Sculk

Sculk is a block found abundantly in the deep dark or converted from other blocks by a sculk catalyst. Like most of the rest of the sculk family it drops experience when broken by a tool that is not enchanted with Silk Touch.

Breaking
Sculk blocks can be mined with any tool, but hoes are the quickest. It always drops 1 experience if mined without Silk Touch.

Natural generation
Sculk are naturally generated in patch formations within the deep dark biome.

Post-generation
Sculk blocks generate when a mob dies within 8 blocks of a sculk catalyst, replacing blocks in the area with the  tag, which includes the surface materials of most biomes in all three dimensions.

Usage
Sculk blocks are primarily used for decoration. They have an animated texture that comprises of glowing spots, but they do not illuminate the surroundings. It has a similar texture of an end portal viewed from above; however, this is not widely recognized as a subject for griefing.

Spreading sculk charge
Sculk blocks allow the charge created by sculk catalysts to travel through them, allowing the charge to convert blocks further away.

There are certain conditions required for the Sculk Catalyst to spread towards other blocks. Spawning Zombie from a spawn egg into Lava 1 block underneath close to the catalyst will not cause any spread. However, if a Sculk Block is around, it will accept the charge.

The sculk charge will not remain forever, regardless wether it is currently spreading or not. If a single standing Sculk Block containing a sculk charge is destroyed, the sculk charge will vanish.

The sculk charge will only generate a Sculk Sensor or Sculk Shrieker if it is at least 4 blocks away from the Sculk Catalyst that created the charge, not to be confused with death location.

The sculk charge does not always pick the same route, regardless if there's a Sculk Vein on a block. The sculk charge does not strictly move in a direction, instead it can loop back and forward before continuing going through a straight line of Sculk Blocks.

The sculk charge can not turn blocks into Sculk Blocks, without going through the process of adding Sculk Vein to it. It is possible to protect blocks such as Soul Sand by surrounding them with blocks that it can't convert from all linear directions like Iron Blocks. Unfortunately for Soul Sand it would prevent its function to move things in water up, if something at the top is obstructing it.

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Trivia

 * "Sculk" is derived from the word "skulk," meaning "keep out of sight, typically with a sinister or cowardly motive".
 * During the prototype phase, sculk was much easier to trigger; simply stepping on in would make a lot of noise and attract the Warden. This ended up being deemed unfair, resulting in the creation of the Sculk Sensor.
 * The old trypophobia shrieker was a combination of the modern day shrieker and scrapped sculk jaw as it would both scream and show teeth

Development images
Images are sorted by their approximate creation date.