Witch

The witch is a hostile mob that uses potions in combat, both in the form of weapons as splash potions and in the form of drinkable potions for defense.

Spawning[]

The witch may spawn in the Overworld above opaque blocks at a light level of 0, in all biomes except mushroom fields and deep dark. Every swamp hut spawns a witch and a cat inside during world generation both which never despawn. Otherwise, witches spawn in the hut. In Java Edition, only witches spawn in the 7×7×9 volume that is the hut, which is the size of the roof and one block over the porch, from one level below the floor of the hut to two blocks above the roof. In Bedrock Edition, the hut has a hardcoded spawn spot on which witches spawn: the spawn spot is the same for every hut.

Some witches always spawn as part of raids starting from wave 4 in Bedrock Edition or wave 3 or 4 in Java Edition depending on the world difficulty. A villager transforms into a witch when lightning strikes within four blocks. The witch transformed from a villager does not despawn and cannot be changed back into a villager. This witch attacks the player with its potions even if the player traded with it before.

Witches are a source of potion ingredients and are the only mobs that are able to spawn in the small area around a swamp hut. These huts are the best place to farm witches, but they require spawning platforms and light levels of 0. A hut can support a maximum of three spawning platforms. Witch huts generate in swamp biomes sometimes, but the witch-exclusiveness depends on the entire hut being inside a swamp biome. In raids found in villages, it is more worthwhile to simply build an illager farm and deal with witches as they spawn.

Drops[]

A witch drops 5 experience orbs when killed by a player or tamed wolf. Witches have the largest loot table of any mob, making one to three drops of zero to two items each, for a maximum of six items total. A witch may drop Stick, Glass Bottle, Glowstone Dust, Redstone Dust, Spider Eye, Gunpowder or Sugar.^[1] The likelihood of a witch to drop sticks is 25%, while the remaining items have a probability of 12.5%. The odds of a witch dropping the maximum amount of items possible without a Looting enchantment are 1 in 81 (1.2%).

Each level of Looting increases the maximum items dropped by one for each of the one to three drops, leading to a maximum of five items per drop and a maximum of fifteen items total. No Looting averages two items per kill, Looting I averages three, Looting II averages four and Looting III averages five.

A potion has a 8.5% chance of dropping if a witch is killed while drinking the potion increased by 1% for every level of Looting. A witch drops one of the following in this case:

• Potion of Healing
• Potion of Fire Resistance
• Potion of Swiftness
• Potion of Water Breathing

Behavior[]

A witch is neither an illager nor a villager. Witches do not use housing, the equipment in their swamp huts and cannot open doors. Witches are peaceful toward villagers and wandering traders when not participating in raids, although their potions can hit one by accident. In Java Edition, witches are given the Glowing effect for 3 seconds when a bell is rung within 32 blocks of them. This applies to all witches, regardless of whether they participate in raids or not.

The poison, instant damage, evoker fangs, warden's sonic boom and the Thorns enchantment magical sources are 85% less effective against witches. In Bedrock Edition, witches are immune to poison, fatal poison and to their own thrown harming potions.

Witches have a 1.5% chance every second to spawn 10 to 44 ornamental particles above their heads, named “witch” in Java Edition or “witchspell” in Bedrock Edition and purple in color.

A witch pursues the player within 16 blocks and uses potions of the first level in combat, throwing splash potions offensively and drinking potions defensively. These potions are the same as ones obtainable through brewing, with the same duration. A witch has an infinite stock of potions, even when transformed from a villager or not having had any potions equipped in their inventory. Each potion chosen by the witch depends on the circumstance and is thrown within ten blocks and in a three-second interval.

• The witch throws a splash potion of Slowness if the player is eight, nine or ten blocks away and does not already have the Slowness effect. This makes it harder for the player to escape if they attempt to.
• The witch throws a splash potion of Poison if the player's health is at least 8 and is not already poisoned.
• The witch has a 25% chance of throwing a splash potion of Weakness if the player is 3 or less blocks away and does not already have the Weakness effect. This is used to weaken the player's melee attacks on the witch if they attempt to.
  • This Weakness effect can be used to cure zombie villagers.
• If none of the above conditions are true, the witch defaults to using a splash potion of Harming, which does 6 magical damage.

A witch may choose to equip and drink a potion each game tick (¹⁄₂₀ second) if it is not already drinking a potion. Drinking the potion takes 1.6 seconds^[2] and slows down its moving speed. It does not attack during this time.

• When 80% under water and lacking Water Breathing, there is a 15% chance of drinking a potion of Water Breathing.
• When on fire or the last damage taken in the past 2 seconds was fire damage, there is a 15% chance of drinking a potion of Fire Resistance.
• When not at full health, there is a 5% chance of drinking a potion of Healing, which heals 4.^[3]
• When the witch is eleven or more blocks from a target and does not have the Speed effect, there is a 50% chance of drinking a potion of Swiftness.

