Health

The health gauge and monitor in Minecraft is based on a single row of heart icons. Each full heart contains two halves, one hit point each.

All player characters and most hostile Mobs have 10 hearts at full health (20 points). Pigs, Cows, Ghasts, and Squid all have five hearts, Sheep have four, and Chickens have two. A wild Wolf has four hearts, while a tamed Wolf has ten hearts. The amount of hearts for Slimes depends on its size, ranging from sixteen to only one half heart (1 point).

Damage from attacks or natural causes will subtract hearts from this total. When the total reaches zero, you die. When a mob dies, it drops items specific to that mob. Players will drop all their items when they die.

Armor will absorb damage and reduce the number of hearts subtracted from your character's health.

Minecraft Creative
In creative mode the player still has health, but it is hidden from the GUI, and the player is invulnerable to everything except falling into the void.

Hearts
Hearts make up the health meter for the player and mobs in the Survival modes. Each heart represents two hit points, for a total of 20 hit points. Hit points are lost in multiples of one point (i.e. half heart).

Hearts can be lost by: starving; taking fall damage; being attacked by a hostile Mob; being shot with an arrow; being on fire; touching lava or a cactus; drowning underwater; suffocating inside a block; falling into the void; being affected by negative potions, or getting caught in an explosion. When the health meter shows two or less than two hearts, it will begin to shake violently, warning the player that death is imminent if health is not restored.

On Peaceful difficulty, the heart meter will refill over time. As of 1.8, health is not restored by consuming food, but rather slowly regenerates when the player's Food Bar is full, and regenerates fairly quickly for 30 seconds after eating a golden apple.

Damage is split between the Hearts and Armor bars.

On Hardcore mode the hearts have a different texture.

Dealing Damage
Players can do damage by hitting mobs or each other with items at close (melee) range. The large majority of items only do 0.5 heart (1 point) of damage, although Weapons can be crafted for the express purpose of dealing more. Swords are the main and simplest item to use and make. They still require melee range, but deal significantly more damage per hit. Axes, Picks, and Shovels also do more damage than bare fists, as detailed on the Weapons page. While falling, melee attacks deal 50% more damage plus half a heart of damage, rounded down to the nearest heart.

Arrows, (shot by holding and releasing right click when wielding a Bow) snowballs and chicken eggs are the only ranged weapon in the game, however, snowballs only inflict damage upon Blazes, and eggs do no damage at all, but still knock mobs back as if they had been damaged. As of the Prereleases of Beta 1.9, throwable potions have been added. The effect depends on the thrown potion.

Flint and Steel allows the player to light a block on Fire, which causes all players and mobs that walk over that block to be set alight. Players and mobs that are ignited stay alight for 15 hits or until they touch water. Likewise, contact with Lava (say poured from a Bucket) also catches enemies on fire.

Lastly, TNT is currently the only explosive weapon in Minecraft and is obtained by crafting sand and gunpowder (gunpowder is dropped from both Ghasts and Creepers).

The below values detail the damage dealt per hit using various items, as of 1.9 Pre-release 3. Note that weapons and tools in 1.8 dealt more damage, and that critical damage is not consistent.

Damage Inflicted by Mobs
Unlike player character's damage, the damage Mobs deal out is affected by the difficulty the player is on. The below values represent the amount of hearts taken per hit.
 * Values for the Creeper assume the creeper is directly adjacent to the player.
 * The damage of Slimes depends on their size.
 * Tiny-sized Slimes, while hostile, are unable to do damage.
 * These values are correct for 1.0.0 (with the exception of humans and giants, which do not exist as mobs in Minecraft 1.0.0). Beware that the damage that some mobs deal in 1.8 may be considerably lower.

Knockback
When receiving damage from a hostile mob you will also be knocked back. The resulting disorientation and loss of control should not be underestimated, as it is possible to be knocked back over a cliff or into lava, both of which are potentially fatal.

Players can also be nudged by neutral mobs walking into them. The push is not nearly as powerful as a hostile mob's knockback, but can still send the player off of a cliff or into lava. Knockback can also be caused when a player throws an chicken egg or a snowball at a mob, useful for making traps. As of 1.8, sprinting while attacking a mob causes extra knockback.

