Rarity color |
Common |
---|---|
Renewable |
Yes |
Stackable |
No |
Flammable item? |
Yes |
Size |
In Java Edition: |
Network ID |
JE: 1 |
A boat is both an item and a vehicle entity used primarily for fast transport of players and passenger mobs over bodies of water.
Contents
Obtaining[]
Boats can be crafted with any overworld planks.
Boats can be retrieved by repeatedly hitting them until they drop as an item.
Tools and weapons with damage above 4 can instantly destroy a boat in one hit.[Java Edition only]
Crafting[]
Ingredients | Crafting recipe | Description |
---|---|---|
Matching Overworld Planks | [Java Edition only] | |
Matching Overworld Planks + Wooden Shovel |
[Bedrock and Education editions only] |
Entity loot[]
Breaking a boat with chest[upcoming: BE 1.19] drops both the chest and the matching boat.
Usage[]
Boats can be used for the transportation of players and mobs, sold for emeralds, or burnt as fuel.
Crafting[]
Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Oak Boat with Chest or Spruce Boat with Chest or Birch Boat with Chest or Jungle Boat with Chest or Acacia Boat with Chest or Dark Oak Boat with Chest or Mangrove Boat with Chest |
Chest + Oak Boat or Spruce Boat or Birch Boat or Jungle Boat or Acacia Boat or Dark Oak Boat or Mangrove Boat |
[upcoming: JE 1.19 & BE 1.19.0] |
Trading[]
Master-level fisherman villagers always offer to buy a boat for an emerald. The type of boat depends on the biome outfit type of the villager; plains villagers offer to buy oak boats, taiga and snowy villagers offer to buy spruce boats, savanna villagers offer to buy acacia boats, desert and jungle villagers offer to buy jungle boats, and swamp villagers offer to buy dark oak boats.
Fuel[]
A boat used as fuel in a furnace lasts 60 seconds, smelting up to 6 items.
Transportation[]
Entering[]
A player enters a boat by using it, if the boat is not fully occupied (boats can hold two entities). Unlike beds, there is no message above the hotbar for attempting to enter a fully occupied boat.[1]
Exiting[]
A boat can be exited by sneaking or, in Bedrock Edition, pressing down the right analog stick on a controller, tapping the "Leave Boat" button when using touch controls, or jumping. When exiting a boat, the player is placed in the direction the player is facing, or, if facing directly up or down, the player is placed in front of the boat. The exiting player is placed on land if possible from the dismounting position.
Motion[]
Boats do not turn with mouse-look.
With a keyboard or gamepad, boats are controlled using the forward, left (turns left), right (turns right), and backward keys. Using the sprint key increases the field of vision, but does not increase speed as if sprinting.
With touchscreen controls, two buttons for steering appear. The right button or key steers to the left, and the left button or key steers to the right. Pressing both buttons or keys moves the boat forward.
Since Java Edition 1.9, it is no longer possible to ride a boat upstream. A boat lift, usually made from tripwire, pistons, and optionally a slime block, can be used to move a boat up. Players can also use water buckets to move a boat upward, although a player must be steering the boat.
Behavior[]
Speed[]
Boats move according to the player's control or water currents, with speed affected by the surface traversed. Boats move extremely quickly on ice,[2] allowing for the construction of fast transportation systems in any dimension.
Substance | Speed |
---|---|
Water | 8.0 blocks/s |
Ice, Frosted Ice, Packed Ice | 40 blocks/s |
Blue Ice | 72.7 blocks/s |
Land | 2.0 blocks/s |
Flotation[]

The animation of an oak boat when atop a bubble column.
A boat floats atop still or flowing water. In Java Edition, a boat sinks if it enters a waterfall. In Bedrock Edition, a boat does not sink when submerged but floats up. This feature lets a player contrive stepped uphill water flows to propel a boat uphill using only flowing water.
When a boat moves over a bubble column, it begins to shake. If the bubbles are caused by a magma block, all passengers are expelled and the boat sinks. In Java Edition, a sunken boat cannot be re-floated; it must be replaced. In Bedrock Edition, a boat resumes floating when it emerges from the currents keeping it down, or when the bubble column is blocked or removed.
Dolphins chase players riding a boat in motion, occasionally bumping the boat, causing it to shake briefly.
Destruction[]
As boats are entities, they have health. Boats effectively have just over 4 (exactly 4 damage is not quite enough to destroy a boat), and regenerate 1⁄10 per game tick.
Boats can be destroyed by explosions, fire and lava (but not magma blocks), cactus, and by being punched by mobs, such as Drowned. Boats made invulnerable with commands cannot be broken by any of these, but they still cannot be used to travel on lava because they sink.
