Witch

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Notes: additional celebrate sounds

Witch

Health points	26 × 13
Behavior	Hostile
Attack strength	Splash Potion of Harming: 6 Splash Potion of Poison (maximum duration): duration varies with proximity 1 per 1.25 sec Poison for 45 sec ( × 18)
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Height: 1.95 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Spawn	Light level of 7 or less. When lightning strikes a villager. Inside Witch Huts. As a part of raids.

The witch is an uncommon hostile mob that uses harmful splash potions as ranged weapons and beneficial potions on itself. Witches also spawn during raids, and throw healing splash potions at illagers.

Spawning[edit]

Natural generation[edit]

Solitary witches spawn in the Overworld at a light level of 7 or less. They can spawn in all land biomes except mushroom fields. Witches are the least common of the non-biome-specific monsters.

Swamp huts[edit]

Shows the side of a swamp hut, also shows the scale of it, and proper height.

Shows the top of a swamp hut, shows the scale of it, as well as the spawning zone. The spawn area matches the roof, plus the porch.

Every swamp hut spawns a witch and a black cat inside during world generation, which never despawn. Otherwise, in Java Edition only witches (which may despawn) spawn in the 7×7×9 (x×y×z) volume that is the hut. This is the size of the roof and one block over the porch, from one level below the floor of the hut to two blocks above the roof. In Bedrock Edition, witches respawn on only one block within the swamp hut.^{[more information needed]}

Villagers[edit]

When lightning strikes within 4 blocks of an adult villager or baby villager, it transforms into a witch. A witch transformed from a villager cannot despawn, and cannot be changed back into a villager.

Raids[edit]

Witches can spawn as part of raids starting from wave 4 in Bedrock Edition, or wave 3 or 4 in Java Edition depending on the world difficulty. They throw potions of healing at illagers.

Drops[edit]

Witches have the largest loot table of any mob in the game.

Glass bottles (12.5% chance)
Glowstone dust (12.5% chance)
Gunpowder (12.5% chance)
Redstone (12.5% chance)
Spider eyes (12.5% chance)
Sugar (12.5% chance)
Sticks (25% chance)

They make 1–3 drops of 0–2 items each, for a maximum of 6 items total.

Each level of Looting increases the maximum items dropped by one for each of the 1–3 drops, leading to a maximum of 5 items per drop, and a maximum of 15 items total. No Looting averages 2 items per kill, Looting I averages 3, Looting II averages 4, and Looting III averages 5.

Potions[edit]

If a witch is killed while drinking a potion, the potion has a 8.5% chance of dropping, increased by 1% for every level of Looting.

They can drop one of the following:

Farming[edit]

Behavior[edit]

Despite being similar in appearance to villagers, witches cannot open doors or use cauldrons.

Witches target players within 16 blocks. They use potions in combat, throwing splash potions offensively and drinking normal potions defensively. These potions are the same as ones obtainable through brewing, i.e. they have the same potency and duration. They attempt to stay within 10 blocks of their target.

They are passive toward villagers and wandering traders.

In Bedrock Edition, witches can locate targets even if they are behind blocks and are hostile to iron golems.

Offense[edit]

Each potion is thrown in a 3 second interval.

They throw a splash potion of slowness if the player is at least 8 blocks away and does not already have the Slowness status effect.
They throw a splash potion of poison if the player's health is at least 8 and is not already poisoned.
They have a 25% chance of throwing a splash potion of Weakness if the player is within 3 blocks and does not already have the Weakness status effect.
If none of the above conditions are true, witches default to using a splash potion of harming, which does up to 6 magical damage.

Defense[edit]

On each tick (0.05 second) when the witch is not already drinking a potion, it may choose to equip and drink a potion. Drinking the potion takes 1.6 seconds and slows down its walking speed. It does not attack during this time.

When ~80% under water and lacking water breathing, there is a 15% chance of drinking a potion of Water Breathing.
When on fire or the last damage taken in the past 2 seconds was fire damage, 15% chance of drinking a potion of Fire Resistance.
When not at full health, 5% chance of drinking a potion of Healing, which heals 4.
When 11 or more blocks from a target and lacking Swiftness, 50% chance of drinking a potion of Swiftness.

