-like region), the list goes on.
Heroes Prefer Swords: Various swords are Steve?'s main weapons. Using other melee weapons like axes are possible, but inefficient and pointless.
I'm a Humanitarian: There is nothing stopping the player from feeding him rotten flesh. (Though it does make him sick.)
Kleptomaniac Hero: Taken to extremes; when the player comes upon an NPC village, they can take the crops, anything in any chests, the chests themselves, the furniture, and even the entire village itself and the ground beneath it without any backlash from the villagers.
Last of His Kind: In single player he is the only humanish being in existence aside from villagers, but they appear to be a somewhat different race of creature than Steve.
Magic Knight: When wearing enchanted armor and carrying enchanted weapons. Or when wielding normal weaponry and carrying around potions.
Magnet Hands: It is possible for him to climb ladders backwards with a block of sand in his hand.
It's been calculated that carrying an inventory of gold blocks gives Steve? sufficient density to create a black hole.
Friendly Mobs
Dogs (tamed Wolves)
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:
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.
Stock Animal Diet: While they do take bones to tame them, they can also eat other meat like porkchops, and even rotten flesh!
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:
Artificial Brilliance: Snow Golems on fire will speed up and run to a water source to put out the flames.
Too Dumb to Live: They'll happily toss snowballs at anything that isn't a Creeper.
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.)
One of the first passive mobs in the game, the other being sheep. Drops raw porkchops upon death. (Cooked porkchops when burned to death.)Tropes associated with Pigs:
Baleful Polymorph: Being struck by lightning will transform the pig into a zombie pigman.
Everything's Messier with Pigs: Actually averted — despite wandering around in the wild, they are domestic variety and appear quite clean and pink.
Power-Up Mount: Pigs make great parachutes when you ride them via saddle. You can control them with a carrot on a stick.
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:
Amazing Technicolor Wool: Some sheep spawn with natural brown or pink wool. And then there's wool dying, which often results in a herd of blue or green sheep.
Big Eater: Baby sheep run around hoovering up grass like there's no tomorrow.
Videogame 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 and their meat upon death. Immune to fall damage, as they just flutter down.Tropes associated with Chickens:
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:
Videogame 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 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, with faucet-like noses. And in blocky form.
Baleful Polymorph: Snapshot 12w32a gives villagers a small chance of transforming into a zombie should they be killed by one. Likewise, zombies that spawn may be a zombie villager. Zombified villagers can be cured by using a Splash Potion of Weakness on them and then feeding them the low tier version of the Golden Apple.
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).
The Voiceless: They have "conversations" by looking at each other and nodding their heads, but they never make any noise.
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 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?: Since the 12w06a snapshot testing, villagers will freak out and run away from zombies as the zombies pursue them. On Normal and Hard, Villagers that are killed by a Zombie will become a Zombie, including the children. Luckily, a Splash Potion of Weakness, Golden Apple (the one made out of gold nuggets), and several minutes can cure an infected villager.
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:
Cute Kitten: A big jungle one. Though ocelot kittens can actually spawn.
Cowardly Lion: Runs away when noticing you unless you hold out a raw fish and stand very still.
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:
Artificial Brilliance: They recieved a massive AI improvement in the 12w03a pre-release. They're capable of navigating mazes and can actually see the player through a window. It will also run for shelter or water when in daylight.
Artificial Stupidity: Beforehand, zombies would walk in a straight line, regardless of what paths they could or could not find, which made them prime testing subjects for lava traps.
Bandit Mook: Zombies can pick up stray items, so don't be surprised if you die and find it wearing your armor. This actually extends to any item, so it's equally possible to find a zombie trying to beat you with a bundle of wheat.
Elite Mook: Some zombies have a rare chance of spawning in pieces of armor and have their defense increase if they are wearing multiple pieces of armor and they may even be enchanted. Zombies can also have a rare chance of wielding an Iron Sword or Iron Shovel to cause extra damage to you.
Our Zombies Are Different: The ones featured here have the classic arms-forward walk, green 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.
Snapshot 12w32a nerfs the rare drops from zombies by making the tools having been extremely worn down to the point where it is almost ready to break.
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.
Took a Level in Badass: Zombies were just another enemy to fight and their AI was so basic that it was easy to exploit. Thanks to several updates, zombies are a lot smarter where they will actively avoid lava or steep drops when they chase you. Zombies can also break down your wooden doors (Hard difficulty only), pick up items that are dropped, use iron swords or iron shovels as weapons (or even another tool/weapon if they picked one up), wear armor, and zombies can survive in the daylight if they wear a helmet. Now, they deal more damage as their health decreases! Needless to say, zombies have come a long way.
