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This article is about the hostile mob in the Minecraft 1.19 The Wild Update. For the unseen illager in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Warden. For the ancient mob in Minecraft Dungeons, see MCD:Frostwarden. For the character in Minecraft: Story Mode, see Minecraft Story Mode:The Warden.
Info update
This page describes content that exists only in outdated versions of Java Edition. 
This feature was added in a previous snapshot, but has been temporarily removed in the latest one. It is planned to be added back in a later version.
Locked Map (item) BE2
This article describes a feature planned for Bedrock Edition. 
It has not appeared in any development versions yet, but is planned to be included in Bedrock Edition 1.19.0.

The warden is a hostile mob summoned by sculk shriekers. They are completely blind, and thus rely on vibrations and their sense of smell to identify the player and other mobs. They are the most powerful of all the monsters, having the highest health, and dealing the most damage of any mob in the game except for the unused giant.

Spawning

Wardens do not use traditional mob spawning mechanics. When a player activates any sculk shrieker three times, and there isn't another warden within 48 blocks, and the light level is lower than 11, a warden emerges from the ground. Up to 20 attempts are made to spawn a warden within a 11×13×11 box centered on the shrieker.

The warning count for sculk shriekers is specific to each player, not each sculk shrieker. This means that the same player can activate three different skulk shriekers just once, and a warden still spawns on the third activation.

Behavior

Wardens are blind and wander randomly. A nearby vibration alerts the warden, which moves toward the location where the vibration originated. It can also smell the area around it, allowing it to zero in on an entity's location. The more vibrations a mob or player makes, the more agitated it grows.

The souls on its chest creates a low throbbing heartbeat sound, in tandem with the Darkness effect. The animation and sound speeds up gradually as the warden becomes more agitated.[1] Wardens prefer to track down mobs that it finds most suspicious, rather than the closest one.[2]

Once a warden reaches a high enough level of agitation, it roars and pursues the target. In this state, the warden pathfinds to the target normally, regardless of vibrations made. If a mob or player collides with a warden, or attacks it first, the warden immediately enters its angry state.

The warden tracks down and attack all other mobs, excluding other wardens. The warden can also follow vibrations made by non-mob entities such as projectiles or minecarts.

After sixty seconds of being "calm" and not detecting any vibrations, the warden burrows back into the ground and despawns. The warden is completely invulnerable while emerging or burrowing, including damage from /kill, though it can still be pushed by entities, pistons, and liquids.

The warden is classified as an undead mob, which means it takes extra damage from the Smite enchantment, gets healed by the Instant Damage status effect, is damaged by the Healing status effect, is immune to Poison and Regeneration, and is ignored by the wither. However, unlike some undead mobs, the warden does not burn under direct sunlight.

The warden's attack disables shields, and deals an exceptional amount of damage, enough to instantly kill a player wearing Full netherite armor on Hard difficulty.

Wardens can fit in a 1 block wide and 3 blocks height corridor, due to their hitbox. This allows them to chase entities pathfinding precisely even on small gaps, such as cave corridors.

Drops

Wardens drop three experience points on death.

Advancements

There are no advancements associated with the warden. The warden is intended to be a natural disaster that is almost impossible to kill and best avoided.[3] Therefore, killing a warden doesn't count for the Monster Hunter advancement, nor is it needed to receive the Monsters Hunted advancement.[4]

Sounds

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Warden groans angrilyHostile CreaturesPlays randomly while searching for an entityentity.warden.agitatedsubtitles.entity.warden.agitated1??
File:Warden idle1.oggFile:Warden idle2.oggFile:Warden idle3.oggFile:Warden idle4.oggFile:Warden idle5.oggFile:Warden idle6.oggFile:Warden idle7.oggFile:Warden idle8.oggFile:Warden idle9.oggFile:Warden idle10.oggFile:Warden idle11.oggFile:Warden idle12.oggWarden whinesHostile CreaturesPlays randomlyentity.warden.ambientsubtitles.entity.warden.ambient1??
Warden ragesHostile CreaturesWarden targets an enemyentity.warden.angrysubtitles.entity.warden.angry1??
Warden lands hitHostile CreaturesWarden attacksentity.warden.attack_impactsubtitles.entity.warden.attack_impact1??
Warden digsHostile CreaturesWarden despawnsentity.warden.digsubtitles.entity.warden.dig1??
Warden diesHostile CreaturesDyingentity.warden.deathsubtitles.entity.warden.death1??
Warden emergesHostile CreaturesWarden spawnsentity.warden.emergesubtitles.entity.warden.emerge1??
Warden heart beatsHostile CreaturesPlays randomlyentity.warden.heartbeatsubtitles.entity.warden.heartbeat1??
Warden hurtsHostile CreaturesTaking damageentity.warden.hurtsubtitles.entity.warden.hurt1??
Warden takes noticeHostile CreaturesWarden notices vibrationentity.warden.listeningsubtitles.entity.warden.listening1??
Warden takes notice angrilyHostile CreaturesWarden moves toward the source of vibrationentity.warden.listening_angrysubtitles.entity.warden.listening_angry1??
Warden approachesHostile CreaturesWarden gets called by sculk shrieker onceentity.warden.nearby_closesubtitles.entity.warden.nearby_close1??
Warden advancesHostile CreaturesWarden gets called by sculk shrieker twiceentity.warden.nearby_closersubtitles.entity.warden.nearby_closer1??
Warden draws closeHostile CreaturesWarden gets called by sculk shrieker thriceentity.warden.nearby_closestsubtitles.entity.warden.nearby_closest1??
Warden roarsHostile CreaturesTargets entityentity.warden.roarsubtitles.entity.warden.roar1??
Warden sniffsHostile CreaturesScans for nearby entitiesentity.warden.sniffsubtitles.entity.warden.sniff0.75??
Warden stepsHostile CreaturesWalkingentity.warden.stepsubtitles.entity.warden.step0.3??
Warden tendrils clickHostile CreaturesDetects movemententity.warden.tendril_clickssubtitles.entity.warden.tendril_clicks1??