Natural Damage
Besides mobs, players can take damage from several other events in Minecraft.

Lightning Damage
As of Minecraft 1.0.0, Lightning will do two hearts (4 points) of damage, even through diamond armor. Lightning strikes on the player are very rare, and only occur during thunderstorms.

Fall Damage
In Beta, (and the obsolete versions of the game) you receive damage when falling from certain heights. The amount of damage received depends on the total height of a drop, and it is possible for a player to die upon falling to the ground.

Fall damage can be calculated using this formula:

FD = number of blocks - 3

In other words, falling 4 blocks causes damage. From 5 blocks, damage. From 6 blocks, points are lost and so forth.

Mobs (other than chickens, ghasts, snow golems, blazes and magma cubes) suffer fall damage as well.

In some cases, it is possible to avoid falling or otherwise survive a fall. Falling damage is only dealt after a height of three blocks. Falls equal to or larger than 23 blocks result in certain death under normal circumstances (23 - 3 = 20 points = 10 hearts). Water and lava will break your fall, although lava is usually more dangerous than the fall itself.


 * Sneaking (default ) will prevent you from falling off most blocks.
 * Landing in Water will reduce fall damage. Depending on the height of the fall, it needs up to 3 blocks of water to reliably nullify the fall damage; however, even 1 or 2 blocks may sometimes do so.
 * Moving into a Ladder's area of effect during freefall will reduce vertical velocity to normal ladder descent speed and no damage will be taken. Care must be taken to avoid landing on the narrow top surface of the ladder.
 * Moving into water during freefall will also reduce velocity.
 * Move passive Mobs away to avoid an unpleasant push to your death.
 * Previous to Beta 1.6, Riding in a Minecart, Boat or on a Pig will allow you to leave the scene unhurt. 1.6-on results in the same damage as you would falling. Also, if you fall while in a Minecart, water makes no effect on falling speed or damage. You will fall through as if nothing is there.
 * You might not sustain any fall damage while you're on Fire.
 * Jumping counts as falling for 1½ blocks, therefore adding to your total fall damage, so keep this in mind when trying to avoid fall damage.
 * Don't dig directly downwards without knowing what is underneath. Empty caverns are randomly placed around the world, and it's quite possible to fall into them (perhaps from a great height, or even onto a Dungeon or Lava!).
 * Don't attempt to jump gaps across long drops. Instead, sneak to the edge of your current platform, and you will be able to place a block beside it; in this way, bridges can be constructed safely.
 * With good timing, you can place a block on the ground under you while falling. This will only reduce damage by a 1 point (½ heart), but will come in handy if you need to fall 4 blocks, as it will prevent all damage. If a vertical surface is available, a block can be placed on that as well with practice.
 * If falling next to a wall, emptying a bucket of water against the wall a few blocks from the ground can often save your life.
 * If you exit the game and reload while falling, you will only take damage for the distance you fell after you reloaded, making it possible to survive long drops with no damage.
 * In some versions of the 1.9 pre-release, players could block with a sword as they hit the ground to reduce fall damage, however, this no longer works in the official release of Minecraft.
 * Wearing armor that is enchanted with feather falling reduces fall damage based on the level of the enchantment.
 * Armor with feather falling IV allows a player with full life to fall from the top of the map to bedrock and survive with half a heart left.

Drowning
Once your air runs out underwater, you will take approximately 1 heart damage/sec. This does not commonly happen to mobs because they automatically float upwards, but they are still susceptible to drowning.

While mining, consider keeping at least one placeable solid block ready somewhere on your toolbar (such as Dirt or Cobblestone) for quick access using your mousewheel. If you mine into a spring (or worse, the ocean), you should be able to place the block in the hole to prevent drowning.

If you place a torch on a vertical surface next to you at head height whilst underwater, you create an air bubble which lasts for the split second it takes the water to destroy the torch, thus refilling your oxygen meter without resurfacing. Ladders, signs, fences, trapdoors and doors can create permanent air bubbles underwater. You can also scoop up some water with a bucket to achieve the same effect, or destroy the block directly above you, if there is one.

While taking damage from drowning, swimming is difficult, especially upwards. For a short period of time after each heart is taken, the Player cannot move. When swimming upwards this means that the player freezes and sinks periodically. Swimming upwards against a downward flowing current while drowning is futile.

