Giant

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition. 

Giants are unused, over-sized mobs that look like zombies.

Drops[]

A giant drops 5 when killed and has a chance of dropping some of its equipment if it has any.

Spawning[]

No biome includes giants on their spawn lists, so they can never spawn naturally.

Additionally, giants simultaneously require a light level greater than 11 and less than 8. This effectively makes it impossible to make them appear through monster spawners.

Giants also have no spawn egg in the creative inventory.

Commands[]

Giants can be spawned using commands such as /summon minecraft:giant.

Behavior[]

Giants are close to 12 blocks tall, and it uses a six-times-enlarged zombie model.

Because giants are not actually undead, they do not burn in sunlight and they are damaged by potions of harming. Iron golems attack giants as they attack other hostile mobs.

Giants also do not convert into drowned when submerged in water. Instead, they slowly suffocate and die.

Giants currently have no AI. The consequence of this is that they always face south when summoned, and they always stay that way, never wandering. They cannot turn their head, chase the player, or respond to damage. A giant can never receive knockback, and a giant's viewing direction can be changed only with commands or by shoving it into a minecart that faces a different direction.

Giants can move if ridden by another mob using NBT tags.

Sounds[]

Giants use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Data values[]

ID[]

Entity data[]

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

History[]

Java Edition Indev
0.31		20100205			Added giants.
					Giants act like any normal hostile mob – they walk toward the player until they are touching them. However, the giant is not able to "touch" anything unless standing on top of it, making it hard for them to do combat against opponents.
Java Edition Infdev
?					Giants have been changed to use the human skin. This is known to be present in the source code of Inf-20100316 and possibly earlier/later versions.
?					The previous change has been reverted.
Java Edition
1.0.0		RC1			The hurt sounds that giants make have been changed since they were using the same sound that is used when the player is hurt. Any physical damage now plays a "tick" sound, and damage from falling now plays sounds like that sound like bones breaking, as in previous versions, whenever the giant was damaged, they would make a deep "Ooh!" sound.
1.4.2		12w38a			The hurt sounds for giants have been changed once again as a result of the player hurt sounds changing.
1.7.2		13w36a			Giants can now be spawned without mods by using the new /summon command.
1.8		14w06a			Armor on giants is now rendered. This originated from a bug in 14w05a, which caused all mobs to render worn armor. In repairing this bug, Grum has now allowed giants to render armor.
					Giants' AI has been removed.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID of giants has been changed from Giant to giant like with all other entities in this version.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of giants have been changed as a result of the zombie texture change.
		18w50a			Giants now use zombie AI (for instance, they move and burn in sunlight) and NBT data.
					Giants now have the zombie hurt sound effect.
					Giants no longer have the player hurt sound effect.
					Giants now move twice as fast as zombies and burn in the sun.
					Giants now attack and infect villagers.
					Giants now also have a baby variant.
					Giants now also have a chicken jockey variant.
		19w03a			The giant changes in snapshot 18w50a have been reverted.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1				Added giants.
					Giants cannot be spawned without modifying the game.

Issues[]

Giants are an unsupported mob and as such issues relating to them may not be fixed.

Trivia[]

• Because giants need to have a light level both less than 8 and greater than 11 to spawn, they don't spawn from monster spawners. However, this spawn condition can be bypassed with a custom monster spawner, if it attempts to spawn an entity with valid spawn conditions riding a giant.
• If the player names a giant using a name tag, its name appears inside its head.
• Changes made to the zombie model (for example, using a resource pack) change the giant's as well.
• Notch mentioned Giant Zombies as a suggestion for a prefix mob along with other examples: "Burning Spider" and "Cobble Creeper" in a Bro-craft stream.
• Notch removed the giants spawning capabilities because "they are too overpowered". He did not remove them entirely because "they are just too cool to remove".
• If a giant is riding a minecart, it hovers way above it.
• If a mob is riding a giant, unless it's a large slime or magma cube, a ghast, or the ender dragon, it is hidden inside the giant's head.
• Players are unable to attack a giant's head and torso unless they are positioned near the bottom of the giant. Projectiles such as arrows can hit these areas as normal.
• Giants, being capable of dealing 26 × 13 to 75 × 37.5, and having 100 × 50 health, are capable of killing players without armor in one hit even in Easy difficulty.
• Killing a giant cannot give the player the Monster Hunter Advancement.

Gallery[]

• 

  A giant next to a normal size zombie.

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  A giant "riding" a minecart.

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  A giant in a cave.

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  Two giants summoned wearing equipment.

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  A giant burning in a pool of lava.

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  A giant getting damaged by a splash potion of harming.

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  A giant in the middle of a plains biome.

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  A giant monster spawner.

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  In 18w50a, a giant using the zombie AI.

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  A giant that spawned with a chainmail helmet and an iron shovel spawned in 18w50a.

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  A giant mob being seen from a player.

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  A giant and an iron golem.