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Category - Mobs Creatures and NPCs

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The world of Minecraft is brought to life by what everyone knows as mobs. Without mobs, Minecraft will be a barren world of just dirt, water and trees. They make the game exciting, and it is essential for any player to be able to identify each one. Today, we’ll help you not only identify these creatures but also understand the mechanics behind them – how they spawn, how they behave and what makes each one different. This is going to be a long one, so let’s get started!

 

Mob Types

Mobs, short for “mobile”, are generally anything living in the Minecraft world. They typically are given special AI and pathfinding in order to uniquely interact with the players. Not counting mobs that are unused and removed from the game’s data, there are six classifications of mobs and up to 49 different mobs in both the PC and the Pocket Edition of the game.

 

Passive Mobs

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Passive mobs consist of non-aggro, non-attacking entities in Minecraft. They include a majority of the animal creatures in Minecraft, together with the villager. As the name suggests, these mobs will never attack regardless if they are shown aggression or not.

 

Neutral Mobs

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Neutral mobs are non-aggro but defensive entities in Minecraft. They are typically wild animals/insects or some spawned monster creatures. Though they will not attack the player on sight, they will, however, fight back when attacked. Unless needed, it is best to leave neutral mobs alone as they are either very strong for beginners or can attack you in swarms.

 

Hostile Mobs

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Hostile mobs are aggressive entities in Minecraft that will attack the player on sight or once they detect the player on their attack range. Hostile mobs consist of all the monsters in Minecraft and typically spawn once darkness comes.

 

Tamable Mobs

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Tamable mobs are entities that can be tamed as pets in Minecraft. Each tamable mob, with the exception of the wolf that is neutral, is a passive mob and will not attack. To tame each, you would need to give a specific taming item to a specific tamable mob and it gives you a chance for you to take that entity as a pet. There is no upper limit on how many of these entities can be tamed.

 

Utility Mobs

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Utility mobs are entities that are meant to serve and protect the player against hostile mobs. They are typically neutral, can be crafted and have specific functions to fulfill.

 

Boss Mobs

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The strongest hostile entities in the game, boss mobs are extremely destructive and durable, usually meant to be fought as end game opponents. They are made for high risk battles with high level rewards. As such, they are risky and large scale opponents that are typically immune to status effects and can detect invisible mobs.

Behavior

image012Mobs are mostly affected by environmental effects that will affect the player, such as gravity, Fire and water. As such, mobs can be harmed by falling, burning, weapon attacks, drowning etc.) Some mobs have resistances to some hazards, like all mobs living in the never being immune from fire and the chicken being immune from fall damage. Mobs are able to ride minecarts, other mobs or even climb ladders. Once killed, they disappear into a puff of dust, leaving items and experience points as resources. Some items drop from simple fall damage while some mobs need to be killed first to drop a specific item.

All mobs are given a specific artificial intelligence that will allow them to complete certain tasks and commands, emulating a plethora of behavior and combat mechanics. Typically, mob entities will wander around if a player is within range and some will go towards a player once they detect players within their “sight” range. The mob AI is also given a complex set of pathfinding to overcome obstacles and hazards if needed. Mobs will not go towards hazards that can possibly kill them like lava, or jump from high locations that can cause them fall damage. Mobs will move towards a desired object and follow it while making considerations for the previously said mechanics.

Passive mobs flee if the player hurts them while hostile mobs will pursue and attack the player until it is out of their sight range. Neutral mobs will not be hostile until an entity, usually a player, harms them or meets a certain criteria. The average mob’s sight range for players is 16 blocks in circumference, but some of them have farther ranges. This is also the amount of blocks away where the player can start hearing mobs’ movements or groans.

 

Spawning

The game’s spawn mechanic divides mobs into 4 categories: friendly, hostile, ambient (the bat) or water (squid). The game follows a spawning cycle in ticks, where a tick is 1/20th of a second or 0.05 seconds. Hostile mobs have a chance to spawn every tick while friendly and water mobs have a spawn chance of 400 ticks or 20 seconds. Because of this, hostile mobs will spawn more and faster than passive mobs once required conditions are met.

Natural mob spawns happen within 15 x 15 chunks around the player, or 240 x 240 blocks. Multiple players will have their own spawning area, so mobs will spawn within the distance relative to each player. Hostile mobs, however, will despawn or be removed from the game if they are outside a 128 block radius from any player, so the practical spawning limits of mobs will be calculated within a 128-block radius of players. The mob cap will be shared by all players on multiplayer unless edited.

 

How do you kill all mobs on a Minecraft server


In Minecraft there are a few ways to kill all of the mobs. Finding an effective way to kill all mobs can be very easily, especially if you are running a modified version of minecraft servers. The recommended way to do this is by using a plugin/mod on the server. However, this is possible to do using just the Vanilla command in Minecraft.

/kill @e[type=mobType]

 
One of the best ways if you have a Spigot, Bukkit, or Paper server with Worldguard. If you have this plugin it can be done easily with the following command:

/butcher

 
If you are running modded Minecraft, you can use the CoFH Core mod to allow the cofh killall command.

/cofh killall *

 

Mob Cap

Mob caps are the upper limit of the number of mobs that can spawn within a certain range of a player. The mob cap formula is typically putting into consideration the range of the spawning area, expanded by a chunk per direction, defaulting to 17 x 17 chunks. The mob cap formula then checks for eligible chunks within that range. The mob cap formula is:

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Each mob category has a separate cap and a different constant. Hostiles can have up to 70 mobs, passives up to 10, ambients/bats up to 15 mobs and water/squid mobs up to a maximum of 5. These caps are always used in single player since there will always be 289 chunks in range, while in multiplayer, each player’s range will be checked. If there are overlapping chunks between multiple players, those will only be checked once, resulting to more mobs the more spread out the players are.

