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Jens Bergensten Mojang avatar

This manta-ray–like monster is a flying creature that spawns at high altitudes. It is attracted to insomnia, and will find players who haven't slept for many days. It will swoop down in groups and bite your flesh.

Jens Bergensten[1]

Phantoms are bat-like undead hostile mobs that attack players who haven't slept in over three in-game days.

Spawning

Phantom at night

Two phantoms at night.

Phantoms spawn in the Overworld at night, or at any time during a thunderstorm; high above players that have not entered a bed for at least three in-game days. Phantoms will spawn more often the longer a player has gone without entering a bed.

For phantoms to successfully spawn, the player in question must be above sea level and not have a block above its head which blocks light in any way (for example leaves will prevent them from spawning as leaves have a light opacity of 2, but glass will not prevent them spawning as its light opacity is 0).

Once the conditions are met, a group of 1–6 phantoms attempts to spawn 20–34 blocks above the player, and off to the side by up to a taxicab distance of 9 blocks, every 60–70 seconds. The chance of a successful spawn is x−3x, where x is the number of nights since the player last entered a bed, which comes to a 14 chance on day 4, a 25 chance on day 5, a 36 (12) chance on day 6, and so on.

Phantoms are counted towards the hostile mob cap, but don't respect it when spawning. Their spawning mechanic is based on the location of players in the world, not by randomly choosing a block near the players like regular mob spawning.

Drops

Phantoms drop:

  • 0–1 phantom membrane when killed by a player or tamed wolf, which can be increased by one with each level of the Looting enchantment, resulting in up to 4 phantom membranes per drop.
  • 5 experience orbs when killed by the player or a tamed wolf.

Behavior

Phantom 2

A phantom swooping at the player.

When idle, phantoms will fly around in a circle at a constant y-elevation, leaving a trail of gray smoke while doing so. They have a quite large search radius, and will occasionally either swoop down or up quickly to attack their victim. If stopped or hurt during this action, the phantom will retreat back to its original elevation. When idle over water, the phantom will sometimes swoop into the water and will die as it is not pushed back up.

Phantoms are able to move through water at the same speed as they do normally as they cannot drown.‌[Java Edition only]

When under the Invisibility effect, the phantom's body will disappear, but its eyes and smoke particles will still be visible.

Like zombies and skeletons, phantoms will burn in sunlight.

Phantoms will attempt to stay 16 blocks away from cats.‌[upcoming: Lua error in Module:Version_link at line 112: attempt to concatenate local 'text' (a nil value).]

Undead

Like other undead mobs, they are harmed by the Instant Health effect, healed by the Instant Damage effect, are immune to the Poison and Regeneration effects and ignored by the wither.

Data values

See also: Chunk format

Phantoms have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is phantom.

  • Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities
    • Tags common to all mobs
    •  AX: The phantom, when not actively attacking, attempts to circle around X,Y,Z = AX, AY, AZ. Appears to reset to a point above the target player every time the phantom flies up after a swoop. Set to spawn location if not specified.
    •  AY: See AX.
    •  AZ: See AX.
    •  Size: The size of the phantom. Ranges from 0 to 64, similar to slimes. Unlike slimes, phantoms always have a constant 20♥ × 10 HP, and deal 6♥♥♥+Size damage. Naturally spawned phantoms are always size 0.

Advancements

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
Advancement-plain-rawAdventure
Adventure, exploration and combat Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.adventure/root
Advancement-plain-rawMonster Hunter
Kill any hostile monster AdventureKill one of these 34 mobs: 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
Advancement-fancy-rawMonsters Hunted
Kill one of every hostile monster Monster HunterKill each of these 34 mobs: 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
Advancement-fancy-rawTwo Birds, One Arrow
Kill two Phantoms with a piercing Arrow Ol' BetsyUse a crossbow enchanted with Piercing to kill two phantoms with a single arrow shot.adventure/two_birds_one_arrow

History

November 1, 2017MINECON 2017 Mob B Phantom first shown on YouTube (back then only known as Mob B and The Monster of the Night Skies).
November 14, 2017Phantom article was published, introducing a community vote option for the phantom at MINECON Earth 2017.
November 18, 2017The phantom wins the vote at MINECON Earth.
Java Edition
1.1318w07aPhantom Revision 1 Added phantoms with a placeholder drop of 1-4 leather.
18w09aPhantoms will now no longer spawn in the End.
Phantoms will now despawn at daytime.
18w10aPhantom The phantom's model and texture have now been changed.
18w10cPhantoms are now considered undead.
18w10dPhantoms will now burn in sunlight like most undead mobs.
Phantoms will now no longer despawn at daytime.
18w14aPhantoms will now drop 0-1 phantom membrane, instead of leather.
18w19aThe phantom's animation has now been changed to have the wings flap quicker and smoother.
Phantoms will now drop experience.[2]
pre1Phantoms will now have new flapping sounds.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.1418w44aPhantoms are now afraid of cats.
Bedrock Edition
1.6beta 1.6.0.1Phantom Added phantoms with the health of 10♥♥♥♥♥, with a placeholder drop of 1-4 leather.[verify]
beta 1.6.0.5Phantoms will now drop phantom membranes.
The phantom's health has now been increased from 10♥♥♥♥♥ to 20♥ × 10.
Phantoms are now considered undead mobs.
Phantoms will now burn in direct sunlight.
Phantoms are now able to drown.
1.8beta 1.8.0.8Phantoms are now afraid of cats.
Legacy Console Edition
TU69 1.76 Patch 38Phantom Added phantoms.

Issues

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

Trivia

  • The phantom was added into the game as a result of winning the MINECON Earth mob Twitter poll as "Mob B".
  • Phantoms are currently the fastest non-boss mob in the game, traveling at speeds of up to 20.83 blocks per second.
  • At one point before the release of 18w10a, the phantom texture was made red, but it was decided that it appeared too much like a nether mob.[1]
  • The phantom was originally going to have a mouth, like the sketch shown during MINECON Earth, but it was eventually scrapped because "it looked so much like a muppet".[1]
    • Even earlier designs can be seen on Minecraft's Instagram account.[3]

Gallery

References

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