Spawn Egg

A spawn egg is an item used to instantly spawn mobs.

Obtaining

Spawn eggs can be obtained only in Creative mode or using commands. In Creative mode, the player can press on an existing mob to obtain their respective egg. , spawn eggs have their own tab in the Creative inventory, while , they are grouped at the bottom of the Nature tab. There are 87 spawn eggs in Java Edition and 91 spawn eggs in Bedrock Edition. Wither and ender dragon spawn eggs can only be obtained with commands such as . In Bedrock Edition, the agent and NPC spawn eggs may be obtained with an alias ID (see the table below), spawn_egg amount 56 and spawn_egg amount 51 respectively. Invalid alias IDs yield a generic item.spawn_egg.name instead, which uses the old chicken spawn egg texture and has no effect.

Usage

A spawn egg is used by pressing on any surface (top, bottom, or side) with the egg. When used on a top surface, the egg's mob appears with its feet immediately adjacent to the surface, and its ambient sound is played. Spawn eggs are not thrown (unlike normal eggs); the player must be within normal range of the block to use the spawn egg. All monster mobs (except undead animals, shulkers, piglins, hoglins and ender dragons) spawned while on Peaceful difficulty get created and immediately deleted from the world. The surfaces of blocks are prioritized for spawning; if none are within reach, mobs can also be spawned in water or lava sources.

Dispensers

A spawn egg fired from a dispenser spawns the mob directly in front of the dispenser. The spawn egg is consumed when fired.

Baby mobs

If the player a spawn egg on the type of mob it spawns, and that mob has a baby form, the egg spawns a baby version of the mob. For instance, using a sheep spawn egg on a sheep makes a baby sheep with the same wool color.

Monster spawners

All spawn eggs can also be on a monster spawner or trial spawner to change the mob that spawns. , spawn eggs for any of the fish mobs spawn them only if the monster spawner is waterlogged.

Renaming

A spawn egg can be renamed on an anvil, and when used it spawns a mob with that name appearing over its head, similar to a mob that has been named with a name tag. Unlike a name tag, this method of naming does not prevent hostile mobs from despawning. The mob's name can be seen only by aiming at the mob from four or fewer blocks away. This name also appears in death messages from the mob killing a player. Certain names have special effects on mobs, and so a spawn egg with the name will spawn a mob with the effect. A rabbit spawn egg named "Toast" will spawn a rabbit with the secret skin. A spawn egg named "Dinnerbone" or "Grumm" spawns a mob that appears upside down. A vindicator from a spawn egg named "Johnny" acts hostile to all mobs except for other illagers. A sheep from a spawn egg named "jeb_" appears to change colors over time; this doesn't affect the color of the wool the sheep drops.