Entity

Entities include all dynamic, moving objects throughout the Minecraft world.

General behavior

Properties all or most entities have are:

• A position, rotation, and velocity
• A volume consisting of one or more non-rotating, three-dimensional boxes with a fixed height and width
• The ability to be on fire, displayed as flames on or around the entity
• The ability to have a status effect, such as from potions
• A view point, even if it has no eyes

Most entities can be pushed around by water currents, and some can have their trajectory altered by explosions if already traveling at speed. Some entities can be renamed by using a name tag on them.

Most entities have a health status, including mobs, players, armor stands, boats, boat with chests and minecarts. Moving blocks, items, shot or thrown projectiles, area effect clouds, and experience orbs do not have health.

Entities cannot pass through solid blocks, excluding vexes, ender dragons, and ender pearls. Most types of entities prevent blocks from being placed in the space they occupy, except for dropped items and experience orbs, which are automatically pushed out of the block to open air. If a solid block enters an entity's space, such as falling sand or a swinging door, then it is free to move out of the solid block but not back in. For example, if a door is closed on the player, player can jump up and stand on top of the bottom-half door block, if there is air above the door.

Entities are lit according to the light level of the block their position is in. For example, if a minecart runs over a non-straight track directly into a solid block, it turns black because solid blocks always have a light level of 0; arrows are also sometimes seen to turn black, especially if fired shallowly into the ceiling.

Immovable entities

Item frames, glow item frames, paintings, and leash knots, unlike most entities, align to the block grid, and are completely immobile.

Boats and minecarts

Boats, boats with chests and minecarts appear to recover health over time. For example, they can be broken by hitting them quickly, but cannot be destroyed by hits with unarmed hand with a pause after each hit. The amount of wobbling displayed by boats and minecarts when struck appears to indicate their current health. All minecart, boat and boat with chest variants have 6HP.

Gravity-affected blocks

Gravity-affected blocks include sand, gravel, anvils, red sand, dragon eggs, concrete powder, scaffolding, and pointed dripstone, along with snow layers in Bedrock Edition.

A gravity-affected block normally exists as a block, but when its support is removed, it becomes a falling block entity and falls down until hitting the top surface of another block. If there is valid space, it places itself as a block at the nearest on-grid position, or drops as an item if that position is occupied by a block without a solid top surface, such as a torch or a bottom slab.

While a falling block ordinarily falls straight down, its trajectory can be affected by explosions, bubble columns, pistons, reeling it in, and moving slime blocks, and can slide down the side of honey blocks. It is also possible to modify the velocity and direction of a falling block by using commands such as /data‌^{[Java Edition only]} or third-party programs. A falling block despawns and drops as an item if it does not land after existing for 600 ticks (30 seconds), or 100 ticks (5 seconds) if falling into the void^[verify].

If a cave generates underneath sand, gravel, or red sand, the blocks remain stationary until they receive a block update. If a single block is updated and falls down, neighboring blocks are updated in a chain reaction that can cause the collapse of an entire region of gravity-affected blocks.

Interactions with "use" control

Entities with use interactions (such as boats, boat with chests, minecarts, cats, villagers, tamed parrots, and tamed wolves) do not stop the use action of a tool the player is holding. For example, using a water bucket on a tamed wolf causes the wolf to sit, but also empties the bucket near or onto the wolf.

Riding

Entities can ride on, or be attached to, other entities. When this is the case, only the lower/"outer" entity's volume collides with other things, and only that entity can control movement.‌^{[Java Edition only]} However, there are exceptions: players riding minecarts, boats, boats with chests, saddled horses, a happy ghast, a nautilus, a donkey, a mule, a camel, or baby zombies riding chickens, or skeletons riding horses or boats.

