Bat

For other uses, see Bat (disambiguation).
Bat

Bat JE4 BE3.gif: Infobox image for Minecraftentity Bat

Bat (Hang) JE4 BE3.png: Infobox image for Minecraftentity Bat

Invicon Bat Spawn Egg.png: Inventory sprite for Bat Spawn Egg in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Bat Spawn Egg
Health points

6HP❤️❤️❤️

Behavior

Passive

Mob type

Animal-adjacent[note 1]

Hitbox size

Height: 0.9 blocks
Width: 0.5 blocks

Spawn
  • Light level of 3 or less in neighboring blocks

A bat is a flying ambient[1] passive mob that spawns in dark areas.

Spawning

Bats can spawn in groups of 8‌[JE only] or 2‌[BE only] in the Overworld at a light level of 3 or less at any y-level, on blocks of stone, granite, diorite, andesite, tuff, or deepslate that are not directly exposed to the sky. They also need at least 1.5 air blocks (with for instance, a top trapdoor or top slab in the block above foot level). They can spawn in any Overworld biome except the deep dark.

Bat entities do not count toward the passive mob cap, as they are said to be ambient[1] creatures, and therefore fall into the dedicated ambient category.

Bat spawns in:
Category: AmbientJava EditionBedrock Edition
Spawn areaSpawn weightSpawn chanceGroup sizeSpawn weightGroup size
Bamboo Jungle10⁄10100%8102
Snowy Slopes10⁄10100%8——
Eroded Badlands10⁄10100%8102
Deep Lukewarm Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Plains10⁄10100%8102
Flower Forest10⁄10100%8——
Stony Peaks10⁄10100%8——
Dripstone Caves10⁄10100%8——
Deep Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Meadow10⁄10100%8——
Grove10⁄10100%8——
Windswept Hills10⁄10100%8102
Frozen Peaks10⁄10100%8——
Beach10⁄10100%8——
Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Snowy Beach10⁄10100%8——
Deep Frozen Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Sparse Jungle10⁄10100%8102
Birch Forest10⁄10100%8102
Frozen Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Sunflower Plains10⁄10100%8102
Lukewarm Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Deep Cold Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Taiga10⁄10100%8102
Lush Caves10⁄10100%8——
Swamp10⁄10100%8102
Jagged Peaks10⁄10100%8——
Old Growth Birch Forest10⁄10100%8102
Old Growth Spruce Taiga10⁄10100%8102
Windswept Gravelly Hills10⁄10100%8102
Savanna10⁄10100%8102
Pale Garden10⁄10100%8——
River10⁄10100%8——
Ice Spikes10⁄10100%8——
Windswept Forest10⁄10100%8102
Desert10⁄10100%8——
Badlands10⁄10100%8——
Dark Forest10⁄10100%8102
Mushroom Fields10⁄10100%8——
Windswept Savanna10⁄10100%8102
Forest10⁄10100%8102
Cherry Grove10⁄10100%8——
Jungle10⁄10100%8102
Warm Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Frozen River10⁄10100%8——
Old Growth Pine Taiga10⁄10100%8102
Mangrove Swamp10⁄10100%8102
Snowy Plains10⁄10100%8——
Savanna Plateau10⁄10100%8102
Cold Ocean10⁄10100%8——
Stony Shore10⁄10100%8——
Wooded Badlands10⁄10100%8102
Snowy Taiga10⁄10100%8102
  1. ↑ Bats are not under the animal class in the entity format, but are under the wild animals section in the spawn eggs tab in the creative inventory.

Drops

On death

Bats do not drop any items or experience upon death.

Behavior

Bats often fly around aimlessly, squeaking randomly. Their flight pattern tends to favor the east, and sometimes they may fly into lava and catch on fire.[2]

Bats hang upside down on the underside of a solid block when idle, though they cannot hang on transparent or non-solid blocks. During this state, they squeak far less and occasionally turn to face different directions. They remain in this state until they are disturbed; if a player approaches a bat hanging upside down, even if the player is invisible, it flies away. This also happens if the player breaks the block the bat is hanging from.

Bats despawn when over 32 blocks away from the player.

Bats' collision boxes do not interact with the player or redstone components‌[Java Edition only].

Bats cannot be transported by conventional means. A lead cannot be attached to a bat, and it cannot be put in a minecart or boat.

Bats can also get caught in and slowed by cobwebs.

