Mobs

Mobs are the creatures that roam the landscape of Lunacraft. Some are aggressive, while some only attack if provoked. None of the Minecraft mobs are present in Lunacraft, though each mob may represent a different mob in Minecraft. Mobs remain visible no matter how dark their environment.

Astronaut
Astronauts are neutral mobs that sometimes attack on sight and sometimes when provoked. They attack with a Slug Pistol, and they usually come in pairs, but sometimes end up battling each other to the death. You can befriend any type of Astronaut by throwing a bar of Refined Gold at it, or by placing a Beacon. Currently, Friendly Astronauts are very buggy; Turrets may be a better choice for defense.

Green Mob
This is a green cube that doesn't attack. They have a black "G" on their back, and they will drop a Biogel when killed. They are the second smallest mob.

Brown Mob
A short, long mob that is found in open areas. They are about half the height but the same width as a green mob. If you get within their sight, they will quickly move towards you and explode, like a Creeper in Minecraft. They have the ability to transmute materials with their explosions in a process known as Alchemy.

Space Giraffe
A tall, white creature that resembles a giraffe. They will not attack, even if attacked. They do not seem to drop anything in the current version of the game.

Blue I
This is a blue creature that looks like the letter I. It will steal items from your inventory. The Blue I will most of the time steal what you are holding (they seem to like Drills). Often, when this happens, you will not see the Blue I. A message will appear on your screen saying that something was stolen. The only way to get your item back is to kill it. It is the rarest mob (with the exception of turrets which have to be made).

Similar Objects
Mobs share some properties with Turrets and the player, and all of these are probably implemented the same way by the program. See the Entity article.

Behavior
There is substantial evidence that mobs tend to spawn near the player, and that the game re-spawns the player in a position near existing mobs, such as Astronauts that have just killed the player.

Yoshiyahu reports:


 * So I was playing Creative mode on one of my Moons, and I was building my house from Zircon Ore, when I heard a bunch of shooting. When I first started building my house, there were no astronauts near were I was building my house. So I saw five astronauts all shooting at me. I shot them all then continued to build my house. About five seconds later, I saw five more astronauts. I also shot them and placed turrets so they would shoot the astronauts. When I was on my second level of my house, I saw my turrets shoot a bunch of astronauts. I also saw Blob stones on the ground. This my relate to Scooter8pie's theory about mobs

In a blog article, Scooter8pie reports:


 * When I peeked back in on [the trapped giraffes] in a few minutes there were now 2 small green mobs on top of their cell. At this point I was fairly convinced that this was probably not a random occurrence. Mobs seem to be attracted to my location.

Wyattr55123 reports:
 * I recently started building some superblocks I thought to be empty of all mobs, when I went look for gold I suddenly found a group of giraffes.
 * This may be in part from the facts spawning resets when you load and save a game and mob locations change only when you are near or in the Superblock the mobs are in so if you save the game lots you may end up with tons of mobs and when you enter a new superblock, all of the mobs in that superBlock suddenly spawn making for a mass of mobs witch roam around. I also believe mobs are attracted to the player. Stalker mobs!!

Other Properties
Mobs cannot be seen through transparent materials:

This makes Glass a lot less useful, since it cannot be used to allow you to see Astronauts while being protected from their gunfire.

Easier way to clear Mobs
If you are playing Explore and you encounter some Mobs you do not want to risk, or are not prepared to fight (like Yellow Astronauts to early players), you can pull off a trick to clear them out or thin their numbers. The example we will use is trying to clear out some Yellow Astronauts.

Step 1: After encountering the Astronauts, place a marker to signify where they are(a mini-light, for example), and go look for other Mobs, specifically ones who can fight. For this example, let's say we discover a large group of White Astronauts.

Step 2: After encountering the Mobs(or Astronauts), shoot at them to get them to follow you. Do whatever is necessary to avoid too much of their fire, but make sure you move towards the Mobs you want to clear out(the Yellow Astronauts).

Step 3: Run madly towards the ones you are trying to clear(Yellow Astronauts) until they and the Mobs you are leading(White Astronauts) see each other and attack each other. When this occurs, run as fast as you can out of the cross-fire. Alternatively, you can Jetpack to safety.

Step 4: Wait until the fighting ceases. Return to the scene to find either:
 * Less of those you were trying to clear(Yellow Astronauts)
 * A few of those you lured to the aforementioned Mobs(White Astronauts).
 * None of either of the above Mobs.

In any case it should be easy or easier to clear them out. You will, afterwards, have the freedom to do what the Mobs in your way stopped you from doing.