Minecraft NPCs, Creatures and Mobs Guide

Minecraft wouldn’t be the game it is today without the added NPCs, Creatures and Mobs. These NPCs are what make survival challenging. They drop items that you can only obtain from them, making it impossible to progress without facing any during your time playing Minecraft. Knowing each is very important, some dangerous others not. Once you have mastered the information below you are sure to become a great Minecraft player.

There Are 6 Types of Mobs, These Are –

• Neutral
  Mainly consists of Mobs that will not attack you unless you hit them first. This includes creatures that drop important items so will need to be fought at some point in the game.
• Passive
  Passive Mobs will not harm you, the majority run away when attacked. The mobs in this category are mostly animals and villagers.
• Tamable
  These Mobs can be fed certain foods in order to be tamed, making them your pets. Only one out of all tamable Mobs are aggressive, and they are only dangerous at night.
• Hostile
  The main reason you will need to armour up in Minecraft. These Mobs are dangerous and will attack you on sight. Though, they drop rare items. Hostile Mobs spawn only at night and in areas with no light source.
• Utility
  Craftable Mobs. Their main use is to protect your player against other mobs.
• Boss
  Very Dangerous Mobs. Boss Mobs generally have a high health and damage rate, they are fought to obtain rare drops. They are end-game Mobs and you will need decent armour and weapons to stand a chance against them.

The Mobs in each category are as follows:

Neutral – Polar Bear, Enderman, Spider and Zombie Pigman.

Passive – Villager, Squid, Chicken, Cow, Pig, Mooshroom, Sheep, Rabbit, Skeleton horse and Bat.

Tamable – Horse, Wolf, Llama, Mule, Ocelot and Donkey.

Hostile – Creeper, Blaze, Slime, Witch, Zombie, Skeleton, Zombie Villager, Silverfish, Elder Guardian, Ghast, Guardian, Shulker, Magma Cube, Stray, Wither Skeleton, Spider Jockey, Chicken Jockey, Skeleton Horseman, Evoker, Husk, Vindicator and Endermite.

Utility – Snow Golem, Iron Golem.

Boss – Elder Guardian (Only a Boss in Pocket Minecraft), Ender Dragon and Wither.

What Worlds Spawn Each NPC?

Each world has its own set of Mobs that spawn. This means you will have to craft portals to access many mobs that cannot be found in the starting world (Overworld).

The End/Nether Mobs:

• Magma Cubes, Endermen and Zombie Pigmen are able to spawn anywhere in these worlds.
• The only Mobs that spawn in the End are the Ender Dragon Boss and Endermen. Though Shulkers can also spawn but only in end city walls.
• Skeletons, Blazes and Wither Skeletons can spawn in Nether Fortresses.
• Ghasts will spawn anywhere other than inside a Nether Fortress.

Overworld Mobs:

• Ocelots can only be found in Jungle Biomes.
• Horses can be found in Savanna and Plains Biomes. Savanna Biomes spawn ⅕ fewer horses than Plains Biomes do.
• Witches spawn in Witches Huts.
• The only place you can find Mooshrooms is in Mushroom Island Biomes.
• Biomes such as River, Mesa, Ocean, Beach and Stone Beach, will only spawn Hostile Mobs, with the exception of Squids which spawn in water.
• Guardians spawn around Ocean Monuments.
• To find Rabbits you will have to go to a Snowy or Desert Biome.
• Wolves can spawn in Taiga, Cold Taiga, Mega Taiga and Forest Biomes.
• Slimes will not spawn unless the height of the chunk is under 40 or if you find a Low Light level Swamp Biome.
• Other Mobs that are not listed above, can spawn in any area that does not have restrictions. Such as Pigs, Chickens and Cows.

How do Mobs Spawn?

When it comes to Mob Spawning in Minecraft, the game uses a time measurement called “Ticks”. One Tick is equivalent to 0.05 seconds. The game uses four categories when spawning Mobs: Hostile, Friendly, Water and Ambient.

