Within the large variety of mobs and monsters in the game, there are some that are considered a thorn in the players' sides.
- The Creeper, an altogether too clever exploding phallic bush monster that can demolish all but the strongest structures with ease. They're walking plants that are completely silent until they get close enough to you to start making fuse-burning noises and then explode, dealing massive damage and destroying anything (or anyone) nearby. Perhaps worst of all, unlike all other early-game monsters, they are not undead, so they don't burn up outdoors after sunrise. Despite (or maybe because of) their destructive tendencies, they're seen as an icon of the game; more dangerous monsters exist, but Creepers are the most notorious because they're so common and yet so stealthy and destructive. A Creeper's only weakness is their fear of the terrible Demonic Housecats. Creepers refuse to get near them except to get away from large groups of them.
- In a game where most mobs use melee attacks, Skeletons and Strays break that mold and become the most evil mobs in the Overworld and the Nether. They fire arrows with nigh-perfect accuracy, and will strafe around to avoid your own attacks. On harder difficulties, they will start firing much faster as you close in, which locks down any attempts at rushing them with a sword in water or if they're on a higher level than you. If you don't have your own bow or a shield, well, good luck. They only target players and Iron Golems (more on those below), but will shoot another mob if it gets in the way; this can lead to amusing Skeleton vs. Skeleton battles, or the considerably less amusing situation of a Creeper suddenly hurtling through the air towards you, propelled by the arrow's momentum. Strays in particular are notable for using Arrows of Slowness, slowing you to a crawl if you get hit and allowing other mobs like Creepers to catch up to you with ease. In the Nether, Skeletons appear in Soul Sand Valleys and Nether Fortresses, where one arrow taken at the wrong time can send you careening off a ledge and into the lava sea below. Worst of all is the variant introduced by 1.21 in trial chambers: skeletons with poison arrows for even more damage (although as of snapshot 24w07a, these have been replaced with a new mob called the Bogged; while the poison arrows remain, they fire arrows at a slower rate and have slightly less HP). Despite their deadliness, however, they have a crippling weakness as of version 1.8: Wolves. All Wolves (even wild ones) will actively seek out and attack Skeletons, who in turn will stop attacking and retreat, greatly reducing the threat of an otherwise very frustrating mob to kill.
- The Witch is another mob who breaks the "melee damage only" rule, and to a much greater extent than the Skeleton. The Witch has all kinds of tricks up its sleeve which it'll use under certain conditions; it can drink certain potions to render itself immune to fire and water damage, throw slowness potions at players to keep them from fleeing, drink speed potions to chase down players who manage to flee, throw poison or weakness potions at players to respectively weaken their health or lower their damage output, and even heal themselves if injured by drinking potions of healing. Worse yet, their splash potions of harming always deal six points of damage regardless of protection provided by armor, so a Witch can defeat a player in full enchanted Netherite armor just as quickly as it can a player with no armor at all. To top it all off, they're near-immune to negative potion effects such as Poison, Slowness, and Harming. The only saving grace is that they very rarely spawn outside of Witch Huts.
- Baby Zombies. They're faster than anything else, have as much health as a regular zombie, they're hard to hit because they're so tiny and are short enough to be protected by the hitbox of tall grass, they can climb ladders, and they often come in packs. To infuriate even more, before the 1.7 update, a bug prevented them from dropping items or giving experience (thankfully this was fixed), and before the 1.13 update (mind you, this was five years after their introduction) they also didn't burn in sunlight due to another bug.
- The Drowned, introduced with 1.13. At first glance, they aren't much more difficult than Zombies to fight, but there's a 15% chance they may spawn with a Trident. If they do, they gain a very painful ranged weapon to use against you and have infinite ammo for it, effectively mandating the use of a shield or your own ranged weapon, the latter of which may not even be an option since you'll usually be fighting them underwater. It becomes that much worse when you realize that much like Zombies, Drowned can also spawn as babies. On top of this, if a zombie is submerged underwater for a period of time, it will transform into a Drowned. While it will thankfully never spawn with a trident if this happens, it will keep any armor and/or weapons that it had equipped as a Zombie, so it could potentially prove just as deadly, especially if you died earlier and it picked up your stuff.
- Cave Spiders, being a literal form of this trope. They have every ability regular spiders do but are five times worse. The rare and fairly localized Cave Spider lacks the biggest weakness of normal spiders, their large size, and are poisonous. Thankfully, they only spawn from spawners found in abandoned mineshafts, and the poison can't kill you, but it can leave you weakened for other mobs to finish you off.
