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Entities are stored in the entities folder of respective dimension folders. It is stored like regional Minecraft Anvil files, which are named in the form r.x.z.mca.

Folder Structure[]

  • (world save directory)
    • entities
      • r.x.z.mca
    • DIM-1
      • entities
        • r.x.z.mca
    • DIM1
      • entities
        • r.x.z.mca

NBT Structure[]

Every entity is an unnamed  TAG_Compound contained in the Entities list of a chunk file. The sole exception is the Player entity, stored in level.dat, or in <player>.dat files on servers.

  • The root tag.
    •  DataVersion: Version of the chunk data.
    •  Position: Position of this chunk.
      • : X coordinate.
      • : Z coordinate.
    •  Entities: All the entities. Each TAG_Compound in this list defines an entity in this chunk.

Entity Format[]

All entities are with the following structure:

  • Entity data
    •  Air: How much air the entity has, in ticks. Decreases by 1 per tick when unable to breathe (except suffocating in a block). Increase by 1 per tick when it can breathe. If -20 while still unable to breathe, the entity loses 1 health and its air is reset to 0. Most mobs can have a maximum of 300 in air, while dolphins can reach up to 4800, and axolotls have 6000.
    •  CustomName: The custom name JSON text component of this entity. Appears in player death messages and villager trading interfaces, as well as above the entity when the player's cursor is over it. May be empty or not exist. Cannot be removed using the data remove command,[1] but setting it to an empty string has the same effect.
    •  CustomNameVisible: 1 or 0 (true/false) - if true, and this entity has a custom name, the name always appears above the entity, regardless of where the cursor points. If the entity does not have a custom name, a default name is shown. May not exist.
    •  FallDistance: Distance the entity has fallen. Larger values cause more damage when the entity lands.
    •  Fire: Number of ticks until the fire is put out. Negative values reflect how long the entity can stand in fire before burning. Default -20 when not on fire.
    •  Glowing: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the entity has a glowing outline.
    •  HasVisualFire: 1 or 0 (true/false) - if true, the entity visually appears on fire, even if it is not actually on fire.
    •  id: String representation of the entity's ID. Does not exist for the Player entity.
    •  Invulnerable: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the entity should not take damage. This applies to living and nonliving entities alike: mobs should not take damage from any source (including potion effects), and cannot be moved by fishing rods, attacks, explosions, or projectiles, and objects such as vehicles and item frames cannot be destroyed unless their supports are removed. Invulnerable player entities are also ignored by any hostile mobs. Note that these entities can be damaged by players in Creative mode.
    •  Motion: 3 TAG_Doubles describing the current dX, dY and dZ velocity of the entity in meters per tick.
    •  NoGravity: 1 or 0 (true/false) - if true, the entity does not fall down naturally. Set to true by striders in lava.
    •  OnGround: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the entity is touching the ground.
    •  Passengers: The data of the entity(s) that is riding this entity. Note that both entities control movement and the topmost entity controls spawning conditions when created by a mob spawner.
      • : The same as this format (recursive).
        • Tags common to all entities
        • Tags unique to this passenger entity.
    •  PortalCooldown: The number of ticks before which the entity may be teleported back through a nether portal. Initially starts at 300 ticks (15 seconds) after teleportation and counts down to 0.
    •  Pos: 3 TAG_Doubles describing the current X, Y and Z position of the entity.
    •  Rotation: Two TAG_Floats representing rotation in degrees.
      • The entity's rotation around the Y axis (called yaw). Values vary from -180 (facing due north) to -90 (facing due east) to 0 (facing due south) to +90 (facing due west) to +180 (facing due north again).[2]
      • The entity's declination from the horizon (called pitch). Horizontal is 0. Positive values look downward. Does not exceed positive or negative 90 degrees.
    •  Silent: 1 or 0 (true/false) - if true, this entity is silenced. May not exist.
    •  Tags: List of scoreboard tags of this entity.
    •  TicksFrozen: Optional. How many ticks the entity has been freezing. Although this tag is defined for all entities, it is actually only used by mobs that are not in the freeze_immune_entity_types entity type tag. Ticks up by 1 every tick while in powder snow, up to a maximum of 300 (15 seconds), and ticks down by 2 while out of it.
    •  UUID: This entity's Universally Unique IDentifier. The 128-bit UUID is stored as four 32-bit integers, ordered from most to least significant.

