Ghast

Ghasts are large white floating jellyfish ghosts. They are hostile mobs that live in the Nether and shoot explosive fireballs at the player.

Spawning[]

To spawn naturally, a ghast requires a solid block below it and a free space 5×5 blocks wide and 4 blocks high. They spawn only in the basalt deltas, nether wastes, and soul sand valley biomes, all three of which exist only in the Nether dimension, and in any light level. In Java Edition ghasts cannot spawn in soul sand valleys if another ghast is within 16 blocks of spherical distance to the intended spawning location; In Bedrock Edition, two ghasts can spawn within any 4 chunk span.

Ghasts do not spawn in nether fortresses, but they can wander nearby.

Drops[]

Ghast tear (0–1) . Looting increases the maximum ghast tears dropped by one per level, for a maximum of 4 ghast tears with Looting III.

Gunpowder (0–2) . Looting increases the maximum gunpowder dropped by one per level, for a maximum of 5 gunpowder with Looting III.

5 when killed by the player.

Behavior[]

Ghasts float around the Nether with their eyes and mouth closed and periodically make crying sounds, which can be heard from up to 80 blocks away. They have a hitbox of 4×4×4 blocks, as well as nine tentacles that are not included in the hitbox.

When within range, a ghast faces the player and shoots a fireball every 3 seconds, opening its eyes and mouth and making a screeching sound. A ghast requires a line of sight to the player before firing, which can be blocked by any solid block including transparent blocks. In Java Edition, they target players within 64 blocks horizontally and 4 blocks vertically^[1], and continue attacking as long as they are within a 64 block sphere and have line of sight. In Bedrock Edition, a ghast normally targets a player within a sphere of 28 blocks, increasing to 64 blocks if the player damages it.

Ghasts can cause other mobs to attack them, but in Java Edition they never target other mobs, only the player.

Unlike most other hostile mobs, ghasts do not attempt to approach the player once aggravated, but instead fire at the player from their position within firing range.

When at close range, ghasts may take damage and die from their own fireball explosions.

Ghasts can be set on fire, but fire or lava does not harm them. When a ghast sinks into lava, or crosses a lava fall, its speed drops and it is immobilized for a while, making it more vulnerable to arrow shots.

Despite their ghostly appearance, ghasts are not considered undead mobs.^[2] This means they can drown,^[3] are damaged by Instant Damage^[4] and healed by Instant Health, are affected by Poison,^[5] and are not affected by Smite.^[6]

Although they are not undead mobs, ghasts are never targeted by withers deliberately.^[7]

Despite that they are flying mobs, ghasts can destroy turtle eggs when on top of them.^[8]

Fireball[]

Ghasts shoot fireballs at players, dealing damage to nearby blocks and entities.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Ghasts use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Ghast cries	Hostile Creatures	Randomly	`entity.ghast.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.ghast.ambient`	5.0	0.8-1.2	16
Ghast shoots^{[sound 1]}	Hostile Creatures	When a ghast signals to shoot a fireball	`entity.ghast.charge`	`subtitles.entity.ghast.shoot`^{[sound 1]}	10.0	0.8-1.2	16
Ghast dies	Hostile Creatures	When a ghast dies	`entity.ghast.death`	`subtitles.entity.ghast.death`	5.0	0.8-1.2	16
Ghast hurts	Hostile Creatures	When a ghast is damaged	`entity.ghast.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.ghast.hurt`	5.0	0.8-1.2	16
None^{[sound 2]}	None	Unused sound event	`entity.ghast.scream`	None^{[sound 2]}	None	None	None
Ghast shoots^{[sound 1]}	Hostile Creatures	When a ghast shoots a fireball	`entity.ghast.shoot`	`subtitles.entity.ghast.shoot`^{[sound 1]}	10.0	0.8-1.2	16

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d MC-218108
↑ ^a ^b MC-177079

Bedrock Edition:

Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
Hostile Creatures	Randomly	`mob.ghast.moan`	2.5	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a ghast signals to shoot a fireball	`mob.ghast.charge`	2.5	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a ghast dies	`mob.ghast.death`	2.5	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a ghast is damaged	`mob.ghast.scream`	2.5	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	Unused sound event	`mob.ghast.affectionate_scream`	2.5	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a ghast shoots a fireball	`mob.ghast.fireball`	0.7	0.8-1.2

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Ghast	`ghast`	None	`entity.minecraft.ghast`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Ghast	`ghast`	`41`	`entity.ghast.name`

Entity data[]

Java Edition:

Ghasts have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- ExplosionPower: The radius of the explosion created by the fireballs the ghast fires. Default value is 1.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		Return to Sender	Destroy a Ghast with a fireball.	Kill a ghast using a ghast fireball.	30G	Silver

Advancements[]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
Return to Sender	Destroy a Ghast with a fireball	Nether	Kill a ghast by deflecting a ghast fireball back into it via hitting or shooting a projectile at the fireball.	`nether/return_to_sender`
Uneasy Alliance	Rescue a Ghast from the Nether, bring it safely home to the Overworld... and then kill it	Return to Sender	Kill a ghast while the player is in the Overworld.	`nether/uneasy_alliance`
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: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Is It a Balloon?	Look at a Ghast through a Spyglass	Is It a Bird?	Look at a ghast through a spyglass while the ghast is focused on you.	`adventure/spyglass_at_ghast`
It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst`
Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Monster Hunter	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot an entity with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.	`adventure/shoot_arrow`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

