Riding

Riding, also known as mounting, is the behavior that allows an entity to mount another entity.

Behaviors

Riding connects one entity to another. An entity riding another entity is called a passenger (aka. rider), and an entity being ridden is called a mount (aka. vehicle). An entity can be both a passenger and a mount at the same time if it is riding another entity while being ridden by other entities.

An entity can only ride at most one entity at the same time. Most entities support only one passenger, but boat, bamboo raft and camel can support two passengers at the same time, while a Happy Ghast can support four passengers at the same time. In Java Edition, by modifying entity NBT through commands, an entity may be ridden by any number of entities. In Bedrock Edition, a baby hoglin can support 3 baby piglins, which looks like they are stacked one by one. However, in Java Edition, baby piglins ride each other and are indeed stacked one by one, instead of all riding on the hoglin. In Bedrock Edition, a player can support 2 parrots. However, in Java Edition, parrots become not entities and are stored into the player's NBT data when sitting on the shoulders of a player.

The collision and movement of a mount is not affected by its passengers, so the accessible position for the mount may put the passengers into danger, for example, making the passenger's head inside of a block and causing suffocation.^[1] However, in Java Edition, a passenger riding on a passenger of an entity collides with the entity, resulting in bugs like MC-71998.

In Java Edition, when dismounting, players will be placed on different sides of the mount, depending on the main hand of that player.

When a player leaves a world, all entities riding or being ridden by that player will also disappear from the world, and will reappear with the player when they rejoin the world, unless the affected entity has another player passenger.

In Java Edition, with /ride command, all entities are rideable by any entity, except marker and player, which never can be ridden. In Bedrock Edition, only some riding combinations are valid for /ride command (see § Valid riding combinations in vanilla.)

In Java Edition, when a leashed mob starts riding, it drops the lead. In Bedrock Edition, a leashed mob cannot start riding unless using the /ride command, and when starting riding, it doesn't drop the lead.

A passenger cannot set its mount as its target for attack. A mount cannot set its passenger as the target for attack either, unless using the /damage command. In Bedrock Edition, they cannot attack each other at all even when they target each other through the /damage command.

Passengers

Passengers have the following behaviors:

• The position of a passenger is fixed on its mount; that is, the position and movement of a passenger cannot be affected by any other gameplay features.
  • Passengers have no collision with entities and blocks.
  • Passengers cannot be moved by knockback, explosion, fishing rod, and trident with riptide enchantment.
  • In Bedrock Edition, passengers cannot be teleported by chorus fruit and end gateway.
  • In Java Edition, when a passenger goes into an end gateway, it is teleported with its mount.
  • When a shulker is a passenger, it cannot teleport on its own. In Java Edition, an enderman cannot teleport on its own either.
  • Passengers dismount when teleported by /tp.
  • In Java Edition, using the /data command to change a mob's position will not make it dismount. The newly-given position will last only until entities are processed later in the tick, and will not be visually noticeable.
• Passengers can be transported by nether portals or end portals.^[2]
• Passengers do not calculate the falling height. When starting riding, the falling height is reset.
• When a player is a passenger, it cannot interact with its mount.
• When a player is a passenger, it cannot interact with other passengers on the same mount as its.
• When a player is a passenger and the mount is a mob or an armor stand, the health bar of the mount is displayed on the player's HUD in the form of . In Java Edition, the hunger bar is replaced by it in Survival or Adventure mode.

Mounts

Mounts have the following behaviors:

• Mounts can be transported by nether portals or end portals.^[2]
  • In Bedrock Edition, mounts cannot be teleported by end gateway.
• When a mount receives falling damage, all passengers also receive falling damage.
  • In Java Edition, if a mount is immune to falling damage, the damage is not passed to passengers.
  • In Bedrock Edition, even if a mount is immune to falling damage, the damage is still passed to passengers.

