Ghasts are large white floating ghost-like hostile mobs that live in the Nether which shoot explosive fireballs at the player.
Spawning
To spawn naturally, ghasts require a solid block below them and 5×4×5 free space. 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 only two ghasts can spawn within any 4 chunk span.
Ghasts do not spawn in nether fortresses, but they can come 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 9 tentacles (which are not included in the hitbox).
When within range, ghasts face the player and shoot a fireball every 3 seconds, opening their eyes and mouth and making a screeching sound as they do so. They require 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, and continue attacking as long as they are within a 64 block sphere and have line of sight. In Bedrock Edition, they spontaneously target players within a sphere of 28 blocks, but will target a player within 64 blocks sphere if the player damages them.
Ghasts can cause other mobs to attack them, but 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.
Ghast fireball
The ghast's fireball attack has a straight trajectory unaffected by gravity and a theoretically infinite range, although it disappears after 1 minute.[1] Fireballs do not track the player once fired, are slow, and can be deflected if the player hits them with a projectile or melee attack. At close range, it is one of the most powerful mob attacks in Minecraft. A direct hit deals 6![]()
![]()
projectile damage from the impact, and up to 9![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
, 17
× 8.5, or 25
× 12.5 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, fireballs launched by that ghast disappear. A fireball deals 1000
× 500 damage 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 4.034 (about the equivalent of basalt, which is 4.2).
When a player hits a fireball, only the projectile damage dealt by the ghast fireball counts as the player's kill.
Sounds
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghast cries | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Ghast shoots[sound 1] | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Ghast dies | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Ghast hurts | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| None[sound 2] | ? | Unused sound event | entity | None[sound 2] | None | None | None | |
| Ghast shoots[sound 1] | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Explosion | ? | Explosions created by fireballs | entity | subtitles | ? | (<1.0) | 16 |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Entity tags (JE) | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghast | ghast | None | entity.minecraft.ghast |
| Fireball | fireball | impact_projectiles | entity.minecraft.fireball |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghast | ghast | 41 | entity.ghast.name |
| Fireball | fireball | 85 | entity.fireball.name |
Entity data
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.
Ghast fireballs have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.
Ghast/ED1
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Return to Sender | Destroy a Ghast with a fireball. | Kill a ghast using a ghast fireball. | 30G | Silver | ||
Advancements
| Icon | 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:
| 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
|
![]() | 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:
| 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.[2] | ||||
| October 29, 2010 | A preview of the Halloween Update was sent to two gaming companies; their articles[3][4] highlighted the behavior of the upcoming ghast mobs. | ||||
| preview | |||||
| Ghasts appear to expand slightly before shooting a fireball, similarly to a creeper about to explode.[5] 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. | |||
| 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 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. | |||
| 12w19a | Ghasts now make their kill sound when killed rather than their pain sound. | ||||
| 1.5 | 13w02a | The texture of the fireball has been changed from | |||
| 13w02b | The texture of the fireball has been reverted from | ||||
| 1.6.1 | 13w24a | The texture of the fireball has been changed from | |||
| 13w24b | The texture of the fireball has been reverted from | ||||
| 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. 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. | |||
| 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.
| |||
The projectile entity ID of the fireball has been changed from Fireball to fireball. | |||||
| 16w40a | The tags xTile, yTile, zTile, inTile and inGround have been removed from the fireball's entity data.
| ||||
The ghast life tag is no longer used for anything, but still saved/read. | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| 1.16 | 20w06a | Ghasts now spawn in the soul sand valley biome in the Nether. | |||
| 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 | ||||
| Ghasts are currently unobtainable in-game without editing. | |||||
| v0.12.1 | build 1 | Ghasts can now be spawned using spawn eggs. | |||
| 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. | |||
| build 4 | The spawn rate of ghasts has been increased even more. | ||||
| v0.14.0 | build 1 | Open ghast eyes now glow. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | The entity ID for the fireball has been changed from largefireball to large_fireball. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||
| 1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.51 | Ghasts now spawn in the soul sand valley biome in the Nether. | |||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | |
| TU9 | The volume of the ghast sound effects has been reduced. | ||||
| 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. | ||||
| 1.90 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Ghast" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- They are the second-largest mobs that naturally spawn in the game, the largest being the ender dragon.
- In English, "ghast" is an archaic word meaning "ghastly".[8] H.P. Lovecraft first coined its use as name for monster (a vaguely humanoid one, in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), but "Ghasts" have appeared in many other fantasy stories and games. In Minecraft, it also seems to follow a pattern of playfully replacing the letter "o" by "a" (Netherrock → Netherrack, Ghost → Ghast).
- 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, which he makes when disturbed while sleeping.[9]
- Two ghasts are featured in the LEGO set "Minecraft Micro World - The Nether", along with a Zombified Piglin.
- When killed with its own fireball, the ghast turns orange rather than red. This is because the ghast is set on fire.[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.[10]
- Ghasts are the only non-undead mob that withers are not hostile toward.
- If a player hits a fireball using an item with the Looting enchantment, any mob killed by that fireball has its drops affected by the enchantment as though the mob was killed by directly using the item.
- The unused ghast scream sound can be heard in the last scene of the Nether Update trailer. The file is called "affectionatescream.ogg".
- Ghast uses different models in the Java Edition and Bedrock Edition and some of the legs are different lengths.
Gallery
A ghast up close, shooting a fireball (with the old snowball texture) at the player.
A ghast that is in a nether fortress.
A preview of three ghasts in the soul sand valley.
A spawner programmed to spawn ghasts.
In other media
A Ghast in promotional artwork for the Nether Update.
- Ghast Mobestiary.jpeg
A Ghast pictured in the Mobestiary.
Ghast Spirit from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Ghast micromobs from Lego Minecraft.
References
- ↑ This is due to the fact that Ghast Fireballs are technically entities that despawn after 1 minute.
- ↑ "No it doesn't" – @jeb_ (Jens Bergensten) on X, April 1, 2011
- ↑ Minecraft Halloween Update hands-on; PC Gamer - October 29, 2010
- ↑ Hands-On With the Minecraft Halloween Update; Indie Games Plus - October 29, 2010
- ↑ Minecraft Halloween Update - Slipgate Adventures 2.avi; PC Gamer - October 29, 2010
- ↑ MC-6758
- ↑ MC-17827
- ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghast
- ↑ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nbe2h/i_am_the_composer_and_sound_designer_of_minecraft/c37sjyb
- ↑ MC-92623













