(Image credit: Mojang)

Losing a huge portion of your base to a Creeper explosion is basically a rite of passage when you start playing Minecraft. But over a decade later, I still find myself getting incredibly frustrated every time I let one stray a little too close to my home, or into a farm I’ve created, before it swiftly detonates and sacrifices whatever I’ve spent hours creating in the process. If there’s one thing that can end your Minecraft session early, it’s a Creeper.

Fortunately, amod has come to fruition that forces Creepers to ask you permission before they blow up, which is great for anyone lacking as much spatial awareness as me and doesn’t often see them coming. As posted to YouTube by SectorFive, the Creeper Consent mod is exactly what it says on the tin. If you have a close encounter with the mob, just as they are about to explode, a screen will pop up, essentially asking you whether or not they can explode.

Obviously, the immediate and only appropriate answer is no, which will make the Creeper disappear entirely when selected. Of course, if you let the Creeper do its business, you’ll have to deal with the repercussions as normal, too. As satisfied as I would be with the consequences of a Creeper just disappearing, though, a few players have shared their ideas in a Reddit thread sharing the mod, too.

User u/EricIsntSmart suggested animating Creepers to look genuinely upset and walk away if you deny them the privilege, rather than just making them disappear. Or, user u/Dragon_OS proposed making the explosion more useful rather than harmful, such as exploding into Bone Meal particles to grow wild grass and flowers rather than strip a chunk from the land as they so often tend to do.

However, there won’t be any drastic changes to the mod any time soon, as the creator stated in the description of the mod, “Your contributions are welcomed, as I don’t have much time to keep this mod up-to-date. If you want to add a new feature or fix something, you’re more than welcome to fork this project and contribute your code.” So as long as you’re happy denying explosions and removing all Creeper’s one by one, this mod will save you a lot of time you’d usually spend rebuilding at least.

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Kara is an evergreen writer. Having spent four years as a games journalist guiding, reviewing, or generally waffling about the weird and wonderful, she’s more than happy to tell you all about which obscure indie games she’s managed to sink hours into this week. When she’s not raising a dodo army in Ark: Survival Evolved or taking huge losses in Tekken, you’ll find her helplessly trawling the internet for the next best birdwatching game because who wants to step outside and experience the real thing when you can so easily do it from the comfort of your living room. Right?