Combat School - The Ultimate Player's Guide to Minecraft - page 89

The good news: abandoned mineshafts are a treasure trove of resources waiting to
be plundered. You'll find loads of chests and rails, and the mine braces provide the
only source of wood available underground.
Spider Jockeys
Sit a skeleton on top of a spider, and you get a spider jockey. Spider jockeys jump like a
spider, shoot arrows like a skeleton, and are best given a wide berth. Fortunately, they're
rare. If you see one, smash the skeleton if you can and deal with the spider next. You may
notsurvive,butisn'tthatwhyyoukeepyourvaluablesinachestnexttoyourspawnpoint?
Rhetorical question: of course, you do that!
Creepers
IfMinecrafthasananti-hero,it'sthecreeper(see Figure5.5 ).Thinkofcreepersaswalking
improvised explosive devices (IEDs). I talked a little about creepers in Chapter 2 , “ First-
Night Survival . ” Rather than repeating that, let's get into some of the specifics.
FIGURE 5.5 Creepers appear to be fairly docile until they get close and provide a taste of
their truly explosive personality.
First, you can survive a creeper attack unless you are caught totally by surprise. If you turn
a corner and there's one right in front of you, do your best to sprint away. Your attack on a
creeper needs to be well timed, and you need space to sprint in, thwack it, and move back
out again so that its fuse resets. The force of your blow should usually be enough to knock
the creeper far enough that this happens with reasonable surety. A sword with a knockback
enchantment (see the section “ Spruce Up Your Weapons , ” in Chapter 10 , page 204 ) also
helps a lot against creepers but actually makes things worse when fighting skeletons.