The actual number of mobs is checked against the cap at the start of every mob spawn cycle and if the number of the living mobs per category is at or over the cap, the spawn cycle for the category is overlooked.

 

Pack Spawning

On every spawn cycle, the game attempts to spawn a pack of mobs per eligible spawn chunk where a random location in that chunk is treated as a center point. The most minimum requirements of pack spawning is for the center block to be non-opaque, must not fill its entire cube and must be powered.

Once a pack location fulfills all the necessary requirements, the session attempts a pack spawn, up to 12 attempts per spawn cycle. A pack is either a ghast, 3 rabbits, 8 wolves or 4 of anything else. The spawn area for the pack is a square of 41 x 41 blocks that is a block in height. The lowest body part of each mob will spawn inside the pack spawn area. The easiest explanation for this is similar to this illustration:

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Though the spawn area is a a 41 x 41 square, the spawn attempt is biased towards the center of the pack spawn location. Roughly 85% of spawned mobs will be within a 5 block radius of the pack spawn center and 99% of spawned mobs will be inside a 10-block radius. All mobs within the pack are of the same species, though their eligibility is highly dependent on the different biomes in the Overworld and conditions in the Nether and the End. The considerations include:

 

Overworld:

  • Forest, taiga, mega taiga, cold taiga and their variants can spawn wolves.
  • Plains and savanna biomes spawn horses, though savannas will spawn only 1/5 as much as plains.
  • Only jungle biomes can spawn ocelots. It also increases the spawn chance of chicken.
  • Only rabbits spawn in desert and snowy biomes, with the exception of the cold taiga.
  • Beach, stone beach, river, ocean and mesa can only spawn hostiles and squids (in water).
  • Mushroom island biomes only spawn mooshrooms.
  • Ocean monuments can spawn guardians.
  • Witch huts spawn witches.
  • Any location without the above restrictions can spawn any mob that are not restricted only to a certain area. Slimes will only spawn in an eligible chunk with a height under 40 or in a swamp biome with low light.

 

Nether/End:

  • Nether fortresses spawn skeletons, wither skeletons and blazes.
  • Ghasts can spawn anywhere except nether fortresses.
  • Zombie pigmen, magma cubes and Endermen can spawn anywhere.
  • Only endermen spawn in the end, with the exception of shulkers that spawn only inside the walls of end cities.

Mobs Up-Close

Now that we understand how mob mechanics work, let’s take a closer look at each mob, their strengths, their weaknesses and how to deal with each one of them.

 

Passive Mobs

Bat

image018The bat is a flying passive mob that spawns in caves in the Overworld. Bats spawn on opaque blocks with light levels less than 3 under layer 63, except on superflat worlds where they spawn below the top non-air layer. Bats are classified as ambient by the game itself, making them have no use other than just environmental add-ons. They do not drop any experience or items when killed.

Bats are very small, with just half a block in height and width. They fly without real purpose, sometimes flying into lava and dying. Bats hang upside down on solid blocks when idle and fly away in the presence of players even if they are invisible. Bats fly away if you break the block they’re resting on and despawn if they go too far away.

 

Chicken

image020Chicken is an egg laying mob and one of the most common passive mobs on Minecraft. They naturally generate on grass blocks with 2 blocks for free space on top with a light level of 9 and up. Chickens can be bred by feeding them seeds (wheat/beetroot/melon/pumpkin seeds in PC/PE, nether wart in CE), where two “parents” will produce a baby chicken.

Adult chickens drop 0 to 2 feathers and 1 raw chicken when killed and can be affected by the Looting enchantment. If a chicken dies and they are on fire, they drop a cooked chicken instead of raw chicken. They also drop 1-3 experience when killed and 1-7 experience after breeding.

Chickens also lay eggs every 5 to 10 minutes when they’re in a loaded chunk, unless they are a part of a chicken jockey. You will hear a popping sound when standing close to a chicken when it’s laying an egg. All eggs have a 1/8 chance to produce baby chickens when thrown and when successful, has a 1/32 chance to spawn 4 chicks. Thrown eggs may spawn the baby chicken inside a wall when thrown, causing suffocation. Baby chickens grow within 20 minutes, though feeding them seeds will cut their remaining growth duration by 10 percent. Baby chickens have no drops.

Chickens are 0.7 blocks tall and 0.4 blocks wide while a baby chick is between 0.51 to 0.8 blocks in height. They wander around aimlessly and can swim in water. Chickens are immune to fall damage as they flap their wings and glide slowly down when they drop. Regardless, their AI will still avoid falling cliffs high enough for fall damage. When swimming, adult chickens need two blocks of free space above them while baby chicks need a full block, otherwise they will drown and die. Wild ocelots will attack chickens. When attacked, chickens will panic and run around.

Cow

image022Cows are passive mobs that can only be found in the Overworld. They mob spawn in herds of 4 on top of opaque blocks with 2 blocks of free space above them and a light level of 9 and above. Cows do mob spawn when the world generates the first time, but they also spawn normal if there are no passive mobs in loaded chunks.

There are two cow species: the basic brown cow and the red mooshroom. Adult cows will drop 0 to 2 leather and 1-3 raw beef (1-3 cooked steak if killed while on fire). They can also be milked using a bucket and mooshrooms can be sheared for mushrooms, which in turn makes them into normal cows. Killing a cow drops 1-3 experience while breeding drops 1-7 experience.

If cows are fed wheat, cows will go into love mode and two “parent” cows will breed and produce a small calf, wherein a 5 minute cooldown will start until they can breed again. The growth of baby cows can be accelerated by feeding them wheat, cutting down the remaining time by 10 percent.

Cows have a height of 1.4 blocks while calves are 0.7 blocks in height. They will walk around slowly and wander, mooing and breathing occasionally. They will also avoid cliffs that are high enough to cause fall damage and will run in panic when they are hit or damaged. Cows will follow a player holding wheat, as long as they are less than 10 blocks away.

