Dolphin

Dolphins are neutral mobs that live in non-frozen oceans, which grant a speed boost to players that swim near them.

Spawning[]

Dolphins are found in groups (pods) of 3–5 in all ocean biomes, except frozen oceans and cold oceans. They spawn exclusively between levels 50 and 64. Dolphins continuously spawn as long as their spawn requirements are met, and naturally despawn if no players are near by, similar to squid.

In Java Edition, dolphins and squids together make up the water creatures mob cap.

10% of dolphins spawn as babies.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Drops[]

When killed, dolphins drop 0–1 raw cod (cooked cod if on fire). The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0–4 with Looting III. 1–3 are dropped as well.

Behavior[]

Dolphins normally swim in pods, occasionally leaping out of the water to get air. They are also able to jump from one body of water to another. Additionally, they chase after players in boats.

Players who sprint-swim within a 9 block spherical radius of a dolphin receive Dolphin's Grace for 5 seconds‌^{[Java Edition only]}. Players who already have Dolphin's Grace and continue to sprint-swim within a 15 block spherical radius of a dolphin will have it replenished. Players with Invisibility do not receive the effect unless they already had Dolphin's Grace before receiving Invisibility, or if they are wearing armor. The dolphin keeps following the player as long as they are sprint-swimming, allowing the player to swim under the speed boost for long distances. In Bedrock Edition, the player simply gets a swimming speed boost without a status effect.

Dolphins are lured by dropped items that are inside nearby water blocks, knocking them around and chasing them.‌^{[Java Edition only]} If the dolphin can not find a path to a dropped item, the dolphin may stay underwater to the point of drowning.^[1] If the dolphin is in, or on, a waterlogged bottom slab or chest with an air block above, the dolphin is prevented from drowning.

Should the player or another mob hit a dolphin (unless the dolphin is killed within one hit‌^{[Java Edition only]}), the whole pod retaliates, attacking all at once similar to wolves and zombified piglins. Hostile dolphins remain hostile even if they are fed fish.

Feeding dolphins raw cod or raw salmon improves their "trust" and interactions with the player, depending on the amount of fish fed.

When dolphins are fed raw cod or raw salmon, they swim to the nearest shipwreck, buried treasure, or ocean ruins. Because they are locating the chest in the structures rather than the structures themselves, breaking the chests causes the dolphin to locate a new structure with intact chests. Dolphins also avoid guardians and elder guardians.

Weaknesses[]

If a dolphin leaves the water in dry weather, it starts taking suffocation damage after two minutes, and eventually dies. It takes no damage out of water during rain. Regardless of weather, a dolphin on land actively seeks out a body of water, or seeks its target if in a hostile state.

They cannot survive without getting air every once in a while, so if they stay submerged for about four minutes they begin drowning. The water breathing effect prevents them from drowning.

Dolphins cannot ride boats, similarly to squid and all types of fish.

Dolphins can be towed by a lead.

Because the dolphin is an aquatic mob, they are affected by the Impaling enchantment.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Sounds[]

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

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Dolphin chirps	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while on land	entity.dolphin.ambient	subtitles.entity.dolphin.ambient	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Dolphin whistles	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while in water	entity.dolphin.ambient_water	subtitles.entity.dolphin.ambient_water	1.0 [sound 1]	0.8-1.2	16
	Dolphin eats	Friendly Creatures	When a fish is fed to a dolphin	entity.dolphin.eat	subtitles.entity.dolphin.eat	0.75	1.0	16
	Dolphin attacks	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin attacks something	entity.dolphin.attack	subtitles.entity.dolphin.attack	1.0	1.0	16
	Dolphin dies	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin dies	entity.dolphin.death	subtitles.entity.dolphin.death	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Dolphin hurts	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin is damaged	entity.dolphin.hurt	subtitles.entity.dolphin.hurt	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Dolphin jumps	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin jumps	entity.dolphin.jump	subtitles.entity.dolphin.jump	0.75	1.0	16
	Dolphin plays	Friendly Creatures	Randomly when a dolphin finds an item	entity.dolphin.play	subtitles.entity.dolphin.play	1.0	1.0	16
	Dolphin splashes	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin enters water	entity.dolphin.splash	subtitles.entity.dolphin.splash	Around 0.1 or 0.02[sound 2]	0.6-1.4	16
	Dolphin swims	Friendly Creatures	While a dolphin is swimming	entity.dolphin.swim	subtitles.entity.dolphin.swim	Around 0.03[sound 3]	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while on land	mob.dolphin.idle	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	Randomly when in water	mob.dolphin.idle_water	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event[2]	mob.dolphin.attack	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	Randomly while on land	mob.dolphin.blowhole	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin dies	mob.dolphin.death	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	When a fish is fed to a dolphin	mob.dolphin.eat	0.7	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin is damaged	mob.dolphin.hurt	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event[2]	mob.dolphin.jump	0.7	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	Unused sound event[2]	mob.dolphin.play	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	When a dolphin enters water	mob.dolphin.splash	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)
	Friendly Creatures	While a dolphin is swimming	mob.dolphin.swim	1.0	0.8-1.2 (Baby: 1.3-1.7)

