Moon

The moon is a celestial body that appears in the night sky.

Nighttime[]

Nighttime begins after the sun has fully set in the west and the moon has risen in the east. As time passes, the moon moves westward across the sky. Overall, nighttime lasts about 7 minutes (in real-time). Players can track the moon's position in the sky using a clock.

During the night, the moon illuminates the surface in the same manner as the sun; however, light levels fall to a minimum of four.

Grass blocks and saplings do not grow in moonlight, nor do they decay. To grow them at night requires the use of light sources such as torches. On the other hand, crops continue to grow.

Nighttime can be skipped entirely using a bed, provided there are no monsters nearby.

Stars[]

Together with the moon, the night sky also consists of stars. Stars appear as bright points, and the starfield rotates with the moon, rising in the east and descending in the west, as the night progresses.

Phases[]

The Moon is always opposite of the Sun, but still goes through eight lunar phases, and changes phase at the end of every sunrise. This allows the player to keep rough track of the passage of time, even after spending a few game days underground.

The phases of the moon are (in chronological order as they appear in-game):

Full moon
Waning gibbous
Last quarter
Waning crescent
New moon
Waxing crescent
First quarter
Waxing gibbous

The pixels of the first quarter phase moon and waxing gibbous moon presents a more rounded, organic shape than the corresponding waning phase moons that present a more squared-off appearance. This can help a player in timing a slime hunt in a swamp (see below).

There is no explicit command to change the moon's phase, but using /time add 24000 advances time by one day toward the next phase. To go back one phase, using /time add 168000 advances time by 7 days, which is one full lunar cycle minus one moon phase.

There is an equation to calculate which moon phase it will be, on any given day in Minecraft: phase = (day mod 8) + 1. The day can be found in the F3 screen, and the phase will match to the list shown above.

Effects on mobs[]

SlimesAtNight — Slimes spawning in a swamp during the full moon (view of eastern sky; moon rising)

The phase of the moon has three subtle effects on mob spawning:

The number of slimes that spawn in swamps is proportional to the moon's fullness: They are most numerous during the full moon and none spawn during the new moon. (The moon's phase does not influence the normal spawning of slimes in designated chunks at altitudes below y=40.)
The fuller the moon, the higher the chance skeletons and zombies have the ability to pick up items and spawn with weapons and armor. Furthermore, there is a higher chance for their equipment to be enchanted, and if it is, the enchantment levels are higher. A fuller moon also gives spiders a greater chance to spawn with random beneficial status effects, including invisibility‌^{[Java Edition only]}. All of these effects combine with the world's difficulty, and higher difficulty levels increase the chance of mob buffs.
During a full moon, 50% of cats spawn as black.

History[]

Java Edition Indev
20100211		Added day/night cycle with the addition of the sun and the moon.
Java Edition
1.0.0	Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4	The moon now rises in the east instead of the north.^[1]
	Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4	Added eight lunar phases to the moon. The moon was changed from being square to having a more rounded look to it.^[2]^[3]
	Beta 1.9 Prerelease 6	Moon is reverted back to original square form and lunar phases converted to square form.
1.3.1	12w21a	Updated stars texture. They are now smaller and brighter.
1.5	13w02a	Previously, the moon graphics used to be in /terrain in the minecraft.jar. They are now contained in /environment.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.7.3		Added moon and stars.
v0.10.0	build 1	The night sky is now dark blue instead of black. (version exclusive)
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		The sun, moon, and stars now rise in the east and set in the west. Previously, they rose in the north.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

One Minecraft lunar cycle (from full moon to full moon) takes 2 hours and 40 minutes of playtime. This means there are approximately 9 lunar cycles in one real-world day (24 hours) of play.
Unlike the real-world moon, the Minecraft moon is fixed in the sky relative to the stars, and always opposite to the sun. Therefore, solar eclipses are impossible in Minecraft, and lunar phases should be impossible, but its phases appear as if lit from the north or south.
Standing or flying at a height above the terrain of approximately 1.4× the render distance, the sun appears opposite to the moon in the sky, making it seem almost as if the player is in space.
The star pattern is based on a seed, but not the current world's seed. Like the bedrock pattern, the stars are always based on the same seed, regardless of the world seed.
There is a patch of the full moon that is off color, being 606978 instead of 60687A. This can be found 1 4x4 patch above the bottom right corner.

Gallery[]

The separate moon phases in Minecraft.^[4] (viewed in the eastern sky; rising)
The full moon and the stars in the night sky.
Moonrise in the forest.
The moon shines through the trees of a dark forest.
A crescent moon rises over the hills.
The moon peeks through the opening of a cave.
The separate moon phases in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4 and Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5.
Alex, Efe, and a cat during a full moon.^[5]