 

Mooshroom

image024A Mooshroom is a variant specie of cow, distinguished by its red color and red mushrooms growing from its back. It is the exclusive spawn of a Mooshroom island, in itself a rare occurrence in Overworld biomes. Mooshrooms spawn on mycelium blocks of the island in mob spawns of 4 to 8.

Mooshrooms drop 0-2 leather and 1-3 raw beef (1-3 steak if killed while on fire). Mooshrooms can be milked using either a bucket or a bowl, producing milk or mushroom stew respectively. They can also be shorn to drop 5 red mushrooms, but this will in turn convert the mooshroom into a normal cow. A shorn mooshroom will not go back from being a cow. They drop 1-3 experience when killed and 1-7 experience when breeding.

Mooshrooms have the same breeding mechanics and AI mechanics with the cow, going into love mode when fed wheat and produces a baby mooshroom. Its growth can be accelerated using wheat, cutting off 10 percent of the remaining growth duration. They will avoid going in cliffs where it can give them fall damage and will panic if they are attacked.

 

Pigs

image026Pigs are rideable passive mobs that spawn on the Overworld. They are typically used as food resource, where they spawn on grass blocks with 2 blocks of open space above it. They mob spawn in herds during the world generation.

Pigs drop 1-3 pieces of raw pork chop (1-3 cooked pork chop if killed while on fire). If a saddle is equipped on them, they will also drop the saddle. Adult pigs drop 1-3 experience when killed and 1-7 experience when bred. Baby pigs do not drop anything.

Carrots, potatoes and beetroots can be used to breed pigs, though the console edition only allows carrots. Once two “parents” are fed, they will breed and spawn 1 pig and will have a 5 minute cooldown until they can breed again. Piglets will mature in 20 minutes or a Minecraft day. A piglet will be near similar to the adult pig but with a small body. Feeding a baby pig will reduce its remaining growth duration by 10 percent.

Pigs have a height of 0.875 blocks and act like cows, wandering around, avoid falling from cliffs and randomly oink. They will follow any player that carries a carrot, carrot on stick, potato or beetroot that is below 5 blocks away. Pigs can be ridden by equipped a saddle on them and control their direction using a carrot on a sticks. They will slowly accelerate up to 4.00 m/s from a sluggish start. Pigs can swim up to 1 block deep water while ridden and go on a burst of speed when using carrot on a stick. The pig will take fall damage while being ridden, being boosted by a 7 durability from the carrot on stick. There is no knockback if the pig receives damage.

If a pig is struck by lightning, they become Zombie Pigmen.

 

Rabbit

image028Rabbits are small, passive mobs that can be found in the Overworld. They naturally spawn in deserts, flower forests, taiga, mega taiga, cold taiga, ice plains, ice mountains, ice spikes, and the "hills" and "M" variants of these biomes. They spawn in a small group of two to three: an adult rabbit and 1-2 baby rabbits. Their skins vary depending on which biome they are found. As some rabbit spawn biomes overlap with wolf spawn biomes, wolves attack rabbits if left long enough.

Rabbits drop 0-1 rabbit hide and 0-1 raw rabbit upon death , increasing by 1 per level of Looting enchantment used, up to 4 maximum. Rabbits will drop cooked rabbit if killed while on fire. When killed by a player, there’s a 10% chance for the rabbit to drop a rabbit’s foot, adding an additional 3% per level of Looting enchantment, up to 19%.

Rabbits can be bred with carrots, golden carrots or dandelions. Two “parents” who have been fed will go into love mode and produce a baby rabbit. The baby rabbit has a 47.5% chance to follow one of the parents’ fur, totaling to 95% for both parents. The baby rabbit has a 5% chance to spawn with the biome-specific fur. Rabbits have six different variations: brown fur, black mottled fur, white fur with red eyes, black and white spotted fur, salt and pepper fur and gold fur.  Furs colors are biome specific: snowy biomes will spawn 80% white and 20% black and white fur. Deserts will have 100% gold fur. Other biomes will have 50% brown, 40% salt and pepper and 10% black fur.

There are two special rabbits apart from the basic: the Killer Bunny and Toast. The Killer Bunny, formerly known as the Killer Rabbit of Carbannog, is a hostile white rabbit with horizontal red eyes. It will attack any player within a 16-block radius and will charge faster than the basic rabbit. They don’t spawn naturally anymore, needing a /summon command to spawn it. Toast is an Easter egg rabbit that can be achieved if you use a name tag and name a rabbit Toast. Once this is done, the rabbit will re-texture its appearance to a black dutch – a black and white spotted rabbit.

 

Sheep

image031Sheep are passive mobs in the Overworld that are used to supply mutton and wool to the player. They naturally spawn on grass blocks with at least 2 free spaces above with a light level of 9 or higher. They often spawn in flocks of 4. Sheep can spawn with different color wool. The most common is white with 81.836% chance, light gray, dark gray and black sheep having 5%, brown at 3% and pink at a very rare 0.164% chance to spawn. They can also be dyed, which will allow them to grow unnaturally colored wool in the process.

Sheep drop 1 wool when killed and 1-3 wool when sheared, which will be the same as the sheep’s current color wool. Wool drop rates and amount is not affected by the Looting enchantment. They also drop 1-2 raw mutton upon killing, adding 1 extra piece per level of Looting and a max of 5. If the sheep dies while on fire, it will drop cooked mutton instead. As with all breedable mobs, it drops 1-3 experience when killed and 1-7 experience when bred.