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Dolphin	dolphin	entity.minecraft.dolphin

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Dolphin	dolphin	31	entity.dolphin.name

Entity data[]

Dolphins have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other
		Echolocation	Feed a dolphin fish to have it lead you to treasure	Feed a dolphin cod or salmon and have it lure you to treasure.	20G	Silver

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	How Did We Get Here?	Have every effect applied at the same time	A Furious Cocktail	Have all of these 31 status effects applied to the player at the same time: Absorption Bad Omen Blindness Conduit Power Darkness Dolphin's Grace Fire Resistance Glowing Haste Hero of the Village Hunger Infestation Invisibility Jump Boost Levitation Mining Fatigue Nausea Night Vision Oozing Poison Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wither Wind Charged The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.	nether/all_effects
	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

History[]

November 18, 2017					Dolphins were shown in a video clip during MineCon Earth.
Java Edition
1.13		18w15a			Added dolphins.
		18w19a			Dolphins now swim to the surface, if drowning.
					Dolphins now give the player the "Dolphin's Grace" status effect that allows the player to swim faster, if the player swims near them.
		18w19b			Dolphins now drop experience.[3]
		18w20c			Dolphins on land now jump to try to get back into the water.
					Dolphins now survive for two minutes out of water, instead of ten seconds.
		18w21a			Dolphins now lead players to treasure.
					Dolphins can no longer wear armor.[4]
		pre2			Dolphins can no longer sit in boats.[5]
		pre6			Dolphins now bring the player to buried treasure more accurately.
1.14		19w08a			Dolphins can no longer have armor equipped onto them with a dispenser.
1.18		21w40a			Dolphins now only spawn between y=50 and y=64.
Bedrock Edition
1.4.0		beta 1.2.20.1			Added dolphins and baby dolphins. Baby Dolphins are a version exclusive.
		beta 1.2.20.2			The models of dolphins have been updated with minor adjustments to the orientation of their fins.
					Dolphins now have sounds.
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			Dolphins now lead players to shipwrecks and underwater ruins.
1.16.100		beta 1.16.100.51			Dolphins now dry out at the same rate as they do in Java Edition; 120 seconds.
					Dolphins on land now try to get back into the water.
1.18.0		beta 1.18.0.21			Dolphins now only spawn between y=50 and y=64.
Legacy Console Edition
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Added dolphins.
					Baby dolphins can be spawned when the player uses a spawn egg on an adult dolphin.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• To create the sounds that the dolphins make in the game, Mojang Studios' lead sound designer, Samuel Åberg, went to Kolmården Wildlife Park to record real dolphins.^[6]
  • This was also done with pandas.
• Dolphins originally had a separate head and body when shown in a clip at MINECON 2017. It is also shown in artwork for Java Edition 1.13.
• Real-life dolphins don't suffocate outside of water; they breathe air like all mammals, although they can die of dehydration out of water.
• In 2018, a mob vote was held in which Chinese users could vote on which Chinese animal should be added to Minecraft, to promote the release of Minecraft China. One of the options for voting was the possibly extinct Baiji Dolphin. The Panda won the vote and was added into the game.^[7]
• During development, there were large disagreements between developers over how Dolphins should behave.^[8]
• Mojang specifically stated that they will not consider allowing dolphins to be tamed or riden.^[9]
  • They also decided against adding behaviors that deviate significantly from real-life dolphins, such as fleeing from drowned.^[10]

Gallery[]

• 

  A pod of dolphins.

• 

  A dolphin taking damage because it is not in water.

• 

  2 dolphins leaping above the ocean at sunset.

• 

  4 dolphins swimming above an ocean ravine and a coral reef.

• 

  Dolphins chasing after a raw cod item.

• 

  A Dolphin seen underwater.

• 

  Several dolphins attacking the player, after the player hit one of them.

• 

  Dolphins swimming with the player.

In other media[]

• 

  Dolphins in promotional artwork for the Update Aquatic.

• 

  Official dolphin artwork.

• 

  Dolphin in official artwork.

• 

  Lego Minecraft Dolphin.

References[]

External links[]

• Meet the Dolphin – Minecraft.net on April 19, 2018