In Java Edition, witches are 85% resistant to some types of magical damage, including Poison, Instant Damage, evoker fangs, and the Thorns enchantment. They are also immune to their own thrown Harming potions.

In Bedrock Edition, witches are immune to Poison and Fatal Poison.

Raids[edit]

In Java Edition, witches that participate in a raid seek out illagers and ravagers and throw splash potions of Regeneration (45 seconds), or Instant Health if they have 4 or less.

In Bedrock Edition, witches participating in a raid do not heal other illagers, but still attack the player and iron golems.

If the raiders kill all the villagers in a village, witches celebrate their victory by jumping and laughing.

In Java Edition, witches do not retaliate when attacked by evoker fangs, illager-inflicted arrows, harming potions from other witches and Johnny vindicators. Instead, they drink a healing potion.

Particles[edit]

The witch's purple particles.

Witches have a 1.5% chance every second to spawn 10–44 purple particles above their heads. These particles are named "Witch" in Java Edition or "Witchspell" in Bedrock Edition.

Sounds[edit]

Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Witch giggles	Hostile Creatures	?	`entity.witch.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.witch.ambient`	?	?	16
Witch cheers	Hostile Creatures	?	`entity.witch.celebrate`	`subtitles.entity.witch.celebrate`	?	?	16
Witch dies	Hostile Creatures	?	`entity.witch.death`	`subtitles.entity.witch.death`	?	?	16
Witch drinks	Hostile Creatures	?	`entity.witch.drink`	`subtitles.entity.witch.drink`	?	?	16
Witch hurts	Hostile Creatures	?	`entity.witch.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.witch.hurt`	?	?	16
Witch throws	Hostile Creatures	?	`entity.witch.throw`	`subtitles.entity.witch.throw`	?	?	16

Data values[edit]

ID[edit]

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Witch	`witch`	`raiders`	`entity.minecraft.witch`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Witch	`witch`	`45`	`entity.witch.name`

Entity data[edit]

Witches have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- Tags common to all mobs spawnable in raids

Achievements[edit]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
		Taste of Your Own Medicine	Poison a witch with a splash potion.	Throw a splash potion of poison at a witch (by facing the witch and pressing the use key).	20G	Silver

Advancements[edit]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
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: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

History[edit]

