Hostile Mobs- Spiders, Cave Spiders & Spider Jockey!

It's bright and early, time for another hostile mob post! Like the usual, let's play this video by MCSpotlights to get us started.
 

[Video by MCSpotlights, click here for the original.]

 
Definition
 
Spiders are easily distinguished by their red eyes, flat body shape as compared to other mobs and have 8 legs in total, 4 on each side of their body. They can also scale vertical walls/blocks stacked as such.

Spiders only attack the player, however, when it is night time or in dark areas. When they are exposed to strong light (mainly sunlight), they will no longer be hostile. There are three different kinds of spiders:
 
1. Normal spiders. They are 2x2 blocks wide and 1 block high. They spawn in any dimly lit area. They have 8 health points.
 

 
2. Cave spiders. they are the same size as a regular 1x1x1 block, hence they are able to crawl through 1 block spaces. They only spawn via spawners in abandoned mineshafts, and when hit the player will be poisoned and slowly lose health. They have 6 health points.
 
The way to tell the difference between the two is by their colour. Normal spiders are black in colour while cave spiders are dark-blue.
 

[Normal spider behind, cave spider in front.]

3. Spider Jockey. It is simply that of a skeleton riding a spider. They are rare mobs that have both a spider's jumping ability and a skeleton's ability to shoot arrows at the player. However, this mob consists of 2 separate mobs, so if one dies, the other will still be alive.
 

[a Spider Jockey attacking the player. Original picture]

 

[String & Spider Eye]

Drops
 
Spiders and cave spiders only drop two items: string or spider eyes. A Spider Jockey, on the other hand, drops both the items for Skeletons and Spiders, such as the two items above and bows, arrows, etc.

*Special case

On hard difficulty, Spiders sometimes spawn with special potion effects such as strength, swiftness, regeneration or invisibility. These effects make spiders a lot tougher to defeat.

[Potion effects: regeneration (left), invisibility (right)]

Personal experience

For me, spiders aren't the scariest of mobs. They still give me quite a fright, however, when they suddenly drop down in front of me or attack me from behind. Also, if you look at it for a long period of time... You'll start becoming quite fond of it. Cave spiders are exceptional though.

That's it for this post, see you all again soon! Peace out!

Hostile Mobs- Creeper

Special thanks to Minecraft Wiki for some bits of information I didn't know! Now then, on to our third hostile mob! Like we did for the past two posts, let's play a video by MCSpotlights.
 

[video by MCSpotlights, click here to see the original video!]

 

That's right, this post's featured hostile mob is the infamous Creeper.

 
Definition

The Creeper is easily recognisable by its unique, green-coloured camouflage skin. It is almost 2 blocks high, has no arms but has 4 short legs to help it move about.
 

 

 Due to its ability to blend into most surroundings and the fact that it makes little noise when it approaches players, most don't realise one is creeping up behind them until it lets out its trademark burning-fuse sound and explodes, causing a lot of damage both to the player's health and to the environment.
 

[Damage done to different blocks by a normal Creeper's explosions]

 
*Special case

When a creeper is struck by lightning during a thunderstorm, it will have a light-blue glow around it. They are now called Charged Creepers and have an even bigger blast radius than normal Creepers, causing even more devastating aftereffects.
 
Unfortunately, Charged Creepers are the rarest mobs to find in Minecraft and I was unable to find one, so here's two videos to let you see one in action.
 
This first one was recorded by BFCGames on a server, so he/she was able to use server cheat codes to show how Creepers turn into Charged Creepers.
 

[Click here for the original video!]

 
The next one here is an actual sighting of a Charged Creeper in the game itself by Ethoslab from 00:00 to 13:30 and his pains of bringing it back to his base.

 [click here to watch the original episode of Ethoslab's survival series!]

Drops

Creepers only drop one item, and that's gunpowder (somewhat expected, wasn't it?). On special occasions whereby they are shot AND killed by a Skeleton, they will drop a music disc.

[Gunpowder. That's basically what it is.]

Personal experience

When I first consulted a junior of mine before I started playing Minecraft, he would always say that "Creepers are the most annoying and difficult mobs to handle". I don't usually have a problem with Creepers though. And personally, I find them pretty cute... lol

... It's late. Time to sleep. Peace out! :)

Hostile Mobs- Skeleton

It's been a busy week with all the anime conventions and school concert rehearsals, but I finally managed to squeeze some free time to do this post. Let's do this!

Like the usual, here’s a video by MCSpotlights to get us started…
 

[short video on skeletons]

And for those who still aren’t sure after watching the video, today's featured Hostile Mob is the Skeleton.
 
Definition

Like its name, it looks just like a skeleton with grey-coloured skin. It is 2 blocks high with 10 health points, carries a bow in its right hand and will shoot arrows when your character is within its range of 16 blocks. They also spawn in dark areas like caves.

 

[skeleton with a normal bow & an enchanted bow]

Like other undead mobs, skeletons will burn in sunlight. Unlike zombies, however, they will instinctively search for darker areas such as under trees, in caves, etc.
 

Like zombies, skeletons sometimes spawn with armour or enchanted bows.

[skeleton wearing armour]

Drops

Skeletons usually drop bones, arrows and sometimes bows. The bows may also come with enchantments such as Power I-III, Punch I, Flame I or Infinity I. Bows rarely come with multiple enchants.

 

[some Skeleton drops]

 

Achievements

Shooting and successfully killing a skeleton from 50 blocks away can earn you the in-game achievement of Sniper Duel.

 

Personal Experience

I don’t deal with skeletons often, but they are very dangerous in their own right. With the 1.5.1 update, Skeletons shoot faster when you’re nearer to them. Since I’m not very good at PVP (Person-versus-Person fights), I tend to get shot as I try to attack the skeleton. Which is very nerve-wrecking in my opinion.