Changes: Shulker

Shulkers are box-shaped hostile mobs found in end cities. They hide in their shell to blend in with surrounding purpur blocks and guard the city's various treasures. They are the only source of shulker shells, which are used to craft shulker boxes.

Spawning

Natural generation

Shulkers spawn during the generation of end cities, which are located on the outer islands of the End. They usually spawn on the walls of the city and on end ships. They do not despawn naturally, even in Peaceful difficulty.

Post-generation

There is a chance that a new shulker of the same color will spawn when a shulker is hit with a shulker bullet (including one of its own).

The following conditions need to be met:

• When the shulker gets hit and then has less than half its health remaining, it can teleport without spawning a new shulker. The chance for this to happen is 25%. It uses the same process as described below. If the attempt fails, it continues with the spawn attempt.
• The hit shulker must have its lid open.
• The hit shulker needs to find somewhere to teleport. For this, it takes a random block in a 17×17×17 cuboid centered on the shulker and then checks if the block has a valid face to teleport to. If not it proceeds to try this up to 4 more times. If no valid face is found, the attempt fails.
• Each other shulker within 8 blocks of the hit shulker decreases the odds of success by 20%. When five or more other shulkers are nearby, no shulkers will spawn, but the hit shulker still teleports.

If the attempt succeeds a new shulker spawns where the old shulker was before it teleported.

Drops

In Bedrock Edition, shulkers drop 0–1 shulker shells. The maximum can be increased by 1 per level of Looting, which is 0–4 shells with Looting III.

In Java Edition, shulkers have a 50% chance of dropping a shulker shell when killed. This is increased by 6.25% per level of Looting, for a maximum of 68.75% with Looting III.

Shulkers also drop 5 when killed by a player or a tamed wolf.

Behavior

The shell of the mob looks similar to a purpur block, blending in relatively easily to its surroundings. Inside the shell of the mob is a small yellow head with two eyes. Shulkers are uncolored by default when using spawn eggs, while white is the default when using /summon or spawners. Spawning shulkers with other colors can be done using the /summon command, as detailed below.

Shulkers generally remain stationary, attached to an adjacent solid block. However, if the block the shulker occupies becomes something other than air or the shulker finds itself not adjacent to any solid block, or the shell cannot open, it attempts to teleport (5 attempts per tick) to an air block within a 17×17×17 cube centered on the shulker that is adjacent to a solid block. If it finds no solid blocks to teleport onto (like when in the Void) it does not move.

When a shulker is spawned next to another shulker, one of them teleports away. Shulkers avoid teleporting adjacent to another shulker.

Shulkers occasionally open their shell for 1–3 seconds to peer outside. When a target comes within about 16 blocks, it opens fully and shoots guided projectiles that follow the player, called shulker bullets, moving only along the X, Y, or Z axes and leaving trails of white particles. The projectiles can be destroyed by attacking them or blocked with a shield. If the projectile hits an entity, it does 4 of damage and inflicts the Levitation status effect for 10 seconds. (Levitation has no effect underwater, or while riding the mobs.) The shulker continues firing every 1–5.5 seconds while the target remains in range. If the shulker's target dies with projectiles still in flight, they fall to the ground.

Shulkers can attack each other, in which case they shoot fully guided bullets at each other, but are unaffected by levitation when hit. The normal teleportation habits apply during these battles.

When its shell is closed, a shulker has 20 ( × 10) armor points and deflects arrows. When the shell opens, it loses this natural armor and takes damage as normal. When at less than half health, a shulker has a 25% chance of teleporting (as described above) after taking damage. When a shulker is attacked, other shulkers in the area target the attacker as well.

Shulkers don't take burning damage from lava or fire. They drown in water, but try to teleport away when water or lava flows into the block they occupy. They do not take damage if they touch water, unlike endermen.

In Peaceful difficulty, shulkers exist within the world, but do not attack, like vindicators ,evokers and piglin brutes in Bedrock Edition.

Shulkers are treated differently than true blocks. For example, mobs are unable to pathfind around^[1] or jump over them,^[2] and falling on them from a height does not produce particles.^[3] Their spawn egg also does not destroy blocks such as grass.^[4]

Shulkers can be hooked by a fishing rod. However, they cannot be reeled.

In Bedrock Edition, they apply Levitation II instead of I.

Shulker bullet

A shulker bullet is a guided projectile that is shot from shulkers, and they follow the targeted entity along the X, Y, or Z axis and leave trails of white particles. A shulker bullet that hits a mob or player deals damage and affects them with Levitation for ten seconds.

The shulker's projectiles also have entity data that control its movement.

The bullet can be destroyed by hitting it with any item, shooting it with an arrow, or blocking it with a shield. It explodes upon contact with a block. The explosion does not destroy any blocks and does not damage nearby mobs or players.

Coloring

In Bedrock Edition, shulkers can be dyed in a similar fashion to sheep. Using a dye on a shulker gives it the color of the dye.