The most common Mobs that spawn are the Hostile Mobs, this is because they are able to spawn every Tick. Hostile Mobs will disappear from your game if they are more than 128 blocks away, this saves them from over-spawning and lagging your game.

Water and Friendly Mobs have a low chance of spawn rate in comparison, they are only able to spawn every 20 seconds or 200 Ticks.

What is a Mob Cap?

To avoid extra traffic in your game that could cause crashing or lagging, the game has a Mob Cap in place. The Mob Cap is a way of telling the game how many Mobs can be spawned within a set radius of your character.

Every Category of Mob has its own cap. The formula for the Mob Cap is the range of a spawning area, plus a chunk per direction. This is 17×17 chunks by default. The formula then looks for chunks in that range that are appropriate.

The Cap for each mob category is:

• Passives – Max of 10
• Hostiles – Max of 70
• Ambients – Max of 15
• Water – Max of 5

Mob Information and Descriptions

Sheep

Sheep are found in the Overworld. They are commonly spawned all around the world and they are passive so will not attack you. Sheep are one of the main Mobs needed in survival. In order to craft a respawn point (Bed), you need wool, this can be obtained by crafting wool out of string from spiders but in early game this is difficult, making sheep the easier option. There are a variety of coloured sheep that can spawn, with the most common being white at a 81% chance. Black, Light and Dark Grey have a lower spawn rate at 5%, while brown is 3% chance and the rarest being pink which is a 0.16% chance.

The experience gained when killing a wild Sheep is between one and three. You earn more experience from killing Sheep that you have bred, this is between one and seven.

You breed Sheep by feeding a piece of wheat to two of them that are in close range of each other. Once fed wheat, the sheep will show heart animations above their heads and will touch faces with another that also has the hearts. This then produces a lamb. If you feed the lamb wheat, it will reduce its growth timer, meaning it becomes an adult faster. You cannot breed the same two sheep straight away as there is a cooldown.

Sheep drop Wool and Mutton. When you kill a sheep they will leave 1 wool behind, though it is possible to use shears on them which gives you up to 3 wool. When a sheep has been sheared, as long as there is grass nearby that they can access, the wool will grow back after a short wait, meaning you can shear it again to get more wool.

The amount of Mutton dropped by Sheep when killed is either one or two pieces. The Mutton dropped is Raw, however, if a sheep dies whilst on fire, they will produce Cooked Mutton.

Cow

There are 2 types of cows that spawn in Minecraft. The Mooshroom and the common brown cow. Cows are only found in the Overworld and you usually find them spawned in a herd of four.
Cows can produce milk by using a bucket on them, though there is a wait between milking times. When you kill an adult cow, they will drop between one and three raw beef and between zero to two leather.

Killing wild Cows will give you between one and three experience, but killing Cows that you have bred will give more, at around one to seven experience. When you attack a cow, it will run away in fear, following the Cow around will cause it to keep running.

Mooshroom Cows can be sheared in order to gain mushrooms, though shearing Mooshrooms will make them turn into a common brown cow. You should breed many in advance if you want to keep producing mushrooms in this way.

Breeding Cows is done by feeding two adult Cows that are in close range of each other, some wheat. You will see the same heart animation above their heads as you do with other breedable mobs when they are ready to breed. If successful, you will see the two Cows, touch noses and produce a Calf. Feeding a Calf some wheat will speed up its growth rate by 10%. You will need to wait five minutes between breeding the same pair of cows again.

Chicken

Chickens are the most commonly found Mobs in Minecraft. They spawn on grass blocks that have a light source above level 9. Chickens are passive Mobs that will not attack and run when hit.
Chickens are able to lay eggs, this occurs around every five to 10 minutes when you are near the chunk they are in. When a chicken lays an egg you will hear a “pop” noise. When picking up eggs you are able to throw or cook them. Throwing eggs has a 1 in 8 chance of spawning a baby chicken and a 1 in 32 chance of spawning four chickens at once.