When a boat is destroyed under normal conditions, it drops itself in item form. In certain conditions, such as when falling for exactly 12, 13, 49, 51, 111, 114, 198, 202, 310, or 315 blocks,[3] it drops two sticks and three planks upon being destroyed.
Passengers[]

Multiple entities in each boat.
Boats can support two riders, including mobs. Except for endermen in Bedrock Edition, a mob cannot exit a boat and is trapped until the boat gets destroyed, or until the player uses a fishing rod or lead to remove the mob. This can be used to transport mobs, although hostile mobs still attack while in boats. Mobs riding a boat don't despawn[Java Edition only] and don't count toward the mob cap.[4]
A player cannot both move (row) and use items at the same time. It is still possible to initialize item use (e.g. start eating) and row the boat while the item is still in the middle of the use animation. Although the rowing animation overrides the item use animation, the item can still be successfully consumed. This does not work with items that are triggered by the release of the use button (such as bows and tridents).[Java Edition only]
Boats can completely nullify fall damage for themselves and any players/mobs inside, making them useful for travel through mountains or through the Nether. This is confirmed by Mojang to be an intentional feature.[5][6] However in Java Edition, due to a bug, boats can break when falling from certain heights, and the riders will take fall damage.[3]
Riding a boat does not deplete hunger, making it an efficient way to travel.
Being in a boat limits the player's mouse-look to the forward 210° arc.
Collision[]
A boat has a solid collision box, which means players and other entities can't go through it even with high speed. Falling blocks are also blocked by boats.
Riding a boat over a lily pad causes the lily pad to drop, although the boat's speed stutters a bit.
Game edition differences[]
- Java Edition
- A sunken boat will remain underwater, unable to be retrieved until it is broken by the player.
- For mobs to enter a boat, they must be to the side of the boat. A mob cannot control the boat.
- When moving fast enough, a "water spray" visual effect represents the bow wake.
- Bedrock Edition
- A sunken boat resumes floating when it emerges from the current or waterfall that was keeping it down.
- Mobs can be 'picked up' by riding a boat near them.[verify]
- Leads can be attached to boats, though the lead can often break due to boats moving much slower on land.
- Endermen can teleport out of a boat, but any other mob can be captured by a boat.
Sounds[]
Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rowing | Friendly Creatures | Plays when riding boat on land | entity.boat.paddle_land | subtitles.entity.boat.paddle_land | 1.0 | 0.8 - 1.2 [check the code] | 16 | |
Rowing | Friendly Creatures | Plays when riding boat on water | entity.boat.paddle_water | subtitles.entity.boat.paddle_water | 0.8 | 0.8 - 1.2 [check the code] | 16 |
Data values[]
ID[]
Boat | Identifier | Form | Item tags | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|---|
Oak item | oak_boat | Item | boats | item.minecraft.oak_boat |
Spruce item | spruce_boat | Item | boats | item.minecraft.spruce_boat |
Birch item | birch_boat | Item | boats | item.minecraft.birch_boat |
Jungle item | jungle_boat | Item | boats | item.minecraft.jungle_boat |
Acacia item | acacia_boat | Item | boats | item.minecraft.acacia_boat |
Dark Oak item | dark_oak_boat | Item | boats | item.minecraft.dark_oak_boat |
Boat | Identifier | Translation key |
---|---|---|
Entity | boat | entity.minecraft.boat |
Name | Identifier | Alias ID | Numeric ID | Form | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oak Boat | oak_boat | boat / 0 | 375 | Item | item.boat.oak.name |
Spruce Boat | spruce_boat | boat / 1 | 378 | Item | item.boat.spruce.name |
Birch Boat | birch_boat | boat / 2 | 376 | Item | item.boat.birch.name |
Jungle Boat | jungle_boat | boat / 3 | 377 | Item | item.boat.jungle.name |
Acacia Boat | acacia_boat | boat / 4 | 379 | Item | item.boat.acacia.name |
Dark Oak Boat | dark_oak_boat | boat / 5 | 380 | Item | item.boat.big_oak.name |
Form | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
---|---|---|---|
Entity | boat | 90 | entity.boat.name |
Entity data[]
Boats have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the entity.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all boats
- Tags common to all entities
Achievements[]
Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PS4 | Other platforms | |||||
Whatever Floats Your Goat | Get in a boat and float with a goat | Use a boat and put a goat inside that boat, then ride it | 20G | Bronze |
Advancements[]
Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Whatever Floats Your Goat! | Get in a Boat and float with a Goat | Husbandry | Enter a boat with a goat. | husbandry/ride_a_boat_with_a_goat
|
History[]