History[]

Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0		October 11, 2010			Notch tweets that he is working on "the most unfair mob ever," adding that "you will hate the Ghast."
		October 22, 2010			Originally, ghasts were intended to be able to spawn near nether portals in the Overworld. However, this ability was not implemented.^[9]
		October 29, 2010			A preview of the Halloween Update was sent to two gaming companies; their articles^[10]^[11] highlighted the behavior of the upcoming ghast mobs.
		preview			Added ghasts, along with the Nether.
		preview			Ghasts appear to expand slightly before shooting a fireball, similarly to a creeper about to explode.^[12] However, this effect does not work in multiplayer.
Java Edition Beta
1.7					Ghasts now aim toward the player and not the camera. Prior to this, pressing `F5` (going into third person view) allowed one to easily send the fireball over their head instead of at the character.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Ghasts now drop ghast tears.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Ghasts are now affected by light and no longer appear with the same brightness anywhere.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5			Killing ghasts with their own^[verify] fireball grants the player the achievement "Return to Sender."
1.1		?			As heard in `.minecraft/resources/newsound/mob/ghast`, ghasts now have an unused "affectionate scream", which is a high pitched horn sound (like the classic cartoon tugboat sounds).
1.2.1		12w05a			The ghast hitbox has been updated to incorporate their whole body. Prior to this, ghasts could be injured only by hitting their tentacles and lower body.
1.3.1		12w18a			As a result of singleplayer being changed to an internal server, ghasts no longer visibly expand before shooting a fireball, alongside many other features broken by this change.
1.3.1		12w19a			Ghasts now make their kill sound when killed rather than their pain sound.
1.8		14w06a			The AI of ghasts has slightly changed: They cannot see the player unless their height comes to almost eye level with the player.^[1] When attacking, ghasts 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.
1.8		14w06a			The (now broken) code to make ghasts visibly expand while shooting was removed.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID of ghasts has been changed from `Ghast` to `ghast`.
1.11		16w40a			The ghast `life` tag is no longer used for anything, but still saved/read.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of ghasts has been changed.
1.16		20w06a			Ghasts now spawn in the soul sand valley biome in the Nether.
		20w06a			Ghasts' sounds are now heard at shorter range.
		20w15a			Ghasts now spawn in the new basalt deltas biome.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.11.0		build 1			Added ghasts.
v0.11.0		build 1			Ghasts are currently unobtainable in-game without editing.
v0.12.1		build 1			Ghasts can now be spawned using spawn eggs.
		build 1			Ghasts now spawn naturally in the Nether.
		build 6			Ghasts now hit the player more reliably.
		build 7			Ghasts now drop gunpowder and ghast tears.
		build 8			The hitbox of ghasts is now bigger.
		build 13			Ghasts now have sounds.
v0.13.0		build 1			The spawn rate of ghasts has been increased.
v0.13.0		build 4			The spawn rate of ghasts has been increased even more.
v0.14.0		build 1			Open ghast eyes now glow.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of ghasts has been changed.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Ghasts now spawn in the soul sand valley biome.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added ghasts.
TU9					The volume of the ghast sound effects has been reduced.
TU9					The distance the ghast's sound effect for shooting a fireball can be heard from has been increased.
TU11					The volume of the ghast sound effects has been further reduced.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added ghasts.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Ghast" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

In English, "ghast" is an archaic word meaning "ghastly".^[13] H.P. Lovecraft first coined its use as the name for a monster (a vaguely humanoid one, in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), but "ghasts" have appeared in many other fantasy stories and games.
The player can go inside of a ghast by falling through the top of it or flying (or jumping while attacking) up underneath it. If the player stands on top of the head, the player sees inside of it.
If a ghast is trapped in a 1-thick cube, it shoots 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, ghasts 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 a "line of sight" through those blocks, it launches a fireball in the player's direction. This is reminiscent of a blaze but with explosive addition.
C418 revealed in an AMA on Reddit that ghast sounds are taken from his pet cat, who makes them when disturbed while sleeping.^[14]
Two ghasts are featured in the LEGO set "Minecraft Micro World - The Nether", along with a Zombified Piglin.
When killed with its own fireball, a ghast turns orange rather than red.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
Splash potions affect ghasts only when hitting their lower half.
Despite not having visible feet, ghasts are still capable of making footstep sounds.^[15]
There is an unused ghast sound called "affectionatescream.ogg" in the game files. It can be heard in the last scene of the Nether Update trailer.
Ghasts use different models between the Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, and some of their tentacles are different lengths.
They are one of the only mobs that the Zoglin does not attack.

Gallery[]

A ghast up close, shooting a fireball (with the old snowball texture) at the player.
A ghast opens its red eyes when it spits out fireballs (note old "expansion" effect).
Another image of a shooting ghast (with the current textures).
Ghasts (note old snowball texture).
A ghast that is in a nether fortress.
A preview of three ghasts in the soul sand valley.
A spawner programmed to spawn ghasts.
Prior to 1.3, ghasts would slightly expand when shooting a fireball.
A ghast flying through falling lava.
A ghast in Pocket Edition.
A ghast close to Sunny, showing how large they are compared to players.
The Secret Ghast, featured in the Trails & Tales Event.