Suffocation
Suffocation is when a player or a mob is unable to breathe due to his upper half being inside of a block. They will lose half a heart every 0.5 seconds. Due to sand and gravel falling, it can easily cover the player. In first person mode, the player's screen will be blackened when suffering from this condition thus disabling them to see what is happening. In third person mode, the view will automatically switch to first person mode. As of the Beta 1.6 update, however, when a player's upper half is covered, the player is moved to the nearest empty space to stop them from suffocating.

When inside a block, the player can easily step out of it as the blocks do not prevent their movement.

The usual ways to get one's head inside a block are:


 * Sand or Gravel falling into the space the player or mob occupies.
 * Riding a Boat or Minecart into a one-block-high space.
 * Riding a pig into a two- or one-block-high space.
 * Standing where a tree just grew from a sapling.
 * Standing where a huge mushroom just grew from a mushroom.
 * Walking near a Redstone Repeater occasionally causes the player to be pushed down a block, especially if the ceiling is only two blocks above the floor. If there's exactly one empty space below the block, you'll fall to the level of this space and thus suffocate from the block covering your upper half.
 * Saving and reloading also occasionally causes the player to be pushed down in the same way as with Redstone Repeaters. If this happens while you are standing on bedrock, you might be unable to get out (without dying) due to bedrock being unbreakable.
 * Throwing an Ender Pearl into a one block space

It's worth noting that the player will not suffocate in glass, or indeed in any transparent block. Leaves from a grown Sapling will not suffocate you, even if you're on Fast graphics (which makes leaves appear solid).

History
In Indev before suffocation was implemented, players that were covered by blocks could see through dirt and stone. Suffocation was added after Notch discovered that players were abusing this exploit to find underground caves and hollowed carvings. The patch added suffocation damage and making the player unable to see anything when experiencing it. However, this glitch is not completely fixed and is still possible to be done even in the existing version of the game.

Patches

 * July 9, 2010 (Alpha 1.0.4) - Players no longer suffocate when riding in a minecart.
 * November 10, 2010 (Alpha 1.2.2) - Players no longer suffocate when they get out of a minecart while inside a two block high tunnel. The same applies when disembarking a boat. This does not apply to multiplayer; you will still suffocate when leaving said minecart/boat.
 * April 20, 2011 (Beta 1.5) - Unarmed damage was increased from to.
 * September 14, 2011 (Beta 1.8) - Unarmed damage was decreased from to.
 * September 29, 2011 (Beta 1.9) - Mobs can now have armor points

Glitches
Although the screen is blackened in first person mode, players can still see through gravel or sand blocks to locate caves using third person by adjusting the camera angle correctly.

Now The Void can be seen and caverns can be easily located. It is more beneficial to do this during the day because The Void will emit light and caves will be more visible against it. This glitch is best performed on Peaceful Difficulty so that the health that you lose from the suffocation can be regained.

It is also possible to use this glitch without getting suffocation damage in first person mode, however. This is done by backing out of the blocks just enough that the character is still technically in the blocks but not enough to be suffocating. Then move slowly toward the blocks until the near clipping plane of the view is inside the gravel or sand. Sneaking works rather well here.

It is possible to suffocate while on fire. To do this, place a floating bed over a 1X2 hole. At night, while falling asleep, break the bed and fall into the hole. This will cause everything touched that is higher than the player to cause suffocation. A flint and steel can then be used to set the player alight, which when combined with the suffocation effect of touching higher blocks causes the player to see two rectangular holes instead of the usual black screen. It is unknown if wearing a pumpkin changes this effect.

Starving
When the food bar reaches zero, the player will take ½ heart of damage every four seconds. The player stops taking starvation damage when the player eats or the health bar drops to 5 hearts on easy or peaceful mode or ½ heart on normal mode. In Hard mode, the damage will not stop until the player either dies, or eats something.

Cacti
Touching Cacti will cause a player/mob to take a ½ heart damage, and rapidly continue taking damage if they continue to stand next to/on it.

Lava
By far the most dangerous natural occurrence, players and mobs will take damage from contact with Lava extremely fast (10 points per hit), and stay on fire even if they exit it (one point per hit for 15 hits or until extinguished with water). If players do not have a water source available they will die quickly.