The only current legitimate combinations of riding entities are:

• A mob or player in a minecart, boat or boat with chests.
• A boat or boat with chest in a minecart‌^{[Java Edition only][1]}.
• A player on a saddled pig, horse, donkey, mule, skeleton horse, llama, strider, or camel.
• Any type of skeleton on a spider or cave spider‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}; also known as a spider jockey.
• Any type of baby zombie or zombified piglin‌^{[Java Edition only]} on a chicken or other mobs‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}; also known as a chicken jockey.
• Skeletons riding skeleton horses.
• Pillager, vindicator, or evoker riding a ravager.
• Baby piglin, riding a baby hoglin.
• Baby piglin, riding a baby piglin on a baby hoglin.
• Baby piglin, riding a baby piglin, riding a baby piglin on a baby hoglin.
• A strider, riding another strider.
• Zombified piglin riding a strider.

A parrot perched on player's shoulder isn't considered as riding.

It is possible to have even more levels, such as a baby piglin on another baby piglin who is riding a hoglin in a minecart in a boat.

Entities can also be stacked on top of each other with the use of the /summon and /data commands in Java Edition. For example, using /summon spider ~ ~ ~ {Passengers:[{id:skeleton}]} summons a spider jockey, or using /ride in Bedrock Edition.

If an entity is riding another entity, the top entity cannot teleport because as soon as the teleport is made, the entity is teleported back to riding the other entity.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Starting from the Nether Update, entities that are riders or passengers of other entities cannot despawn.^[verify]‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Types of entities

The table below lists types of entities that currently exist in Minecraft.

Entities listed as "solid" obstruct the passage of other entities.

Type	Solid	Health	Living entity
Player[note 1]	Yes	20HP × 10 (Varies with attributes)	Yes
Mob	Yes	Varies	Yes
Armor Stand[note 1]	No	20HP × 10	Yes
Mannequin‌[JE only]	No[verify]	20HP × 10	Yes
Arrow	Yes (to boats and minecarts)	∞	No
Balloon‌[edu & BE only]	Yes	∞	No
Block display‌[JE only]	No	∞	No
Boat	Yes	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Boat with Chest	Yes	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Egg	Yes	∞	No
End Crystal	No	5HP	No
Ender Pearl	Yes	∞	No
Evoker Fangs	No	∞	No
Eye of Ender	No	∞	No
Experience Orb	No	5HP	No
Falling Block	No	∞	No
Fishing Bobber	Yes (to boats and minecarts)	∞	No
Fireball Small Fireball Wither skull Dragon Fireball	Yes	∞	No
Firework Rocket	No	∞	No
Ice Bomb‌[edu & BE only]	Yes	∞	No
Interaction‌[JE only]	No	∞	No
Item	Yes (to boats and minecarts)	5HP	No
Item display‌[JE only]	No	∞	No
Item frame‌[JE only]	No	∞	No
Lightning Bolt	No	∞	No
Leash Knot	No	∞	No
Llama Spit	Yes	∞	No
Location Pointer Idle‌[BE only][note 2]	No	∞	No
Location Pointer Selected‌[BE only][note 2]	No	∞	No
Map Marker‌[BE only][note 2]	No	∞	No
Marker‌[JE only]	No	∞	No
Minecart	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Minecart with chest	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Minecart with command block	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Minecart with furnace‌[JE only]	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Minecart with hopper	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Minecart with monster spawner‌[JE only]	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Minecart with TNT	Yes (to other entities)	6HP Recovers health quickly over time.	No
Painting	No	∞	No
Ruler‌[BE only][note 2]	No	∞	No
Ruler Idle‌[BE only][note 2]	No	∞	No
Primed TNT	No	∞	No
Text display‌[JE only]	No	∞	No
Shulker Bullet	Yes	∞	No
Snowball	Yes	∞	No
Trident	Yes	∞	No
Wind Charge	Yes	∞	No

Motion

Gravity works differently in Minecraft than the real world, as not everything is subject to the same acceleration. Additionally, there is a drag force proportional to velocity, again dependent on the entity.

This is a GitHub repository with some in-depth explanation about the topic.

