Phantom Creeper

Phantom Creeper
Mod	Born in Chaos
Type	Hostile
Health	20 ♥×10
Attack damage	3
Speed	0.25
Follow range	16
Size	0.6 × 1.7 blocks
XP dropped	5
Spawns in	283 biomes
Category	Monster
ID	born_in_chaos_v1:phantom_creeper

The Phantom Creeper is a hostile mob added by Born in Chaos. It is a creeper-based monster with 20 health (10 ♥), a melee attack of 3 damage, and a movement speed of 0.25. It is a nighttime and underground threat in the pack. Its defining trait is that it splits when struck: each hit that has an attacker spawns two Phantom Creeper (copy) mobs beside it and removes the original, so a fight that is not planned for can quickly turn into several enemies.

Spawning

The Phantom Creeper is a natural hostile mob in the Monster category. It spawns in the overworld and in a few other biomes when all of the following are true:

• The game rule phantomCreeperSpawn is enabled. It is on by default.
• The spawn position is dark. If the block above is open to the sky, the light level at the spawn position must be 4 or lower. If the block above is not open to the sky, the light level must be 0.
• The biome is not Deep Dark or Mushroom Fields.
• The biome is either an overworld biome (the minecraft:is_overworld tag, or the Terralith biomes), or one of End Midlands, Warped Forest, or Plains.

Because the light rule applies at the spawn position, the mob appears mostly at night on the surface and in unlit caves. Its natural spawn weight is 4 with a group size of 1. The spawns table above lists the biomes in which it can appear.

The Phantom Creeper can also be created by two other means:

• Transmuting Elixir. Right-clicking a creeper while holding a Transmuting Elixir spawns a Phantom Creeper at that creeper's position.
• Spawn egg. The Phantom Creeper Spawn Egg summons one directly. The copy has a spawn egg with the same display name.

Behavior

The Phantom Creeper extends the vanilla creeper class, so it uses the creeper's movement and attack AI. Its attributes are:

Explosion and breath immunity. Explosion damage from any source is refused, and so is dragon breath damage. Other damage is applied normally.

Splitting on hit. When the Phantom Creeper takes damage from an entity-attributed source, it first spawns two Phantom Creeper (copy) entities at positions beside it, copying its facing. It then discards itself. This happens before the damage is applied, so a hit that would kill the original still produces two copies. Explosions with an attributed source also cause a split, because the split runs before the explosion check. The split plays the enderman teleport sound and emits 20 portal particles. A copy does not split when struck.

Double Trouble advancement. The first time a player damages a Phantom Creeper, the hidden advancement Double Trouble is granted to that player, along with 2 experience points. The advancement has no visible criteria and is recorded only as a progress marker.

Phantom Creeper (copy)

The copy is the mob created by a split. It is a separate entity with its own spawn egg and loot table.

• Max health 20, attack damage 3, movement speed 0.25, follow range 16, the same as the original.
• Armor 4 and knockback resistance 0.1. These are higher than the original's values.
• XP dropped: 8.
• It does not split when hit. Like the original, it ignores explosions and dragon breath.
• It has no natural spawns. It appears only from a split, a spawn egg, or another source that summons it.

Drops

Phantom Creeper

No item drops.

Phantom Creeper (copy)

Item	Amount	Conditions
Phantom Powder	x1.0-2.0

The copy drops Phantom Powder, 1 to 2 per kill. Phantom Powder is a crafting ingredient: mixed with one Gunpowder in a crafting grid, it yields 4 Gunpowder.

Variants

The Phantom Creeper has two forms:

• Phantom Creeper. The natural spawn, and the form created by the Transmuting Elixir and the spawn egg. It splits when struck.
• Phantom Creeper (copy). The form that results from a split. It has higher armor and knockback resistance, gives more XP, and does not split.

Tips

• Expect a split on every hit. Each hit on the original creates two copies, even when the hit is lethal. Plan for two new enemies per hit rather than trying to avoid the split.
• Fight in open ground. The copies appear beside the original, so a split in a narrow corridor or cave ledge can leave the player boxed in.
• Explosions do not work. Explosion damage is refused by both forms, so mining charges and creeper explosions do not damage the mob. Use melee or ranged attacks.
• Use light at night. The mob spawns only in low light, so carrying a light source on the surface and in caves reduces the chance of new spawns near you.
• Disable spawning when needed. Setting the game rule phantomCreeperSpawn to false stops natural spawns, which can help on servers or in worlds where the mob is too frequent.