Mobs[]

Mob Entities
Entity ID Name
allay Allay
axolotl Axolotl
bat Bat
bee Bee
blaze Blaze
cat Cat
cave_spider Cave Spider
chicken Chicken
cod Cod
cow Cow
creeper Creeper
dolphin Dolphin
donkey Donkey
drowned Drowned
elder_guardian Elder Guardian
ender_dragon Ender Dragon
enderman Enderman
endermite Endermite
evoker Evoker
fox Fox
frog Frog
ghast Ghast
giant Giant
glow_squid Glow Squid
goat Goat
guardian Guardian
hoglin Hoglin
horse Horse
husk Husk
illusioner Illusioner
iron_golem Iron Golem
llama Llama
magma_cube Magma Cube
mooshroom Mooshroom
mule Mule
ocelot Ocelot
panda Panda
parrot Parrot
phantom Phantom
pig Pig
piglin Piglin
piglin_brute Piglin Brute
pillager Pillager
polar_bear Polar Bear
pufferfish Pufferfish
rabbit Rabbit
ravager Ravager
salmon Salmon
sheep Sheep
shulker Shulker
silverfish Silverfish
skeleton Skeleton
skeleton_horse Skeleton Horse
slime Slime
snow_golem Snow Golem
spider Spider
strider Strider
squid Squid
stray Stray
tadpole Tadpole
trader_llama Trader Llama[Java Edition only]
tropical_fish Tropical Fish
turtle Turtle
vex Vex
villager Villager
villager_v2 Villager[Bedrock Edition only]
vindicator Vindicator
wandering_trader Wandering Trader
warden Warden
witch Witch
wither Wither
wither_skeleton Wither Skeleton
wolf Wolf
zoglin Zoglin
zombie Zombie
zombie_horse Zombie Horse
zombie_villager Zombie Villager
zombie_villager_v2 Zombie Villager[Bedrock Edition only]
zombified_piglin Zombified Piglin

Mobs are a subclass of Entity with additional tags to store their health, attacking/damaged state, potion effects, and more depending on the mob. Players are a subclass of Mob.

Projectiles[]

Projectile Entities
Entity ID Name
arrow Arrow
dragon_fireball Ender Dragon Fireball
egg Egg
ender_pearl Ender Pearl
experience_bottle Bottle o' Enchanting
fireball Fireball
firework_rocket Firework Rocket
llama_spit Llama spit
potion Splash Potion
small_fireball Small Fireball
shulker_bullet Shulker Bullet
snowball Snowball
spectral_arrow Spectral Arrow[Java Edition only]
trident Trident
wither_skull Wither Skull

Projectiles are a subclass of Entity.

Items and XP Orbs[]

Item Entities
Entity ID Name
experience_orb Experience Orb
item Item

Items and XPOrbs are a subclass of Entity.

Vehicles[]

Vehicle Entities
Entity ID Name
boat Boat
chest_boat Boat with Chest
minecart Minecart
chest_minecart Minecart with Chest
command_block_minecart Minecart with Command Block
furnace_minecart Minecart with Furnace
hopper_minecart Minecart with Hopper
spawner_minecart Minecart with Spawner
tnt_minecart Minecart with TNT

Vehicles are subclasses of Entity.

Dynamic tiles[]

Dynamic Block Entities
Entity ID Name
falling_block Dynamic Tile
tnt TNT

Dynamic tiles are a subclass of Entity and are used to simulate realistically moving blocks.

Other[]

Other Entities
Entity ID Name
area_effect_cloud Area Effect Cloud
armor_stand Armor Stand
end_crystal End Crystal
evoker_fangs Evoker Fangs
eye_of_ender Eye of Ender
fishing_bobber Fishing Bobber
item_frame Item Frame
leash_knot Lead Knot
lightning_bolt Lightning Bolt
marker Marker
painting Painting

Other entity types that are a subclass of Entity but do not fit into any of the above categories.

History[]

Java Edition
1.1720w45aEntities have been extracted from main (terrain) chunks and are now stored in separate entities directory (similar to POI storage). Those new files are still region files with NBT.
1.1922w11aThe Id tag for each effect in a mob's ActiveEffects tag is now a  TAG_Integer instead of a  TAG_Byte.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.20.223w32aIn NBT format for entity type mooshroom, removed EffectId, and EffectDuration, and added stew_effects, with the same format as effects field in suspicious_stew item format.
In NBT format for entity type area_effect_cloud, renamed Effects to effects.
In NBT format for entity type arrow, renamed CustomPotionEffects to custom_potion_effects.
In NBT format for living entities (players, armor stands, and all mobs), renamed ActiveEffects to active_effects.
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