Mob Menagerie

Normally, slimes spawn in three different sizes – small, medium and large. They hop around aimlessly until they spot a player or iron golem, at which point they hop towards it to try to envelop it within their body – their preferred hunting method.

If you don’t move out of the way in time, you’ll be knocked back a huge distance. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but the terrain you’ll tend to encounter goats in is rather precipitous, and there’s every chance you’ll be knocked off the mountain entirely. Which hurts.

If so, those hugs are brutal – wardens have the strongest melee damage of any mob in the game. They also have a sonic boom ability that goes through obstacles and is almost impossible to dodge. Perhaps we can rule out the “hug” theory.

Striders are uncommon among Nether mobs in that they’re perfectly happy outside of the Nether. You’re good to take your new friend through a portal and down to the depths of the Overworld, to skate across the lava lakes found there. Just remember to keep them out of the rain...

You’ll find glow squids in the darkest underwater areas – that means underwater ravines, the deepest parts of the ocean, and in underground lakes. They were originally created for Minecraft Earth, so we’re happy they were able to find a home in Minecraft when Earth was shut down.

Copper golems require two ingredients to build – a block of copper, and a carved pumpkin. Put the copper block down somewhere, and put the pumpkin next to it, and something remarkable will happen – you’ll get a copper chest and a copper golem. Initially, it’ll wander around aimlessly, and maybe have a look in the chest. But put some stuff in that chest, and then the magic begins.

To handle this beast, you’re gonna need some specialist equipment. A sword, ideally enchanted, is a must – you’ll also need a bow or crossbow with plenty of ammunition so you can hit it while flying. Wear your strongest armour, and bring plenty of healing items – golden apples or healing potions. You’ll also likely want to bring some empty glass bottles to collect dragon’s breath.

Bats spend most of their short lives hanging upside down from blocks, minding their own business. They’re actually very calm creatures. But if a player comes along and disturbs them they’ll get into a bit of a state, squeaking and flying around randomly until the player goes away again.

Torchflowers can be used to breed two sniffers with each other – making the process of getting more eggs a little easier. They can also be used to heal an injured sniffer, so keep that in mind if one of your creatures ends up straying too close to a creeper explosion.

I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that most ghasts are not particularly happy, so how can you cheer one up? Well, the answer is a bit involved. First, you’ll need to go to the Nether, and dig around or barter with the locals until you find a dried ghast – which is either the shrivelled up remains of an old ghast or some kind of ghast egg or something else entirely. Mojang’s top biologists are still trying to get to the bottom of that. One of our science team did find out, though, that dried ghasts can be crafted by mashing together eight ghast tears and a block of soul sand in a crafting bench. We weren’t sure whether to fire them or give them a raise after that particular discovery.