Wheat can be used to breed sheep. Once you feed two “parent” sheep, they will enter love mode and breed, resulting in a lamb and will have a cooldown of 5 minutes before they can be bred again. The lamb will have a color mixture of their parents’ wool, as long as it is compatible/mixable in the basic color wheel (yellow + red = orange lamb, red + white = pink lamb), otherwise the lamb will have one of its parents’ color. A baby sheep can be fed wheat to cut down on its growth duration by 10% of the remaining time.

Sheep are 0.9 blocks wide and 1.3 blocks tall. Similar to the cow and pig, they will wander around, try not to fall from cliffs high enough and will bleat occasionally. They will follow players who are holding wheat, but will give up if the player goes beyond 5 blocks far. Sheep will try to jump over obstacles that are 1 block high. They will also eat grass blocks and turn it into dirt, or tall grass and destroy it. This is how sheep grow back their shorn wool. If there is no wool, sheep cannot grow back their wool.

 

Skeleton Horse

image033A horse variant that can’t be tamed, skeleton horses spawn from skeleton traps, which comes from a small portion of lightning strikes in thunderstorms ((3.75–7.5% chance on Easy, 7.5–20% on Normal, and 11.25–33.75% on Hard, depending on regional difficulty). They despawn after 18,000 ticks or 15 minutes if they are not triggered. The chance of trap horses spawning during a thunderstorm is 0.75–1.5% chance on Easy, 1.5–4% on Normal, and 2.8125–6.75% on Hard, depending on regional difficulty.

When a player is within a 10 block radius, lightning will strike the horse. The skeleton trap horse will become a skeleton horseman that will have skeletons riding them, spawning a total of 3 in the area. It is best to proceed with caution or avoid a skeleton horse if you are not properly equipped, as the skeleton horsemen will have an enchanted iron helmet and an enchanted bow upon spawn, together with 3 seconds initial damage immunity.

 

Squid

image035Squid are 8 legged mobs and are the only passive water mob in the game. They can spawn in any body of water between layers 46 and sea level. They cannot spawn in superflat worlds since the sea level is at Y0 in those worlds.

Squids drop 1-3 ink sacs, which is usually converted to black dye. They also drop 1-3 experience when killed. Squids cannot breed and always hover around water by moving their tentacles open and close. They are not attracted to light and will remain passive to the player, only escaping farther when attacked. Squids will suffocate when on land and will take fall and fire damage. Guardians are hostile to squids and will attack them. When attacked in Pocket Edition, squids will produce a cloud of black in and swim quickly in the opposite direction of the player.

 

Neutral Mobs

Enderman

image037The Enderman is a black, humanoid mob that usually spawns in The End. Endermen are endemic to The End, even though they sometimes spawn on the Overworld on solid blocks with light levels of 7 or less. In the End, they spawn in groups of 4 called hauntings while on the Overworld, they spawn in groups of 1-4 and are rarer than most mobs. In the Nether, they also spawn in groups of 4 and are extremely rare.

Endermen may drop 0-1 ender pearls when killed, up to 4 when using the Looting enchantment. They also drop 5 experience when killed. If an Enderman is holding a block, it will drop that block. Endermen can teleport to a random destination within a 32 block radius per axis, adding its movement area to a 64 x 64 x 64 cuboid centered on its current position. The teleportation will succeed if there are no liquid blocks to hamper them or there is enough free space for it to stand on. It will always teleport when attacked with a melee or if it takes damage from water. Any type of projectile shot towards an Enderman, except positive potions, will not hit and it will always teleport away before the projectile hits.

Endermen will remain neutral and not be hostile towards the player unless it is attacked or the player looks at its head from up to 64 blocks. When provoked, the Enderman will open its mouth and shake violently in rage. If it has been provoked by a stare, it will also make a long, screeching sound and attack the player. They will take damage from water, rain and splash water bottles, teleporting away if they are hit by either. They will also teleport with other types of DPS hits like poison, wither, suffocation, fire or lava. An Enderman cannot be provoked by players looking through transparent blocks or wearing a pumpkin. They will attack endermites spawned from ender pearls as long as there is no players close enough to the endermite.

 

Polar Bear

image039Polar bears are typically neutral mobs that can be found in ice plains, ice mountains, and ice spike biomes. They are 1.3 blocks wide and 1.4 blocks tall. When killed, they have a 75% chance of dropped 0-2 raw fish and 25% chance to drop 0-2 raw salmon. These will remain raw even if the polar bear dies of fire damage.

Polar bears have variant behaviors depending on the situation, with the cubs being passive at all times. Polar bears will stay neutral unless attacked. The adult polar bear will go full hostile if you go close to a polar bear cub. If you attack a polar bear cub, all adult polar bears within a 41 x 21 x 41 cuboid range will become hostile. Attacked an adult that is 16 x 8 x 16 cuboid distance from a cub will also provoke hostility within a 21 x 21 x 21 cube range of the attacked adult. Polar bears are faster swimmers than players and they attack by standing up and mauling.

 

Zombie Pigmen

image041Zombie Pigmen are the most common neutral mobs that live in the Nether. They are humanoid pig-zombies that hold a gold sword in their hand and are endemic to the Nether, but also spawn from Nether portals or pigs. They have a 5% chance to spawn a baby zombie pigman, where a baby zombie pigman has also a 5% chance to spawn a pigman jockey. They spawn in groups of 4 in the Nether at any light level, a very small chance to spawn from the Nether portal block at 1/2000 per block tick on Easy, 2/2000 on Normal and 3/2000 on Hard. If a lightning strikes within a 4 block radius of a pig, it will become a zombie pigman.

Zombie pigmen will drop 0 to 1 rotten flesh and 0 to 1 gold nugget upon death, increasing in amount per level of Looting enchantment. Upon player kill, zombie pigmen have a 2.5% chance to drop a gold ingot and 8.5% chance to drop their sword, increasing by 1% per level of Looting enchantment. They will drop 5 experience when killed by a player, while their baby version will drop 12 experience. They will also drop whatever items they may have picked up upon death. Every October 31st or Halloween, Zombie Pigmen will drop the pumpkin or jack o’lantern that they’re carrying if they are killed using an enchanted tool/ weapon with Looting enchantment, with a maximum 3% chance at Looting III.

