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Who set its behavior to aggressive??? First of everything, its not aggressive, its hostile and actually is completely passive. 188.120.87.87 17:48, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

Pufferfish behavior[]

Guys, I have seen that pufferfish behavior is confusing, and I understand you. Pufferfish can be really confusing. Well, Pufferfishes are neutral mobs: why? Well. They inflict damage to you, and no passive mob do that. Passive mobs can inflict damage to another mobs, but never to the player.

Also, pufferfishes behave very similar to mother polar bears when a player go near their cubs. Imnediately that it feels on danger, it attack. Polar bears attack and chase you, but pufferfishes no, and that's the confusing part.

Well, pufferfishes don't chase the player, but they actually attack them. And how I said, our current classification of passive mobs says that they never attack the player. Also, all the mobs on the neutral mobs category are very different. Bees don't have the same behavior as llamas, but both are classified as neutral.

So, my final statement is that pufferfishes are neutral mobs that only attack the player when it is on their detection and attack range, but don't chase it. Also, pufferfishes do that with players, drowned and any non-water mob. --Supeika (talk) 20:20, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

I'd say they don't attack the player. They have an AOE thing going on, yes, but they never actually *attack* you.
This feeds into the whole other mob category discussion on the CP as well. -PancakeIdentity (talk) 20:37, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
"They inflict damage to you, and no passive mob do that." That's circular reasoning. If pufferfish are passive, there are passive mobs that deal damage to you.
"Well, pufferfishes don't chase the player, but they actually attack them." No, they don't. They do inflict damage/poison, but you'll have to provide sources if you claim that pufferfish attack anything.
But let's for a moment assume that pufferfish do attack the player, or that at least they can be considered hostile while the player is near them. A neutral mob is one that is sometimes passive, and sometimes hostile, towards the player. This would mean that it's behaviour of attempting to damage, but not chasing, the target, would count as hostile. But this is exactly how the pufferfish behaves when the player is not near them! The behaviour of pufferfish does not change, the targets are simply outside it's range and it does not chase them. The conclusion is: pufferfish are hostile. If one can convincingly make the case that pufferfish are hostile towards the players nearby, that's a conclusion I'm willing to accept, but for the time being, my opinion is that they are passive. Blue Banana whotookthisname (talk) 11:04, 25 July 2020 (UTC)
I think they fall under "neutral" in that they will harm the player if provoked (the provocation in this case is being near), but just won't directly aggro them. Pescavelho (talk) 18:27, 25 December 2020 (UTC)
This entire talk seems to hinge on them supposedly "attacking" the player. Pufferfish puff up in the presence of any "living" entity (i.e. not items or projectiles, but including armor stands) that is either a player or a non-aquatic mob, and their "attack" is of a more passive nature (more similar to that of slimes than any other melee mobs) in that they hurt any such entities around itself. Unlike slimes, pufferfish will not acquire a target "enemy" to attack or even move towards, the damage is merely a result of being too close to the pufferfish. In fact, like other fish, they will try to somewhat avoid being close to players. Pufferfish are as passive as all other fish mobs. You just need to respect the fact that it will hurt if you get too close to them, just like it hurts if you decide to hug a cactus or swim in lava. RealWormbo (talk) 13:54, 30 December 2020 (UTC)
An attack is an attack regardless of method, it doesn't have to be direct, it can be an AoE one like the pufferfish exhibits, the page itself even lists the damage as "attack strength", I think the fact that it is provoked by most entities isn't really relevant. The crux of the disagreement seems to rest on the fact that the pufferfish won't aggro the player, which goes partially against the definition of a neutral mob, which is that they will become hostile upon provocation, I personally believe this definition is fine, but the pufferfish has come to challenge it, a more inclusive and less technical definition would be "harm the player upon provocation", "provocation" in this case being "getting near it", would allow for more mobs to be included and not generate these debates. But I think this ultimately comes down to personal interpretation of what defines a neutral or passive mob, and nothing short of confirmation by Mojang staff will constitute a consensus.Pescavelho (talk) 01:17, 1 January 2021 (UTC)
This whole argument is ridiculous. You may as well call a cactus a "neutral mob" because it does damage to you when you touch it. Pufferfish are passive. If you could equip any other passive mob, like a pig, with the Thorns enchantment so it does damage to you when you hit it, it would still be a passive mob. Neutral means the mob leaves you alone as long as you don't get it mad at you. Pufferfish simply have an automatic defense mechanism and don't actually attack... just like a cactus. Amatulic (talk) 02:46, 1 January 2021 (UTC)
I think this comes down to personal interpretation. To me, at least, an attack is any method of directly harming the player, it seems overly restrictive to me to say it has to be a single-target melee/ranged attack, the pufferfish's AoE "damage aura" constitutes an attack in my view. I don't get the comparisons to cacti, lava, thorns, etc. as these aren't mobs, they don't have AI behaviour, seems like a reductio ad absurdum, if any mobs with such properties were to be added in the future I would consider them neutral yes. Other people choose to view it as not an attack because to them an attack is something more specific and restrictive, as I have stated I think it's not really that useful to draw such lines. Others focus on the fact that pufferfish won't become directly hostile, or that proximity shouldn't constitute "provocation", since you can't draw a hard line, and believe that instead of falling into either category, pufferfish should be put into a fourth "defensive" category, which I see as another possible compromise. As I have stated nothing short of an official confirmation by a Mojang dev will make for a definitive answer as people choose to focus on different aspects as to what constitues an attack, a neutral mob and a passive mob. In fact in this very Wiki, pufferfish are listed as passive in their page, neutral in the mobs page and "defensive" on the entities template.Pescavelho (talk) 14:05, 1 January 2021 (UTC)
I changed my mind, after many time of research. Now I think that they are passive because they don't chase you, as some of you said. Also, on another perspective, in real life an animal may not be agressive but can damage you unintentionally because its skin can have poisonous toxins. That's why now I think that they are passive. Supeika (talk) 15:11, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Defensive[]

I think the current phrasing, that the pufferfish "defend themselves by dealing damage and inflicting poison to nearby players and certain mobs", is inaccurate, because pufferfish damage mobs and players that are not a threat towards them, and in case of certain mobs, pufferfish may provoke them to become hostile. Blue Banana whotookthisname (talk) 15:18, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

@Blue Banana whotookthisname: A defensive action doesn't always require a threat, it just requires a mechanism to trigger the action. It is also inaccurate to call them hostile. They are no more hostile than a cactus. Players and mobs are injured by bumping into them, pretty much the same as when bumping into a pufferfish. A hostile mob pursues an enemy and attacks. Pufferfish don't. ~ Amatulic (talk) 21:10, 30 September 2020 (UTC)

"Pufferfish spawn only on the surface"[]

That seems to be either wrong or version-specific. I'm quite sure pufferfish also spawn deeper underwater as well. Can we get a source for the surface spawning claim? RealWormbo (talk) 19:19, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

Surface requirement is for Bedrock only. Testing in Java 1.18.2, pufferfish spawn down to y50. Was confused by this too, changed article to make phrasing more clear. 193.32.127.213 08:40, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Pufferfish with the player damage sound on death[]

When I played an older version of Pocket Edition in 2018, I used spawn eggs to spawn pufferfish out of the water. They did not make a sound when hurt, but when they died, they used the player damage sound. 173.47.246.189 02:01, 28 January 2021 (UTC)

Neutral or passive?[]

In the Mob page, it says that the pufferfish is a "neutral" mob. So is it Passive or Neutral? NexaForX (talk) 09:27, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Moved pufferfish in the Mob page to passive. TheGreatSpring (talk) 09:40, 6 February 2021 (UTC)