You can also breed Chickens. This is done by feeding two adult chickens some seeds, you will see the heart animation above their heads when they are ready to breed and if they are close enough to each other they will touch and produce a baby chicken.

When killing adult chickens, you have a chance to find one raw chicken and up to two feathers. If a chicken dies through being on fire, they will leave behind a cooked chicken.

Bat

Bats are most commonly found in Caves or areas where the light level is below 3. They are passive so will not attack you. Bats have very little use, they fall under the Ambient category as they are mainly there for effect. When killed, you receive no experience or items. They will sit on blocks upside down when you are not nearby.

Rabbit

Rabbits are found in Ice Plains, Ice Spikes, Mega Taiga, Taiga, Flower Forests, Deserts and Hill Biomes. They are passive Mobs, making them harmless. When Rabbits spawn, they are usually in a bunch of up to 3, this includes baby rabbits. There are many different skins that Rabbits can spawn, this is usually dependant on the area in which they have spawned.

There are two types of rare rabbits. These are Toast and The Killer Bunny. Toast is found by naming a rabbit Toast using a Name Tag, this makes the rabbit have a black and white spotty coat. The Killer Bunny is not able to spawn in the world without using a command. It is a dangerous hostile rabbit that has red eyes. Anybody within 16 blocks of The Killer Bunny will be targeted.

Killing Rabbits will produce up to 1 raw rabbit and up to 1 rabbit hide. If a rabbit dies while on fire they will produce some cooked rabbit. You can also get a rabbit’s foot when killing one, however, there is only a 10% chance of this happening.

Breeding rabbits is done by feeding 2 adult rabbits, a carrot, dandelion or a golden carrot. Once fed, they will show heart animations above their head and when close enough, will touch and produce a baby rabbit. The fur on the baby rabbit has a 5% chance of being the fur of the biome it was bred in, however, the other 95% chance is of it spawning with the parent’s fur, at 47.5% for each parent.

The possible types of fur are: Gold fur, Black and White spotty fur, Brown fur, Black Mottled fur, Salt and Pepper fur and White fur with Black eyes. Rabbits spawned in the Desert have a 100% chance of being Gold furred. Snow Biomes will spawn rabbits with 20% black and white fur or 80% just white fur. Every other Biome spawns rabbits that have 10% black fur, 50% Brown fur or 40% Salt and Pepper fur.

Pig

Pigs are found in the Overworld and typically spawn in a group. They are passive and will not hurt you.

You can ride on tamed pigs by equipping them with a saddle and control the direction they move in by using a carrot on a stick.

If you kill a pig, they will drop between one and three pork chops, making them a good source of food. If a pig dies from fire, they produce cooked pork chop. Killing baby pigs is pointless as they drop nothing. You gain between one and three experience for killing a wild adult pig, and between one and seven for killing a bred pig.

To breed Pigs, you need to feed two adults with Beetroots, Carrots or Potatoes. After feeding the adult pigs, they will show a heart animation above their heads and touch if close enough to each other, producing a baby pig. There is a five-minute wait between breeding the same pair of pigs again. To speed up the growth of the baby pig by 10% you can feed it the items used to breed. Otherwise, it will take 20 minutes to grow into an adult.

Squid

These Mobs spawn in water only. They are passive so do not attack you, however may spray ink in your face when attacked and they will swim away from you. This makes your screen dark for a few minutes.

If you kill a squid they will give you between one to three ink sacs. These can be placed in your crafting grid to make black dye. They also give between one and three experience when killed.
You cannot breed Squids. They die if they are on land and must stay in water at all times.

Skeleton Horse

Skeleton Horses are fairly rare to find. They only appear when skeleton traps are on the map, these appear when there is a thunderstorm. Every strike of lightning there is a chance of a skeleton trap being spawned, there is 3.75 to 7.5% chance of one spawning on easy mode, a 7.5 to 20% on normal mode and 11.25 to 33.75% chance on hard mode. These despawn if they have not been activated. The despawn time is 15 minutes (18,000 Ticks).