The specific instructions are: Second pre-release PE boat (see linked tweet)
Java Edition Alpha | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
v1.0.6 | ![]() ![]() | |||||
Initially, boats broke upon being placed outside water, and on impact with land. | ||||||
v1.0.6_01 | Boats now only break on impact with land at high speeds. | |||||
Boats no longer break upon being placed outside water. | ||||||
Boat turning has been made smoother. | ||||||
Java Edition Beta | ||||||
1.8 | Pre-release | It is now possible to score a critical hit against a boat. | ||||
Java Edition | ||||||
1.3.1 | 12w15a | Boats can now be shot out from dispensers. | ||||
1.3 | ![]() | |||||
12w21a | Boats no longer take damage when colliding with lily pads. Instead, the lily pads themselves break. | |||||
12w23a | Boats can now accelerate to faster than previous speeds, and are now easier to control. | |||||
12w27a | Boats now drop their item instead of 3 oak wood planks and 2 sticks if broken by a player. | |||||
1.6.1 | ? | New boat physics with lower inertia, but left, back and right controls have been removed. | ||||
Boats now take damage and break when colliding with many lily pads in a short time. | ||||||
1.7.2 | 13w36a | Players can now /summon mobs riding boats, though mobs cannot control boats. | ||||
13w43a | Boats no longer inflict fall damage when running aground. | |||||
Boats being broken by lily pads has been slightly improved. | ||||||
Left, back and right controls added again. | ||||||
1.8 | 14w06a | Mobs riding boats can now control them, so that they can chase or flee enemies, move toward food, move about randomly, or whatever they would do on land. The exceptions are the ghast and bat, both of which cannot control boats. | ||||
1.8.2 | pre2 | Boats can now survive crashes at higher speeds. | ||||
? | Boats no longer break snow layers they run into. | |||||
1.9 | 15w41a | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
| ||||
Mobs can now board boats, though they can no longer control them. | ||||||
A new set of controls have been introduced: it includes holding down the right and left keys to move forward, and using the right key to move the right oar, turning the boat to the left (and vice-versa). Mouse movement no longer turns boats, and the forward and back keys no longer have any effect. | ||||||
Players can no longer use items or attack from boats unless they were at a complete stop. | ||||||
The crafting recipe for boats has been changed to require a wooden shovel as shown below.
| ||||||
Added variants of all wood types, though only the oak boat can be crafted. | ||||||
The NBT tag Type (string) have now added for the boat entity, taking values oak , spruce , birch , jungle , acacia and dark_oak . | ||||||
15w42a | Birch, spruce, acacia and jungle boats can now be crafted using the same recipe as oak, except with the corresponding planks. | |||||
The new boats are now comparable in speed to the old boats (slightly faster than sprinting), though with less momentum. | ||||||
Players can now use items and attack immediately after they stop rowing. | ||||||
15w43c | The texture of boats has been remapped, so that they now have a separate texture per oar and per side of the boat. | |||||
15w45a | The dark oak boat can now be crafted. | |||||
15w51a | Boats now drop their corresponding planks when broken. | |||||
16w04a | Boats are now faster and now move forward and backward using the forward and backward keys respectively, and steer left and right using the left and right keys respectively. The rowing mechanism introduced in 15w41a, holding the right and left keys, is removed and no longer moves the boat forward. The controls are now more similar to boats before the overhaul. | |||||
Boats now sink when underwater, or within flowing water of any depth. | ||||||
The crafting recipe of boats has been restored to the original recipe, no longer requiring a wooden shovel as it has since 15w41a (though matching wood planks is still required). | ||||||
Riding a boat no longer subjects water-sensitive mobs to being damaged by water, and no longer protects sunlight-sensitive mobs from being damaged by sunlight. | ||||||
Dismounting in a boat now attempts to place the player on land. | ||||||
Due to a bug, boats travel fast on land.[7] | ||||||
16w05a | The bug of boats travelling fast on land has been fixed. | |||||
Boats now travel extremely fast on ice, packed ice and frosted ice.[2] | ||||||
16w06a | Riding entities such as boats are now run by the client rather than by the server. | |||||
1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID has been changed from Boat to boat .
| ||||
The player's hunger bar is now visible when riding in a boat. | ||||||
16w33a | Boats can now be used to fuel furnaces. | |||||
1.12 | 17w17a | A boat paddles sound has been added. | ||||
1.13 | 17w47a | The oak boat ID has been changed from boat to oak_boat .