Zombie Pigmen tend to walk around slowly and can be killed by drowning and fall damage but are immune to fire and lava damage. Like normal zombies, they will bang on wooden doors and in Hard difficulty, will even break them. If the Zombie Pigman thinks that a weapon on the ground is better than their golden sword, they have a 9.5% chance they pick up the item.

During combat, Zombie Pigmen have 20 health and two armor points, reducing 8% of damage. When aggravated, they walk faster and become more aggressive, snorting a noisy aggro. Once angry, all zombie pigmen within a 67 x 67 x 21 to 111 x 111 x 21 blocks centered on the attacked zombie pigman will crowd and attack the player. They will all target the aggravator and subsequently any player within a 35 block radius of any zombie pigman who is hostile already, calling more zombie pigmen within 40 blocks. Since a zombie pigman deals 5 damage on Easy, 9 damage on Normal and 13 damage on Hard per hit. Zombie Pigmen will remain hostile for 20 to 39.95 seconds and the “forgiveness counter” will run only when the chunks are loaded. If the player goes out of the Nether or leaves the area, players will still encounter hostile zombie pigmen when they return.

 

Spider

image043A spider is a common neutral mob that can climb walls. They spawn on the Overworld on a 3 x 3 x 2 space on solid blocks in light levels of 7 or less in groups of 4. They also spawn from monster spawners found in dungeons and, in rare situations, the hidden room in the Woodland Mansions. The spider has 3 variants: the ordinary brown spider, the smaller cave spider found mineshafts and the rare spider jockey.

Spiders drop 0-2 strings upon death. If the death registers as a player or wolf kill, a spider has a 33% chance to drop a spider eye. It also drops 5 experience when killed. A spider measures 1.5 x 1 x 1.5 blocks in size.

Spiders are officially listed as neutral, though they are hostile to players as long as light levels are 11 or less, otherwise they will not attack until provoked. Once provoked, they will keep aggro even in well-lit locations as long as they are not damaged by another source like lava or fall damage, which resets their hostility meter. Spiders can climb walls and obstacles. It will keep going forward even when it loses its aggro status, up to a full two seconds. This may result in the spider to climb any wall in its path. Spiders will run towards the direction of an arrow’s source when hit, even if it is outside their detection range. They are not affected by the poison status and will just a jumping lunge attack, pouncing players.

Spiders have a variant called the Spider Jockey; it is a spider with a skeleton riding its back. There is a 1% chance for a spider to spawn as a jockey and a 0.8% chance to spawn a wither jockey in the Nether. In cold biomes, a stray jockey has a 0.8% chance to spawn.

On hard difficulty, spiders have 10% chance (dependent on regional difficulty) to spawn a spider with a status buff. This effect can either be speed (40%), strength (20%), regeneration (20%) or invisibility (20%) and has an infinite duration.

 

Cave Spider

image045A cave spider is a neutral mob variant of the spider. It exclusively spawns from monster spawners in abandoned mineshafts. Their location is telling as the spawner will be surrounded by a continuous stream of cobwebs along all directions of the mineshaft it is found. Cave spiders are much smaller than spiders, clocking in at 1 block wide and half a block tall and they have a poisonous attack.

Cave spiders drop 0 – 2 string when killed and a 33% chance to drop a spider eye if killed by a player. They drop 5 experience once killed by a player or wolf.

Cave spiders are made neutral by light levels of 10 or higher, but an already hostile cave spider will still attack once hostile. They will climb walls, unhampered by cobwebs or poison and can go through spaces between Nether Brick and Fences. Their venom inflicts Poison 1 for 7 seconds on normal (2 damage) and 15 seconds (5 damage) on hard difficulty. They have an attack power of 2 damage on easy, 2 with poison 1 on normal and 3 with poison 1 on hard.

 

Hostile Mobs

Blaze

image047Blazes are floating hostile mobs that can be found in the Nether. They are yellow monsters with rod like bodies and smoke particles. They naturally spawn in the nether under light levels of 11 and less or via monster spawner on a 9 x 9 x 3 square prism area with the spawner on the center.

Blazes drop one blaze rod when killed by a player or a wolf, increasing the max drop by 1 per level of Looting enchantment. In the console edition, they also drop 0-2 glowstone dust. Additionally, they drop 10 experience points when player killed.

Though blazes know how to fly, they typically stay low in the air when idle. They are resistant to fire or lava, but will take damage with water. As they are endemic to the Nether, they will swim in lava but will avoid water but will make no attempt to get out of water once pushed there. Blazes will target players within 48 blocks and once it acquires a target, it will try to gain a higher ground of around 0.5 to 3.5 blocks above the player. A damaged blaze will alert blazes within a 48 block radius to target the attacker.

The typical attack of a blaze is a trio of fireballs shot from 16 blocks away. They can detect players behind walls and will shoot at the player even if they don’t see it. When attacking, the blaze will be set on fire for 3 seconds and shoot all of its fireballs in a span of 0.9 second, put out its flame and cooldown for 5 seconds before its next attack. A blaze’s fireball shot has the same accuracy as a dispenser but has a constant speed of projectile. A blaze fireball will hit for 5 damage on all difficulties and set any entity into fire for 5 seconds, dealing an additional 4 damage over time. It will set any block it hits ablaze. If the target is 2 blocks away, it will hit with a melee attack that does 6 damage on normal, once per second. This is not considered fire damage so it will not ignite the target.