As a result, witches are difficult to kill via suffocation or cacti due to their frequent use of healing potions, cannot drown underwater and require a long time to die in lava or fire.

If the raid members kill all the villagers in a village, witches jump in commemoration to their victory.

In Java Edition, any witch can join a patrol if sufficiently near a patrol captain. These witches are hostile towards villagers, wandering traders and iron golems if in their sight. Witches that participate in a raid seek out illagers and ravagers and throw splash potions of Regeneration of 45 seconds or Instant Health if they have 4 or less. Witches do not retaliate when attacked by evoker fangs, illagers, or harming potions from other witches. Instead, they drink a beneficial potion. In Bedrock Edition, witches participating in a raid do not heal other illagers‌^{[until BE 1.20.30]}, but still attack the player, iron golems and snow golems. Witches throw negative splash potions at any mob that attacks it, including other witches and illagers.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Witches use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Witch giggles	Hostile Creatures	Randomly	entity.witch.ambient	subtitles.entity.witch.ambient	1.0	0.8-1.2 [sound 1]	16
	Witch cheers	Hostile Creatures	When a witch wins a raid	entity.witch.celebrate	subtitles.entity.witch.celebrate	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Witch drinks	Hostile Creatures	When a witch drinks a potion	entity.witch.drink	subtitles.entity.witch.drink	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Witch dies	Hostile Creatures	When a witch dies	entity.witch.death	subtitles.entity.witch.death	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Witch hurts	Hostile Creatures	When a witch is damaged	entity.witch.hurt	subtitles.entity.witch.hurt	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
	Witch throws	Hostile Creatures	When a witch throws a splash potion	entity.witch.throw	subtitles.entity.witch.throw	1.0	0.8-1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Hostile Creatures	Randomly	mob.witch.ambient	1.0	varies[sound 1]
	Hostile Creatures	Randomly while in a raid	mob.witch.ambient	3.0	varies[sound 1]
	Hostile Creatures	When a witch has won a raid	mob.witch.celebrate	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When a witch drinks a potion	mob.witch.drink	1.0	1.0
	Hostile Creatures	When a witch dies	mob.witch.death	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When a witch is damaged	mob.witch.hurt	1.0	0.8-1.2
	Hostile Creatures	When a witch throws a splash potion	mob.witch.throw	1.0	1.0

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Witch	witch	raiders	entity.minecraft.witch

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Witch	witch	45	entity.witch.name

Entity data[]

Witches 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
		Taste of Your Own Medicine	Poison a witch with a splash potion.	Throw a splash potion of poison at a witch (by facing the witch and pressing the use key).	20G	Silver

Advancements[]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	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
	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
	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[]

