#Sword of fire and ice full#

Hit the creeper and run away until the hissing stops, then run forward and hit it again, as many times as necessary. If you approach a creeper with a sword, a recommended strategy is to use hit-and-run tactics.

#Sword of fire and ice full#

The weaker swords are not recommended for Creeper combat (especially on normal or hard) and there are strong arguments for using a bow, owing to its range (provided the bow is at full charge). These factors combined make a diamond sword a compelling investment. The ability to kill rapidly is of greatest benefit against creepers and ghasts when the time to act may be very short.

A diamond sword's damage of 8 HP over the iron sword's 7 HP is also a much bigger difference than the difference between the numbers may imply as it guarantees a kill of any mortal thing in fewer hits, and any passive mob in one. Unless the player engages in combat very frequently, swords in general will see a far longer useful life. For the same reason, you will swing these swords fewer times in the long run, reducing the rate at which durability is expended. High damage swords are primarily advantageous because they kill mobs in fewer hits, defeating them faster and thereby reducing the chance of the Player being damaged in return. This method is efficient when defending a fortified building, but is nearly useless when exploring except for whenever the player encounters the 2-block wide spider. It is then possible to hit mobs without them seeing the player: this prevents mobs from retaliating. The player must of course have blocks over his head so that mobs do not come into the trench. A way to use swords without being hit (and thus closing the gap between swords and bows) is to dig a trench such that the player's head is the same level as the mob's feet. Swords used to inflict more damage than bows - often significantly more depending on material, and even a wooden sword was on par with an arrow, but since the Beta 1.8 update, there are no (non-enchanted) swords that match a full-charged arrow (with a non-critical hit).

The sword is a short range weapon - despite its appearance, it grants no range advantage over any other tool since Beta 1.9, including bare hands.