Warden

The warden is a hostile mob summoned by sculk shriekers in the deep dark. It can perform both melee and ranged attacks. Wardens are completely blind, relying on their sense of smell and hearing to identify moving entities. Wardens currently deal the highest non-explosive damage of any mob in the game.

Spawning
Wardens do not use traditional mob spawning mechanics. When a player activates a naturally generated sculk shrieker four times, there isn't another warden within 48 blocks, and if the light level is less than 11, a warden emerges from the ground. The emerging animation lasts for 6.7 seconds.

The warning count for sculk shriekers is specific to each player, not each sculk shrieker. This means that the same player can activate four different sculk shriekers, and a warden still spawns on the fourth activation.

Up to 20 attempts are made to spawn a warden within a 11×13×11 box, centered on the shrieker. During each attempt, the game picks a random y column, then the game picks the topmost spawnable block in that column. Spawnable blocks have a top surface with full collision, and the block above must have no collision. Like other mobs, the spawning warden cannot collide with any existing entities or liquids.

Drops
Wardens drop a single sculk catalyst upon death. They also drop experience if killed by a player or a tamed wolf.

Behavior
Wardens are completely blind and wander randomly around the world after spawning, even if rails, powder snow, or magma blocks are in its way. The warden's hitbox can fit inside of a corridor 1 block wide and 3 blocks tall. This allows the warden to chase foes precisely, even in small cave corridors. Wardens are immune to fire and lava damage, and are not affected by knockback. Nearby vibrations agitate the warden, in which it moves toward where the sound originated. It can also sniff the area around it, allowing it to zero in on a single entity's location. Wardens grow more agitated as moving players and mobs create more vibrations.

The warden gives 12 seconds of the Darkness effect to all players within a 20 block radius every 6 seconds. The souls in its chest create a low, throbbing heartbeat, which occurs in tandem with the Darkness effect. As the warden proceeds to become more agitated, these souls and heartbeats occur at a faster rate. A warden prefers to track down mobs that it finds most suspicious, rather than the closest one to its current position.

The warden listens to all vibrations (except the wing flapping vibration) in a 16 block radius around it. Vibrations from other wardens, armor stands, dying mobs, and players in creative or spectator mode are ignored. Like with sculk sensors, a sneaking player is not detected when walking, falling, or shooting a projectile. The warden has a 2 second cooldown between detecting vibrations.

Wardens keep track of how angry it is at each suspect as a number from 0 to 150. When the warden notices a vibration, it adds anger to the mob that caused the vibration. It adds 10 anger if the vibration was a projectile, and 35 anger otherwise. However, if the warden notices two projectiles within five seconds, it adds the full 35 anger. Wardens do not get angry at a mob that shoots a projectile if the mob is more than 30 blocks away, although that projectile counts towards the two projectiles within five seconds counter. Anger decays at a rate of 1 per second and clears completely if the target either dies, or switches to creative or spectator mode.

Wardens attack mobs that attack or touch the warden. If a warden is directly hurt by a mob, or indirectly hurt by a mob within five blocks, the warden adds 100 anger toward that mob. If a mob comes into contact with a warden, then the warden adds 35 anger toward that mob. The warden becoming angry due to collision with another mob has a one second cooldown.

Wardens sniff the surroundings to detect nearby mobs every 5 to 10 seconds while idle. The sniffing animation lasts 4.2 seconds. At the end of the sniffing animation, the warden detects the nearest mob within a 6 block horizontal radius and 20 block vertical radius. The warden then adds 35 anger toward that mob.

Once a warden reaches 80 anger with a target, it roars, adds 20 anger toward the target, and pursues the target. In this alerted state, the warden pathfinds to the target normally, regardless of vibrations made.

The warden has an inherent bias toward player vibrations, attacks and contact - even if they are already enraged at another mob, players can override this to be targeted themselves. This is not true of any other mob. Apart from players, a warden tracks down and attacks all other mobs, excluding other wardens. The warden can also follow vibrations made by non-mob entities such as projectiles or minecarts.

After sixty seconds of being "calm" and not detecting any vibrations, if the warden is on the ground, it burrows back into the ground and despawns. If the warden is in a liquid, then it immediately despawns without digging instead. The burrowing animation lasts for 5 seconds. The warden is completely invulnerable while emerging or burrowing, excluding damage from, though it can still be pushed by entities, pistons or liquids. Named wardens do not dig or despawn.

The warden's melee attack has a cooldown of 0.9 seconds and disables shields for 5 seconds. If the target is still in its search radius and on high ground or hiding behind walls, a warden can charge up a powerful sonic boom. Specifically, the warden can use the sonic boom if it has been 10 seconds since the warden detects or switches targets, it has been 5 seconds since the warden used a melee or ranged attack, and the target is within the sonic boom attack range of a 15 block horizontal radius and 20 block vertical radius. This guided attack directly attacks the target, passing through blocks and other mobs without damaging them. The warden takes 1.7 seconds to charge up, then unleashes the attack which instantly hits the target as long as the target is within attack range. The attack takes an additional 1.3 seconds to cool down before the warden can use melee attacks again for a total of 3 seconds. The sonic boom is visible with the formation of green-blue particles that are quickly projected out of the warden's chest. This attack bypasses shields, armor, enchantments, and even the wither armor of the wither. Only the Resistance effect can reduce this attack's damage.

ID




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



Advancements
There are currently no advancements associated with killing a warden. The warden is intended to be a natural disaster that is nearly impossible to kill and best avoided. Therefore, killing a warden doesn't count for the Monster Hunter advancement, nor is it needed to receive the Monsters Hunted advancement.

Trivia

 * Some previous names being considered for the warden were the shade, the stalker, and the hollowed.
 * The stalker iteration was tall and asymmetrical with a glowing core. It occurred in totems throughout the deep dark. The stalker would stand completely still to trick players into taking its core and aggravating it, and could transform into a form one block high form to prevent players from escaping through small tunnels. This iteration, specifically its appearance and transformation mechanic, felt clunky and was more goofy than scary, so it was scrapped by the Mojang developers.
 * The hollowed was designed with the intent of inciting trypophobia and had white flesh with holes in it. The developers deemed that iteration too gory and had to be toned down.
 * In the sixth episode of The Secrets of Minecraft, it was jokingly revealed that the warden's personal name is "William", similar to how the ender dragon, the wither, and player characters all have personal joke names. The word was also jokingly broken down into the words: war and den.
 * Brandon Pearce stated in a tweet that the souls in the warden's chest is incredibly important to its lore.
 * He also stated that the warden is inspired by the "monster" heard at the end of the music disc "11".
 * Coincidentally, in the spin-off game, Minecraft: Story Mode, there is an unrelated character also named The Warden.
 * Although the warden is supposed to be blind, spectating it reveals that it still has normal vision.

Videos

 * Other gameplay