September 13, 2012					Nathan Adams hints that the witch mob will be added in the Pretty Scary Update,[4][5][6] and that the witch's texture would be some variation of the villager’s.[7]
September 21, 2012					Nathan Adams confirmed a suggestion made by Reddit user Mr_Pennybags in the Minecraft Reddit community that witches are to live in witch huts.
Java Edition
1.4.2		12w38a			Added witches, hostile mobs based on a witch found in a tale from eastern Europe.
					Witches protect themselves from damage by drinking potions.
					Witches do not naturally spawn, and can be spawned only in Creative mode using spawn eggs.
					Witches use splash potions, such as Poison, Weakness, Harming, and Slowness, to fight the player.
					Though witches are modeled after villagers, they do not share any attributes of villagers, such as utilizing housing, and are unable to open doors.
		12w38b			Witches now have common drops, including glass bottles, sticks, redstone dust, glowstone dust, gunpowder, spider eyes, and water bottles.
					Witches can no longer hurt themselves.
					The texture of witches has been changed slightly. Their skin color is now darker.
					With the texture change of the witch's skin color, witches drinking are now also darker.
		12w39a			The texture size for the witch has been changed from 64×126 to 64×128.
		12w40a			Witches can now spawn in witch huts.
					Witches no longer drop water bottles.
1.6.1		13w23a			The witch’s regeneration rate has been decreased by 2/3, because the Instant Health status effect heals less. This was reverted in the Java Edition Combat Tests.
1.7.2		13w37a			Witches can now drink and drop potions of Water Breathing.
					The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
		13w42a			Witches can now spawn anywhere where the light level is 7 or less, including any biome at night and in caves.
		13w42b			The spawn rate for the witch has been decreased.
1.8		14w03a			Villagers now turn into witches when struck by lightning.
		14w11a			Witches now run away from creepers that are about to explode.
		14w25a			The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
		14w29a			The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
		14w30a			The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
		14w34d			The witch hut’s spawning zone has been decreased or eliminated, depending on the altitude of the hut.
1.8.1		pre1			Witches no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode.
					The witch hut's spawning zone height has been increased by 2.
1.9		15w31a			Witches now have a 50% chance of choosing a potion of Swiftness when relevant, instead of a 43.75% chance.
					The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
		15w47b			Added sounds for witches idling, taking damage, dying, drinking, and throwing potions.
1.10		pre1			Witches now drink a potion of fire resistance if they don't already have the Fire Resistance effect and the most recent damage taken (within the past 2 seconds) was fire damage.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from Witch to witch.
		16w42a			Witches that spawn upon generation of witch huts no longer despawn.[8]
1.14		18w43a			The texture of witches has been changed.
					With the texture change of witches, the witch’s drinking animation has now also been changed.
		18w47a			Witches can now spawn as part of raids.
					Witches no longer attack each other.[9]
		18w50a			Witches are now neutral mobs. This was confirmed by Slicedlime to be an unintentional change.[10]
					The appearance of witches have been changed, adding a purple hood. This was confirmed by Jasper Boerstra to be an unintentional change.[11]
		19w02a			Witches are once again hostile mobs.
					The texture changes of the witch from 18w50a have been reverted.
		19w13a			If a raid kills all the villagers or destroys all the beds in a village, raiding witches celebrate their victory by jumping and laughing.
1.15		19w42a			The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
		19w44a			The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed. The potions now float above their arms.
		19w45a			The potion-drinking position of witches has been changed.
1.16		20w22a			When a villager that has been traded with is struck by lightning, the witch it becomes no longer despawns.
		Pre-release 1			When a villager is struck by lightning, the witch it becomes no longer despawns.
1.18		Pre-release 5			Changed the texture, to remove its hood.
1.19		22w17a			Changed its models, now the last two rows of pixels on its robes can render.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.20.2		23w31a			Witches now trigger sculk sensors when they drink a potion.[12]
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.14.0		build 1			Added witches. The hat model and head position are different from Java Edition’s witches.
		build 2			The model of witches has been changed.
		build 3			Witches now avoid water unless they have a target.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Witches now have an 8.5% chance to drop a potion when drinking. Prior to this, they would always drop a potion when drinking.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of witches has been changed.
1.11.0		beta 1.11.0.1			Witches can now spawn as part of raids.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			When a raid kills all the villagers or destroys all the beds in a village, raiding witches celebrate their victory by jumping and laughing.
?					Witches can see enemies from up to 64 blocks instead of 16.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added witches.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Witches can now drink and drop potions of water breathing.
TU43	CU33	1.36	Patch 13		Sounds for witches have been added.
		1.90			The texture of witches has been changed. They now use the texture from 18w50a.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added witches.

• 

  Witches drank potions with transparent textures before The Update that Changed the World.

• 

  The witch with a cowl in Java Edition 18w50a.

• 

  A witch with a cowl from 18w50a on PlayStation 4 Edition.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

• The witch is based on Baba Yaga, a witch from Slavic folklore who also lives in a swamp hut.^[13]
• When the subject of witches dropping sticks was brought up, Nathan Adams jokingly replied that it's because witches are made of wood.^[14] He later explained ^[15] that it was a reference to this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
• A witch fits through two block tall gaps, despite being taller than two blocks with its hat.
• When drinking a potion, a witch's nose lifts and points forward. A witch's nose slightly wiggles when idle.
• Witches have small mouths hidden under their noses. During their potion-drinking animation, this mouth becomes visible from the side.
• In the Village and Pillage update artwork banner, the witch in the picture has its arms unfolded like a pillager, despite this being impossible in-game.
• In Java Edition, witches can ride any mob via commands, including boss mobs. In Bedrock Edition, witches cannot ride ravagers, as the witch is not considered an illager.

Gallery[]

• 

  A witch throwing a potion at the player.

• 

  A witch in its witch hut.

• 

  7 witches fighting in a thunderstorm.

• 

  Witches fighting in a witch farm.

• 

  Three witches holding items.

• 

  Witch and villager difference.

• 

  Witch with a black cat.

• 

  A top view of the top of a witch farm where the mobs are raised up by the water and sign tube, then pushed off the edge with water.

• 

  Witches standing on lilypads in a swamp.

• 

  First image of a witch in Bedrock Edition.

Cosmetics[]

• 

  City texture pack

• 

  Halloween mash-up pack

• 

  Witch's Rob, unlocked by completing Time for Stew.

In other media[]

• 

  A witch in promotional artwork for the Pretty Scary Update.

• 

  A witch seen in the Village and Pillage artwork.

• 

  A witch stealing honey from a beehive in the Buzzy Bees update trailer.

• 

  A Witch as it appears in Minecraft Story Mode.

• 

  A Witch as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons.

• 

  Witch artwork in Minecraft Earth.

• 

  The Viler Witch, a unique variaton that appears in Minecraft Earth.

• 

  The Healing Witch Boost figure for Minecraft Earth.

• 

  Lego Minecraft witch.

• 
• 

  A witch toy.

• 

  "Phantoms, Witches, and Ghasts, OH MY!" an official T-Shirt.

References[]