Dangerous creatures: what to fight and what to avoid

What do passive, neutral and hostile mean?

• Passive: cows, sheep, rabbits, hens, most birds and fish. They flee when you hurt them.
• Neutral: dogs, goats, kangaroos, bears, yetis, spiders and others. They leave you alone until you hit them, then fight back (angry for 20 seconds at Normal), and their fellows may join in.
• Hostile: the monsters. At Normal they see you from 28 m, hear you from 10 m, come to the noise of a block you break, and give up beyond 36 m.
• Monsters never breed: they only spawn. Animals can be tamed and bred.

When and where do monsters appear?

• The game brings creatures near each player in the dark: at night, or anywhere covered (a cave, a closed room) at any hour. Outside it picks a spot 24 to 64 m away, never closer; in caves and rooms, 16 to 40 m.
• Each species has its own place: the zombie any dark place, the ghost the open sky on a true night, the bat deep caves, the imp and the magma golem the edge of lava, the mushroom-men three mushroom blocks, the scarecrow crops.
• Light keeps a base safe: no monster spawns within 14 m of a torch, a lantern, a fireplace or a lit lamp you placed (8 m for a candle), and one that stays 3 s in that light goes up in smoke. See lighting.
• At dawn, a night walker or floater with open sky over its head smokes and burns away in 3 seconds, leaving no loot. A roof or a tree saves it. Golems, bats, mimics, plants and sea creatures do not burn.

Which monsters are dangerous?

Health and blow are before the difficulty. All of these come at night, in the biomes listed.

Some monsters are out at any hour, and some neutral creatures hit very hard if you attack them:

How do I fight them, or avoid them?

• Build before dark, and light it. Walkers hop up about a block, no more, so a wall taller than that stops them; torches inside and around stop any spawning there. Ghosts and bats fly over walls.
• Wear armour and carry a sword, plus a bow for anything that explodes. See weapons and armour. An iron sword kills a zombie in three blows.
• Walk away from slow monsters: zombies and golems are slower than you at Normal. Terrible difficulty changes that: a zombie then runs at 4.8 m/s.
• Sleep in a bed to skip the night: see death and respawn.
• Neutral creatures are safe if you do not hit them: do not attack a bear or a yeti unless you can win.

Updated 2026-10-22