Health

The health gauge and monitor in Minecraft displays how much damage the player is able to take before dying. It is usually based on a single row of 10 heart icons. Each full heart contains two halves, one health point each (the player has normally 20 maximum health points).

Hearts

The healthbar in survival.

The healthbar on hardcore.

Shaking hearts when the player is at 4 or less.

Hearts make up the health meter for the player in the Survival, Hardcore‌^{[Java Edition only]} (different texture), and Adventure modes, also for mobs. Each heart represents two hit points. Hit points are lost when players (or mobs) take damage, which can be a percentage of those hearts. However, damage less than 1 isn't visible on the health bar.

If the health meter shows or less, it begins to shake violently, warning that the player is low on health.

Health can be recovered through several means, both "naturally" and through status effects.

• The Instant Health effect restores health immediately, the amount depending on the source and effect level.
• On Peaceful difficulty, the health meter continuously refills over time.
• On other difficulties, health regenerates slowly when the player's hunger is at or above 18 ( × 9).
• The Regeneration effect makes health regenerate fairly quickly, and the hearts of the health meter bounce in a wave. Aside from potions of Regeneration, this is also provided by beacons and golden apples. The "basic" golden apple provides it (level II) for 5 seconds, restoring a total of 4. The "enchanted" golden apple provides it for longer (20 seconds) and in total restoring about 16 × 8.
• The Health Boost effect adds 4 () per effect level to the player's total health that can be healed or regenerated by normal means, which is removed when the effect expires. After the effect expires, the player's health may remain above the normal maximum, but the extra health is not recovered once lost to damage. This effect can be gained only through commands or mods. At the levels of 252-256 (with amplifiers 251 to 255), the player has 512 hearts (1024 health points, the "red health" limit for entities).
• The Absorption effect likewise adds 4 for each effect level. Different from the Health Boost effect, this special health cannot be healed or regenerated by normal means. Naturally, it is removed when the effect expires. The "basic" golden apple provides it (level I) for 2 minutes, providing a total of 4. The "enchanted" golden apple provides it at higher level (level IV), providing a total of 16 × 8.

Damage is split between the health and armor bars. Each full armor point takes 8% of damage, to a maximum of 80%, rounded up. Armor points also protect less damage (and deal more hearts) with stronger attacks.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

On Hardcore mode, hearts have a different texture ().

The Poison and Wither effects turn hearts a sickly green color and black, respectively. On Hardcore, they turn when poisoned and when withered.

In Bedrock edition in Creative mode, the player is immune to all damage even the void and the /kill command.

The player's health bar is invisible while holding or wearing an item that gives negative health points that exceed the player's current health points. For example, the player's default health is 20, and if holding an item with the attribute −21 health, the player can take two hits before dying; it doesn't matter how much damage these hits inflict. The first one deals enough damage to reduce health to 1, and the second one kills the player. If the player uses a modified item to reduce health, sometimes the death screen appears. After clicking respawn, the player would shake in the death position and this can be fixed by ceasing to use the modified item.

Wolves and iron golems‌^{[Java Edition only]} are the only mobs that show their remaining health visually. Horses, donkeys, mules, llamas and the wither are the only mobs that regenerate health naturally over time.

Death

"Death" redirects here. For the music track, see Minecraft - Volume Alpha.

Mobs leaving red corpses and fire (because of daylight and player-made lightning) in multiplayer.

Death occurs when all of a player or mob's hit points are depleted.

The /kill command also instantly brings about death, and a parrot can be instantly killed by feeding it a cookie.‌^{[JE only]}

Mobs and players fall to their left side to the ground when killed (apart from spiders which flip upside-down and the ender dragon which ascends and explodes), dropping any drops at the location they were when they took the fatal damage. Once a fallen body disappears, it turns to dust and drops experience at the disappearance location.

Player effects

Example of the death screen and score in Hardcore.

For players, a "You died!" screen (or "Game over!" in Hardcore mode) appears, displaying the player's score,‌^{[Java Edition only]} and a death message (see § Death messages). The view of the world is tinted red, and the camera-view slowly tilts as if falling over, shudders, and zooms in somewhat. In Bedrock Edition, it zooms in indefinitely. Two options appear on that screen:

• Respawn: either in the last bed the player slept in, at their default spawn point (their first spawn point in the game), their respawn anchor, or at the spawn point set by commands. In Hardcore mode, the player can respawn only in Spectator mode, and cannot continue because cheats are disabled.
• Return to the title screen.

The death screen is not shown upon death if:

• The player holds a Totem of Undying in the main hand or off-hand and died without falling into the void, in which case the player resurrects upon death. Resurrection does not happen if the player fell into the void.
• Instant respawn enabled, in which case the player instantly respawns upon death without the death screen appearing, but still showing death message.

Any items and/or blocks that were in the player's inventory (except items enchanted with curse enchantments) are dropped from their head, and scattered around the spot where the player died (unless /gamerule keepInventory true is typed in if commands are enabled). Like any dropped item, these drops decay after five minutes while that chunk is loaded.

The player also loses any experience accumulated, reverting the level back to 0 (unless /gamerule keepInventory true is typed in if commands are enabled) and drops experience orbs with a precise total value of player last level × 7 experience points (with a maximum of 100). After reaching between levels 7 and 8, the player always drops only 100 experience points regardless of level.

Despite the fact that dead players disappear like all other mobs, it is still possible for the player to see their own hand while in the first-person mode.

