Cave spiders are small, venomous variants of spiders that live in abandoned mineshafts.
Spawning
Spawners
Cave spiders spawn from spawners in mineshafts. They are surrounded by cobwebs in corridors.
Drops
When killed, a cave spider drops
- 0–2 String. The maximum is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 string with Looting III.
- 5 when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
They also have a 1⁄3 chance of dropping a spider eye when killed by a player or tamed wolf. The maximum amount of spider eyes is increased by 1 per level of Looting. The chance of a cave spider not dropping any spider eyes can be found using the formula 2 / (Looting Level + 3). For example, Looting III gives a 1⁄3 chance of not dropping any spider eyes. All other amounts have an equal chance of occurring.
Behavior
Cave spiders inherit their behavior from spiders:
- Neutral if under daylight or in light levels of 9 or above before seeing player, otherwise they are hostile. Once they become hostile, light does not affect them.
- Climb walls when needed.
- Attack by leaping.
- Are unaffected by cobwebs and poison.
- Can spawn spider jockeys.[BE only]
They have some distinctions from regular spiders:
- Can fit through a space that is one block wide and 1⁄2 block tall.
- Can go through the spaces between two different types of (unconnected) fences.
- Cannot spawn with status effects.
Being arthropods, they are weak against weapons with the Bane of Arthropods enchantment.
Poison
On normal or hard, cave spiders inflict Poison upon attacking.[1] On normal difficulty, the poison lasts for 7 seconds and causes 4![]()
damage. On hard difficulty, it lasts for 15 seconds and causes 10![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
. Poison damage is not taken when the player's health is at 1
.
Sounds
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spider hisses[2] | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Spider dies[2] | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Spider hurts[2] | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Footsteps | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 |
Data values
Cave spiders have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Adventure | Adventure, exploration and combat | — | Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity. | adventure/root
|
![]() | Monster Hunter | Kill any hostile monster | Adventure | Kill one of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_all_mobs
|
History
| beta | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.8 | Pre-release | ||||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Cave spiders now drop 0-1 spider eye when killed by a player or tamed wolf. | |||
| The cave spider's health points have now been reduced from 20 | |||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 | Cave spiders are now immune to the poison status effect. | ||||
| Cave spiders are now considered arthropods. | |||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w06a | Cave spiders now swim extremely fast with the water stream toward the player, but seem to be almost not moving against the water stream. | |||
| Cave spiders can now climb ice blocks. | |||||
| 1.8 | 14w06a | Cave spiders can now no longer draw line of sight through opaque blocks. | |||
| Cave spiders have now been given the new AI that regular spiders have received. | |||||
| 14w11a | Cave spiders now run away from creepers that are about to explode. | ||||
| ? | The cave spider's venom is now no longer neutralized by splash potions of weakness, which may or may not be a bug. | ||||
| 1.8.1 | pre1 | Cave spiders no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode. | |||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The cave spider's entity ID has now been changed from CaveSpider to cave_spider. | |||
| October 16, 2017 | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.11.0 | build 1 | ||||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Cave spiders now have a walking sound. | |||
| Cave spiders can now spawn with wither skeletons riding them when spawning as spider jockey in the Nether. | |||||
| Cave spiders now drop spider eyes. | |||||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Cave spiders can now be ridden by baby zombies and baby zombie villagers. | |||
| 0.15.0 | Cave spiders can now spawn with strays riding them when spawning as spider jockey in snowy biome with a view of the sky. | ||||
| Cave spiders can now be ridden by baby husks. | |||||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | The cave spider's entity ID has now been changed from cavespider to cave_spider.
| |||
| The cave spider's poison time from attack has now been changed to be based on difficulty. | |||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU5 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | ||
| TU12 | Cave spiders now swim extremely fast with the water stream toward the player, but seem to be almost motionless against the water stream. | ||||
| Cave spiders can now climb ice blocks. | |||||
| PlayStation 4 Edition | |||||
| 1.90 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Cave Spider" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- While a cave spider's hitbox is only 13.9% the volume of a normal spider's, its model's volume is 34.3% as large. The shadow is even larger: compared to the normal spider's shadow it has an area of 49%.
- A direct hit from a Splash potion of harming (Instant Damage II) kills a cave spider immediately.
Gallery
- Screen Shot 2014-01-29 at 2.57.29 AM.png
Picture of cave spider going through a 1×1×0.5 block.
A cave spider and its spawner.
The health bar turns yellow-green when bitten by a cave spider.
Size comparison between a cave spider and a regular spider in a dungeon.
Another cave spider farm generated in an abandoned mineshaft.
A group of cave spiders trying to swim after the player in a mineshaft.
See also
References
External links