- The Nether has Blazes, the Nether's answer to skeletons (though it has those too, as noted above), which spawn in Nether Fortresses. Blazes are tough, can fly, and rapidly shoot fireballs which deal reasonable damage while lighting you and the surroundings on fire... in an environment in which it is almost impossible to have some way to extinguish yourself. Their aggro range is also insane - if you can see one, it will shoot at you. The fortresses' layouts do not help - they're dominated by intersecting corridors so long that blazes can spawn behind you, at the other end of the corridor you're in, and immediately spot you and start shooting. Worse still, they spawn in groups from Spawners in Nether Fortresses, so it's fairly likely that several will attack you at once. A potion of fire resistance can render them harmless, but the steps to brew some for yourself will require Blaze Rods that drop from them, so you can't easily access that option the first time you fight them unless, as of the 1.16 update, you got hands on some splash fire resistance potions from Piglin bartering beforehand. Fortunately, they are easily harmed and killed by, of all things, snowballs.
- Ghasts tend to repeatedly cross the line between Demonic Spiders and Goddamned Bats, depending on your experience, but for less experienced players they certainly fall into the former. They only appear in the Nether, but they will make your time there constantly dangerous, especially when you're traversing wide open spaces that are perfect for them to spawn in, especially Soul Sand Valley biomes, where their spawn rate is dramatically increased. They can fly and will usually float out of range of your swords, usually making them only vulnerable to arrows. They also constantly shoot fireballs at extremely long range that explode on contact, causing major damage if you're unarmored, leaving holes and fires in the netherrack, and potentially wrecking any shelter you're trying to build. Also, they don't follow you, so you can't lure them into traps, and will just keep shooting at you as long as you have a line of sight to it. If your render distance is a little short, you can have instances of a Ghast attacking you from outside your sight range. Fortunately, you can One-Hit Kill the Ghast if you can deflect one of its fireballs back into it.
- When traversing the Crimson Forests in the Nether, you don't have to worry about Ghasts due to ample cover. Instead, the threat is Hoglins. These aggressive beasts can take a beating, and hit pretty hard through diamond or Netherite armor, and have a knockback effect that can be deadly if engaged near a cliff. One Hoglin on its own isn't too difficult if you keep your distance (and have the assistance of nearby Piglins), but when they show up in packs of three or more (and they almost always do) you are prone to dying very quickly if you get cornered. Any nearby Piglins, who'd normally help hunt a Hoglin, will not engage while outnumbered. Also, if you try to engage them in melee, you may be prone to Hitbox Dissonance due to their rectangular model. The one saving grace is Warped Fungus, which Hoglins cannot stand and will actively avoid.
- Magma Cubes are another Nether foe that frequently toes the line between Demonic Spiders and Goddamned Bats, but in the Basalt Delta biome, where their spawn rates are heavily buffed, they unquestionably fall into the former. Their ability to constantly damage you (at an alarming rate, might we add) and knock you back on any kind of contact is bad enough. But in a biome where there are lava pools everywhere, one hit from them taken at the wrong time can easily result in a fatal lava bath. Oh, and they love to ambush you from higher ground due to their immunity to fall damage. Worst of all, the larger ones split into smaller versions upon death, and while the tiny slimes can't do as much damage, they can still knock you back, and they often will due to the sheer number of them.
- Wither Skeletons are practically an uber-zombie. They come with swords and can keep pace with the player at walking speed, in addition to having high health and attack. But their real danger comes from their special "Wither" effect, which is like poison but can actually kill you, though it mercifully hits slower and wears off faster. And you have to make a living hunting these things to obtain Wither Skeleton Heads, the only way to summon the Wither... but those items drop at an incredibly low rate even with maximum Looting enchantments. Which means you'll have to deal with a lot of them. Fortunately, they are half a block taller than you, so you can just fill the fortresses they spawn in with two block tall walkways and smack them from the other side. Additionally, they are terrified of Wolves just like regular Skeletons, but unlike regular Skeletons, they'll retaliate and can potentially kill your Wolves due to their damage output and Wither effect.
- The Endermen used to be pushovers. Now, they're an absolute nightmare. Zombies, skeletons, and spiders become easy to take care of once you have some decent iron armor, a sword, and a bow, and even creepers can be sniped with impunity if you catch them at a distance. But you're not going to dispatch an Enderman with anything other than grit and determination. They will ignore you most of the time, but if you attack or even just look at them, they'll set out after you, and they won't stop until one of you are killed. Their attacks deal decent damage and they move at an alarming pace once provoked. Even worse, they can teleport, making them immune to arrows, hard to hit with swords, and very likely to outpace you if you start running away. Most of their danger can be nullified by ordinary water, though. They are damaged by water and instantly teleport away to avoid it, but even hiding in a river or lake won't stop them from camping near the bank, waiting to punch you if you try to escape.