Death messages

Main article: Death messages

Death messages are messages shown upon a player's death that describe its cause. Some death messages are:

• Player was killed by [Intentional Game Design]‌^{[Java Edition only]} (Sleeping on a bed in the Nether or the End)
• Player was slain by Player
• Player fell out of the world (Falling into the void or by using the /kill command)
• Player was slain by Hostile Mob
• Player burned to death
• Player tried to swim in lava
• Player discovered the floor was lava (Killed by Magma Block)
• Player fell from a high place
• Player fell off a ladder‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Player fell off some vines‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Player fell off scaffolding ‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• Player hit the ground too hard (Falling less than 5 blocks)
• Player was pricked to death (Dying from a cactus)
• Player was poked to death by a sweet berry bush
• Player was blown up by Creeper
• Player blew up
• Player drowned
• Player suffocated in a wall
• Player experienced kinetic energy (Crashing into a wall with an Elytra)
• Player withered away (Wither Rose)

Mob health

Mobs	Health
Playable	Player 20 × 10
Passive	Bat 6	Cat 10	Chicken 4	Cod 3	Cow 10	Donkey 15 × 7.5 to 30 × 15
	Fox 10‌[JE only] 20 × 10‌[BE only]	Horse 15 × 7.5 to 30 × 15	Mooshroom 10	Mule 15 × 7.5 to 30 × 15	Ocelot 10	Parrot 6
	Pig 10	Pufferfish 3	Rabbit 3	Salmon 3	Sheep 8	Skeleton Horse 15 × 7.5
	Snow Golem 4	Squid 10	Strider 20 × 10 ‌[Java Edition only] 15 × 7.5 ‌[Bedrock Edition only]	Tropical Fish 3	Turtle 30 × 15	Villager 20 × 10
	Wandering Trader 20 × 10
Neutral	Bee 10	Cave Spider 12 × 6	Dolphin 10	Enderman 40 × 20	Iron Golem 100 × 50	Llama 15 × 7.5 to 30 × 15
	Panda 20 × 10 (Weak panda) 10	Piglin 16 × 8	Polar Bear 30 × 15	Spider 16 × 8	Trader Llama 15 × 7.5 to 30 × 15	Wolf (untamed) 8 (tamed) 20 × 10
	Zombified Piglin 20 × 10
Hostile	Blaze 20 × 10	Creeper 20 × 10	Drowned 20 × 10	Elder Guardian 80 × 40	Endermite 8	Evoker 24 × 12
	Ghast 10	Guardian 30 × 15	Hoglin 40 × 20	Husk 20 × 10	Magma Cube (big) 16 × 8 (small) 4 (tiny) 1	Phantom 20 × 10
	Piglin Brute 50 × 25	Pillager 24 × 12	Ravager 100 × 50	Shulker 30 × 15	Silverfish 8
	Skeleton 20 × 10	Slime (big) 16 × 8 (small) 4 (tiny) 1	Stray 20 × 10	Vex 14 × 7	Vindicator 24 × 12	Witch 26 × 13
	Wither Skeleton 20 × 10	Zoglin 40 × 20	Zombie 20 × 10	Zombie Villager 20 × 10
Bosses	Ender Dragon 200 × 100	Wither 300 × 150‌[JE only] 600 × 300‌[BE only]
Unused	Giant‌[JE only] 100 × 50	Illusioner‌[JE only] 32 × 16	Old Villager‌[BE only] 20 × 10	Old Zombie Villager‌[BE only] 20 × 10	Zombie Horse 15 × 7.5
Removed	Beast Boy 5	Black Steve 5	Human 20 × 10	Rana 13 × 6.5	Steve 5
Education Edition	Agent ∞ ( × ∞)	NPC 20 × 10

Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
	Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30G	Bronze
	Cheating Death	Use the Totem of Undying to cheat death	Have the Totem of Undying in your hand when you die.	30G	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	adventure/root
	Postmortal	Use a Totem of Undying to cheat death	Monster Hunter	Activate a totem of undying by taking fatal damage.	adventure/totem_of_undying

History

Java Edition Classic
August 18, 2009					Health bar and fall damage teased.
August 20, 2009					Health bar blinking when damaged, damage invulnerability, and health bar shaking teased.
0.24_SURVIVAL_TEST					Added all of the above.
					Mushrooms now regain health.
					Enemies now fall over when killed.
Java Edition Indev
?					Dead mobs would fall on their left side instead of other random directions. Before suffocation was implemented, players that were covered by blocks could see through dirt and stone. Suffocation was added after Notch discovered that players were abusing this exploit to find underground caves and hollowed carvings. The patch added suffocation damage and making the player unable to see anything when experiencing it. However, this glitch is not completely fixed and is still possible to be done even in the existing version of the game.
					In Survival mode, eating a red mushroom would deal the player 3 of damage because they were poisonous.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.4					Players no longer suffocate when riding in a minecart.
Java Edition Beta
1.5					Fist damage is increased from 1 to 2.
1.5		release			Fist damage is decreased from 2 to 1.
					Regeneration effect added, increasing health.
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2			Mobs can now have armor points.
					Hearts now look different in Hardcore mode.
		RC1			The sound of the player taking damage is changed from a man's grunt to be more gender-neutral.
1.3.1		12w25a			Removed the downward knockback while drowning, which essentially trapped drowning players in multiplayer underwater.
1.8		14w32a			The health bar has a new animation for damage that shows how many hearts are lost.
1.11		16w39a			Added Totem of Undying, which can save a player from death.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.2.0					Health bar added.
0.12.1		build 1			Regeneration effect is added that increases health.
					The sound of the player taking damage is changed from a man's grunt to be more gender-neutral.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Added the Totem of Undying, which can save a player from death.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added the health bar.

Gallery

• 

  A preview of the health system seen on Notch's blog. Note how the sprite for the half-heart has a thick, black line in the middle.

References

Gameplay

View at: Template:Gameplay/content [edit]