Health

The health gauge and monitor in Minecraft is based on a single row of 10 heart icons. Each full heart contains two halves, one hit point each (full health is 20 hit points).

Hearts
Hearts make up the health meter for the player and mobs in the Survival, Hardcore, and Adventure modes. Each heart represents two hit points, for 20 hit points. Hit points are lost as a percentage of those hit points. As it appears on the health bar, you lose at a time.

Hit points can be lost by: starving; taking fall damage; being attacked by a hostile mob (or another player if PvP is on); being shot with an arrow; being on fire; touching lava, fire, magma block or a cactus; drowning underwater; suffocating inside a block; falling into the void; having certain status effects, getting caught in an explosion or. When the health meter shows two hearts or less (20% or less health), it will begin to shake violently, warning that the player's demise is imminent if health is not restored.

Health can be recovered through several means, both "naturally" and through status effects such as potions provide.
 * The "instant health" potion effect will restore health immediately, the amount depending on the source and effect level.
 * On Peaceful difficulty, the health meter will continuously refill over time.
 * On other difficulties, health regenerates slowly when the player's hunger is at or above
 * The "regeneration" effect makes health regenerate fairly quickly. Aside from potions of regeneration, this is also provided by beacons and golden apples. The "basic" golden apple provides it (level II) only for 5 seconds, restoring a total of .  The "enchanted" golden apple provides it for longer (20 seconds) and in total restoring about . Visually the hearts will bounce, although this is in more of a structured wave than the erratic shaking of near-death empty hearts.
 * The "health boost" effect adds 4 per effect level to the players total health, which is removed when the effect expires.  After the effect expires, the player's health may remain above the normal maximum, but the extra health will not be recovered once lost to damage.  This effect can only be gained through "cheat" commands, prepared command blocks, or mods. At the maximum level of 255, the player has 522 hearts.
 * The "absorption" effect likewise adds for each effect level.   This special health cannot be healed or regenerated by normal means. Naturally, it will be removed when the effect expires. The "basic" golden apple provides it (level I) for 2 minutes, providing a total of . The "enchanted" golden apple provides it at higher level (level IV), providing a total of.

Damage is split between the health and armor bars. Each full armor point takes 8% of damage, to a maximum of 80%, rounded up.

On Hardcore mode, hearts have a different texture.

The poison and wither effects will turn live hearts a sickly green color and black, respectively.

In Creative and Spectator mode the player still has health, but it is hidden from the HUD, and the player is invulnerable to everything except falling into the Void or.

Death


Death occurs when all of a player or mob's hit points are depleted. For players, a "You died!" (Survival) or "Game over!" (Hardcore and formerly Survival too) screen will appear with the player's score displayed (before Beta 1.9pre2, it had &e0 as the score), and the player has the option to respawn at the spawn point (either the last bed the player slept in, their default spawn point (their first spawn point in the game), or a spawn point created by commands) or return to the title Menu. In Hardcore Mode, the player can only respawn in spectator mode and cannot continue progress since cheats are disabled. 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 (unless the player uses the cheat to keep their inventory with the use of this command: /gamerule keepInventory true). 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 player will also lose any experience accumulated reverting the level back to 0 (unless the player uses the command /gamerule keepInventory true) and will drop experience orbs with a total value of level * 7 (with a maximum of 100) to the ground. (xp can also be picked up where the player died). In Pocket Edition, when a player dies, they drop only $1/2$ of the experience.

Mobs fall to their left side to the ground when killed, as shown in the image. The player also falls sideways when killed. In the Pocket Edition, when the player dies, the screen is tilted simulating a broken neck and it infinitely zooms in, but if they die while in their inventory, the character falls over and will stay there until they exit the inventory.



Death messages
Death messages are broadcast to everyone upon a player's death. These messages relate to how the player died and some are intended to be humorous.