In general, entities perform 3 operations to calculate movement each tick:

• Apply acceleration: Add acceleration to the current velocity (for most entities, the only acceleration is gravity),
• Apply drag: Multiply the current velocity by a drag coefficient (which may be different for the horizontal and vertical components),
• Update position: Add the current velocity to the current position.

Different entities perform these operations in different orders within the tick, which changes their behavior. For example, a living entity in the air is described by the following code each tick:

// Update position
position.x += velocity.x;
position.y += velocity.y;
position.z += velocity.z;

// Update acceleration
velocity.y -= 0.08D;

// Update drag
velocity.x *= 0.91F;
velocity.y *= 0.98F;
velocity.z *= 0.91F;

Just substituting the correct values for acceleration and drag and ordering the three operations correctly is enough to exactly simulate any entity listed below. Note that different entities sometimes use different floating point precision for these values: either single precision (float) or double precision (double). Since rounding errors accumulate each tick, the precision can make a noticeable difference in their behavior (especially when they are moving fast).

Kind	Ticking order	Gravity[note 3] (m/tick/tick)	Drag (vertical)	Drag (horizontal)	Terminal velocity (m/tick)[note 4]	Terminal velocity (m/s)	Maximum horizontal travel distance (m/(m/s))[note 5]
Players and other living entities	Position, Acceleration, Drag	-0.08 (double)	0.98 (float)	0.91 (float)[note 6]	3.92	78.4	11.111
Players/mobs with Slow Falling		-0.01 (double)			0.49	9.80	11.111
Falling blocks and TNT	Acceleration, Position, Drag	-0.04 (double)	0.98 (double)		1.96	39.2	50
Items		-0.04 (double)	0.98 (double)	0.98 (float)	1.96	39.2	50
Experience orbs		-0.03 (double)	0.98 (float)		1.47	29.4	50
Minecarts[note 7]		-0.04 (double)	0.95 (double)		0.76	15.2	20
Thrown fishing bobbers		-0.03 (double)	0.92 (double)		0.345	6.90	12.5
Boats and chest boats	Acceleration, Drag, Position	-0.04 (double)	N/A[note 8]	0.90 (float)‌[JE only]/ N/A‌[BE only]	∞	∞	9
Thrown eggs, snowballs, and ender pearls	Acceleration, Drag, Position[note 9]	-0.03 (double)	0.99 (float)	0.99 (float)	2.97	59.4	99
Thrown potions		-0.05 (double)			4.95	99.0
Thrown bottles o' enchanting		-0.07 (double)			6.93	138.6
Fireballs, small fireballs, wither skulls, and dragon fireballs	Acceleration, Drag, Position	0.10 (double)[note 3]	0.95 (float)		1.90	38.0	19
Dangerous wither skulls		0.10 (double)[note 3]	0.73 (float)		0.2703703	5.407407	2.703703
Wind charges		0.10 (double)[note 3]	N/A[note 8]		∞	∞	∞
Llama Spit	Position, Drag, Acceleration	-0.06 (double)	0.99 (float)		6.00	120.0	100
Fired arrows, and thrown tridents		-0.05 (double)	0.99 (float)		5.00	100.0	100

Formulas

It can be useful to have a closed-form formula for and entity's position and velocity. These are not exact like a program would be, because the in-game movement is subject to floating-point rounding errors and mathematical formulas are not. A detailed explanation of how these formulas were derived can be found here.

Velocity

Applying an initial velocity $\text{initialVelocity}$ on an entity, the entity's velocity after travelling for a number of ticks $\text{ticksPassed}$ can be given by the formulas:

Drag applied before acceleration:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalVelocity}={\text{drag}}^{\text{ticksPassed}}\times (\text{initialVelocity}-\frac{\text{acceleration}}{1-\text{drag}})+\frac{\text{acceleration}}{1-\text{drag}}}$

Drag applied after acceleration ^{[note 1]}:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalVelocity}={\text{drag}}^{\text{ticksPassed}}\times (\text{initialVelocity}-\frac{\text{drag }\times \text{ acceleration}}{1-\text{drag}})+\frac{\text{drag }\times \text{ acceleration}}{1-\text{drag}}}$

Initial velocity and acceleration should be interpreted as vectors, and drag as a diagonal matrix. This means that the formulas work for each X, Y, and Z component separately if drag, initialVelocity, and acceleration are replaced with their corresponding X, Y, or Z components.