Bats cannot breed, and baby bats do not exist.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sounds
SoundClosed captionsSourceDescriptionIdentifierTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
​Bat screechesFriendly MobsRandomly while flyingentity.bat.ambientsubtitles.entity.bat.ambient​0.10.76-1.1416
​Bat diesFriendly MobsWhen a bat diesentity.bat.deathsubtitles.entity.bat.death​0.10.76-1.1416
​Bat hurtsFriendly MobsWhen a bat is damagedentity.bat.hurtsubtitles.entity.bat.hurt​0.10.76-1.1416
None​[sound 2]​NoneUnused sound event [sound 1]entity.bat.loopNone​[sound 2]​NoneNoneNone
​Bat takes offFriendly MobsWhen a bat starts flyingentity.bat.takeoffsubtitles.entity.bat.takeoff​0.050.8-1.216
  1. ↑ MC-185413
  2. ↑ a b ​MC-177087​

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
SoundClosed captions
[upcoming: BE 26.0]
SourceDescriptionIdentifierTranslation key
[upcoming: BE 26.0]
VolumePitch
​ ?Friendly MobsRandomlymob.bat.idle​ ?0.10.76-1.14
​ ?Friendly MobsWhen a bat diesmob.bat.death​ ?0.10.76-1.14
​ ?Friendly MobsWhen a bat is damagedmob.bat.hurt​ ?0.10.76-1.14
​ ?Friendly MobsWhen a bat starts flyingmob.bat.takeoff​ ?0.050.8-1.2

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierEntity tags Translation key
EntitySprite bat.png: Sprite image for bat in Minecraft Batbatfall_damage_immune entity.minecraft.bat

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID FamilyTranslation key
EntitySprite bat.png: Sprite image for bat in Minecraft Batbat19 bat
mob
entity.bat.name

Entity data

Bats have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
    • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
    • [Byte] BatFlags: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the bat is hanging upside-down from a block, false if the bat is flying.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Achievements that apply to all mobs:

Advancements

Advancements that apply to all mobs:

History

Development

October 11, 2010Notch mentioned bats as a potential aggressive mob during the development of the Halloween Update, taking an inspiration from The Elder Scrolls' cliff racers.

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.4.212w38a Added bats.
12w42aBats no longer activate pressure plates or "trample" crops.[3]
1.4Added sounds: entity.bat.ambient, entity.bat.hurt, entity.bat.death, entity.bat.takeoff.
1.1418w43a The texture of bats has been changed.
1.1519w34aBats now take damage on magma blocks.
1.20.323w43a The model, texture and animations of the bat have been changed.
23w44a The model of the bat has been changed to match Bedrock Edition.
1.21.224w33aBats can now spawn at any height, not just below sea level, as long as it is dark enough, not directly exposed to the sky, and there is a solid block to spawn on.
24w36aBats must spawn on one of the following blocks now: stone, granite, diorite, andesite, tuff, or deepslate.
1.21.1125w44aBats can no longer spawn in light levels up to 6 between October 20 and November 3.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.11.0build 1 Added bats.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3 Changed texture.
1.20.50Preview 1.20.50.22 The model, texture and animations of the bat have been changed.
1.21.40Preview 1.21.40.22Bats can now spawn at any height, not just below sea level, as long as it is dark enough and there is a solid block to spawn on.
Bats must spawn on one of the following blocks now: stone, granite, diorite, andesite, tuff, or deepslate.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360Xbox OnePS3PS4PS VitaWii USwitch
TU19CU71.121.121.12Patch 11.0.1 Added bats.
1.90 Changed texture.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0 Added bats.

Data history

Java Edition
1.1116w32aChanged the entity ID from Bat to bat.
1.1317w47aNumeric IDs for entities were presumably deprecated in this version.​[more information needed]

Issues

Issues relating to "Bat" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

  • According to Jens Bergensten, the bat is an example of an ambient mob – a mob that constantly spawns, similar to the squid, but also constantly despawns because when a player is not around it does not serve any purpose.[1]
  • The updated texture of the bat was created in roughly 2 hours. However, the model and animations took longer.[4]
  • During Minecraft: The Island, there is a scene where Guy ends up wasting his final arrow when it accidentally hit a bat instead of a creeper during a pivotal moment. According to author Max Brooks, this was something that actually happened to him while playing.[5]

Gallery

Renders

Mojang screenshots

Screenshots

Textures

Other

In other media

References

  1. ↑ a b c "Meet the Bat" by Tom Stone – Minecraft.net, March 7, 2017.
  2. ↑ MC-194 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/0/https://www.mojang.com/2012/10/minecraft-snapshot-12w42a
  4. ↑ "The bat remodel was made in roughly 2 hours for example." – @JasperBoerstra (Jasper Boerstra) on X (formerly Twitter), January 27, 2024
  5. ↑ "The Mountain" by Alex Wiltshire – Minecraft.net, March 2, 2021.
  6. ↑ "Minecraft Java Edition 1.20.3" by Java Team – Minecraft.net, December 5, 2023.

External links

Navigation