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Mobs are living, moving game entities. Generally, mobs are affected by the environment in the same ways as the player—they are subject to physics, they can be hurt by catching on fire, falling, drowning, or suffocating, and they can even ride minecarts. When mobs are killed, they drop items which may be useful resources. Mobs come to exist by spawning in various ways. Players can spawn most mobs using spawn eggs in Creative mode. Mobs are aware of players within 16 blocks of them, except for Ghasts, which can see up to 100 blocks away and Endermen, which can see up to 64 blocks away.[1]

The term mob is short for mobile[2] and has been used as a general term referring to any moving entities in games since the first MUDs surfaced.

Current mobs

There are 26 mobs in 1.3.2, excluding the player.

Passive

Passive mobs will never attack the player.
All passive mobs except squids require land to spawn on. Squids need water to spawn in.

Chicken Cow Mooshroom Ocelot Pig Sheep Squid Villager
Chicken Cow Mooshroom Ocelot Pig Sheep Squid Villager


Neutral

Neutral mobs will not attack the player unless provoked. The act of provoking neutral mobs varies between mobs.

Enderman Wolf Zombie Pigman
Enderman Wolf Zombie Pigman


Tamable

These mobs can be tamed by the player.

Wolf Ocelot
Wolf (Dog) Ocelot (Cat)


Hostile

Hostile mobs will attack the player when in range, each with their own abilities.
Cave Spiders, Zombies, Creepers, Skeletons, Spiders, and Spider Jockeys require a light level of 7 or less to spawn.
All mobs' hostility levels are based on how they are spawned by default. Spiders may become neutral, but they do not spawn neutral.

Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Ghast Magma Cube Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Spider Jockey Zombie
Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Ghast Magma Cube Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Spider Jockey Zombie


Utility

Utility mobs are created by and serve the player,[3] but Iron Golems can be provoked.

Snow Golem Iron Golem
Snow Golem Iron Golem


Bosses

Boss mobs have more complicated attack patterns and movements. They also have a large amount of health. Boss mobs only spawn once per world.

Enderdragon Face
Ender Dragon

Planned, unused, removed, and potential mobs

Planned

Planned mobs are speculated to be added in a future version of Minecraft.

Bat Fish Pigman Red Dragon Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zombie Villager
Bat Fish Pigman Red Dragon Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zombie Villager

Unused

Unused mobs are found in the source, but are not being used at this time. Through third-party modifications, it is still possible to spawn them.

Giant
Giant


Removed

Removed mobs have been removed from the game and can only be found in previous versions.

Beast Boy Black Steve Human Rana Steve
Beast Boy Black Steve Human Rana Steve

Potential future mobs

There are hints that new mobs might be released in the distant future. Below is the list of mobs that have been mentioned at least once by Notch, Jeb, or other Mojang employees who work on Minecraft and have a possibility of appearing in the game.

  • Aside from zombie pigmen, living pigmen have been confirmed to appear in a future update. However, they are not being currently worked on.[4]
  • In the Halloween Update, Notch said he would add fish.[5] However, he had limited time, and was thus only able to add them as an item. There is no coding for fish in the game, and no model was created. Dinnerbone has stated that they have plans for fishing, so it is possible fish mobs will be added to the game. [6]
  • Dinnerbone commented on Reddit that he would like to add pandas to Minecraft, and that he is testing them.[7]
  • Jeb thought to add horses in-game.[8]

AI

Main article: Mob AI

Mobs will ordinarily wander around at random and usually avoid walking off cliffs high enough to cause falling damage, though they can be fooled by non-solid blocks such as signs. In this state, mobs (besides Ghasts and Endermen) have a search radius of 16 blocks.

Mobs are capable of climbing ladders just as the player is: if they try to move towards a ladder they're touching they move up it instead. However, mobs do not see ladders nor do they purposely pathfind up them, so they will not attempt to avoid falling off a ladder should they be on the edge of one and they did not climb all walls. Spiders and Cave Spiders can climb all blocks as if they were ladders.

Mobs will stop wandering within 5 seconds if there is no player within a 32 block radius. In this state, they will glance around randomly, but they won't walk anywhere. They can still be moved by other means such as flowing water, minecarts, etc.

Zombies, Skeletons, Creepers and Wolves have a more advanced path finding system compared to other mobs. Here is a video showcasing their path finding system.