Controlling

By players

The movement of the following mounts are controlled by the player when being ridden by it:

• Saddled horses
• Saddled donkeys
• Saddled mules
• Saddled camels
• Pigs can be controlled by players holding a carrot on a stick.
• Saddled‌ striders can be controlled by players holding a warped fungus on a stick.
• Saddled skeleton horses ‌ / Adult skeleton horses ‌
• Saddled zombie horses ‌
• Boats
• Boats with chests
• Harnessed Happy Ghast

In Java Edition, though minecarts on rails receive the input from its player passenger, they are not regarded as being controlled in game. In Java Edition, boats and boats with chest are regarded as being controlled by a armor stand when being ridden by it, but never move.

The following mounts have the ability of "jumping charging". When players ride them, the experience bar on HUD will be replaced by jumping charging bar:

• Saddled horses
• Saddled donkeys
• Saddled mules
• Saddled skeleton horses ‌ / Adult skeleton horses ‌
• Saddled zombie horses ‌

The following mounts have the ability of "dashing charging". When players ride them, the experience bar on HUD will be replaced by dashing charging bar:

• Saddled camels

When a player rides the following entities, pressing inventory opens the interaction interface of these creatures instead of the normal item bar interface:

• Tamed horse
• Tamed donkey
• Tamed mule
• Tamed llama
• Tamed trader llama
• Camel
• Tamed skeleton horse ‌
• Tamed zombie horse ‌
• Boat with chest

By mobs

In Java Edition, the movement of a mount is controlled by its passenger, if both the mount and the passenger are mobs (not players). However, there are some exceptions:

• Mobs with their NoAI NBT being true cannot be controlled by any mob, though they can be controlled by players.
• Slimes and magma cubes cannot control any mob, which is controlled by entity type tag non_controlling_rider.

In Bedrock Edition, for most rideable mobs, when its mob passenger tries to chase and attack player or mobs, the passenger takes control, otherwise the mount controls movement. The following mobs are exceptions:

• Hoglin: cannot be controlled by mob passengers.
• Strider: cannot be controlled by mob passengers.

In Bedrock Edition, some AI goals are disabled if the entities is ridden by or riding an entity. For example in Bedrock Edition, when a zombie rides a pig, the pig controls the movement when they are idle; but the pig cannot follow players holding a carrot even when the zombie is idle; the pig controls the movement when it is breeding and the zombie is idle; the zombie controls the movement when it targets a player even when the pig is breeding.

When being controlled by its passenger, the mount uses its own walk speed. However, in Java Edition, the speed modifier of its passenger's AI is applied. For example, spiders ridden by a chicken, a sheep, or a llama have different speeds when they follow a player holding seeds, wheat, or hay block, respectively, since the AIs of chickens, sheep, and llamas have different speed modifiers, while in Bedrock Edition, the speed modifier (speed multiplier) for being controlled is defined for each entity type (by minecraft:behavior.mount_pathing component).

Behavior

For an entity that is ridden by multiple passengers, only the front passenger has control over the mount. If a player and other entities ride it at the same time, the player becomes the front passenger.

In Java Edition, the passenger controlling its mount can be targeted with /execute on controller.

In Java Edition, mobs cannot float on water when they are controlled; they are submerged in the water instead. In Bedrock Edition, they can float on water when being controlled; however, because they float up and down more fiercely than in Java Edition, their heads are often submerged so that the passenger is ejected, while tall mobs can float on water without their heads being submerged and the passenger is not ejected.

Dismounting

Mobs usually cannot leave their mounts on their own AI (there are some exceptions, e.g. in Java Edition, baby piglins stop riding baby hoglins when being hurt), but there are many ways to make passengers leave their mounts:

• When the passenger is a player, the player uses the dismount control.
• When the passenger is a player, the player starts sleeping by using use on a bed.
• When the passenger is a player, the player starts riding another mount.
• When the mount is dead or destroyed.
• When the passenger starts being leashed with a lead.
• When riding a chicken, pig, ravager, spider, strider, horse, donkey, mule, zombie horse, llama, trader llama or camel under water, being driven off by them. In Java Edition, this is controlled by dismounts_underwater entity tag.^[3]
• Being driven off by the mount (e.g. untamed horses, donkeys and llamas, underwater boats, minecarts on a powered activator rail, etc.).
• In Java Edition, When the passenger finishes eating a chorus fruit.
• In Bedrock Edition, when the passenger is pulled by a fishing rod.
• In Bedrock Edition, when the passenger is a piglin, and it converts to a zombified piglin.
• When the passenger is teleported by /tp.
• Dismounting by /ride command.