- Accidentally hit a Villager? RUN, for you have just angered an Iron Golem. Iron Golems have the highest non-boss HP in the game, being literally more than double that of the Enderman, and it hits more than twice as hard as one (enough to potentially kill you in one hit if you're not wearing armor). Making matters worse, it is immune to knockback, and its attacks have a surprisingly large reach and will knock you 3 blocks away and 3 blocks up on hit. Your only weaknesses to exploit? It's slow, and it cannot swim. Thankfully, as long as you are nice to Villagers, Iron Golems will be nice to you.
- Vindicators. They're fast enough to close the distance between you after an unenchanted hit before you can hit again and can kill an iron-armored player in two or three hits. Their axes can also temporarily disable your shield, complicating matters further. Initially only found in exceedingly rare Woodland Mansions, the Village and Pillage update now allows them to spawn in village raids. In packs. They can also open and close doors, so hiding inside of a village house won't stop them from cornering you or your precious Villagers. In Hard mode, they'll even chop down any doors in their way.
- Even though they cannot spawn naturally, Illusioners certainly seem to fit the bill very well if made to spawn via other means, such as commands or mob spawners. They can inflict the Blindness effect — limiting your vision to a few blocks around you and blackening everything else, create fake copies that you can't attack, and are another mob that can shoot arrows from afar — better hope you brought your shield. All these combined could make them borderline impossible for the player to attack, let alone kill, especially if other mobs are nearby. They were nerfed ever so slightly in 17w17a, as now the regional difficulty has to be above 3 for them to be able to inflict Blindness (so they'll never do it on Easy, where the regional difficulty caps at 1.5).
- Village and Pillage introduces yet another Illager variant known as the Pillager. Armed with crossbows, they combine the pinpoint accuracy of skeletons with the speed of vindicators. And of course, they can also spawn as a part of Illager Patrols and Raids, so you're bound to cross paths with at least a few. Not only that, but should they spawn as part of a raid, their crossbows have a dramatically higher chance to be enchanted.
- Also introduced in Village and Pillage is a behemoth of a beast called the Ravager. They have the same amount of health as an Iron Golem and can easily go toe-to-toe with one. They move quickly for their size, are resistant to Knock Back, hurt almost twice as much as an Enderman while giving considerable knockback, and have a larger attack reach than the player, all but guaranteeing that they get the first strike should you choose to fight them up close. On top of this, they have a Mighty Roar that causes a fair amount of damage as well as huge amounts of knockback. While they only appear in Illager raids on the second wave onward, and also drop a guaranteed saddle upon death, you'll almost always be fighting other Illagers alongside them. Worse yet, they can even spawn with riders in the later waves.
- Vexes, yet another mob associated with the Illagers, are also extremely dangerous. Vexes are small, winged demons summoned by Evokers who move insanely fast making them extremely hard to hit, wield iron swords allowing them to deal impressive damage, attack in packs, oh and can move through blocks as easily as air meaning nowhere is safe from them as they can reach the player through walls. Also, they subvert No Ontological Inertia so once their summoned even killing the Evoker won't do anything. Mercifully, their summoning does have a time limit so if the player is careful its possible to wait them out.
- Phantoms, at least in Bedrock Edition. They're flying Lightning Bruisers that show up in bigger droves depending on how long the player has been neglecting their sleep, and their attacks can deal as much damage as a Blaze's melee attack (9 damage in Hard) to players via deadly dive-bombs, all while dipping in and out of the player's range. While they do burn in the sunlight and share the Creeper's fear of cats, Phantoms are by far the most frustrating member of the undead mob family players are going to deal with if they aren't prepared for them. They're not as dangerous in Java Edition due to a nerf to their damage from version 1.14 onwards, but are still frustrating to deal with due to their attack patterns.
- Piglins are tough customers toting Golden Swords and crossbows. The sword-wielding Piglins can move quickly and deal considerable melee damage, while the crossbow-toting ones are more or less a Pillager in all but name, having high movement speed and accurate ranged attacks. While initially hostile, they can be pacified by equipping Gold Armor whilst out of their sight, which will even allow you to barter gold ingots with them for items. However, even that won't stop them from turning on you anyway if you attack one of them, mine anything made of gold, or open or destroy a chest or other container, even if you placed it yourself. Oh, and they can open wooden doors as well, so hiding in your safe house won't work unless it has an iron door. Piglins do have a big weakness, though — throwing down gold ingots or other gold items will cause them to temporarily abort their pursuit to pick up and admire the dropped items, giving you time to escape.
- Trying to explore that Bastion Remnant without alerting the resident Piglins? Good luck surviving when a Piglin Brute spots you. Unlike regular Piglins, the Brutes are always hostile, and not fooled by players wearing Gold Armor, nor are they distracted by gold items. They also move as quickly as normal Piglins, have a hefty amount of health, can hit as hard as Vindicators, and are capable of disabling shields with their golden axes. They'll also alert nearby Piglins to your position, who will then proceed to Zerg Rush you and, if you don't have an escape plan, likely murder you.