Turns Red: A recent update made zombies deal more damage as their health gets lower.
Weakened By The Light: Zombies are set on fire by the sunlight, and torches can prevent them from spawning.
However, zombies wearing helmets won't burn up in the sunlight due to their head being protected. Doesn't make them any more dangerous, but it can catch people off guard when they think all the zombies are gone.
Zombie Apocalypse: Many of the fans believe this is the game's plot. The game's creator maintains that they're just another enemy.
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.
This actually does play straight now, as zombies can turn villagers into zombie villagers if they attack the villager. These zombie villagers will then go around attacking and infecting more villagers.
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:
Artificial Brilliance: After the AI overhaul, they are capable of flanking and driving out players. They will also run to shelter or water during the day.
Later updates increased their overall range and their fire rate in close quarters, imitating panic in the latter instance as well as allowing them to knock you back faster. In water, they're practically impossible to hit.
Rare Random Drop: Skeletons have a very small chance in dropping their bow and it may already be enchanted if you are lucky enough. They mostly drop arrows and bones as common loot.
However, snapshot 12w32a now makes any bow that is dropped be heavily worn down so you won't be using the bow a lot.
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.
Thankfully, the same AI update prevents creepers from going after them if shot, making it a lot easier to find those records.
Took a Level in Badass: Similar to zombies, the skeletons received many upgrades that enhanced their AI (better path finding plus skeletons will seek you out should you hide) and gaining the ability to spawn with armor worn on their bodies. The latest update extended their range by over half!
Weakened By The Light: Skeletons are set on fire by the sunlight, and torches can prevent them from spawning. They are immune to sunlight if they wear a helemt.
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 and spider eyes upon death. They are identified by the "skeee" noises they make.Tropes associated with Spiders:
Artificial Stupidity: One of the few mobs to still show this. They will jump off high buildings to get to you, or even jump through lava to get to you on rare occasions, causing them to take fall damage.
Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: 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.
Weakened By The Light: They turn passive in the sunlight, only attacking if they already are after you or you provoke them.
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.Tropes associated with Spider Jockeys:
Lightning Bruiser: It combines the Skeleton's range and damage output with the spider's speed, and both of their health.
Unique Enemy: You're very unlikely to encounter more than one or two in an entire playthrough.
Creepers
Tall green, vaguely plant-like things. Arguably the most recognized (and famous) 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:
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.
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 a fuse 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 if someone were to touch a creeper, it would feel like leaves (which actually makes sense, given thier green texture). This makes them strongly resemble mobile, explosive plants. Yahtzee refers to them as "suicide shrubs."
The fifth mob added to the game, slimes are gelatinous cubes that spawn in specifically-designated caves or swamps. 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.
"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 pop out of special mined stone blocks found in strongholds and occasionally in large mountain interiors.Tropes associated with Silverfish:
Big Creepy Crawlies: Gigantic silverfish aren't that common in media, but this is an exception.
Despite this, they still manage to be the smallest mobs(bats are second).
Wall Master: Silverfish always hide inside blocks. 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 three mobs exclusive to the Nether (as pigs, when struck by lightning, turn into zombie pigmen), Ghasts are large, jellyfish-esque creatures that spit exploding fire balls. They drop gunpowder and tears upon death.Tropes associated with Ghasts:
Airborne Mook: They are one of two regular enemies that fly. And they will use this to their advantage.
Berserker Tears: They cry all the time, even when they're attacking you.
Broken Record: WAAAH! WAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! *sob sob sob*
Death from Above: Happens all too often when trying to traverse the Nether.
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:
Artificial Stupidity: Like the normal spiders, they'll jump from great heights if it means getting at you.
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. They can't cause the poison status on easy difficulty.
Cubic creatures that are only found in the Nether since the 1.9 prerelease. They behave exactly like slimes and drop the rare magma cream.Tropes associated with Magma Cubes:
Strange-shaped yellow creatures found in the Nether in the 1.9 prerelease. They fly around and shoot fireballs which ignite the player.Tropes associated with Blazes:
Airborne Mook: The other normal enemy in the game that can fly.
Artificial Brilliance: They will often hide behind walls of intersections and under Nether Fortress bridges in order to stay away from arrows and ambush the player.
Piñata 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. This tends to be a problem in multiplayer, since most players will destroy spawners by habit and Blazes become that much harder to find as a result.