Riding in vanilla game

Ridden by player

Players can ride the following entities by pressing use on the entity:

• Saddled pig
• Saddled strider
• Tamed and saddled adult horse
• Adult donkey
• Adult mule
• Tamed skeleton horse ‌ / Adult skeleton horse ‌
• Tamed zombie horse ‌
• Adult llama
• Adult trader llama
• Adult camel
• Minecart
• Boat
• Boat with Chest
• Harnessed Happy Ghast

Minecart

A mob can ride a minecart when pushing by a moving minecart on rails in Java Edition or when colliding with a minecart in Bedrock Edition. In Bedrock Edition, armor stands can also be picked up.

Ender dragons, wardens, and withers cannot be picked up by a minecart. In Java Edition, iron golems cannot be picked up either.

In Bedrock Edition, unlike wardens, ender dragons can ride a minecart via the /ride command; withers cannot ride a minecart via the /ride even though a success message is returned.

Boat

Mobs can be picked up into a boat or a boat with chest when they collide with the side of the boat or boat with chest. In Java Edition, a boat being ridden by a player cannot pick up a mob. In Bedrock Edition, mobs can be picked up by a boat being ridden by a player.

Mobs wider than the width of a boat cannot be picked up. Wardens and withers cannot be picked up.

In Bedrock Edition, mobs wider than the width of a boat can ride a boat via the /ride command. Unlike wardens, ender dragons can ride a boat via /ride command; withers cannot ride a boat via /ride even though a success message is returned.

Jockey

Spider jockey

Spider jockeys are the rare appearance of a spider being ridden by a skeleton.

Chicken jockey

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

 

Chicken jockeys are the rare appearance of a baby zombie, baby zombified piglin, baby zombie villager, baby husk, or baby drowned riding a chicken.

Jockey of baby zombie

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

 

In Bedrock Edition, 15% naturally spawned baby zombies, baby husks, and baby zombie villagers try to find a mount when it tries attacking a villager, player, or iron golem, which can ride:

Skeleton Horseman

Skeleton horseman is a jockey consisting of a skeleton (or stray and wither skeleton) riding a skeleton horse. Skeleton horsemen spawn only from a "skeleton trap horse".

Baby piglin riding baby hoglin

Baby piglins play with baby hoglins, running around and riding upon them. Up to 3 baby piglins may stack on top of each other while riding a baby hoglin. In Bedrock Edition, a baby hoglin can support 3 baby piglins, which looks like they are stacked one by one. However, in Java Edition, baby piglins ride each other and are indeed stacked one by one, instead of all riding on the hoglin.

Strider or zombified piglin riding strider

For every strider that spawns, there is a 1 in 10 chance of an additional baby strider to spawn riding on top of the previous strider. Zombified piglins have a 1 in 30 chance of spawning on top of a strider.

Illager riding ravager

A ravager generated in raids may generate with a pillager, evoker or vindicator riding on it.

Parrot riding player

A tamed parrot on the ground can be made to perch on its player's shoulder by moving through the parrot. In Bedrock Edition, technically the parrot is riding the player. In Java Edition, technically the parrot on the shoulder is not an entity.

Valid riding combinations in vanilla

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

 

In Bedrock Edition, whether an entity is rideable is mainly defined with minecraft:rideable component and entity familliers in vanilla behavior packs. Besides, some entities have hardcoded riding behaviors, for, example, wardens being not able to riding a boat, boat doing not pick up adult horses although they can ride boats via /ride command.

In the following table, none means that the entity is rideable by these families no matter what component groups it has. Multiple components separated by | symbols means that the entity must have at least one of them to be rideable by these families.

