Phantom

Health points	20 ()
Attack strength	Easy: 4 () Normal: 6 () Hard: 9 ()
Size	Height: 0.5 + `Size` × 0.1 Blocks Width: 0.9 + `Size` × 0.2 Blocks
Spawn	In the Overworld in light level of 7 or less and when player has not entered a bed for 3+ ingame days
First appearances	See History
Common drops	Phantom Membrane (0–1)
Experience	5
Sounds	Idle Swoop Bite Hurt Death Wing Flapping
Internal ID	N/A
Entity ID	phantom

	“	This manta-ray–like monster is a flying creature that spawns at high altitudes. It is attracted to insomnia, and will find players who haven't slept for many days. It will swoop down in groups and bite your flesh.	„
		— Jens Bergensten^[1]

Phantoms are undead flying hostile mobs that attack players who haven't entered a bed in over three in-game days.

Spawning[edit]

Two phantoms at night.

Phantoms spawn in the Overworld at night, or at any time during a thunderstorm; high above players that have not entered a bed for at least three in-game days. Phantoms will spawn more often the longer a player has gone without entering a bed.

For phantoms to successfully spawn, the player in question must be above sea level and not have a block above its head which blocks light in any way (for example leaves won't work as they have a light opacity of 2, but glass will work as its light opacity is 0).

Once the conditions are met, a group of 1–6 phantoms attempts to spawn 20–34 blocks above the player, and off to the side by up to a taxicab distance of 9 blocks, every 60–70 seconds. The chance of a successful spawn is ^x−3⁄_x, where x is the number of nights since the player last entered a bed, which comes to a ¹⁄₄ chance on day 4, a ²⁄₅ chance on day 5, a ³⁄₆ (¹⁄₂) chance on day 6, and so on.

Phantoms are counted towards the hostile mob cap, but don't respect it when spawning. Their spawning mechanic is based on the location of players in the world, not by randomly choosing a block near the players like regular mob spawning.

Drops[edit]

Phantoms drop:

0–1
phantom membrane when killed by a player or tamed wolf, which can be increased by one with each level of the Looting enchantment, resulting in up to 4 phantom membranes per drop.
5
experience orbs when killed by the player or a tamed wolf.

Behavior[edit]

A phantom swooping at the player.

When idle, phantoms will fly around in a circle at a constant y-elevation, leaving a trail of gray smoke while doing so. They have a quite large search radius, and will occasionally either swoop down or up quickly to attack their victim. If stopped or hurt during this action, the phantom will retreat back to its original elevation. When idle over water, the phantom will sometimes swoop into the water and will die as it is not pushed back up.

Phantoms are able to move through water at the same speed as they do normally. They cannot drown.^{[Java Edition only]}

When under the Invisibility effect, the phantom's body will disappear, but its eyes and smoke particles will still be visible.

When under the Jump boost effect, the phantom won't fly up or down.

Like zombies and skeletons, phantoms will burn in sunlight.

Phantoms will attempt to stay 16 blocks away from cats.^{[upcoming 1.14 & 1.8]}

Undead[edit]

Like other undead mobs, they are harmed by the Instant Health effect, healed by the Instant Damage effect, are immune to the Poison and Regeneration effects and ignored by the wither.

Data values[edit]

See also: Chunk format

Phantoms have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is phantom.

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
- AX: The phantom, when not actively attacking, will attempt to circle around X,Y,Z = AX, AY, AZ. Appears to reset to a point above the target player every time the phantom flies up after a swoop. Set to spawn location if not specified.
- AY: See AX
- AZ: See AX
- Size: The size of the phantom. Ranges from 0 to 64, similarly to slimes. Unlike slimes, phantoms always have a constant 20 () HP, and deal 6 ()+Size damage. Naturally spawned phantoms are always size 0.

Advancements[edit]

Main article: Advancements

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	`minecraft:adventure/root`
Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 24 mobs. In 1.14,^[upcoming] you can also earn this by killing one of these 2 mobs. Other mobs are ignored for this advancement.	`minecraft:adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 24 mobs. In 1.14,^[upcoming] also kill each of these 2 mobs. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for the advancement.	`minecraft:adventure/kill_all_mobs`
Two Birds, One Arrow^{[upcoming 1.14]}	Kill two Phantoms with a piercing arrow	Ol' Betsy	Using a crossbow enchanted with Piercing, shoot two Phantoms with the same arrow.	`minecraft:adventure/two_birds_one_arrow`

History[edit]

Java Edition
November 1, 2017			Phantom first shown on YouTube (back then only known as Mob B and The Monster of the Night Skies).
November 14, 2017			Phantom article was published, introducing a community vote option for the phantom at MINECON Earth 2017.
November 18, 2017			The phantom wins the vote at MINECON Earth.
1.13		18w07a	Added phantoms with a placeholder drop of 1-4 leather.
		18w09a	Phantoms will now no longer spawn in the End.
		18w09a	Phantoms will now despawn at daytime.
		18w10a	The phantom's model and texture have now been changed.
		18w10c	Phantoms are now considered undead.
		18w10d	Phantoms will now burn in sunlight like most undead mobs.
		18w10d	Phantoms will now no longer despawn at daytime.
		18w14a	Phantoms will now drop 0-1 phantom membrane, instead of leather.
		18w19a	The phantom's animation has now been changed to have the wings flap quicker and smoother.
		18w19a	Phantoms will now drop experience.^[2]
		pre1	Phantoms will now have new flapping sounds.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.14		18w44a	Phantoms are now afraid of cats.
Bedrock Edition
1.6		beta 1.6.0.1	Added phantoms with the health of 10 (), with a placeholder drop of 1-4 leather.^[verify]
		beta 1.6.0.5	Phantoms will now drop phantom membranes.
			The phantom's health has now been increased from 10 () to 20 ().
			Phantoms are now considered undead mobs.
			Phantoms will now burn in direct sunlight.
			Phantoms are now able to drown.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.8		beta 1.8.0.8	Phantoms are now afraid of cats.
Legacy Console Edition
TU69	1.76	Patch 38	Added phantoms.

Issues[edit]

Issues relating to "Phantom" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[edit]

The phantom was added into the game as as result of winning the MINECON Earth mob Twitter poll as "Mob B".
Phantoms are currently the fastest non-boss mob in the game, traveling at speeds of up to 20.83 blocks per second.
At one point before the release of 18w10a, the phantom texture was made red, but it was decided that it appeared too much like a nether mob.^[1]
The phantom was originally going to have a mouth, like the sketch shown during MINECON Earth, but it was eventually scrapped because "it looked so much like a muppet".^[1]
- Even earlier designs can be seen on Minecraft's Instagram account.^[3]

Gallery[edit]

All the changes to the phantom textures and models found on the Minecraft Instagram.
A phantom flying high in the air, using an unreleased model and texture. The smoke particles beside each of its wings can be seen.
A phantom under the Invisibility effect.
Phantoms exposed to sunlight and taking fire damage.
The particles produced by the phantom's wings can be clearly seen.
The phantom's poses from Jasper Boerstra's Twitter.