Axolotl

An axolotl is a passive bucketable aquatic mob found in lush caves that also kills, but it only kills fish, not any players. The Axolotl can also assist players with aquatic combat and grant them Regeneration.

Spawning

Axolotls spawn underwater in the lush caves biome and when there is a clay block less than five blocks below the spawning space.

Colors

Axolotls can be one of five colors: pink (leucistic), brown (wild), gold, cyan and blue.

When breeding Axolotls, there is a ¹⁄₁₂₀₀ (0.083%) chance of the offspring having the blue mutation, leaving ¹¹⁹⁹⁄₁₂₀₀ (99.917%) chance of matching one of the parents (including blue parents).

Pose	Color
	Leucistic	Wild	Gold	Cyan	Blue
Ground crawling
Ground stationary
Swimming
Water stationary
Animation	Color
	Leucistic	Wild	Gold	Cyan	Blue
Ground crawling

Behavior

Axolotls are passive toward players and can be attached to leads. Axolotls give Regeneration I for 100 game ticks (5 seconds) per Axolotl in the fight, up to a duration of 2400 game ticks (2 minutes)‌^{[Java Edition only]}, and remove Mining Fatigue when a player kills a mob that is in combat with an axolotl.

Axolotls attack all aquatic mobs except turtles, dolphins, frogs and other axolotls. They also attack the drowned. An axolotl deals 2 points of damage per attack. However, axolotls do not attack the player.

After killing a non-hostile mob, there is a two minute cooldown before another non-hostile mob can be hunted. Axolotls prioritize attacking hostile mobs over non-hostile mobs.

If an axolotl takes damage underwater, it may play dead, dropping to the ground for 200 game ticks (10 seconds) while gaining Regeneration I. Hostile aquatic mobs ignore healing axolotls. There is a ¹⁄₃ chance for an axolotl to play dead to recover 4. In addition, if either a random integer from 0–2 (inclusive) is less than the amount of incoming damage, or the axolotl's health before the damage is dealt is less than 50% of its maximum health, it plays dead.

Axolotls can leave the water and wander about on land. When an axolotl leaves the water, it wanders as far as 8 or 9 blocks beyond the water's edge before returning to the water, as long as there is water at least 2 blocks deep within 16 blocks of the axolotl. If 2-block-deep water is outside this range, the axolotl can wander off randomly on land in search of more deep water, and die after 6000 game ticks (5 minutes) exposure out of water. Axolotls are not attracted to shallow (1 block deep) water. They require water at least 2 blocks deep within 16 blocks to pathfind to the water.^[1]

Axolotls can also die out of water as passengers in a boat. Unlike fish, dolphins, and squid, axolotls do not die on land in rain or in a thunderstorm.

Unlike most mobs, axolotls cannot be moved by flowing water. However, they are still affected by bubble columns.

As aquatic mobs, they take extra damage from the Impaling enchantment.‌^{[Java Edition only]}‌^{[until JE Edition Combat Tests]} Unlike other aquatic mobs, they cause nearby pufferfish to inflate.

Axolotls picked up with a water bucket and re-spawned do not despawn.

Axolotls can be renamed by placing a bucket of axolotl into an anvil, the same as if renaming any other item.

Breeding

Adult axolotls can be led and bred with buckets of tropical fish. After breeding, a baby axolotl spawns and 1–7 experience is generated. The parents cannot be bred again for 5 minutes in Java Edition or 1 minute in Bedrock Edition. The baby axolotl has a ¹⁄₁₂₀₀ chance to be the rare blue variant; otherwise, it inherits the color of one parent at random. Babies follow adults, and grow to adulthood in 20 minutes. The growth of baby axolotls can be accelerated using buckets of tropical fish; each use reduces the remaining growing time by 10%.

Sounds

Java Edition:
Axolotls use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data

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

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Color	Data value
	0
	1
	2
	3
	4

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Husbandry	Breed a pair of any of these 25 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Trader Llama Turtle Wolf A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/breed_an_animal
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed a pair of each of these 24 mobs: Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Turtle Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.	husbandry/bred_all_animals
	The Cutest Predator	Catch an Axolotl in a Bucket	Tactical Fishing	Use a water bucket on an axolotl.	husbandry/axolotl_in_a_bucket
	The Healing Power of Friendship!	Team up with an axolotl and win a fight	The Cutest Predator	Have the Regeneration effect applied from assisting an axolotl or it killing a mob.	husbandry/kill_axolotl_target

