Mobs are listed and classified by their nature below.
Passive mobs are harmless, peaceful mobs that do not attack the player, even when provoked, and run away if provoked. Some of them are breedable.
Defensive mobs are a subtype of passive mob, which are capable of inflicting damage or harmful status effects to players and other mobs within a certain proximity. They are not hostile, however, as they do not actively try to seek out and harm players.
Neutral mobs attack the player only when provoked. Some neutral mobs have unique requirements to trigger their hostility towards the player.
Hostile mobs are dangerous, aggressive mobs that always attack the player on sight.
Tameable mobs are mobs that players can tame and keep as pets.
Trusting mobs are mobs that have special behavior when they are interacted with in a certain way, usually when fed a certain food, to make them trust the player.
These passive and neutral animals can despawn.
Utility mobs are meant to serve as supplementary ways of protection against hostile mobs.
Boss mobs are extremely durable and destructive hostile mobs specifically designed for longer, riskier, and larger-scale battles for players. They are generally immune to most status effects, and are capable of seeing mobs affected by Invisibility. Only two boss mobs exist.
Unused mobs can be spawned only with the /summon command, and the zombie horse with the spawn egg. They do not spawn naturally in-game.
Removed mobs no longer exist in current versions of the game.
Mobs come to exist by spawning in various ways. Most mobs spawn naturally, dependent on the light level, biome, and their surroundings, often times in groups with mobs of the same variety. These mobs usually spawn in upon initial chunk creation. Most passive mobs also have the ability to breed, spawning baby versions of themselves. Mobs do not naturally spawn on transparent blocks, in water (except for squid, drowned, fish, dolphin and guardians), in lava, on bedrock, or on half blocks (slabs, stairs). The exception is monster spawners, from which they can spawn naturally on any block including air.
Some mobs (like the snow golem, and the wither) require that the player "construct" them before being able to spawn. The iron golem can spawn naturally and can also be constructed. The ender dragon can be respawned with 4 or 2 end crystals.
Players can also spawn mobs by using spawn eggs in Creative mode, or the /summon command after enabling cheats. However, if the player tries to summon an ender dragon with the /summon command and doesn't set the DragonPhase tag, the dragon cannot move or attack.
Some mobs are weak or immune to certain kinds of damage. Sea creatures, such as turtles, take more damage from tridents that are enchanted with Impaling. Skeletons and their variants are immune to drowning. All undead mobs are healed by Potions of Harming, but take extra damage from weapons enchanted with Smite, along with taking damage from Potions of Healing. Many of these weaknesses and immunities are a result of what category (see below) of mob the mob falls into.
Animal mobs are mobs that are mostly based on animals from the real world. Passive mobs in this group include bats, brown mooshrooms, cats, chickens, cod, cows, donkeys, foxes, horses, mules, ocelots, parrots, pigs, pufferfish, rabbit, red mooshrooms, salmon, sheep, squid, skeleton horses, tropical fish, turtles and the unused zombie horse. Neutral mobs in this group include cave spiders, dolphins, llamas, pandas, polar bears, spiders, trader llamas, wolves and bees. Hostile mobs in this group include silverfish, endermites, ravagers, and the unused killer bunny. These mobs are found only in the Overworld. Most animals in Minecraft are passive mobs. Most animal mobs can be tamed and bred by the player. Dolphins, foxes and ocelots are the only three animal mobs that can trust the player, when they are interacted with in a certain way, usually when fed a certain food.
This group of mobs includes zombies (and variants), skeletons (and variants), phantoms, withers, zombie horses, and skeleton horses. These mobs are damaged by Potions of Healing, healed by Potions of Harming, and are immune to drowning and poison damage. Zombies, zombie villagers, drowned, skeletons, strays, and phantoms burn when under direct sunlight, unless they are touching water or wearing a helmet. Under the effect of a Potion of Fire Resistance, undead mobs still catch fire in direct sunlight, but do not take damage. All zombie and skeleton variants except for drowned sink in water. All undead mobs take extra damage from weapons enchanted with Smite, and are ignored by withers.
Most undead mobs have the ability to pick up items, and some can spawn wearing armor or holding tools or weapons.
This group of mobs includes dolphins, squids, guardians, elder guardians, turtles, cod, salmon, pufferfish, and tropical fish, but not drowned. [2] They take extra damage from tridents enchanted with Impaling. All water mobs except dolphins are immune to drowning, and all except guardians, elder guardians, and turtles take suffocation damage if out of water for too long. Water mobs have the ability to swim, whereas other mobs simply float on water or sink.
This group includes wither skeletons, ghasts, zombie pigmen, blazes and magma cubes. Most nether mobs are variants on existing mobs: zombie pigmen are variants of zombies, wither skeletons are variants of skeletons, and magma cubes are variants of slimes. All nether mobs are immune to fire and lava. It is unclear if skeletons and endermen should count as "nether mobs" because they spawn in the Nether but do not share many characteristics with the previously mentioned mobs. This also applies to the wither, since it can be spawned in any dimension; but withers have fire immunity like other nether mobs.
Withers are not naturally produced in the Nether, but they are related to the Nether because they drop the nether star upon death. In addition, materials for summoning Withers can be obtained only from the Nether.
This group consists of mobs based on arthropods, namely spiders, cave spiders, silverfish, endermites, and bees. They take extra damage and receive the Slowness IV effect when attacked with weapons enchanted with Bane of Arthropods. Both types of spider are immune to the effects of poison. Silverfish infest infested blocks.
This group includes pillagers, illusioners, evokers, vindicators, and ravagers.[Bedrock Edition only]. They are immune to evoker fangs damage and ignored by vindicators named "Johnny". They are hostile to villagers and golems in addition to players. Witches and vexes may accompany them in raids. Illusioners (and witches.[Bedrock Edition only]) can see players or targets through blocks. Unlike other illagers, vindicators named "Johnny" attack ravagers.[Java Edition only]
These generate on opaque blocks in almost all biomes and are easier to find. Farm animals are able to breed when fed their specific foods and include chickens, cows, pigs and sheep. Common monsters are zombies, skeletons, spiders, creepers, endermen and witches, found in poorly lit environments. All mobs other than boss mobs take extra damage from a bow enchanted with power or a sword enchanted with sharpness.
Some non-boss mobs have a chance to be immune to knockback when they are damaged.
Squids endure 85% less knockback than normal when out of water.
Mobs are affected by the environment in the same ways as the player: they are subject to physics, and they can be hurt by the same things that harm the player (catching on fire, falling, drowning, attacked by weapons, etc.). Some mobs may be resistant or immune to certain hazards, such as Nether mobs, which are immune to fire. Mobs can ride minecarts and other mobs can climb up ladders. When mobs are killed, they turn to dust and drop items that may be useful resources.
Each type of mob in Minecraft has a certain AI (Artificial Intelligence) system with different behaviors and mechanics. Mobs ordinarily wander around at random if there is a player nearby and usually avoid walking off blocks high enough to cause falling damage. Many mobs have an advanced pathfinding system that allows them to navigate through obstacles to get to a desired object or destination. Passive mobs flee in random directions after being hurt, while hostile mobs face and chase/attack the player as soon as the player comes close. Neutral mobs remain neutral until a player or mob provokes it (usually by attacking), at which point the neutral mob becomes hostile toward and attack the entity that hit it. Most mobs are aware of players within 16 blocks of them, but some can see farther. Conversely, most mobs can be heard by players up to 16 blocks away.
Most mobs cannot see through most solid blocks, including semi-transparent blocks such as ice, glass, tall grass, or glass panes. Mobs do not attempt to walk on rail tracks, unless pushed on by other mobs.