Tutorial:Combat

Combat is a very important aspect of Minecraft, whether it's defeating the ender dragon, killing creepers for gunpowder, or trying to win a PvP match. This page lists the best ways to kill each hostile or neutral mob in the game, as well as many combat strategies.

There are many hostile mobs, including two bosses (the ender dragon and the wither) in the game. This list is sorted primarily by chance of encounter, with a few exceptions when appropriate. It should be noted, however, that if caught in a difficult place without a weapon, the player can usually run away with little difficulty if they are outdoors, or even tunnel downward and wait for the mob to despawn before resurfacing to avoid combat. And, finally, should they so wish, the player can set the difficulty to Peaceful, which removes all hostile mobs, except for the ender dragon, shulkers, hoglins and piglins. Only the dragon keeps attacking the player on Peaceful.

Zombies are one of the easiest hostile mobs to kill, as they use only melee attacks and burn in sunlight (unless they are wearing helmets, carved pumpkins‌[Java Edition only], or are in water), and it is easy to land a hit on them in melee combat without taking damage due to their slow speed and predictable movement. Zombies are not very fast (except for baby zombies, which sprint, are small, and, as a result, are hard to hit), and by themselves are merely a nuisance, although they can be much more dangerous in large numbers, or in dark, small spaces, like mines.