Blazes can be damaged by conventional weaponry, including splash water bottles for 1 damage per hit and snowballs for 3 damage per hit. Rain and water damages blazes for 1 damage every half a second.

 

Chicken Jockey

image049Chicken Jockeys are rare spawns of baby zombies, baby zombie pigmen or baby husks riding a chicken. Either of the 3 have a 5% chance to spawn with a chicken. There is also a 5% chance that any baby zombie, baby zombie pigman or baby husk will ride a nearby chicken within a 10 x 6 x 10 box centered on the baby’s spawn location. Since the baby mobs themselves already only have a 5% chance to spawn, a chicken jockey only has a .25% chance of becoming one, increasing to 0.5% if chickens are present.

Since the baby mobs are riding a chicken, they will receive the fall damage immunity of the chicken, making it flap its wings while falling down. They will have the same behavior as their riders and drop the same items as if they separate entities.

 

Creeper

image055The creeper is a common hostile mob in the Overworld, infamous for its ability to explode when in close proximity to a player. Creepers spawn naturally on the Overworld on top of solid blocks with light levels of 7 or less with at least 2 blocks of open space.

Creepers drop 0 -2 gunpowder and a music disc if killed by a skeleton arrow. They will also drop a creeper head if they are killed by a charged creeper explosion. They drop 5 experience when killed by a player or player’s wolf. Creepers will seek a player within a 16 block radius with a 5% variance and approximately 4 blocks vertical. If the player is wearing a creeper mob head, their detection rnage is reduced to 8 blocks.

Creepers can climb ladders and vines and they have a very silent footstep. Once within 3 blocks of a player, a creeper will hiss loudly, start flashing and inflate, exploding within 1.5 seconds. A creeper will abort explosion of the player is out of the creeper’s 7 block blast radius, which includes knocking the creeper back or killing it. Using a flint and steel will force the creeper to explode. Their explosion radius is a 3 block sphere.

Creepers will run away from ocelots and cats until they are 16 blocks away from them. If they are hit with a status effect, an AOE cloud will surround the creeper. Creepers are never attacked by mobs other than withers, snow golems and a vindicator named “Johnny”. They will retaliate against stray attacks only if they are not chasing a player.

Creeper has two variants: the normal creeper and a charged creeper. Charged creepers only exist once a lightning hits within a 3-4 block distance from a creeper. The mob will then be surrounded by a blue aura, signifying an improved explosive power. They are similar in many ways to the normal creeper except that they explosion range doubles to a 6 radius sphere. At the most maximum, a creeper can hit with a 49 damage while a charged creeper can exploded with 97 damage to the player.

 

Elder Guardian

image059Elder Guardians are hostile mobs similar to a mini-boss that spawns in underwater ocean monuments. They are the stronger variant of the guardian and are boss mobs in the Pocket Edition. Three elder guardians naturally spawn during the generation of an ocean monument: one in the top room and one in each of the wing sections. They do not respawn and are in limited numbers.

Elder guardians drop 0-2 prismarine shards, adding one per level of Looting enchantment. They also have a 50% chance to drop a raw fish (cooked fish if on fire) or a 33% change of dropping a prismarine crystal with a 16.7% of not dropping either, adding one per Level of Looting. It also drops a single wet sponge and can drop another fish for a 2.5% chance when killed by a player. The type of fish is similar to fishing – 60% for raw fish, 25% for raw salmon, 13% for pufferfish and 2% for clownfish. Finally, the drop 10 experience when killed by player or wolf.

Elder guardians have the same behavior as guardians, though they do not move as much. They do not swim away from players, stare at their targets and will also attack squids. Their eye is coded to follow the nearest player, regardless if in spectator mode or invisibility.

The elder guardian can attack using a laser, a defensive thorn attack or mining fatigue. Once a player is within a 50 block radius of the elder guardian, it will inflict a Mining Fatigue III to all players with a duration of 5 minutes, showing a specter of the elder guardian. If a player is already inflicted by a Mining Fatigue III of over 1 minute or more, they cannot be affected. They also attack with a laser from their eye. It takes a few seconds to charge and changes from purple to bright yellow. Once fully charged, they hit the player with 8 damage on normal. The elder guardian swims for a bit until the next attack. Every time you attack the elder guardian, its spikes extend and deal 2 damage.

 

Endermite

endermiteEndermites are the smallest hostile mobs that have a 5% chance to spawn when using an ender pearl. They only drop 3 experience when killed. They movement and appearance is similar to a Silverfish and will attack players within a 16 block radius. Unless named with a name tag, endermites despawn within 2 minutes.

Endermites will take damage in soul sand, as if drowning. Any endermite within the area will attack a mob that attacks them. If there are no close players, endermen will attack endermites.

 

Evoker

image062Evokers are hostile mobs that are part of the illagers – variant of the villager. Evokers naturally spawn during the generation of some woodland mansion rooms. They do not naturally despawn or respawn, hence their limited number.

Evokers drop 1 totem of undying regardless of their conditions for d ying, and 0-1 emerald if killed by a player, increasing by 1 per level of Looting. They drop 10 experience points.

Evokers are known to attack players, villagers and iron golems within a 16 block radius. If not attacking, they will try to run away from the player to avoid being attacked and will go back to attacking thereafter. If mobgriefing is allowed in a game, an evoker will change a blue sheep’s wool color to red and make a “wololo” sound if they are not engaged in battle. They have two types of attack: fang attacks and vex summoning.

When fighting, they will use a fang attack which summons a wave of fangs from the ground, signaled by a puff of smoke. They have 6 pure damage, regardless of armor or enchantments. Its fang attack has two types: an offensive or defensive bite. The offensive bite shoots a wave of 16 fangs in a line, spaced a block apart. An evoker’s defensive bite summons a total of 13 fangs in two circles around the evoker – 8 fangs outside with a 3 block radius and 5 fangs inside with a 2 block radius.