| ||||
Prior to The Flattening, these items' numeral IDs were 333, 444, 445, 446, 447 and 448. | ||||||
18w15a | Added blue ice, which allows boats to travel even faster on it. | |||||
1.14 | 18w43a | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
18w50a | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||||
19w11a | Fisherman villagers now buy boats. | |||||
1.15 | 19w37a | Boats as fuel now smelt 6 items in a furnace instead of 1. | ||||
1.16 | 20w18a | Mobs in boats no longer despawn. | ||||
Upcoming Java Edition | ||||||
1.19 | 22w11a | ![]() ![]() | ||||
22w12a | Boats can now be used to craft boats with chests. | |||||
Mangrove boat now can be used as a fuel.[8] | ||||||
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||||
22w15a | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||||
Pocket Edition Alpha | ||||||
September 19, 2014 | Tommaso Checchi tweeted a picture of a player riding a boat, stating that the most important thing is to "get the paddling right." | |||||
![]() | ||||||
January 26, 2015 | Tommaso Checchi tweets a screenshot of multiple riders in a single boat. | |||||
The model used by boats is now a minecart which has been squished vertically, and tinted brown. | ||||||
February 20, 2015 | Tommaso Checchi tweets a screenshot of multiple boats with only mobs in them. | |||||
Boats now have a proper model with paddles. | ||||||
v0.11.0 | build 1 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
| ||||
Boats can support two riders, including mobs. | ||||||
Boats are larger in size than in Java Edition. | ||||||
Boats are more resistant to crashing against land than in Java Edition. | ||||||
build 12 | Projectiles can now be shot from boats. | |||||
v0.12.1 | build 1 | Added all boat variants to the Creative inventory. | ||||
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||||
v0.13.0 | build 1 | Boats are now slightly faster than sprinting, and no longer deplete hunger. | ||||
Players can now use items and attack immediately after they stop rowing. | ||||||
build 3 | Boats now stack on top of each other. | |||||
Bedrock Edition | ||||||
1.2.0 | beta 1.2.0.22 | Boats now move faster on ice. | ||||
1.5.0 | beta 1.5.0.0 | The steering of boats has been changed when using keyboard and mouse - W now moves the boat forward and S reverses it. | ||||
beta 1.5.0.4 | Boats can now sink or float on bubble columns. | |||||
1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.4 | Boats can now be bought from fisherman villagers. | ||||
1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.57 | Trading has been changed, master-level fisherman villagers now offer to buy boats based on their villager biome outfit. | ||||
Due to trading changes, birch boats can no longer be sold to fisherman villagers. | ||||||
1.16.100 | beta 1.16.100.51 | Custom named boats now save their name after placing and breaking. | ||||
beta 1.16.100.56 | The item ID boat has been split up into <type>_boat . | |||||
1.18.10 | beta 1.18.10.27 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||||
![]() | ||||||
1.18.30 | beta 1.18.20.25 | ![]() | ||||
beta 1.18.20.27 | Spruce and dark oak boats now correctly use their updated item sprites. | |||||
Upcoming Bedrock Edition | ||||||
1.19.0 | beta 1.19.0.20 | ![]() ![]() | ||||
Legacy Console Edition | ||||||
TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | ![]() ![]() | |
TU12 | The maximum number of boats in a world has been increased to 40. | |||||
Boats now break when they hit land hard. | ||||||
TU14 | 1.04 | Boats are no longer broken by lily pads anymore, instead they run straight through the lily pad now, breaking and sometimes dropping it. | ||||
When boats crash, they can now sometimes drop themselves as items. | ||||||
Boats are now less glitchy and more responsive now. | ||||||
The maximum speed of boats has been increased. | ||||||
When exiting, players now move from the boat. | ||||||
When broken by a player, they drop a boat now. | ||||||
TU46 | CU36 | 1.38 | Patch 15 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | ||
TU57 | CU49 | 1.56 | Patch 27 | 1.0.7 | The crafting recipe of boats has been changed to require a wooden shovel. | |
1.90 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||||
New Nintendo 3DS Edition | ||||||
0.1.0 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Boat" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia[]
- Sand, red sand, concrete powder, gravel, anvils, and dragon eggs drop as items when they fall onto a boat that is in water.
- A chest is short enough that a boat falls onto it rather than crashes into it.
- In Legacy Console Edition, holding the movement stick to the side in a boat on blue ice causes the player to spin quickly. If a passenger is in the boat while this occurs, when the player exits the boat after it reaches maximum velocity (attained after about three seconds), for most mobs, the mob's head may spin uncontrollably. For some mobs, however, nothing happens (such as slimes and ghasts). The mob may also get its head stuck at an angle. Thorough testing was done on Minecraft: Wii U Edition, although the glitch was originally discovered on the Xbox 360 Edition.
Gallery[]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ MC-161251
- ↑ a b MC-97803 – "Boats going faster on ice than in water" – resolved as "Works As Intended"
- ↑ a b MC-119369
- ↑ MC-182897 – resolved as "Works As Intended"
- ↑ MC-105103 – resolved as "Works As Intended"
- ↑ MCPE-149490 – resolved as "Works As Intended"
- ↑ MC-96195
- ↑ MC-249316 – resolved as "Fixed"
- ↑ MC-94161 – resolved as "Fixed"
- ↑ MCPE-151667
- ↑ MCPE-152262