A mob that spawns in Nether fortresses since snapshot 12w36a. They look just like their normal Skeleton counterparts, but charred, taller, and they wield stone swords instead of bows.Tropes associated with the Wither Skeleton:
Rare Random Drop: Wither Skeletons have a rare chance in dropping their own skulls. You could use these as decorations or use them to summon the Wither. They may also drop their stone swords, which may be helpful to you should you be lacking a sword or want to preserve your stronger swords.
Revive Kills Zombie: Since it's undead, poison and harming potions heal it while healing and regeneration potions hurt it.
A hostile mob that first appeared in snapshot 12w38a. Witches look like villagers, but wear pointy hats, have a boil on their nose, and use a variety of potions to attack like any other stereotypical witch. Witches are the second Overworld mob that can attack from a distance and its potions can be quite deadly to the player or any other mob that gets in its way.Tropes associated with the Witch:
Kill It with Fire: Averted. The Witch doesn't burn in the sunlight and if you attempt to set the Witch on fire, it will drink a Potion of Fire Resistance to become immune to fire.
Healing Potion: The Witch will drink one if its health is low.
Rare Random Drop: The Witch has the most potential drops out of all the mobs (all of them are used for potion brewing) but it also has a handful of brewed potions it may rarely drop, ranging from healing to fire resistance.
Standard Status Effect: The Witch's potions that it throws at you can cause poison or slowness. The Witch can also throw harming potions at you for instant damage.
Another 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:
Artificial Stupidity: They retain the single directional AI zombies and skeletons had.
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.
Lightning Bruiser: Don't let the fact that there's a lot of them fool you. Even one is a handful thanks to their gold swords and decent health, and they can keep pace with a non-sprinting player.
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.
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:
Everything Is Worse With Wolves: If you hit one of them every wolf in a 30 block radius will want your head and won't stop until they get it, or you kill them.
Zerg Rush: Like the Zombie Pigmen, if you attack one in a pack, all of them turn hostile. And they rarely travel alone.
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:
Artificial Brilliance: Will teleport to avoid bodies of water. And arrows, which basically makes them immune to projectile attacks. They'll even frequently teleport in the middle of a fight in order to avoid your sword blows. This can be mitigated slightly by attacking their feet, since they're less likely to teleport when not being directly observed.
Ascended Meme: They're argued to be Notch's way of canonizing Herobrine.
Bandit Mook: You will usually see one holding a block they stole, but they won't drop it when killed. They can also steal blocks you placed down, which can spell disaster if your building structure is extremely sensitive, such as making a lava dam. If you wait for a while, Endermen may place down the blocks they stole. Fortunately, they can only steal a small selection of blocks, most of which are naturally occurring.
Elite Mooks: They're rarer than other mooks, have more health than any non-boss mob, do a ton of damage, can move very quickly, and can teleport to close in on you and dodge arrows, which makes them smarter than any other enemy.
Roar Before Beating: If you lock eyes with one, it will emit a horrific growling noise as it tries to close the gap between the both of you.
Surreal Horror: They're 3-meter tall creatures of darkness that teleport and know when you're looking at them.
Teleport Spam: It's main fighting style consists mostly of trying to punch you, then teleporting away before or the exact second it gets hurt.
Weakened By The Light: In Beta 1.8, the Endermen couldn't survive in sunlight. This weakness has since been removed, though they aren't as aggressive in sunlight.
You can prevent them from teleporting into your home simply by making sure the walking space within is only two blocks high, since the Endermen are too tall to fit into an area that small (though this does make for a claustrophobic environment, and Endermen don't usually teleport into your buildings if they aren't provoked).
Teleport Spam: They often teleport when attacked, especially with arrows. They also teleport at random during the day, too. For added fun, watch one get caught in a rainstorm.
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.
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.
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.
The first boss mob to be introduced to Minecraft, the Ender Dragon is a large black dragon that lives in "The End", which is also home to the Endermen.Tropes associated with the Ender Dragon:
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. However, unless you're really good at taking them out quickly, it's likely the rest of the crystals around the field will undo that damage. On the boss itself, the head takes more damage than the rest of it.
Bad Boss: If you consider it the boss of the Endermen, then it counts, being quite willing to ram and kill them if it means offing the players.
Bragging Rights Reward: The only item it drops is useless and it gives over 20,000 experience points (around two or three full-cost enchantments/repairs), but at least you can say that you killed it.
Final Boss: It's been confirmed as this. You can continue your world after defeating it, but killing it gives you the only scripted sequence in all of Minecraft. Getting to it is pretty much the ultimate result of the progression through the game.