Their second attack is vex summoning, between 2 to 4 vexes after producing off-white smoke and a high-pitched horn sound. They will summon vexes regardless if there are still some left alive.

 

Ghast

image064The ghast is a huge, floating mob in the nether that looks like a gigantic ghost jellyfish. A ghast can only spawn in the nether and requires a solid block below it and 5 x 4 x 5 free space at any light level. Ghasts drop 0-2 gun powder, and rarely a ghast tear, together with 5 experience if killed by a player.

Ghasts normally float in the nether and make high pitched noises similar to a cat or infant. They screech when shooting and scream pitifully when taking damage. A ghast can be heard regardless of their distance and attacks with a fireball. They have an extreme attack range, up to 100 blocks and have an even longer search range. Though they will not pursue a player, they will shoot and attack if a player is within 16 blocks – opening fire and gaining altitude.

They will not fire at a player without a line-of-sight and cannot see players in transparent blocks. The ghast fireball has an unlimited range but disappears within a minute; it has a straight trajectory not affected by gravity. The projectile is slow and can be deflected back by a projectile, fishing lure or melee attack. A direct fireball hits at 6 damage and up to 9/17/25 damage from the explosion depending on the difficulty. If two ghast fireballs meet, one explodes and one deflects in a random direction. A deflected fireball will hit with 1000 damage to a ghast.

Ghast fireballs explode and set blocks and entities on fire, with a minimum blast resistance of 20.17 for a block to not get damaged.

 

Guardian

image065The guardian is an underwater hostile mob that spawns naturally only in and around ocean monuments. Needing water to spawn, it requires specifically for the spawning block and the block below it to be water and the block above the spawn block has no collision block.

Guardian spawning fails 95% of the time if the spawn water block is below sea level, all blocks between the spawn block and sea level are liquid or fully transparent and under an open sky. Guardians spawn between Y = 39 (ocean monument floor) to Y = 63 (default sea level).

Guardians drop 0-2 prismarine shards, increasing by one per level of Looting. They also have a 40% chance to drop a raw fish (cooked fish if on fire) or a 40% chance of dropping a prismarine crystal with a 20% of not dropping either, adding one per Level of Looting. It can also drop another fish for a 2.5% chance when killed by a player. The type of fish is similar to fishing – 60% for raw fish, 25% for raw salmon, 13% for pufferfish and 2% for clownfish. Finally, the drop 10 experience when killed by player or wolf.

Guardians swimming around and while attack players or squids. The guardian can attack using a laser or a defensive thorn attack. They attack with a laser from their eye; it takes a few seconds to charge and changes from purple to bright yellow. Once fully charged, they hit the player with 6 damage on normal. The guardian swims for a bit until the next attack. One problem when combatting guardians is that they deal more damage even on armored players. At hard difficulty, their laser hits at 9 damage unarmored, but deals 5 damage to a player in diamond armor, even if the armor’s damage reduction should cut that to 2 damage. Every time you attack the guardian, its spikes extend and deal 2 damage.

 

Magma Cube

image068Magma cubes are hostile mobs found in the nether. They are similar to slimes, having the black and dark red color of magma. They spawn rarely in the any place in the nether at all light levels, with a higher spawn rate in nether fortresses.

Magma cubes are classified into 3 sizes: big, small and tiny. A big magma cube is a 4 block cube, a small one is 2 blocks big and a tiny one is 1 block in size. Big and small sized magma cubes have a 25% chance to drop a single magma cream, adding 1 per level of Looting. Big cubes drop 4 experience, small drop 2 experience and the tiny drops 1 experience.

Magma cubes move by hopping, doing one per 2 to 6 seconds. Magma cubes have a very complicated movement pattern. They search for players on a 16 block spherical range. If they don’t find players, they hop and change direction by a random amount of up 1 radian left or right and then jump. If they find a player, they delay the jump by an additional 0.65 seconds to 2 seconds and the magma cube will change direction towards the player.

Magma cubes are impervious to fall damage, drowning in water, fire and lava. They can actually swim very fast upwards in lava. Though they have faster forward speed in comparison to other mobs, they have no path finding and will drop in cliffs and can’t go around walls.

Their method of attack involves squishing the player and touching them. Their attack strength is size + 2, their health is size squared and their armor is size tripled. Their jump is around 1.5 times their length. If killed, a magma cube may split into 1 to 4 magma cubes of the next size, until the smallest one disappears. They hit twice per second, meaning a big magma cube will hit 6 damage per half second or 12 damage per second.

 

Shulker

image070The shulker is a hostile mob found in the End cities, outer islands of the End. Their appearance looks like a purple purpur block shaped clam. They spawn during the generation of an end city and spawns usually on the walls of the city. They don’t despawn or respawn naturally. Shulkers have a 50% chance to drop a shulker shell, with each level of Looting adding 6.25% chance.

Though shulkers have non-purple variants, they can only be accessed through in-game commands. Shulkers are stationary as long as they are attached to an adjacent solid block. If they see that they are not adjacent to any solid block, it will do 5 attempts to teleport per tick within a 17 x 17 x 17 cuboid centered on the shulker. If it does not find a solid block, it will attach to air and not move.

Every 1-3 seconds, it will open its shell and look outside, revealing its small yellow head with two eyes. If a target is within a 16 block radius, it will shoot homing projectiles that only move on the XYZ axis and leave trails of white particles. The projectile can be destroyed or blocked with a shield. If the projectile hits an entity, it will do 4 damage and inflict the levitation status effect for 10 seconds. The shulker will continue firing from 1 to 5.5 seconds as long as the target is in range. If the entity dies and a projectile is in the air, it will simply drop.

