Small Fireball

A small fireball is a projectile produced by ranged attack of blazes, and by fire charges when shot from dispensers.

Behavior[]

If a small fireball hits a block, fire is placed at that location if possible. It produces no explosive effect. Small fireballs can light campfires and nether portals and can prime minecarts with TNT.

If it hits an entity that is not immune to fire and does not have the Fire Resistance effect, the entity takes 5 of projectile damage regardless of difficulty level. The target is set on fire for 5 seconds, which does an additional 4 fire damage over time; it can deal up to 9 damage from these combined effects.

A small fireball cannot be deflected by melee attacks or arrows, unlike regular fireballs. However, it can be blocked by shields, which prevents the player from being damaged and lit on fire. They cannot be deflected.

Small fireballs fired from a dispenser fly in a straight line (with a random offset from the dispenser's line of sight). It places fire when it hits a block. Blazes shoot small fireballs at players.

Sounds[]

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

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Blaze shoots	Hostile Creatures	When a small fireball is fired from a dispenser or a blaze	entity.blaze.shoot	subtitles.entity.blaze.shoot	2.0	0.8 – 1.2	32

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Hostile Creatures	When a small fireball is fired from a dispenser or a blaze	mob.blaze.shoot	3.0	0.8-1.2

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Small Fireball	small_fireball	impact_projectiles	entity.minecraft.small_fireball

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Small Fireball	small_fireball	94	entity.small_fireball.name

Entity data[]

Java Edition:

Small fireballs have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

History[]

Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease			Added small fireballs.
1.5		13w02a			The texture of the small fireball has been changed from to .[1]
		13w02b			The texture of the small fireball has been changed from back to .
1.6.1		13w24a			The texture of the small fireball has been changed from to .[2]
		13w24b			The texture of the small fireball has been reverted from to .
1.11		16w32a			The small fireball's entity ID has been changed from SmallFireball to small_fireball.
		16w40a			Tags xTile, yTile, zTile, inTile and inGround have been removed from the small fireball entity data.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of the small fireball has been changed.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.12.1		build 1			Added small fireballs.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The entity ID for the fireball has been changed from smallfireball to small_fireball.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of the small fireball has been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
TU7	CU1	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added small fireballs
		1.90			The texture of the small fireball has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added small fireballs.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• Small fireballs share the same texture as regular fireballs, visually differing primarily in size.
• When a dispenser with a fire charge is placed with a block directly in front of it, the dispenser shoots through it and lights a fire on the other side.^[verify]
• A small fireball flies infinitely far until it hits a block or an entity, even if it is outside the player's render distance.
• When shot from a dispenser, the fire charge starts out stationary and accelerates, as though it is falling rather than being launched. Fireballs shot by blazes, however, maintain the same speed all the way to the target.

References[]