Flunky Boss: Sort of. The End is crawling with Endermen, but they won't aid the boss unless you aggro them. Even then, as is the standard, attacking one won't anger the rest.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Seriously, it's given no explanation for existing. Then again, neither is any other mob, and you need to invade another dimension just to find this one, but still...
In-game, the only hint at its existence is one of the random title screen splash texts stating:
Griefer: It can destroy any block it flies into except for Obsidian, End Stone, and Bedrock. Therefore, it's generally not advisable to use a map editor or mod to hack one into the Overworld or Nether.
Ramming Always Works: Unusually for a dragon, it only attacks this way. It's also quite effective since it can deal up to 5 hearts worth of damage and the knock back will send you flying several blocks across.
In the Xbox version the Ender dragon DOES shoot fire (it also spits acid).
Technicolor Death: While the other mobs simply fall over and vanish in a puff of smoke when killed, the Ender Dragon starts to explode and disintegrate pixel by pixel while shooting out beams of light.
The Wither
A boss type monster first seen in snapshot 12w34a. It was Dummied Out due to the mob causing the game to crash, but snapshot 12w36a remedied the problem and they are able to be spawned. They are black ghost-like entities that fly in the air and have three heads. The smaller heads are used as explosive projectiles for its attacks and they can destroy almost any block. The player has to build it, similar to making a golem, in order to summon it.Tropes associated with the Wither:
Action Bomb: The moment the Wither is finished charging up it unleashes an enormous explosion capable of killing a fully armoured player before the fight even begins and leaves a crater like someone set off a small nuke.
Artificial Brilliance: It is unique in that it can focus on three mobs at a time. Ergo, taking it on as a party makes the fight no less dangerous.
Badass: Just read the rest of the tropes here to figure out why.
Bonus Boss: You don't need to face off against the Wither, but if you want to build your Beacon, you'll have to summon it and kill it in order to get its Nether Star.
Dummied Out: The Wither's first appearance was in snapshot 12w34a, but its code wasn't used by the game due to the game crashing if it was spawned in. Later snapshots fixed the problem.
Eldritch Abomination: The Wither is the result of three Wither Skeletons fused together via soul sand whose only purpose is to destroy life—including other hostile mobs (unless they are already dead like zombies or skeletons). The overworld sky darkens with its presence and even when everything around it is dead, it still destroys things aimlessly.
Feed It With Fire: Similar to Nether mobs, they're immune to any form of fire damage.
Griefer: Destruction is its modus operandi, and it's even better at it than Creepers or Ghasts.
Hero Killer: It has even more health than the already hard-to-kill Ender Dragon, and it can dish out much more damage than the other boss, partially due to its rate of fire and how damaging it is. At full strength, your best bet is to fight it with a party, and even then, you're likely to suffer a lot of casualties. As a result, an appearance by the Wither is often met with an Oh Crap from players.
Immune To Arrows: When fired at close range, they tend to bounce off harmlessly. An arrow must be at max power and at long range to hurt it. But when the Wither's health falls below half, it gains an armor that makes it immune to arrows no matter how much charge you put into the bow.
More Dakka: Compared to the Ghast and Blaze, the Wither fires its projectiles alarmingly fast and barely pauses between shots. Unlike the Ghast, the Wither's projectiles can't be reflected back! Fighting this thing above ground, unless you have something to distract it, is tantamount to suicide.
Mercy Invincibility: When the Wither is first created, it flashes blue and is immune to all damage until its health finishes charging up.
Omnicidal Maniac: Everything alive must die in its eyes. And since it has triple the firepower, it tends to succeed. It ignores undead mobs. Snapshot 12w37a gave the Wither the ability to make a massive explosion upon its creation once its health finishes charging. It's no Creeper-sized explosion either. The crater it leaves behind makes it look like a meteor crashed into the world.
The explosions from the skulls it shoots are powerful enough to destroy any block, including obsidian, which is normally the only minable block in the game that nothing, not even the Final Boss, can destroy. The only thing the Wither's attacks can't destroy is bedrock.
Regenerating Health: The Wither recovers half a heart of health per second. Only being aggressive with your attacks can counteract this.
Revive Kills Zombie: Since it's an undead type mob, potions of regeneration and healing will hurt it while potions of poison and harming heal it instead.
Sequential Boss: Initially, it will fly high above the player and they will have to use bow and arrows. After it loses half of its health, it will stop flying but become immune to arrows; the player will then have to use swords or splash potions of regeneration or healing against it.
Wake Up Call Boss: You can get by the Ender Dragon with a simple bow, some good armor, and some skill. The Wither teach you why preparation is king in defeating it.