The chance of a Skeleton Horse spawning from a trap on easy mode is between 0.75 and 1.5% chance, between 1.5 and 4% on normal mode and between 2.8 and 6.75% chance on hard.

Lightning will strike a skeleton trap horse when you are within 10 blocks of it. This will make a group of 3 skeleton horsemen being rode by skeleton spawn from the trap. These are very dangerous mobs as they are equipped with an enchanted bow and iron helmet.

Skeleton Horses cannot be tamed.

Zombie Pigmen

These mobs are found in The Nether. They are the most common mob found there. They will not attack you unless attacked first. When they spawn it will be in a group of four and they can spawn in any level of light.

Killing Zombie Pigmen will drop you a maximum of one rotten flesh and a maximum of one golden nugget. The chance of them dropping their sword is 8.5% and the chance of them dropping a gold ingot is 2.5%.

On Halloween every year, Zombie Pigmen have a small chance of dropping a Jack O’lantern or a pumpkin. They must be killed with an enchanted weapon that has a looting enchantment.

Baby Zombie Pigmen will give 12 experience when killed. Adult Zombie Pigmen will give 5 experience when killed. They cannot be harmed by lava like other mobs, though they can drown and take fall damage. When you attack Zombie Pigmen they will move faster and make a snorting noise. Attacking one, will cause the other Zombie Pigmen within close range to attack you.

Enderman

Endermen are mainly found in The End. Though they also spawn in the Overworld at night or wherever light is below level 7. When they spawn in The End, it will be in a pack of four but in the Overworld you will usually just find one at a time.

Killing Endermen has a chance of dropping an ender pearl and 5 experience. They teleport around you and will only attack when you look into its eyes or hit it. Endermen cannot be hit by projectiles such as arrows, as they will teleport away before they have a chance of hitting them. Wearing a pumpkin on your head makes it so that looking at an Enderman will not make it attack you, this is the same for looking through blocks such as glass.

Polar Bear

Polar Bears spawn in cold biomes such as ice mountains and plains. They will not attack unless you attack first, however Polar Bear Cubs will not attack if hit. Adult Polar Bears will attack if you go near their cubs or hit one of the cubs.

Attacking a Polar Bear will cause all nearby Polar Bears to attack you. When you kill one, there is a chance of them dropping up to two raw salmon and up to two raw fish.

Spider

Spiders spawn at night or at light levels below seven. They will attack you when you get too close. Spiders can climb up walls making them hard to avoid.

Killing a Spider has a chance of dropping up to two string. They also have a 33% chance of dropping a spider eye. When killed, you will gain five experience.

Creeper

A mob known by many, the Creeper is a mob that has the ability to explode. If you get too close to a creeper (within 3 blocks) it will make a sizzle noise and blow up, breaking some blocks around you. They will follow you when you get too close and must be hit in turns to avoid it blowing up next to you.

They will give you up to two gunpowder when killed. You can also get a Creeper Head from them if they are killed by the explosion of a Charger Creeper (Creeper that has had lightning hit a block within 4 of them). You will gain 5 experience when you kill one.

Skeleton

One of the most annoying mobs in Minecraft. Skeletons can shoot you from a long distance. They spawn in the Overworld at night or wherever the light level is under seven. They are hostile and will chase you when you get close or shoot at you depending on the weapon they have. They have an incredible accuracy and barely miss a shot.

When you kill a Skeleton you will get up to 2 arrows and up to two bones. You may also get an item that they have picked up. If a skeleton is blown up by a Charged Creeper, it will give you a Skeleton Head. You will gain 5 experience per killed Skeleton, however if it is wearing armour or weapons you will get and extra one to three experience.

Evoker

Evokers are similar to villagers, however they are hostile and will attack anybody within 16 blocks of them. Evokers are rare as they spawn when the world is created and no more spawn after world creation.

Killing an Evoker will cause them to drop and emerald and a token of undying. You will gain 10 experience per killed Evoker.