In Java Edition, the color of a shulker is changed through commands using the color byte tag.

Transportation

Shulkers can be moved by boats or minecarts; pushing a boat/cart into a shulker causes it to board. A boat's sides block some of a shulkers projectiles.

A shulker pushed through the exit portal gets transported to the world spawn point in the Overworld. Since shulkers teleport when not adjacent to a solid block, they must be pushed down the central pillar of the exit portal (or a manually placed block directly above the portal) with a piston.

Sounds

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Entity data

Java Edition:

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

Shulker bullets have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Not Today, Thank You	Deflect a projectile with a Shield	Suit Up	Block any projectile with a shield.	story/deflect_arrow
	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
	Great View From Up Here	Levitate up 50 blocks from the attacks of a Shulker	The City at the End of the Game	Move a distance of 50 blocks vertically with the Levitation effect applied, regardless of direction or whether it is caused by the effect.	end/levitate
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	adventure/root
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	adventure/kill_a_mob
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	adventure/kill_all_mobs

History

Java Edition
1.9		15w31a			Added shulkers.
		15w32b			Shulkers no longer teleport by themselves if NoAI is set to 1.
					Shulkers can now be teleported using /tp or /spreadplayers.
		15w40a			Shulkers no longer target players or attack in Peaceful difficulty.
					Shulker bullets now despawn in Peaceful.
		15w45a			Added sounds for shulkers being damaged.
		15w47a			Shulkers now drop experience.
		15w47b			Added ambient, aggravated and death sounds for shulkers, and added sounds for their bullets dealing and taking damage.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID of shulkers has been changed from Shulker to shulker.
					The bullet's entity ID is changed from ShulkerBullet to shulker_bullet.
		16w39a			Shulkers now drop shulker shells.
					The color of a shulker can now be changed through commands using a new byte tag Color.
		16w39c			Shulkers can now be spawned on the sides and bottoms of blocks through the usage of spawn eggs.
1.12		17w16a			Shulkers have been retextured, none of them are now like purpur blocks.
		17w17a			The purple shulker's color has been reverted to the previous color.
1.13		18w10b			Added a default shulker.
					The purple shulker texture has been changed to the one used in 17w16a.
1.17		20w45a			New shulkers now have a chance to spawn when one shulker hits another shulker with a shulker bullet.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added shulkers.
					Shulkers can now be dyed in Creative mode by long-tapping any dye on a shulker, or through an interact button.
		alpha 1.0.0.1			Shulkers now drop shulker shells.
1.0.4		alpha 1.0.4.0			The shulker's models can now be edited using add-ons.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.9			The shulkers' textures have been changed.
		?			The purple shulker's color has been reverted to the previous color.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Added a default shulker.
					The purple shulker color has been changed to the new palette.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.30.22			New shulkers now have a chance to spawn when one shulker hits another shulker with a shulker bullet.
Legacy Console Edition
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Added shulkers and spawn eggs for the shulkers.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10					Added shulkers.

Issues

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

Trivia

• Originally, shulkers were going to camouflage with a nearby block (shulkers next to purpur would look like purpur, and shulkers next to end stone would look like end stone). However, Jeb decided this was too difficult to code, so instead, shulkers were just purple mobs that would open and shoot.^[5]
• The word "shulker" is a portmanteau of "shell lurker".^[6]
• A shulker named 'Dinnerbone' or 'Grumm' flips upside-down, revealing a spiral pattern on the base. This appears to also lift the shulker by the same height as a pressure plate.
• By using commands, they can be made to be part of a team to attack other teams and can be used as defense mobs. In that case, it doesn't attack its teammates but targets most hostile mobs without provocation.
• Walking toward a shulker at the same level as the player's head pushes the player down to the one-block crawling position if there is space beneath.
• If given the invisibility effect, only the shulker's shell becomes invisible. This is different to most other mobs such as armored mobs and saddled pigs, where the living part of the mob turns invisible with the outer areas remaining visible.
• In the game's texture files, the shulker bullet is named "spark.png".
• Gravity blocks glitch when on top of a shulker. Sand on top of an extended shulker is higher than sand on one block but the sand is solid.
• If the shulker was initially attached to the ground and there is a block on the side and on the top, the shulker becomes attached onto the block beside.

Gallery

• 

  An image released by Jeb_ of shulkers appearing to attack blazes in the Nether.

• 

  A shulker attacking the player.

• 

  Close-up of the projectile shot by a shulker.

• 

  A shulker inside an end city. It is difficult to spot against the purpur blocks.

• 

  A shulker attacking another shulker.

• 

  The bottom of a shulker.

• 

  A shulker with invisibility effect.

• 

  All 16 shulker colors from before Java Edition 1.16.4.

• 

  2 shulkers guarding entrance to the end city.

• 

  2 shulkers on end ship.

References