The Way Monsters Are Born

Minecraft wouldn’t be complete without monsters! They provide an extra level of excitement and danger: a challenge or obstacle to overcome. We’ll now explain how monsters appear so you can protect your home from various bad guys!

Some Facts About Monsters

Most monsters start to notice your presence when you’re roughly 16 blocks away. Monsters that immediately move to attack are called hostile or aggressive. Some monsters can see you through rocks, and others can climb or fall to reach you.

Monsters are usually affected by the environment in the same ways as you. Thus, they take falling damage, can suffocate or drown under water, and they can be set on fire, too. Additionally, and most importantly, monsters take damage from weapon attacks.

Monsters can also ride in Minecarts, and you can transport them around this way. And although monsters can’t open Doors, they can break them down under the right conditions.

When a monster is killed, it may drop an item. Some monsters can pick up blocks or equipment and use it against you, or simply carry things around. Other monsters wear armor or use creatures as mounts.

Born in the Darkness

Night is the time of monsters. As the sun sets, monsters appear. The sudden appearance of a monster into the world is called “spawning.” Some monsters spawn more often than others—Zombies are the most common. 

Light level is usually what determines monster spawning. The following table shows which monsters appear at a given illumination level:

When the sun rises, most of the monsters outside start to catch fire. Zombies and Skeletons, which are the most common monsters to spawn, can’t deal with bright light and quickly become walking torches! If you attack them at close range while they’re on fire, be careful; you can catch fire as well. However, if there’s enough shade or a storm outside, monsters can survive the daytime. They might also wear protective armor (a helmet helps) to shield them from the sun’s deadly rays.

Some monsters don’t care about daylight; Witches, Creepers, and Spiders can all be found while the sun’s out. Endermen often teleport away from the light to find more comfortable areas.

Monster Hideouts

Because monsters spawn anywhere the light isn’t too bright, naturally occurring caves are monster playgrounds. Dark pits in the ground, large openings into mountains, or deep underground pockets make wonderful monster homes.

Light It or Wall It Off If you’re mining underground and break into a natural cave, it’s a sure bet that monsters are in it somewhere. Go through the cave cautiously, and keep your ears open for the sounds of creatures. As you move through, put Torches on the walls at regular intervals. This keeps monsters from spawning after you leave. If you come to an area that you can’t illuminate, or if you want to grab a lot of material at your own pace without monster interference, wall off a section. You can always come back and explore later; your safety is more precious than Gold.

Strongholds, fortresses, temples, dungeons, and abandoned mineshafts are all places where monsters live. There are wonderful treasures to be found in these locations, but it’s dangerous to go there unprepared.

Monster Spawners

Monster Spawners are bluish-black, cage-like blocks found in special locations: fortresses, dungeons, abandoned mineshafts, and strongholds. Within the block, there are flames and a small, spinning monster soon to be spawned. Generally, Monster Spawners create only Zombies, Skeletons, Spiders, Blazes, and Silverfish, but they can make animals as well.

A Monster Spawner activates when you are 16 blocks away and immediately begins spawning a random monster within an 8x2x8 block area (8 blocks wide, 2 blocks high, and 8 blocks long). As long as the light level is appropriate and any other conditions are met, monsters appear anywhere in this zone. They can even spawn midair.

You can stop Monster Spawners by surrounding their area with Torches (i.e., raising the light level) or attacking them with weapons. They drop 15-43 experience when you break them. Some people create traps of various types around Monster Spawners; when the monster appears, it finds itself falling into a large pit, for example. You can set up the traps to be instantly lethal as a means to gather certain items. Or you can use this as a way to corral monsters if you want to slaughter them at your leisure. Any experience or items gained from the monster’s destruction can then be gathered later.

Spawn Eggs

In Creative mode, monsters come from eggs, called Spawn Eggs. In total, there are 25 Spawn Eggs, but this includes animals (neutral creatures) and Villagers. Hostile monsters still appear during the evening in Creative mode, but they never attack the player. But what if you want to decorate using monsters or have them wander around your house? Who wouldn’t want a pet Creeper!

Select the Spawn Egg, put it on your hotbar, and use it; the creature immediately appears. Unlike Chicken Eggs, Spawn Eggs are not thrown; you have to be within range on an appropriate block. After that, the creature moves on its own. If you want, put Spawn Eggs in Dispensers; for example, you can surprise someone with an instantly appearing buddy!

Withers

You can summon a special boss monster, a Wither, in game. It’s very dangerous! This monster is found only in the PC game; you must be in the Overworld, and you cannot be in Creative mode. To create a Wither in the crafting interface, put Soul Sand in a T-shape, with the T’s horizontal bar going across the middle section. Then add three Wither Skeleton Skulls on top. The Wither Skeleton Skulls must be added last. The sky immediately turns darker, and the Wither appears. As the Wither grows, it begins to flash blue. It doesn’t move or attack at this point, and it can’t take any damage. Don’t stay close to it. Once the Wither reaches its full size, it explodes, blasting anything within range!

The Wither considers every living thing to be its enemy (especially you), and it attacks anything that isn’t considered undead.