Hostile mobs

If the closest player to a wandering hostile mob is within the search radius of 16 blocks and a line of sight can be drawn, (Spiders can always draw line of sight) the mob will enter pursuit mode. In this mode, mobs can see through all blocks and will walk towards the player. Some mobs, most notably skeletons and creepers, will start circling the player (moving to the left from the player's view) when close enough (skeletons at a long range for strafing, Creepers at a very short range). Zombies will sink in water, and whilst in pursuit mode, can path around walls to get to the player. When a hostile mob is attacked by another one, it will attack the attacking mob. For example, when a skeleton arrow hits a zombie, the zombie will attack the skeleton. Also, if a Creeper is killed by a Skeleton's arrow it will drop a music disc, provided that the Creeper does not kill the Skeleton first.

Passive mobs

Animals are attracted to both light and grass. If there is a lot of grass nearby, they will wander toward it regardless of light level. If they are completely surrounded by grass, they will wander aimlessly. If they can't see any grass, they will wander toward light. Passive mobs will flee randomly when attacked. Passive mobs will follow a player if its currently held item is wheat. As long as the player does not get too far ahead of the mob, they will follow the player over long distances. This can be used to corral mobs into pens in order to make farms. If wheat is given to the mob by right clicking the mob, the mob will enter breed mode. This does not work with squids. No passive mob, except for squid and ocelots[citation needed], will despawn if the player moves too far away from them. This also applies to wolves.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements
Icon Achievement In-game description Prerequisites Actual requirements (if different) Version restriction Xbox points earned
Advancement-plain-raw Monster Hunter Attack and destroy a monster Time to Strike! None 20G
Advancement-fancy-raw Sniper Duel Kill a skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters Monster Hunter "50 meters" is 50 blocks away. PC N/A
Advancement-plain-raw Cow Tipper Harvest some leather Time to Strike! Pick up Leather from the ground. None 15G
Advancement-fancy-raw When Pigs Fly Fly a pig off a cliff Cow Tipper Use a saddle to ride a pig, then have the pig get hurt from fall damage while riding it. None 40G

Notes

  • Mobs will frequently spawn in groups with mobs of the same variety.
  • Mobs will not spawn on transparent blocks, in water (except for Squid) or lava or half blocks (slabs), except from monster spawners, where they can even spawn in air.
  • Mobs can not see through semi-transparent blocks such as ice, glass, or glass panes. Zombies however do have the ability to see through windows.

Bugs

For bugs unique to specific mobs, see that mob's respective bug section.

Trivia

Pig smoke death

A pig emitting smoke upon death.

  • When mobs spawn, smoke comes out of them, but not in multiplayer.
  • The Halloween Update version 1.2.0 (Alpha) allowed hostile mobs to spawn in higher light levels at lower depths, using the formula 16 - (Layer ÷ 8). At level 8 and below, mobs could spawn even in sunlight. Notch reverted mob spawning to the original method in version 1.2.1 (Alpha) saying, "It was far too annoying. I have plans on what to do with this."[9]
  • Mob noises can be heard up to 16 blocks away which is the same distance that hostile mobs can sense you. Therefore, if the player hears a hostile mob, it is highly likely that that mob have already noticed the player.
  • Players can approach a hostile mob without being detected if they ensures that there are solid blocks between them and the mob.
  • After killing a player, or if a player dies while hostile mobs are pursuing the player, the hostile mobs will gather around the player's deathplace, attempting to attack the player. This is because the player has been made invisible and non-solid, but still exists in that position. (evident by the "Game Over" screen still remaining in that position). The hostile mobs' heads will "spazz out", a humorous glitch caused by the pathfinding of the mobs so it looks like the hostile mobs are eating the player. A player can use this to their advantage by holding a large number of hostile mobs over their deathplace while another player may pass by unnoticed. This quirk can also work against the player in the case of death by ghast, since (if there is another player present to keep the chunk loaded) the ghast will continue to fire at the player, possibly destroying more of the player's constructions or dropped items. The targeting of the player by the hostile mob is canceled once the player logs out, quits, or respawns.
  • If a hostile mob has found a player and has activated hostile mode, the player can separate him or herself and the mob through a wall, relog, and the mob will no longer be in hostile mode.
  • Mobs still spawn on peaceful, but disappear too quickly for the game to render their sprites long enough for most players to notice.
    • Due to the Skeleton's tendency to shoot instantly on sight, standing near a skeleton spawner on peaceful may cause an arrow or two to fire at you during the instant they spawn and disappear. This may not always happen and is more evident on a server due to lag.

References

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