When closed, a shulker gains 20 armor points and is impervious to arrows. It loses this armor when open and once it is down to 25% and below health from its original 30, it will teleport. All shulkers within the area will attack an aggressor together. They are immune to lava and fire and will teleport when touched by water. Shulkers can be transported using a boat or a minecraft and moved through the exit portal with a piston.

 

Silverfish

image072Silverfish are small bug-like hostile mobs that reside in monster egg blocks that generate on strongholds, igloos with basements and extreme hills biomes. They can also spawn from monster spawners in light level 11 or lower except on top of stone or its variants, allowing it to spawn at any light level. They cannot spawn within a 5 block distance of any player. Silverfish only drop 5 experience upon player kill.

Because of their small size, silverfish drown in soul sand and end portal frames. They have the ability to activate silverfish hiding in their vicinity to attack the aggressor. They can see through walls and seek players. If they suffer poison or get damaged by the player and survive, they activate silverfish within a 21 x 11 x 21 area and make them break out of monster egg blocks. When idle, they will enter a stone block or any variant, transforming the block to a spawn egg.

Skeleton

image074A skeleton is an undead, range hostile mob that has a bow equipped. They can spawn in almost any location in the Overworld with a light level of 6 or less. In the Nether, they spawn in nether fortresses with a light level of 7 or less. Spiders have 1% chance to spawn a spider jockey. Skeleton riders spawn when a skeleton horse trap triggers, riding a skeleton horse, up to 3 per trap. Skeletons also spawn from monster spawners in dungeons and have a height of 1.99 blocks. Skeletons have 4 variants: the normal Skeleton, the Skeleton Horseman, Spider Jockey and the Stray.

Skeletons drop 0-2 bones and 0-2 arrows upon death, together with any item they have picked up. When a player kill happens, any equipment they have spawned with naturally, including bows and armor, have a 8.5% chance to drop with a random amount of durability, with an additional 1% per level of Looting. A skeleton will drop its head when exploded by a charged creeper. They drop 5 experience when killed by a player or its wolf, with an additional 1-3 experience if it has an equipment. If it is Halloween, skeletons have a 22.5% chance of spawning while wearing a pumpkin and 2.5% chance to spawn with a jack o’lantern. If killed with a looting enchanted weapon, they can drop those items equivalent to a percentage per level of Looting.

Skeletons will burn in sunlight unless they area wearing a helmet. Their presence is indicated by rattling bone noises, putting down their arms. They will chase any player within 16 block radius. Their pathfinding allows them to avoid cliffs, climb stairs and navigate mazes. Once they have a clear line of sight of the player within an 8 block distance, they will stop chasing and start attacking the player. They will strafe side to side, retreat to safe ranges and move in circles to avoid player attacks. When attacking, they will put up their arms in attack position until a player leaves their detection range.

The skeleton’s accuracy is dependent on difficulty, with a 10 “error” value on Easy, 6 on normal and 2 on hard, in comparison to a player’s 1. They do less damage the closer the target is and skeletons account for gravity by aiming 0.2 blocks higher for every block horizontal they are from the player. If a skeleton accidentally hits another hostile, it will become that mob’s target. If it attacked by another mob, it will attack the mob until it is dead. If they have any item other than a bow, they will move towards the player at normal player speed. They will act like a zombie if spawned without a weapon.

Skeletons will burn when the sun is 15 degrees or higher in the sky unless they are in a shade, water or wearing a helmet. Burning skeletons have a 50% chance to shoot flame arrows if regional difficulty is 3 and above. If the skeleton is holding tipped arrows, it will shoot that type of arrow infinitely. Skeletons run away from wolves.

Skeletons can spawn with armor and will never have mismatched armor. It may also have enchanted weapons or armor, with percentages differing in value due to regional difficulty. If they pick up armor, they may wear the armor.

 

 EasyNormalHard
Armor0%0%–15%1.875%–15%
Weapon100%100%100%
Pick up0%0%–55%6.875%–55%
Weapon enchantment0%0%–25%3.125%–25%
Armor enchantment0%0%–50%6.25%–50%

 

If a skeleton spawns with armor, the chance for it to spawn a specific type is as follows:

 

ArmorEasy & NormalHard
Boots100%100%
Boots & Leggings75%90%
Boots & Chestplate & Leggings56.25%81%
Full set42.19%72.9%

 

The type chance is as follows:

Armor TypeChance
Leather37.06%
Gold48.73%
Chain12.90%
Iron1.27%
Diamond0.04%

 

Skeleton armor does not wear out.

 

Stray

image076A stray is a variant of the skeleton that can only spawn in ice plains, ice mountains and ice plains spikes. 80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky of these three biomes will be strays, with a 1% chance for a spider under these biomes to become a stray spider jockey.

Strays are exactly the same in mechanics with skeletons, albeit with extra abilities. They shoot tipped arrows that inflict slowness for 30 seconds on any target. They are immune to the debuff itself. Their noises are similar to skeletons but with additional echo. In addition to the basic skeleton drops, they have a 50% chance to drop Tipped Arrow of Slowness upon death, increasing to 75% on Looting 1, 83.33% on Looting 2 and 87.5% on Looting 3.

 

Slime

A slime is a hostile mob endemic to the Overworld that spawn in chunks below layer 40 regardless of light levels. They also spawn in swamp biomes between layers 50 and 70 in 7 or less light level. Slimes will not spawn within a 24 block spherical radius from a player, despawns over time when no player is in a radius of 32 blocks and instantly disappears after 128 blocks. Slime size is affected by regional difficulty: chances range from 33% for each size at low difficulty to 16% tiny, 33% small, and 50% big with higher difficulty. In swamps, they spawn most often under a full moon and never a new moon.

Slimes can only spawn in what are called slime chunks – areas 40 below that generate 10 percent of the time and determined by a pseudo-random programming that combines the chunk coordinates to the seed of the world:

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