Ghast

"At least they keep their eerie red eyes shut. Until the Ghast learns you're around, of course."

- Tom Stone

Ghasts are huge, floating hostile Nether mobs that shoot explosive fireballs at the player.

Spawning
To spawn naturally, ghasts require a solid block below them and 5×4×5 free space in order to spawn, and only spawn in the Nether, in any light level.

Drops
Ghasts drop 0-2 gunpowder and sometimes a ghast tear. They also drop 5 experience when killed by a player.

Behavior
Ghasts normally float around the Nether with their eyes and mouth closed and periodically make high-pitched, cat- or infant-like sounds. They open their red eyes and mouth when attacking. They make a screaming noise when shooting and scream pitifully when taking damage. The sounds that ghasts make have a minimum intensity regardless of their distance, meaning that they can sound closer than they actually are. They have a size of 4×4×4 blocks, as well as 9 tentacles about the size of a player, although longer and skinnier. However, the tentacles are not part of the ghast's hitbox.

Ghasts have an extreme attack range, explosive attack power, and mobility. Unlike most other aggressive mobs, the ghast does not have a pursuit mode - it does not attempt to draw closer to the player when at long range (and likewise is not particularly likely to float away). Ghasts can cause other mobs to attack it, but the ghast will never target other mobs; it will only target the player. Compared to other mobs, the ghast has a very long search range and can target a player up to 100 blocks away. When the player comes within about sixteen blocks, the ghast will turn to face the player, open fire and attempt to gain altitude but will fly away when hit in Creative.

Ghasts will not fire at the player without a line-of-sight, which can be blocked by solid transparent blocks.


 * If the player is able to fly inside an aggressive ghast, the mob may die of shooting fireballs at itself. They are also careless about shooting at short range where they will be hurt by the blast.

Data values
Ghasts have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is.

Ghast fireball
The ghast's fireball attack has a straight trajectory unaffected by gravity and a theoretically infinite range, though it will disappear after 1 minute. Fireballs do not track the player once fired, are slow, and can be deflected if the player hits them with a projectile, fishing lure or melee attack. At close range, it is one of the most powerful mob attacks in Minecraft, fourth only to the explosion of a creeper, the melee attack of an iron golem, and the explosion of a wither. A direct hit will deal projectile damage from the impact, and up to, , or  explosion damage from the blast, depending on difficulty. When two ghast fireballs collide, one is deflected to a random direction while the other explodes upon impact. Blocks are also set on fire by the explosion. If a ghast is killed, any fireball launched by that ghast will disappear. A fireball will deal 1,000 damage (500 hearts) to a ghast if the fireball was rebounded by a player.

The minimum blast resistance required to absorb all blast force of the ghast's fireballs is 20.17 (about the equivalent of a cobweb).

Data values
Ghast fireballs are also entities which have associated entity data. Their entity ID is.

History
{{History||1.8|Ghasts can no longer kill the player in its tentacles. {{History|release}} {{History||1.0.0|snap=Beta 1.9-pre1|Ghasts now drop ghast tears. {{History|||snap=Beta 1.9-pre5|Ghasts can now be killed by their own fireballs, allowing the achievement "Return to Sender."}} {{History|||snap=Beta 1.9-pre6|Updated ghast hit box to incorporate their body. Prior to this ghasts could only be injured by hitting their tentacles.}} {{History|||snap=unknown|Updated ghast fireball texture to a new fire charge texture. They previously used the snowball texture, set on fire.}} {{History||1.1|As heard in, ghasts now have an unused "affectionate scream", which is a high pitched horn sound (like the classic cartoon tugboat sounds).}} {{History||1.3.1|snap=12w19a|Ghasts now make their kill sound when killed rather than their pain sound.}} {{History||1.8|snap=14w06a|Ghasts' AI has been slightly changed. They cannot see the player unless their height comes to almost eye level with the player. When attacking, ghasts will now turn their whole body to face the player's direction, and repeatedly strafe left to right around the player while attacking. They now have perfect accuracy with their fireballs, shooting at the player's head, compared to earlier versions when the fireball was previously aimed slightly above the player's head.}} {{History|||snap=unknown|Hitbox slightly altered.}} {{History||1.11|snap=16w32a|Changed entity ID from  to  .|Changed projectile entity ID from   to  .}} {{History||1.11|snap=16w40a|Tags,  ,  ,   and   were removed from the fireball entity data. {{History|pocket alpha}} {{History||0.11.0|snap=build 2|Added ghasts. They are currently unobtainable in-game without editing.}} {{History||0.12.1|snap=build 1|Ghasts can now be spawned using spawn eggs.|Ghasts now spawn naturally in the Nether.}} {{History|||snap=build 6|Ghasts now hit the player more reliably. Ghasts can no longer kill the player in its tentacles.}} {{History|||snap=build 7|Ghasts now drop gunpowder and ghast tears.}} {{History|||snap=build 8|Ghast hitbox is now bigger.}} {{History|||snap=build 13|Ghasts now have sounds.}} {{History||0.13.0|snap=build 1|Increased the spawn rate of ghasts.}} {{History|||snap=build 4|Increased the spawn rate even more.}} {{History||0.14.0|snap=build 1|Open ghast eyes now glow.}} {{History|pocket}} {{History||1.1|snap=build 1|The entity ID for the fireball is changed from  to  .}} {{History|console}} {{History||xbox=TU1|xbone=CU1|ps=1.0|wiiu=Patch 1|Added ghasts.}} {{History||xbox=TU9|Reduced the volume of the ghast sound effects. Ghasts can no longer kill the player in its tentacles. {{History||xbox=TU11|Further reduced the volume of the ghast sound effects.}} {{History|foot}}
 * Ghasts are now affected by light and no longer appear with the same brightness anywhere.}}
 * The  tag is no longer used for anything, but still saved/read.}}
 * Increased the distance the ghast's sound effect for shooting a fireball can be heard from.}}

Trivia

 * You can go inside of a ghast by falling through the top of it or flying up underneath it. If you stand on top of the head, you will see inside of it.
 * If a ghast is trapped in a 1-thick cube, it will shoot fireballs through the cube. This is because all mobs that shoot spawn the projectile one block in front of it to prevent the projectile from hitting the mob.
 * On rare occasions, a ghast will spawn in such a way as to see through blocks (usually trapped on all sides in a tight area). When this happens and the ghast has “line of sight" through those blocks, it will launch a fireball in the player's direction.
 * Ghasts can be killed in one shot by any bow with at least Power I, if you charge the bow fully.
 * C418 revealed in an AMA on Reddit that ghast sounds are taken from his pet cat, which he makes when disturbed while sleeping.
 * Two ghasts are featured in the LEGO set "Minecraft Micro World - The Nether", along with a Zombie Pigman.
 * Iron golems do not fight ghasts unless they are very close to them, even in this case it's rare.
 * In Pocket Edition, when killed with its own fireball, the ghast will turn orange rather than red. This is because the ghast is set on fire.
 * Splash potions will only affect ghasts when hitting them on their lower half.