60 Fun Facts About Hard Minecraft

How many elder guardians generate inside each ocean monument?

They generate with the monument itself, one in the top room and one in each wing, and never respawn once killed.

During a raid, ravagers first appear from which wave?

Later waves add ravager jockeys ridden by pillagers, vindicators or evokers, depending on difficulty.

A piglin brute always spawns wielding which weapon?

Unlike ordinary piglins, brutes never barter, never retreat and are not distracted by gold.

A cave spider's bite poisons the player on which difficulty settings?

On Hard the poison lasts 15 seconds versus 7 on Normal, which is why mineshaft spawners are so dangerous.

A breeze deflects every projectile that hits it, except which one?

Deflected projectiles keep their full velocity, so a reflected arrow can come straight back at the archer.

A sculk sensor detects vibrations within a spherical radius of how many blocks?

The signal travels from the vibration source to the sensor at one block per game tick, so distant events register slightly later.

Besides stopping copper oxidizing, applying a honeycomb to which block prevents editing it?

Honeycombs also craft candles, beehives and honeycomb blocks, and shearing a full hive drops three at a time.

The floor of an ancient city always generates at which Y level?

The palace footprint is roughly 220 blocks on each side, with corridor floors of grey wool laid two blocks deep to dampen vibrations.

Swift Sneak, the enchantment found only in ancient city chests, goes on which piece of armor?

It lessens the movement penalty of sneaking, which matters when you are creeping past shriekers in the deep dark.

Trails & Tales, the update that added the sniffer and archaeology, shipped as which Java Edition version?

Its stated theme was creativity and self-expression, which is why so much of it was decorative blocks and customization.

What does a warden always drop when it dies?

It also gives just five experience points, a poor return for the game's most dangerous mob.

If a warden detects nothing, it digs back into the ground and despawns after how long?

A warden that has been given a name with a name tag never digs down, so it can be kept around permanently.

An allay dancing beside a playing jukebox splits into two if you hand it which item?

Both allays then have a five-minute cooldown before either can duplicate again, and the item is consumed.

Sniffer eggs are dug out of suspicious sand found in which structure?

Sniffers never spawn naturally; the only other way to get an egg is to breed two hatched sniffers with torchflower seeds.

Which item is used to breed camels?

A camel carries two riders at once and, when standing, is tall enough that most ground melee mobs cannot reach them.

Which enchantment cannot be combined with Frost Walker on the same pair of boots in Survival?

Both are boot enchantments about moving over or through water, and the game treats them as mutually exclusive.

A conduit with a complete frame of 42 prismarine blocks empowers players out to what range, in blocks?

The radius grows by 16 blocks for every seven blocks in the frame, but nothing activates until at least 16 blocks are in place.

A wandering trader spawns tied by leads to how many trader llamas?

Its trades are randomized on every spawn and it despawns after enough time passes, so a good deal is a one-off.

What are the odds that a newly bred axolotl is the rare blue variant?

Otherwise the baby simply copies the color of one parent at random, which is why blue axolotls are prized on servers.

An adult goat drops a goat horn when it rams into which of these blocks?

The full list also includes stone, coal, copper, iron and emerald ore, and logs; nothing else snaps a horn loose.

A froglight is created when a frog eats which mob?

The color of the froglight depends on which frog variant does the eating, so swamp, cold and warm frogs each give a different block.

When an unwaxed lightning rod is struck, what happens to the rod itself?

It also emits a redstone pulse on every strike, which is the basis of most lightning-detector builds.

Armadillos repel which mob?

They roll into a ball when hurt or when undead mobs, sprinting players or riders come near, and shed scutes over time.

The heavy core needed to craft a mace drops from ominous vaults at what chance?

The other ingredient is a breeze rod, and in Java Edition the finished mace has the slowest attack speed of any weapon.

What does a bogged drop when it is sheared?

Each mushroom is randomly brown or red, and once sheared the bogged stays bald for good.

When an evoker casts its summoning spell, how many vexes appear at once?

It can cast again while earlier vexes are still alive, which is how a mansion fight fills up with sword-wielding ghosts.

What is the chance that an endermite spawns when a player-thrown ender pearl lands?

Endermen are hostile to endermites, and the mites despawn within two minutes unless given a name.

A hoglin turns into a zoglin after being outside the Nether for how long?

The undead zoglin never retreats and attacks almost every non-zoglin mob it can see, unlike its Nether original.

A saddled strider is steered with which item?

Striders can walk on lava and are one of the few renewable sources of string in the Nether.

Without Luck of the Sea, what is the chance of fishing up a nautilus shell on any given catch?

Luck of the Sea III raises that to 1.9%, which is still slow enough that most players hunt trident-free drowned instead.

A heart of the sea can only be found in which kind of chest?

