Fireball

Fireball

Hitbox size	In Java Edition: Height: 1 block Width: 1 block In Bedrock Edition: Height: 0.31 blocks Width: 0.31 blocks

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A fireball is a large explosive projectile fired by ghasts as their primary method of attack. It can be deflected by a melee attack or another projectile.

Behavior

Fireballs have a straight trajectory unaffected by gravity and a theoretically infinite range. Fireballs can be deflected if hit by a player using a projectile or melee attack, sending them in the direction of the player's head.

Fireballs create an explosion upon impact with an entity or block, setting fire to nearby blocks. Fireballs shot by ghasts have an explosive force of 1. The minimum blast resistance required to absorb all blast force of a fireball is 4.034. However, blocks with resistance as low as 3.5 survive if hit from the sides or from the top.

At close range, fireballs deal massive damage; a direct hit deals 6HP projectile damage and up to to 8.5HP × 4.25, 15HP × 7.5, or 22.5HP × 11.25 explosion damage from the blast depending on difficulty, entities other than player treat all difficulties as normal. If an entity has the Fire Resistance effect or is naturally resistant to fire, a fireball does not deal projectile damage to them, although the explosion still can inflict damage. Fireballs rebounded by the player deal 1000HP × 500 damage to a ghast upon direct hit, killing them. Because ghasts are fire resistant, fireballs only damage ghasts when rebounded by the player or if the explosion is within range to damage them. Because fireball explosions only affect entities whose feet are within 2 blocks of the explosion, they are incapable of damaging ghasts except when hitting them from below or within their hitbox.

When two fireballs collide, one is deflected while the other explodes upon impact.

Sounds

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

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier
Fireball	fireball

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier
Fireball	large_fireball

Entity data

Java Edition:

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

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Return to Sender	Destroy a Ghast with a fireball.	Kill a ghast using a ghast fireball.	30	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Return to Sender	Destroy a Ghast with a fireball	Kill a ghast by deflecting a ghast fireball back into it via hitting or shooting a projectile at the fireball.

History

Java Edition Alpha
v1.2.0			preview				Added fireballs. At the time, they used the snowball texture.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease				Fireballs now have a unique texture, which would later be used by fire charges.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5				Killing ghasts by directly hitting them with a fireball grants the player the achievement "Return to Sender".
1.5			13w02a				The texture of fireballs has been changed from to .[1] This is likely due to the diamond helmet's position in stitched_items.png being the position where the fire charge was in items.png. The texture is offset by 6 pixels in-game.
			13w02b				The accidental texture change of the fireball has been reverted from to .
1.6.1			13w24a				The texture of the fireball has been changed from to .[2]
			13w24b				The accidental texture change of the fireball has been reverted from to .
1.14			18w43a				The texture of the fireball has been changed.
			18w50a				The fireball now has an optional Item NBT tag that can specify a different item stack to render.
1.21.2			24w34a				Fired fireballs no longer go through the world border if hit.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.11.0			build 1				Added fireballs.
							As ghasts are currently unobtainable in-game without editing, their fireballs are also unobservable.
v0.12.1			build 1				As ghasts now spawn in the Nether and have accessible spawn eggs, their fireballs can also be encountered.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of the fireball has been changed.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added fireballs.
							At the time, fireballs used the snowball texture, which was additionally lit on fire.
TU7							Fireballs now have a unique texture, which would later be used by fire charges.
			1.90				The texture of the fireball has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added fireballs.

Data history

Issues

Issues relating to "Fireball" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• If a player hits a fireball using an item with the Looting enchantment, any mob killed by that fireball has its drops affected by the enchantment as though the mob was killed by directly using the item.

Gallery

In other media

• 
  A fireball as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons.
• 
  A fireball as it appears in A Minecraft Movie

References

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