Mob fleeing

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In Minecraft, mob fleeing is a mechanic in which mobs will attempt to avoid or "flee" from sources that they are fearful of.

Overview

When a mob is in close enough proximity to something that it is fearful of (referred to as a "fear source" in this article), it attempts to move away from that source (usually through moving quickly such as sprinting) until it is a reasonable distance away.

All mobs will check for fear sources in the surrounding area every 5 ticks when there is a line of sight. The radius in which a mob detects a fear source can vary depending on the specific fear source in Java Edition or simply 3×3×3 for every mob in Bedrock Edition.^[1] For example: a mob may detect a certain fear source within a radius of 8 blocks, whereas it may detect a different fear source within a larger radius of 15 blocks.

When fleeing, a mob moves to a location 4-15 blocks away from the feared source and then return to its regular behavior.

Usually, fleeing from a fear source becomes a mob’s top priority, meaning it will stop whatever action it was doing in favor of fleeing. As such, fleeing can interrupt mobs from doing many actions such as interacting or attacking. In most cases, the mob will return to what it was previously doing when it is no longer fleeing.

A mob's fear source can be in the form of a block, another mob, or a player.

Fleeing interactions

Mob	Fear Source	Details
Bogged Skeleton Stray Wither Skeleton‌[Java Edition only]	Wolf	Skeletons, strays, and bogged flee from a wolf until they are attacked, after which they begin retaliating against the wolf. Wither skeletons alternate between fleeing and retaliating against the wolf.
Cat Ocelot	Player	Stray cats and untrusting ocelots avoid being near and flee from players.
Cave Spider Spider	Armadillo	Spiders and cave spiders will only flee from armadillos which are not rolled up in their shell.
Cod Pufferfish Salmon Tropical Fish	Player
Creeper	Cat Ocelot
Dolphin	Elder Guardian Guardian
Evoker	Player Creaking
Fox	Player Polar Bear Wolf	Foxes flee from players that they are not trusting towards.
Hoglin	Player Piglin Nether Portal Respawn Anchor Warped Fungus	Hoglins flee from piglins when outnumbered during a hunt. Baby hoglins flee when attacked by a player.
Illusioner‌[JE only] Pillager Ravager Vindicator	Creaking	A vindicator that is named "Johnny" alternates between fleeing from the creaking and attempting to attack it.
Panda (Worried)	Player Most monsters‌[JE only] All non-panda mobs‌[BE only]	In Java Edition, worried pandas flee from most monsters except ghasts, hoglins, magma cubes, phantoms, shulkers, slimes, and the ender dragon. In Bedrock Edition, worried pandas flee from all non-panda mobs.
Phantom	Cat Ocelot‌[BE only]
Piglin	Hoglin Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombified Piglin Soul Campfire (lit) Soul Fire Soul Lantern Soul Torch	Piglins flee from hoglins when outnumbered during a hunt. Only baby piglins flee from wither skeletons and withers. Piglins only flee from lit soul campfires.
Rabbit (except Killer Bunny‌[JE only])	Player Wolf Most monsters	In Java Edition, rabbits flee from most monsters except ghasts, hoglins, magma cubes, phantoms, shulkers, slimes, and the ender dragon. In Bedrock Edition, rabbits flee from all monsters except hoglins and the ender dragon.
Villager	Drowned Evoker Husk Illusioner‌[JE only] Pillager Ravager Vex Vindicator Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager
Wandering Trader	Drowned Evoker Husk Illusioner‌[JE only] Pillager Ravager Vex Vindicator Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin‌[BE only]
Wolf	Llama Trader Llama	How easily the wolf is deterred is determined by the llama's/trader llama's strength.

See also

• Mob AI
• Mob infighting

References

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