Its location is marked with a red X on a treasure map, which itself comes from ocean ruins and shipwrecks.

A chiseled bookshelf holds up to how many books?

A comparator reads it as a signal from 1 to 6 indicating the last slot touched, not how many books are inside.

Decorated pots are crafted from pottery sherds and which ordinary item?

Any of the four side faces can be a sherd or a plain piece, and the pot shatters back into them if hit with a normal tool.

The Far Lands, the terrain glitch of early versions, began roughly how many blocks from spawn?

They were fixed in Beta 1.8, and the deliberate world border added in 1.8 sits more than twice as far out.

Smelting chorus fruit 'pops' it into the ingredient for which building block?

Eaten raw, chorus fruit teleports you to a random spot within eight blocks, even when your hunger bar is full.

How many End crystals sit on the obsidian pillars of the End's central island?

Two of them are protected inside cages of iron bars, and all of them respawn when the dragon is re-summoned.

What percentage of naturally spawned drowned carry a trident?

Even then, a trident-wielding drowned killed by a player only drops the weapon 8.5% of the time, plus 1% per Looting level.

The uncraftable enchanted apple grants Absorption at what level?

It also gives five minutes of Fire Resistance, and despite the glint it carries no actual enchantment.

A recovery compass is crafted by surrounding a compass with eight of what?

It points to your last death only in the same dimension; anywhere else it just spins.

Which block found in ancient cities cannot be obtained in Survival even with Silk Touch?

It has no assigned tool at all, so every tool mines it at exactly the same glacial speed.

How many armor trim smithing templates existed after the 1.21 Tricky Trials update?

Sixteen arrived with 1.20 and Flow and Bolt with 1.21; they are found only in structures, but any one can be copied in a crafting table using diamonds.

When does a turtle drop a scute?

Turtles always swim back to the beach where they spawned to lay eggs, however far you have moved them.

Which panda variant is a recessive trait, like 'weak'?

Pandas have a main gene and a hidden gene, and each gene has a 1 in 32 chance of mutating when two pandas breed.

In Java Edition, trying to feed which food to a parrot kills it instantly?

It is a nod to chocolate being toxic to real parrots; in Bedrock the bird gets Fatal Poison instead.

Wither skeletons are the only renewable source of which item?

They are also the only source of wither skeleton skulls and spawn exclusively in Nether fortresses.

Roughly what fraction of all Overworld chunks are slime chunks?

In Java they are decided by the world seed; in Bedrock the same coordinates are slime chunks in every world.

Which illager exists in Java Edition's code but never spawns naturally?

Armed with a bow, it fights by conjuring duplicates of itself and casting Blindness on its target.

What does a lightning strike within four blocks of a mooshroom do?

The mooshroom takes no damage from the strike, and the brown variant never spawns naturally.

A naturally generated sculk shrieker tries to summon a warden once a player's warning level reaches what?

Shriekers placed by players or spread by catalysts are inert; only naturally generated ones can call a warden.

Crying obsidian is the key ingredient of which block?

Piglins barter it about 8.5% of the time, and 15% of the obsidian in ruined portals generates as the crying kind.

Which dropped item is immune to explosions?

It can still be destroyed by cactus, fire, lava or the void, and in Java a wither-dropped one despawns after ten minutes.

After its owner sleeps through the night, a tamed cat has what chance of bringing a gift?

No gift comes if the cat was told to sit or if the sleep was a daytime thunderstorm nap.

Minecraft's official franchise anniversary is tied to which 2009 date?

That was the day the version now known as Classic first went public; the full 1.0 release came in November 2011.

Who took over from Markus 'Notch' Persson as head of Minecraft's development?

Microsoft bought Mojang and everything with it on November 6, 2014, for US$2.5 billion.

The death message '<player> experienced kinetic energy' comes from doing what?

Hitting a ceiling does no damage at all; only a vertical surface at speed triggers the fly-into-wall damage type.

A vindicator given which name attacks almost every other mob it sees?

The name works via name tag or a named spawn egg, and it will even go after ravagers, vexes and witches, though it spares evokers and pillagers.

Which composer wrote the music discs 'Pigstep' and 'otherside'?

Pigstep is found only in bastion remnant chests, where its chance was bumped from 3.3% to 5.6% in 1.16.2.

Elytra are found in an item frame in the treasure room of which structure?

A shulker guards the frame together with the ship's two loot chests, and the End ships sit only in the outer islands.

Which Dwarf Fortress-inspired base-building project did Notch work on before Minecraft?

RubyDung had an isometric 3D view like RollerCoaster Tycoon; Persson also explored a first-person mode in it.

Which studio developed the Xbox 360 Edition, the first console version of Minecraft, released on 9 May 2012?

4J Studios' version, launched under the Xbox Live Arcade NEXT promotion, introduced a redesigned crafting system.