Java Edition
1.4.2		September 13, 2012			Dinnerbone hints that the witch mob would be added in the Pretty Scary Update,^[1]^[2]^[3] and that the witch's texture would be some variation of the villagers'.^[4]
		September 21, 2012			Dinnerbone confirmed a suggestion made by Reddit user Mr_Pennybags in the r/Minecraft subreddit that witches are to live in witch huts.
		12w38a			Added witches.
					Witches protect themselves from damage by drinking potions.
					Witches do not naturally spawn, and can be spawned only in Creative mode using spawn eggs.
					Witches use splash potions, such as Poison, Weakness, Damage and Slowness, to fight the player.
					Though witches are modeled after villagers, they do not share any attributes of villagers, such as utilizing housing, and are unable to open doors.
		12w38b			Witches now have common drops, including glass bottles, sticks, redstone dust, glowstone dust, gunpowder, spider eyes and water bottles.
					Witches can no longer hurt themselves.
					The texture of witches has been changed slightly. Their skin color is now darker.
					With the texture change of the witch's skin color, witches drinking are now also darker.
		12w39a			The texture size for the witch has been changed from 64x126 to 64x128.
		12w40a			Witches can now spawn in witch huts.
		12w40a			Witches no longer drop water bottles.
1.6.1		?			The witches' regeneration rate has been decreased by 2/3, because the healing instant status effect heals less.
1.7.2		13w37a			Witches can now drink and drop potions of Water Breathing.
		13w37a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
		13w42a			Witches now spawn anywhere where the light level is 7 or less, including any biome at night and in caves.
		13w42b			The spawn rate for the witch has been decreased.
1.8		14w03a			Villagers struck by lightning now turn into witches.
		14w11a			Witches now run away from creepers that are about to explode.
		14w25a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
		14w29a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
		14w30a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
		14w34d			The witch hut's spawning zone has been decreased or eliminated, depending on the altitude of the hut.
1.8.1		pre1			Witches no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.8.1		pre1			The witch hut's spawning zone height has been increased by 2.
1.9		15w31a			Witches now have a 50% chance of choosing a potion of Swiftness when relevant, instead of a 43.75% chance.
		15w31a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
		15w47b			Added sounds for witches idling, taking damage, dying, drinking and throwing potions.
1.10		pre1			Witches now drink a potion of Fire Resistance, if they don't already have the effect and the most recent damage taken (within the past 2 seconds) was fire damage.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from `Witch` to `witch`.
1.11		16w42a			Witches that spawn upon generation of witch huts no longer despawn.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of witches has been changed.
		18w43a			With the texture change of witches, witches drinking has now also been changed.
		18w47a			Witches can now spawn as part of the new raids.
		18w50a			Witches are now neutral mobs. This was confirmed by Slicedlime to be an unintentional change.^[5]
		18w50a			The appearance of witches have been changed, adding a purple hood. This was confirmed by Jasper Boerstra to be an unintentional change.^[6]
		19w02a			Witches are now hostile mobs again.
		19w02a			The texture changes of the witch from 18w50a have been reverted.
		19w13a			If raiding witches killed all the villagers in the village or the beds were destroyed, witches celebrate their victory by laughing and jumping.
1.15		19w42a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
		19w44a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed. The potions now float above their arms.
		19w45a			The drinking potion position of witches has been changed.
1.16		20w22a			When a villager that was traded with is struck by lightning, the witch it becomes no longer despawn.
1.16		Pre-release 1			When any villager is struck by lightning, the witch it becomes no longer despawns.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.14.0		build 1			Added witches. The hat model and head position are different from Java's witches.
		build 2			The model of witches has been changed.
		build 3			Witches now avoid water, unless they have a target.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Witches now have a 8.5% chance to drop a potion when drinking. Prior to this, they would always drop a potion when drinking.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of witches has been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Witches can now spawn during raids.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			If raiding witches killed all the villagers in the village or the beds were destroyed, witches celebrate their victory by laughing and jumping.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added witches.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Witches can now drink and drop potions of Water Breathing.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13		Sounds for witches have been added.
		1.90			The texture of witches has been changed. They use the texture from 18w50a.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added witches.

Issues[edit]

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

Trivia[edit]

If a witch hits another witch with a potion, the witch who is hit becomes angry and targets the other witch, however it is impossible for either witch to kill the other (without help from a player), due to their use of Healing potions and their resistance to each other's splash potions.
Witches do not use the equipment in their swamp huts, but they can be used by players.
The odds of a witch dropping the maximum amount of drops possible (6 items total) without a Looting enchantment are 1 in 81 (1.2%).
Witches throw healing potions at illagers.
Witches are extremely difficult to kill via suffocation or cacti (though not impossible), due to their frequent use of healing potions.
When drinking a potion, a witch's nose lifts up and points forward.
The player can see the short mouth of a witch from the side, only if they are drinking a potion and lifting their nose.
When the subject of witches dropping sticks was brought up, Dinnerbone jokingly replied that it's because witches are made of wood.^[7] He later explained ^[8] that it was a reference to this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The witch is based on Slavic folklore called Baba Yaga, which is why it lives in a swamp hut.^[9]
A witch's nose slightly waves when idle.
Despite being physically similar and appearing to be allied with them, witches are not considered illagers.^[10]
Witches have an unused purple hat layer in their texture file, similar to the illusioner's hat.
- The hat layer is also seen in the vindicator and evoker's texture file but unused.
  - The hat models also used to exist in the nitwit, librarian, and priest's texture before the Village and Pillage update.
In the Village and Pillage update artwork banner, the Witch in the picture appears to have its arm's unfolded like a Pillager, however this is not the case in game.