While mining, consider keeping at least one placeable solid block ready somewhere on your toolbar (such as Dirt or Cobblestone) for quick access using your mousewheel. If you mine into a lava pool, you may be able to place the block in the hole and so prevent burning. It is possible to keep a fire-resistance potion at all times so you can prevent from dying in lava, although if you fall in the lava, you won't be able to use the potion in time. Instead, try using a splash potion of fire-resistance.

Poison
Cave Spiders will inflict poison status to the player. Eating a Spider Eye or drinking a poisonous potion will give the same result. While poisoned, the hearts turn from red to an olive green and continually damages the player by one point a second until the poison wears off. The poison itself cannot kill the player, but it can leave them open to attacks from other mobs or damage from the environment, possibly killing the player quickly. However, since Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, poison can be cured by drinking milk from a bucket.

Damage Immunity
After sustaining damage from any source, a Mob will turn red in color for a short period of time. During this period, any other incoming damage will not be counted against the mob's total health. For instance, if you attack a mob with a Bow repeatedly hitting the mouse button, the bow's rate of fire will exceed the mob's allowable rate of incoming damage, and several of the shots will not damage the mob even if they land. Arrows that don't deal damage to a mob are reflected off of it onto the ground, and possibly, from a close range, back at the player (resulting in damage). However, if a mob or player is recovering from damage and then receives higher damage, it gets counted. Players are also subject to damage immunity.

Armor
Armor is a craftable item that can be worn in Minecraft's survival mode and survival mode multiplayer that reduces damage to the player while also decreasing the armor's durability. Armor can currently be crafted out of Diamond, Iron, Gold, and Leather.


 * Zombies and Skeletons would occasionally wear armor in survival test. This armor, however, did not alter any of their stats, and was purely superficial.
 * Chainmail armor is also craftable, but only by using fire blocks, which cannot be obtained without hacking.

Death
Death occurs when all of a player's hearts are depleted. A "Game Over" screen will appear ("You died" or "You were killed by magic" screen in 1.9pre3), and the player has the option to respawn at the spawn point (either the last bed the player slept in or their default spawn point) or return to the title Menu. Any items and/or blocks that were in the player's inventory are dropped from their head and scattered around the spot where the player died. If they come in contact with dangerous blocks - like lava, fire or cactus blocks - they will be destroyed. Otherwise, according to Notch, "they decay after five minutes, except if the chunk is unloaded, in which case they last forever".

The "Game over" screen can be seen for a brief second at the end of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUpgnWTZrlM

Trivia

 * A bucket of lava is arguably the most efficient weapon in the game, as it doesn't use up durability, does very fast damage, and slows enemies in their tracks. The only downside is that a large amount of the time the mob's dropped loot will be disintegrated in the lava. It may also cause nearby trees or wooden buildings to catch fire, possibly even starting vast fires.
 * Notch drops an Apple upon his death as well as his inventory. This was the only legitimate source of apples prior to the 1.8 release, making them occur in stronghold chests.
 * Earlier in Survival mode, eating a Red Mushroom would deal the player of damage because they were poisonous.
 * Transparent blocks will not cause suffocation. As a result, placing a slab above a minecart track can be used to make a barrier through which carts can be ridden without allowing mobs (other than 1 block high chickens, pigs, tiny Slimes, cave spiders and wolves) to wander in.
 * Using a trapdoor functions similarly, in addition to being able to open the door to pass through on foot.
 * Prior to the Minecraft Beta 1.5 patch, fist damage would deal of damage (chickens needing to be hit 4 times), however it was increased to  of damage in the update.
 * As of 1.8, it's back down to.
 * Players deal less damage when jumping (gaining altitude), and more damage when falling (losing altitude).
 * When you die, while you are dead your skin reverts to the default skin. This can be seen by falling from a great height or burning in lava, and checking your inventory moments before death.
 * In 1.0.0, the sound of the player taking damage was changed from a masculine "uhg!" sound, to a bloody, realistic crunch. This sound is used for all types of damage except for falling, which adds more of a "crack!" sound simulating broken bones.
 * The former was changed to remove the theory that the player is limited to a male gender.