History

Java Edition
October 3, 2020					Axolotls are announced at Minecraft Live 2020.
					They are shown to spawn in lush caves biomes.
October 3, 2020					An unreleased[2] green variant was shown at the Minecraft Live 2020 recap, which was not shown on the live event.
1.17		20w51a			Added axolotls.
					When an axolotl is held with a lead on the ground, it begins walking at an exaggeratedly fast speed.[3]
		21w03a			Axolotls attack glow squids.
		21w13a			The texture of the axolotls for four variants except the brown one has been changed.
					Axolotls now spawn naturally underwater in caves.
		21w18a			The lucy texture have been changed from to to remove the unused open mouth.
		21w20a			Axolotls now play dead only when in water.
					Axolotls can no longer be fed tropical fish.
		Pre-release 3			Axolotls now spawn only in total darkness and where there's a block with base_stone_overworld tag less than 5 blocks below the spawning space.
1.17.1		Pre-release 1			Blue axolotls no longer naturally spawn, and can be obtained only through breeding.
1.18		1.18 Experimental Snapshot 1			Axolotls now spawn only in lush caves.
		21w37a			Axolotls now have their own mob cap, separate from glow squids.
					Axolotls now avoid lava.[4]
		21w40a			Axolotls now only spawn when there is a clay block less than five blocks below the spawning space.
		Pre-release 5			The brown axolotl texture has been changed from to , to solve the issue of its off-centered back.
1.19		22w11a			Axolotls can now attack tadpoles.
Bedrock Edition
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.52			Added axolotls behind the "Caves and Cliffs" experimental toggle.
		beta 1.17.0.50			Axolotls now spawn naturally in underground water sources.
					Axolotls no longer get a regeneration effect after killing a mob on their own.
		beta 1.17.0.52			Axolotls now spawn in any biome and up to Y-63 instead of Y-30.
					Axolotls are now available without enabling experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.17.0.56			The texture of the axolotls for all variants except the brown one has been changed.
					Axolotls no longer attack invisible mobs.
1.17.10		beta 1.17.10.22			Axolotls now spawn only in complete darkness.
1.17.30		beta 1.17.20.22			Axolotls now spawn only where there is a stone block less than 10 blocks below the spawning space.
					With experimental gameplay enabled, axolotls spawn only in lush caves.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.20			Axolotls now spawn only in lush caves by default without enabling experimental gameplay.
		beta 1.18.0.21			Axolotls now only spawn when there is a clay block less than five blocks below the spawning space.
		beta 1.18.0.24			Axolotls more frequently spawn in lush caves.
1.18.10		beta 1.18.10.24			Axolotls can now attack tadpoles behind the "Wild Update" experimental toggle.

Issues

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

Trivia

• In the release notes Minecraft Launcher there is an encrypted message T⍑ᒷ ᔑ ̇/𝙹ꖎ𝙹ℸ ̣ ꖎᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ∴⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ᓭᒷᒷᒲ, which translates to "The Axolotls are not what they seem".
• Axolotls are small salamanders that are endemic to Mexico, which are critically endangered; following Mojang Studios' trend of adding endangered species such as polar bears, giant pandas (no longer endangered as of 2022), sea turtles, and bees to the game in order to raise awareness among players.^[5][6]
• The probability of a blue axolotl spawning is 1 in 1200 because that is approximately the number of axolotls left in the wild in real life.^[7]
• Axolotls can eat only buckets of tropical fish and not tropical fish items because axolotls in real life eat only living fish.^[7]
• Even though they are not in the game, the green variant appears in the Caves & Cliffs: Part I announcement trailer and caves and cliffs recap.^[8] When asked on a livestream, Agnes said she cannot say why the green variant was cut from the game.^[9]
• Both the "play dead" behavior and the regeneration ability of axolotls are based on the abilities of real life axolotls, who fake their death in the face of a predator or a threat. ^[7]
• Because real axolotls don't actually vocalize, the sounds of axolotls were recorded from the incidental "hiccups" and "burps" real axolotls occasionally make when surfacing, as well as heavily edited dog sounds.^[10]

Gallery

Animations

• 

  An axolotl playing dead.

• 

  An axolotl swimming.

• 

  An axolotl walking underwater.

• 

  An axolotl walking in land.

• 

  An axolotl idling.

• 

  An axolotl idling in underwater floor.

• 

  An axolotl underwater.

Screenshots

• 

  All current axolotl variants. From left to right: blue, cyan, gold, brown, and leucistic.

• 

  A baby axolotl on the side of a group.

• 

  Three axolotls attacking a glow squid underwater.

• 

  All 5 types of axolotls swim in a lush cave.

Development images

• 

  Multiple axolotls in a lush cave.

• 

  Early axolotls attacking an elder guardian.

• 

  A group of Axolotls assisting the player in hunting an Elder Guardian.

• 

  Axolotl variants from development, including unreleased green one.

• 

  The pose of the no-pose in development.

• 

  An axolotl playing dead in development.

• 

  Buckets of axolotl and powder snow in item frames.

• 

  Buckets of axolotl and powder snow in item frames.

• 

  A screenshot showcasing the addition of axolotls in 20w51a. A sculk sensor can also be seen.

• 

  Axolotls as seen during Minecraft Live 2020.

• 

  Axolotls underwater.

• 

  Axolotls breeding.

Concept artwork

• 

  Concept art depicting other iterations for legs and frills, along with the unimplemented "suction" behavior.

• 

  "Axolotl Patterns" - Grayscale art of unimplemented axolotl patterns.

• 

  "Axolotl Colors" 1 - Sketches for other axolotl colors.

• 

  "Axolotl Colors" 2 - Flipped gold axolotl depicting a concept for its belly.

• 

  "Axolotl Possible Combinations" - The unimplemented patterns mixed with various axolotl colors.

• 

  Iterations of legs tested on the model.

• 

  Other iterations of legs tested on the model.

• 

  "Having Fun!" - A group of axolotls swimming.

• 

  "Cutie in a Bucket" - concept art for the bucket of axolotl.

• 

  "Axolotl & Warden" - Sketches of the axolotl and warden.

• 

  "Scale of Cuteness" - sketches of the axolotl, goat, and warden.

• 

  An axolotl.

• 

  An axolotl crying.

In other media

• 

  An Axolotl in promotional artwork for the Caves & Cliffs: Part I update.

• 

  An axolotl in promotional artwork for the Caves & Cliffs: Part II update.

• 

  An axolotl in promotional artwork for the GOAT Update.

• 

  Axolotls in promotional artwork for Mobile, Multiplayer & More.

• 

  Official axolotl artwork.

• 

  All 5 variants of axolotls swimming.

• 

  The green axolotl in the Caves & Cliffs: Part I trailer.

• 

  An axolotl as it appears on the cover of Minecraft Legends: Return of the Piglins.

• 

  Axolotl plushie.

• 

  Lego Minecraft Axolotl.

• 

  An official axolotl beanie.

• 

  An officially licensed T-Shirt featuring outliens of three axolotls.

Textures

References