Dolphin

Dolphins are neutral mobs that live in non-frozen oceans, which grant a speed boost to players that swim near them.

Spawning
Dolphins are found in groups (pods) of 3–5 in all ocean biomes, except frozen oceans and cold oceans. They spawn between (exclusively) level 45 and the sea level of the world (between levels 50 and 64 in Java 1.18). Dolphins continuously spawn as long as their spawn requirements are met, and naturally despawn if no players are near by, similar to squid.

10% of dolphins spawn as babies.

Drops
When killed, dolphins drop 0–1 ( if on fire). The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0–4 with Looting III. are dropped as well.

Behavior
Dolphins normally swim in pods, occasionally leaping out of the water to get air. They are also able to jump from one body of water to another. Additionally, they chase after players in boats.

Players who sprint swim within a 9 block spherical radius of a dolphin receive Dolphin's Grace for 5 seconds. Players with Invisibility do not receive the effect unless they already had Dolphin's Grace before receiving Invisibility, or if they are wearing armor. $$, the player simply gets a speed boost without a status effect.

Dolphins are lured by dropped items that are inside nearby water blocks, knocking them around and chasing them. If the dolphin can not find a path to a dropped item, the dolphin may stay underwater to the point of drowning. If the dolphin is in, or on, a waterlogged bottom slab or chest with an air block above, the dolphin is prevented from drowning.

Unless dolphin is killed within one hit, should the player or other mob hits a dolphin, the whole pod retaliates, attacking all at once similar to wolves and zombified piglins. Hostile dolphins remain hostile even if they are fed fish.

Feeding dolphins raw cod or raw salmon improves their "trust" and interactions with the player, depending on the amount of fish fed.

When dolphins are fed raw cod or raw salmon, they swim to the nearest shipwreck, buried treasure, or ocean ruins. Because they are locating the chest in the structures rather than the structures themselves, breaking the chests causes the dolphin to locate a new structure with intact chests. Dolphins also avoid guardians and elder guardians.

Weaknesses
If a dolphin leaves the water, it starts taking suffocation damage after two minutes, and eventually dies, like squid. A dolphin on land actively seeks out a body of water, or seeks its target if in a hostile state.

They cannot survive without getting air every once in a while, so if they stay submerged for about four minutes they begin drowning. The water breathing effect prevents them from drowning.

Dolphins cannot ride boats, similarly to squid and all types of fish.

Dolphins can be towed by a lead.

Because the dolphin is an aquatic mob, they are affected by the Impaling enchantment.

ID




Entity data
Dolphins have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.




 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.
 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Trivia

 * To create the sounds that the dolphins make in the game, Mojang Studios' lead sound designer, Samuel Åberg, went to Kolmården Wildlife Park to record real dolphins.
 * This was also done with pandas.
 * Dolphins originally had a separate head and body when shown in a clip at MINECON 2017. It is also shown in artwork for Java Edition 1.13.
 * Real-life dolphins don't suffocate outside of water; they breathe air like all mammals, although they can die of dehydration out of water.
 * In 2018, a mob vote was held in which Chinese users could vote on which Chinese animal should be added to Minecraft, to promote the release of Minecraft China. One of the options for voting was the possibly extinct Baiji Dolphin. The Panda won the vote and was added into the game.
 * During development, there were large disagreements between developers over how Dolphins should behave.