Position

Here ${\displaystyle d}$ is drag, ${\displaystyle a}$ is acceleration, ${\displaystyle t}$ is ticksPassed, and ${\displaystyle v_0}$ is initialVelocity. Then an entity starting at ${\displaystyle \text{initialPosition}}$ will end at a ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}}$ given by:

Position, Drag, Acceleration:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}=\text{initialPosition}+\frac{1-d^t}{1-d}(v_0-\frac{1}{1-d}a)+\frac{t}{1-d}a}$

Position, Acceleration, Drag:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}=\text{initialPosition}+\frac{1-d^t}{1-d}(v_0-\frac{d}{1-d}a)+\frac{dt}{1-d}a}$

Acceleration, Position, Drag:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}=\text{initialPosition}+\frac{1-d^t}{1-d}(v_0-\frac{d}{1-d}a)+\frac{t}{1-d}a}$

Drag, Acceleration, Position:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}=\text{initialPosition}+\frac{d(1-d^t)}{1-d}(v_0-\frac{1}{1-d}a)+\frac{t}{1-d}a}$

Drag, Position, Acceleration^{[note 2]}:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}=\text{initialPosition}+\frac{d(1-d^t)}{1-d}(v_0-\frac{1}{1-d}a)+\frac{dt}{1-d}a}$

Acceleration, Drag, Position:

• ${\displaystyle \text{finalPosition}=\text{initialPosition}+\frac{d(1-d^t)}{1-d}(v_0-\frac{d}{1-d}a)+\frac{dt}{1-d}a}$

Like before, initial position, initial velocity and acceleration should be treated as vectors and drag as a diagonal matrix.

Calculator

Data values

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Video

History

This section is missing information about:

• early history
• when in Java Edition were entities given a dedicated folder in worlds?

 

Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

Trivia

• When a entity is moving away from its block radius, the solid block can be placed but it does not emit a place sound effect or the player's placing animation.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
  • in Bedrock Edition however, the block place sound effect can be played and emitted and the player's placing animation plays but it does not when using a controller or keyboard and mouse connection.

Issues

Issues relating to "Entity" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

See also

• Block entity – unlike the entities mentioned above, these are simply blocks that store additional data.

References

Navigation

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Unimplemented Unused Zombie Horse‌[until Mounts of Mayhem] JE only Giant Illusioner Killer Bunny BE & edu only Elder Guardian Ghost Old Villager Old Zombie Villager Mentioned Alpaca Barnacle Crab Firefly Glare Great Hunger Iceologer Meerkat Minecart with Dispenser Moobloom Ostrich Penguin Pigman Rascal Red Dragon Shade Shark Termite Tuff Golem Vulture Wildfire Removed Builder MD3 Test Mob Mob Monster Shot Purple Arrow Sign Entity
Joke Mobs April Fools 2013 Diamond Chicken Horse Pony Pink Wither Redstone Bug April Fools 2015 Love Golem Pink Wither Smiling Creeper April Fools 2019 Nerd Creeper April Fools 2023 Moon Cow Ray Tracing April Fools 2024 Batato Mega Spud Plaguewhale Slab Poisonous Potato Zombie Potato mob category Toxifin Slab April Fools 2025 Angry Ghast Spectator Villager Spectator Witch Traitor Warden (boss) Pet variants Pet Armadillo Pet Axolotl Pet Bee Pet Cat Pet Chicken Pet Cow Pet Creeper Pet Fox Pet Frog Pet Mooshroom Pet Polar Bear Pet Slime Pet Turtle Pet Wolf Other entities April Fools 2013 Pink Wither Skull April Fools 2015 Obsidian Boat Pink Wither Skull April Fools 2024 Falling Block Gravtater Potato Eye