 * Arrows
 * [player] was shot by arrow
 * This message is caused by arrows shot from a dispenser or
 * [player] was shot by [player/mob]
 * Caused by mobs with projectile attacks or kills using a bow.
 * [player] was shot by [player/mob] using [bow name]
 * Caused by mobs or players with a renamed bow


 * Cactus
 * [player] was pricked to death
 * [player] hugged a cactus
 * [player] walked into a cactus while trying to escape [player/mob]
 * [player] was stabbed to death
 * Console Edition only


 * Drowning
 * [player] drowned
 * [player] drowned whilst trying to escape [player/mob]


 * Elytra
 * [player] experienced kinetic energy
 * [player] removed an elytra while flying


 * Explosions
 * [player] blew up
 * [player] was blown up by [player/mob]
 * This message shows up only when TNT is activated by a Creeper or by a player using flint and steel or an arrow shot from a bow enchanted with Flame


 * Falling
 * [player] hit the ground too hard
 * Only caused if the player is killed by a short fall or ender pearl damage.
 * [player] fell from a high place
 * Caused by a fall greater than 5 blocks.
 * [player] fell off a ladder
 * [player] fell off some vines
 * [player] fell out of the water
 * [player] fell into a patch of fire
 * [player] fell into a patch of cacti
 * [player] was doomed to fall by [mob/player]
 * [player] was shot off some vines by [mob/player]
 * [player] was shot off a ladder by [mob/player]
 * [player] was blown from a high place by [mob/player]
 * Only caused if knockback from a creeper explosion, a ghast fireball, or player-lit TNT causes the player to fall to their death.


 * Falling blocks
 * [player] was squashed by a falling anvil
 * [player] was squashed by a falling block
 * This message appears if the player is killed by a custom falling sand that is modified to inflict damage


 * Fire
 * [player] went up in flames
 * This message appears if the player died while in the source of the fire.
 * [player] burned to death
 * This message appears if the player died while on fire, but not in the source.
 * [player] was burnt to a crisp whilst fighting [player/mob]
 * [player] walked into a fire whilst fighting [player/mob]


 * Firework rockets
 * [player] went off with a bang


 * Lava
 * [player] tried to swim in lava
 * [player] tried to swim in lava while trying to escape [player/mob]


 * Lightning
 * [player] was struck by lightning


 * Magma Block
 * [player] discovered floor was lava


 * Players and mobs
 * [player] was slain by [player/mob]
 * [player] was slain by [player/mob] with [number]% lives
 * [player] was slain by [player/mob] using [weapon]
 * Caused by kills using a renamed weapon.
 * [player] got finished off by [player/mob]
 * [player] got finished off by [player/mob] using [weapon]
 * Caused by kills using a renamed weapon.
 * [player] was fireballed by [mob]
 * Only caused by blazes and ghasts


 * Potions of Harming
 * [player] was killed by magic
 * Happens when the potion is shot from a dispenser, by drinking it, or with
 * [player] was killed by [player/mob] using magic
 * Caused by witches, guardians, and kills using a splash potion


 * Starving
 * [player] starved to death
 * Caused if the difficulty is Hard or Hardcore


 * Suffocation
 * [player] suffocated in a wall
 * Happens if the player took suffocation damage from their head being in a block.
 * [player] was squished too much
 * Happens if the player took suffocation damage from the  gamerule.


 * Thorns enchantment
 * [player] was killed while trying to hurt [player/mob]
 * Can be caused by a mob if it is able to wear armor, and can also occur while fighting Guardians


 * Void
 * [player] fell out of the world
 * Also shown if the player is killed by the command
 * [player] fell from a high place and fell out of the world
 * [player] has been demolished


 * Wither effect
 * [player] withered away
 * [player] was withered away by [player/mob]
 * [player] was withered away with magic

Other
 * [victim] was pummeled by [killer]
 * This message would appear when killed by a Snowball, an Egg, a Wither Skull or an Ender Pearl
 * This message is partially unused because snowballs, chicken eggs, and ender pearls do not cause damage to players hit by them.
 * This message is currently only shown when the Wither kills a player with a Wither Skull's impact.
 * [player] died
 * Pocket Edition only, used in some cases.