Spider

Health points	16 ()
Attack strength	Easy: 2 () Normal: 2 () Hard: 3 ()
Size	Height: 0.9 Blocks Width: 1.4 Blocks
Spawn	Light level of 7 or less, 3×3×2 space on solid blocks (spawns only on top of the central block). Top half of space may be occupied by transparent blocks (glass, etc.).
First appearances	See History
Common drops	String (0–2)
Uncommon drops	Spider Eye (¹⁄₃ chance) when killed by the player
Experience	5
Sounds	Idle/Hurt Step Death
Internal ID	JE: 52 BE: 35
Entity ID	spider

This article is about regular spiders. For venomous dark-blue spiders found in abandoned mineshafts, see Cave Spider. For the Spider being ridden by a Skeleton, see Spider Jockey.

Spiders are common neutral mobs that have the unique ability to climb walls.

Spawning[edit]

Spiders spawn in the Overworld in 3×3×2 space on solid block(s) (they only need 1 solid block beneath) at a light level of 7 or less, in groups of 4. The top blocks can be transparent, but not solid.

In Bedrock Edition, leaves may spawn one spider provided that there are 3×3×2 spaces around it, therefore, forested biomes have a greater amount of spiders.

Spider spawning on 1 block.

Monster spawners[edit]

Spiders have a 25% chance to spawn from monster spawners found in dungeons. They will also spawn from monster spawners in rare hidden rooms in woodland mansions.

Potion effects[edit]

Java Edition and Legacy Console Edition only

On hard difficulty, spiders will occasionally spawn with potion effects. For each pack spawn, there is a (10×clamped regional difficulty)% chance that the game will attempt to apply a status effect. If it decides to do so, then it selects the effect. The spider can spawn with following effects:

Speed (40% chance)
Strength (20% chance)
Regeneration (20% chance)
Invisibility (20% chance)

The effect is then applied to all entities within the pack for the maximum amount of time possible.

This does not apply to cave spiders.

Drops[edit]

Spiders drop upon death:

0-2
Strings
Spider Eye (⅓ chance if killed by a player or tamed wolf , and ½ / ⅔ / ¾ chance with Looting I/II/III).
5 experience orbs if killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Behavior[edit]

Spiders are hostile to the player and to iron golems as long as the light level immediately around them is 11 or less; otherwise they will not attack unless a player attacks first. Hostile spiders will continue to chase the player even if they are exposed to well-lit locations. If a spider sustains damage from a source other than a direct attack from the player, such as falling, its hostility will be reset.

Spiders can climb up over walls and other obstacles. If a spider cannot find an ideal path to the player (when a player goes behind or on top of a wall), it will get as close as it can to the player's position from the outside or below, and proceed to climb the wall vertically until it gets to the top, even if it loses its aggression towards the player. Additionally, when a spider loses its aggression on the player, it will continue moving forward blindly for about two seconds. This behavior causes the spider to climb up any walls in its path. If a spider tries to go through the world border, it will start climbing the world border instead.

If shot from distance with an arrow when outside detection range, spiders will turn and run in the direction the arrow was fired, essentially towards the player. If the player moves away, the spider will still follow the same path unless the player enters detection range, then the spider will change direction and attack.

While not poisonous themselves, spiders are unaffected by the poison status effect.

Spiders will jump around when attacking, similarly to wolves. Spiders do a flip and land on their backs when they die, unlike most mobs (which land on their sides). At close range, spiders will pounce their attackers. While in water, a spider that is swimming in is only 1 block deep, they will pounce nearby enemies upon touching the submerged floor.

If a splash potion of Invisibility is thrown at the spider, its body will vanish but its eyes will remain visible.

Spiders, being arthropods, are weak against weapons with the Bane of Arthropods enchantment.

Variants[edit]

Spider jockeys[edit]

Main article: Spider Jockey

There is a 1% chance that a spider will spawn with a skeleton riding it, forming a spider jockey. In the Nether, a spider (spawned with a spawn egg, commands or mob spawners, since these do not naturally spawn there) has a 0.8% to spawn a wither skeleton on its back and form a wither jockey instead. In snowy biomes, a spider has a 0.8% to spawn a stray on its back and form a stray jockey instead. A spider jockey can also be spawned by the command /summon spider ~ ~ ~ {Passengers: [{id:skeleton}]}.

A spider jockey.

Spider jockey spawning with skeletons head in glass.

Data values[edit]

See also: Chunk format

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

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template

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. 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. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for the advancement.	`minecraft:adventure/kill_all_mobs`

Video[edit]

History[edit]

The original brown spider.

Classic
October 23, 2009				Spiders were proposed in a blog post, where they would produce "web tiles".
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST				Officially added spiders, the second mob added in Survival Test.
0.27 SURVIVAL TEST				Spiders were originally brown in early development (changed to the current texture because of a suggestion from a user on the TIGSource forums^[1]). They did not jump as far (compared to their range in the Beta update) and killing them gave the player 105 points. Their eyes also did not glow^[verify].
Indev
February 19, 2010				Spiders now drop 0 - 2 string upon death.
Alpha
v1.0.17				Added spider jockeys - skeletons spawned riding spiders.
Beta
1.2				Spiders were given the ability to climb vertical walls made of any block and could "see" the player through solid blocks to track them down (Creepers used to have this ability before it was transferred to the Spiders).
1.4				Spiders stopped trampling crops,^[2] and making step sounds (or the step sounds were much quieter).^[3]
Java Edition
1.3.1			?	Spiders now become aggressive towards the last mob or player that hit them.
1.4.2			12w39a	Spiders were given a new walking sound.
1.6.1			13w24a	Spiders have a chance to spawn with the Swiftness, Strength, Regeneration, or Invisibility status effects on Hard difficulty.
1.7.2			1.7-pre	Spiders are no longer provoked when attacked by the player in Creative mode.
1.8			14w06a	Spiders can no longer see the player through blocks, and have been updated to the new AI system, including AI specially made for spiders, allowing them to better take control of their climbing ability.
1.8			14w11a	Now run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.8.1			pre1	No longer run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.9			15w36a	Spiders can draw line of sight through blocks again.
1.11			16w32a	Changed entity ID from `Spider` to `spider`.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.3.3				Added spiders.
0.7.3				The eyes on spiders now glow in the dark.
0.9.0			build 1	Leaves will now have a chance to spawn spiders, creating a higher amount of spiders in tree-rich biomes at night. (version exclusive)
			build 1	Updated spider AI.
			build 4	The animation for spiders is now twice as fast.
0.9.2				Spiders no longer draw a line of sight through solid blocks.
0.11.0			build 1	Added spider jockeys - skeletons spawned riding spiders.
0.12.1			build 1	Spiders now drop spider eyes.
0.14.0			build 1	Baby zombie jockeys will now check for nearby spiders to mount prior to attacking the player.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	Added spiders.
TU14	CU1	1.04	Patch 1	Spiders become aggressive towards the last mob or player that hit them now.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3	Spiders can no longer see the player through blocks, and have been updated to the new AI system, including AI specially made for spiders, allowing them to better take control of their climbing ability.

Issues[edit]

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

Gallery[edit]

A spider.
Spiders are one of the most visible mobs at night due to their glowing red eyes.
Spiders climbing into each other.
A view of a spider from below.
Spider shot by skeleton.
A spider that spawned with the Swiftness potion effect
A spider that naturally spawned with an invisibility potion effect.
A spider in a 1.5×1.5 space.
A spider's vision when spectating it.
Spiders can even climb soul sand.