History

Java Edition
2020Created concept art with early designs known as the "stalker".
Warden (pre-release 1) Early "stalker" design was made into the game.
Warden (pre-release 2) Warden (pre-release 2 alternate) The "stalker" had a second version, which could transform into a form that was less wide and tall when chasing an entity or player, while its regular form was meant to disguise as a treasure totem. This was considered too goofy and not scary, so it was scrapped.
2020Created concept art with early designs known as the "hollowed".
Warden (pre-release 3) Early "hollowed" design was made into the game.
This was considered too gory for Minecraft, so it was scrapped.
October 3, 2020Warden (pre-release 4) Wardens are announced at Minecraft Live 2020.
October 6, 2020A set of teaser images of the warden's size and behavior were released on Brandon Pearce's Twitter.
October 16, 2021Warden Showed new texture and behavior at Minecraft Live 2021.
November 26, 2021It was revealed that wardens have a sense of smell. It can detect and pathfind toward the general location of a player or mob through a "smelling" action. It also prioritizes smelling the player or mob that it is most suspicious of, rather than the one closest to it.[5][6]
December 18, 2021Showed warden emerge behavior.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.19Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1File:Warden JE1.png Added wardens.
22w11aWarden is not available in this snapshot.
Bedrock Edition
December 9, 2021Warden Ported warden code from Java Edition.
December 17, 2021Showed new animation of the warden burrowing into blocks.

Trivia

  • Previous names considered for the warden were the "stalker" and the "hollowed".[7]
    • The stalker iteration was tall, asymmetrical and had a glowing core. It occurred in totems throughout the Deep Dark. The stalker would stand completely still to trick players into taking its core and aggravating it, and could transform into a one block high form to prevent players from digging away. That iteration, specifically its appearance and transformation mechanic, felt clunky and was more goofy than scary, so it was scrapped.[8]
    • The hollowed was designed with the intent of inciting trypophobia and had white flesh with holes in it. That iteration was deemed too gory by the developers and had to be toned down.[9]
    • In the sixth episode of “The Secrets of Minecraft” it was jokingly revealed that the warden's personal name is William, similar to how the Ender dragon, the Wither, and player characters all have personal joke names. The word was also jokingly broken down into the words: war and den.[7]
  • Brandon Pearce (kingbdogz) stated in a tweet that the souls in the warden’s chest is incredibly important to its lore.[10]
    • Kingbdogz also stated that the warden is inspired by the "monster" heard at the end of "11" (a music disc).[11]
  • Coincidentally, in the spinoff game, Minecraft: Story Mode, there was a character who was also named the Warden. It is unlikely that the mob was based on the character.
  • Although the warden is intended be blind, when the player spectates the warden in spectator mode, it gives out a normal vision.

Gallery

Animations

Screenshots

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Developer screenshots

Concept artwork

Videos

Other gameplay

References

  1. "Currently the Warden's heartbeat gets faster the more angry or "close" it is to finding its prey. In real time, this has really felt like it mimics the panic level of the player itself — the closer the Warden is to finding you, the more anxious you're probably going to be."@kingbdogz on X, October 17, 2021
  2. "Also currently it sniffs out the mob/player that it is most suspicious of, rather than the nearest mob/player."@kingbdogz on X, November 26, 2021
  3. "You shouldn't be killing Wardens, they are designed to be unkillable"@kingbdogz on X, August 17, 2021
  4. "No"@kingbdogz on X, July 7, 2021
  5. "Kinda. Wardens have no capability to detect players through vision. It technically has no idea where the player is, a system tells the Warden a general location that the player MIGHT be, not exactly. Only when the Warden suspects a mob enough that it knows their exact position"@kingbdogz on X, November 26, 2021
  6. "Also currently it sniffs out the mob/player that it is most suspicious of, rather than the nearest mob/player."@kingbdogz on X, November 26, 2021
  7. a b "The Secrets of How We're Making the Warden" – Minecraft on YouTube, January 21, 2022
  8. "Some ideas we had for early iterations of the Warden. stalkers were going to have a glowing item in the middle of its chest that you would also randomly find throughout the biome floating on totems. The idea was stalkers would stand perfectly still to "fake" those glowing items."@kingbdogz on X, January 22, 2022
  9. "146 - From Modding to Mojang with Kingbdogz // The Spawn Chunks: A Minecraft Podcast" – The Spawn Chunks @ 2:55 on YouTube, June 21, 2021
  10. "In terms of character, the souls in its chest were incredibly important to its lore and, likewise with the color palette. It all comes together to tell a story that I think can be really more unsettling than any of these previous iterations, despite it being less "gory"."@kingbdogz on X, January 23, 2022
  11. "Ask Mojang #11: All About Caves & Cliffs" – Minecraft on YouTube, October 30, 2020
  12. "That Sculk with a version of the Stalker"@kingbdogz on X, January 22, 2022
  13. "Looking kinda short there, Iron Golem."@kingbdogz on X, October 6, 2020
  14. "warden x ancient city sneak peak"@Cojomax99 on X, February 15, 2022
  15. "Warden whines"@kingbdogz on X, February 17, 2022
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