Creepers are a core part of Minecraft, but sometimes we don't want them blowing up the redstone contraption we've put DAYS into, or destroying that house you spent WEEKS designing. However, most data packs that cause Creepers to not damage their surroundings also removes all damage that they deal to players from their explosions. This data pack meets in the middle, saving your work, but still keeping them as a viable threat in game!

In these worlds, disabling mobgriefing works just like this, but completely ruins most farms. It means Villagers won't farm, Sheep won't eat, etc. This data pack allows those things to still run, while keeping you safe from Creepers!

Installing is super simple: just download the data pack, put it in your world's "datapacks" folder, and type /reload in your world! You'll be prompted with a message saying to type /function creeper:install if this is the first time running the data pack on your world. This is required if you want the data pack to function!

For those of you who want the technical details:

The data pack constantly tests to see if a player is within 10 blocks of a Creeper. If they are, then it sets gamerule mobgriefing to false only until they get more than 10 blocks away from all Creepers, either by moving, the Creeper exploding, or the player dying. As soon as that condition is met, gamerule mobgriefing is turned back to true, allowing all other functions to resume.

This does mean that while you are within 10 blocks of a Creeper, any farms that rely on mobgriefing won't function, but that is for a very short time, as a creeper will quickly aggro on the player and detonate within that radius.

The only time this will cause an issue is if you have, for some reason, a Creeper perpetually locked within 10 blocks of an afk station or your home. I don't know of any farms that rely on having a Creeper that close to the player without them blowing up or dying soon, so I can't imagine this being an issue. Please correct me if I'm wrong!