Rideable entity	Valid families for specific component groups
Boat	minecraft:can_ride_default | minecraft:can_ride_bamboo: all
Boat with chest	minecraft:can_ride_default | minecraft:can_ride_bamboo: all
Camel	minecraft:camel_adult: Player
Cat	minecraft:cat_wild: zombie
Cave Spider	minecraft:spider_jockey | minecraft:spider_stray_jockey | minecraft:spider_wither_jockey: skeleton; Otherwise: zombie
Chicken	minecraft:chicken_adult: zombie
Cow	none: zombie
Donkey	minecraft:donkey_wild: player, zombie; minecraft:donkey_tamed: player
Hoglin	minecraft:hoglin_baby: piglin
Horse	minecraft:horse_wild: player, zombie; minecraft:horse_tamed: player
Husk	minecraft:zombie_husk_adult: zombie
Llama	minecraft:llama_wild | minecraft:llama_tamed: player
Minecart	none: all
Mooshroom	none: zombie
Mule	minecraft:mule_wild: player, zombie; minecraft:mule_tamed: player
Ocelot	minecraft:ocelot_wild: zombie
Panda	none: zombie
Pig	minecraft:pig_unsaddled: zombie; minecraft:pig_saddled: player
Player	none: parrot_tame
Ravager	none: pillager, vindicator, evocation_illager
Sheep	minecraft:rideable_sheared | minecraft:rideable_wooly: zombie
Skeleton Horse	minecraft:skeleton_horse_adult: player, skeleton, zombie
Spider	minecraft:spider_jockey | minecraft:spider_stray_jockey | minecraft:spider_wither_jockey: skeleton; Otherwise: zombie
Strider	minecraft:strider_saddled: player; minecraft:strider_piglin_jockey: player, zombie_pigman; minecraft:strider_parent_jockey: strider
Trader Llama	minecraft:llama_wild | minecraft:llama_tamed: player
Wolf	minecraft:wolf_angry | minecraft:wolf_wild: zombie
Zombie	minecraft:zombie_adult: zombie
Zombie Horse	minecraft:horse_adult: zombie
Zombified Piglin	minecraft:pig_zombie_adult: zombie
Zombie Villager	adult: zombie

Posture

The following passengers have riding posture when riding:

Witches, villagers, iron golems, and wandering traders do not have a riding posture although similar mobs do.^[5]

Gallery

Players

• 
  Alex
• 
  Ari
• 
  Efe
• 
  Kai
• 
  Makena
• 
  Noor
• 
  Steve
• 
  Sunny
• 
  Zuri

Monsters

• 
  Zombie/Giant
• 
  Husk
• 
  Drowned
• 
  Skeleton
• 
  Stray
• 
  Wither skeleton
• 
  Piglin
• 
  Piglin brute
• 
  Zombified piglin
• 
  Enderman^{[JE only]}

Illagers

• 
  Vindicator (Can someone cut out the ravager part)
• 
  Attacking Vindicator
• 
  Pillager
• 
  Evoker
• 
  Illusioner

Zombie Villagers

• 
  Unemployed
• 
  Librarian
• 
  Mason
• 
  Nitwit
• 
  Shepherd
• 
  Toolsmith
• 
  Weaponsmith
• 
  Armorer
• 
  Butcher
• 
  Cartographer
• 
  Cleric
• 
  Farmer
• 
  Fisherman
• 
  Fletcher
• 
  Leatherworker

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Feels Like Home	Take a Strider for a loooong [sic] ride on a lava lake in the Overworld.	In the Overworld, use a strider to ride on a lava lake for a distance of 50 meters from the point where the ride starts.	20	Silver
		Saddle Up	Tame a horse.	—	20	Bronze
		When Pigs Fly	Use a saddle to ride a pig, and then have the pig get hurt from fall damage while riding it.	Be riding a pig (e.g. using a saddle) when it hits the ground with a fall distance greater than 5.	40	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Feels Like Home	Take a Strider for a loooong ride on a lava lake in the Overworld	While riding a strider, travel 50 blocks on lava in the Overworld. Only horizontal displacement is counted. Traveling in a circle for more than 50 blocks doesn't count.
	This Boat Has Legs	Ride a Strider with a Warped Fungus on a Stick	Use a warped fungus on a stick while riding a strider, decreasing its durability.

History

Issues

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

References

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