Slime

Slimes are green cubed looking mobs. They move around by jumping and can be found in The Overworld but only in chunks that are under layer 40. You can also find them in Swamps at higher layers of 50 and 70 if the light level is under seven.

Slimes come in three sizes: tiny, small and big. Killing a big Slime will break it into up to 4 small Slimes and breaking small Slimes will turn into up to four tiny Slimes.

When a Slime spots you it will jump towards you and inflict damage if you touch it.

Elder Guardian

Elder Guardians will attack you when you get close. They are seen as a Boss Mob. You can find them in the Pocket Edition of Minecraft. They spawn inside Ocean Monuments when the world is created. They do not spawn naturally, this makes the ones spawned in world creation the only Elder Guardians in your game.

When you kill an Elder Guardian they have a 50% chance of giving a raw fish and a 33% chance of giving a prismarine crystal, however it may not drop either. They do however drop up to two prismarine shards upon death.

The attacks that Elder Guardians use are mining fatigue, a laser and a thorn attack. The laser attack comes from their eye and will deal eight damage.

Blaze

Blazes spawn in The Nether. They will attack when you get too close by spitting a ball of fire in your direction. They cannot be bred.

When you kill a Blaze they will give you a blaze rod and 10 experience. When you kill a Blaze in the Pocket Edition of Minecraft, they can also drop up to two glowstone dust.

When attacked, any other Blazes within 48 blocks of you, will start attacking you also. They can find you through walls and will try and shoot you through them. If you are hit by their fireball, you will take 5 damage and be set on fire for 3 seconds or until you jump into water.

Ghast

This mob looks like a ghost crossed with an octopus, it is a huge white, floating square with tentacles. Ghasts spawn in The Nether.

Killing Ghasts will give you up to two gunpowder and on a rare occasion they will give you a ghast tear. You will gain 5 experience per Ghast you kill.

The sound they make is like a loud squeal. This is increased when they are attacking you are taking damage. Ghast can hit you from up to 100 blocks away. They won’t actively look for a player however they will attack if you get too close to them.

Stray

Strays are found in cold biomes such as ice mountains and ice plains. They are a type of Skeleton. Around 80% of the Skeletons found in the cold biomes will be Stray.
Strays work the same as Skeletons. They shoot at you with arrows the same as Skeletons though they also have extra abilities and their arrows can slow you down if hit. They can also drop a Tipped Arrow of Slowness at a chance of 50%.

Magma Cube

You can find Magma Cubes in The Nether. They have a rare spawn rate but can mainly be found inside a Nether Fortress. They jump around like Slimes do and come in 3 sizes ranging from tiny to big (1 block to 4 blocks in size).

Killing a big or small magma cube has a 25% chance of dropping a magma cream. The experience gained from killing a big cube is four, small is two and tiny is one.

They will move in your direction when you get close enough and attack. You will take damage if they touch you. When you kill a big Magma Cube it will break up into one to four smaller cubes.

Guardian

You can find The Guardian underwater near Ocean Monuments. It is a hostile mob and will attack if you get close to it.

When you kill a Guardian there will be a drop of up to two prismarine shards and a 40% chance of there being a raw fish also.

They also attack squids and will use a thorn attack or shoot a laser from their eye. The laser will shoot from the eye when it changes to a yellow colour. The laser will deal 6 damage to your player on normal and 9 damage on hard.

Shulker

Shulkers spawn in The End. You can find them in Cities and islands in The End. They look like a purple box or cube, but every one to three seconds, open up to show a yellow cubed face. They are rare as they spawn on the world creation, meaning no more will spawn or despawn naturally.

Killing Shulkers yields a 50% chance of finding a shulker shell. They will attack if you are close when they are opened up and showing their face. They will then shoot at you, this can be avoided by using a shield. If you are hit then you will take four damage.

There are other varieties of Shulkers, though they cannot be spawned naturally and must be placed in the world using commands.