Mob

Mobs are living, moving game entities. The term "mob" is short for "mobile".

Spawning


Mobs come to exist by spawning in various ways. Most will spawn naturally, dependent on the light level and biome, often times in groups with mobs of the same variety. Most passive mobs also have the ability to breed, which will spawn baby versions of themselves. Mobs will not naturally spawn on transparent blocks, in water (except for squid, drowned, fish, dolphin and guardians), in lava, or on half blocks (slabs, stairs). The exception is monster spawners, from which they can spawn naturally on any block including air.

Some mobs (like the snow golem, and the wither) require that the player "construct" them before being able to spawn. The iron golem can spawn naturally and can also be constructed.

Players can also spawn mobs by using spawn eggs in Creative mode, or the command after enabling cheats. However if the player tries to summon an ender dragon with the command, it will have a different AI to stay in the same place.

Behavior


Mobs are affected by the environment in the same ways as the player: they are subject to physics, and they can be hurt by the same things that harm the player (catching on fire, falling, drowning, attacked by weapons, etc.). Some mobs may be resistant or immune to certain hazards, such as Nether mobs which are immune to fire. Mobs can ride minecarts and other mobs, and can climb up ladders. When mobs are killed, they turn to dust and drop items which may be useful resources.

Each type of mob in Minecraft has a certain AI (Artificial Intelligence) system with different behaviors and mechanics. Mobs will ordinarily wander around at random if there is a player nearby and usually avoid walking off blocks high enough to cause falling damage. Many mobs have an advanced pathfinding system that allows them to traverse complex mazes to get to a desired object or destination. Passive mobs will flee in random directions after being hurt, while hostile mobs will face and chase/attack the Player as soon as they come close. Neutral mobs will remain neutral until a player or mob provokes it (usually by attacking), at which point the neutral mob will turn hostile toward and attack the entity that hit it. Most mobs are aware of players within 16 blocks of them, but some can see farther. Conversely, most mobs can be heard by players up to 16 blocks away.

Most mobs cannot see through most solid blocks, including semi-transparent blocks such as ice, glass, or glass panes. All mobs will not attempt to walk on rail tracks, unless pushed on by other mobs.

List of mobs
Mobs are listed and classified by their nature below. For more details on a particular mob, click and view their individual page.

''Note: The list is categorized according to the Java edition. May vary between different platforms.''

Utility mobs
Utility mobs are meant to serve as supplementary ways of protection against hostile mobs.

Boss mobs
Boss mobs are extremely durable and destructive hostile mobs specifically designed for longer, riskier, and larger-scale battles for players. They are generally immune to most status effects, and are capable of seeing mobs affected by Invisibility.

Unused mobs
Unused mobs are found in the source code and can be spawned using, but are unavailable in normal gameplay.

Removed mobs
Removed mobs no longer exist in current versions of the game.

Weaknesses and immunities
There are some mobs that have certain weaknesses. Sea creatures, like turtles for example, take more damage from tridents which are enchanted with Impaling. While immune to lightning and drowning, skeletons take damage from fire and falls, and receive more damage from a sword enchanted with Smite.

Certain groups of mobs have similar strengths/weakness/immunities.

Undead Mobs
This group of mobs includes zombies (and variants), skeletons (and variants), phantoms, zombie horses and skeleton horses. These mobs are damaged by healing potions, while healed by instant damage potions, they are also immune to drowning and poison damage. Most undead mobs (with the exception of the undead horse variants, zombie pigmen, husks, wither skeletons and the wither), get set on fire from exposure to direct daylight. They also sink in water. All these mobs take more damage from weapons enchanted with Smite.

Underwater Mobs
This group of mobs includes: dolphins, squids, drowned, guardians, elder guardians, turtles and all variants of fish. They have no particular reaction to potions (except drowned, which are also undead mobs). They take extra damage from weapons enchanted with Impaling (except drowned) that also cause extra damage on players, immune to drowning (except dolphins), and most take suffocation damage if they stay on land too long (except guardians, elder guardians, turtles and drowned).

Nether Mobs
This group includes: wither skeletons, ghasts, zombie pigmen, blazes and magma cubes. Most nether mobs are variants on existing mobs: zombie pigmen are variants of the zombie, wither skeletons are variants of the skeleton, and magma cubes are variants of slimes. All nether mobs are immune to fire and lava. It is unclear if skeletons and endermen should count as "nether mobs" because they spawn in The Nether but do not share many characteristics with the previously mentioned mobs.

Arthropod Mobs
This group includes: spiders, cave spiders, silverfish and endermites. They have no particular reaction to potions, or the environment, but all take extra damage from the Bane of Arthropods, and are all based on Arthropods.

Issues

 * For issues unique to specific mobs, see that mob's issues section.

Trivia

 * Renaming a mob "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" using spawn eggs or name tags will flip them upside down.
 * Renaming a sheep "jeb_" will make its wool change color.
 * Renaming a vindicator "Johnny" will make it attack all nearby mobs, except other illagers.
 * If a hostile mob is tracking a player, the player can separate themselves and the mob through a wall, relog, and the mob will no longer be tracking the player.