Turtle

Turtle

Health points	30HP × 15
Behavior	Passive
Mob type	Animal, Aquatic
Hitbox size	In Java Edition: Adult: Height: 0.4 blocks Width: 1.2 blocks Baby: Height: 0.12 blocks Width: 0.36 blocks In Bedrock Edition: Adult: Height: 0.4 blocks Width: 1.2 blocks Baby: Height: 0.032 blocks Width: 0.096 blocks
Speed	0.25
Spawn	Beach
Usable items	Seagrass

{
    "title": "Turtle",
    "rows": [
        {
            "field": "30<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1  heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=&#9829)</span> × 15</span>",
            "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
        },
        {
            "field": "Passive",
            "label": "Behavior"
        },
        {
            "field": "(link to Animal article, displayed as Animal), (link to Aquatic article, displayed as Aquatic)",
            "label": "(link to Mob article, displayed as Mob) type"
        },
        {
            "field": "'''In (link to Java Edition article, displayed as ''Java Edition''):'''<br>\n'''Adult:'''<br>Height: 0.4 blocks<br>Width: 1.2 blocks<br>\n'''Baby:'''<br>Height: 0.12 blocks<br>Width: 0.36 blocks<br>\n'''In (link to Bedrock Edition article, displayed as ''Bedrock Edition''):'''<br>\n'''Adult:'''<br>Height: 0.4 blocks<br>Width: 1.2 blocks<br>\n'''Baby:'''<br>Height: 0.032 blocks<br>Width: 0.096 blocks",
            "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
        },
        {
            "field": "0.25",
            "label": "(link to Attribute#movementSpeed article, displayed as Speed)"
        },
        {
            "field": "<span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BiomeSprite beach.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Beach|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Beach article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Beach</span>)</span>",
            "label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
        },
        {
            "field": "\n*   <span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:BlockSprite seagrass.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Seagrass|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Seagrass article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Seagrass</span>)</span>",
            "label": "Usable items"
        }
    ],
    "invimages": [
        "Turtle Spawn Egg"
    ],
    "images": [
        "Turtle.png"
    ]
}

There is a related tutorial page for this topic!

 

See Tutorial:Turtle farming.

Turtles are passive mobs found in beach biomes. They can be bred with seagrass and lay turtle eggs. They are the only source of turtle scutes, which drop from baby turtles when they mature into adults.

Spawning

Turtles occasionally spawn in small groups on the sand in beaches, but not in snowy beaches or stony shores.

Turtles have a 5% chance to spawn as babies.

In Java Edition, turtles spawn in groups of up to 5 individuals, at light levels greater than 8, on sand blocks less than 4 blocks above sea level. (From y level -64 to 67 (sea level + 4))

In Bedrock Edition, turtles spawn in groups of 2–6, in light levels of 7 and higher, at Y=60–67.

Turtle spawns in:

Category: Creature	Java Edition			Bedrock Edition
Spawn area	Spawn weight	Spawn Chance	Group size	Spawn weight	Group size
Beach	5⁄5	100%	2–5	8	2–6

Drops

Breeding

Upon successful breeding, 1–7XP is dropped.

On death

Java Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Seagrass	0–2	66.67%	1.00	0–3	83.33%	1.50	0–4	91.67%	2.00	0–5	94.44%	2.50
	Bowl[A]	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Seagrass	0–2	2⁄3	1	0–3	5⁄6	3⁄2	0–4	11⁄12	2	0–5	17⁄18	5⁄2
	Bowl[A]	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Seagrass	0	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		3	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		4	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		5	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	3⁄2 (1.50)	2 (2.00)	5⁄2 (2.50)
	Bowl[A]	1	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drop
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Seagrass	1.00	1.50	2.00	2.50
	Bowl[A]	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00

Bedrock Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Seagrass	0–2	66.67%	1.00	0–3	66.67%	1.33	0–4	66.67%	1.67	0–5	66.67%	2.00
	Bowl[A]	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Seagrass	0–2	2⁄3	1	0–3	2⁄3	4⁄3	0–4	2⁄3	5⁄3	0–5	2⁄3	2
	Bowl[A]	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Seagrass	0	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		3	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	2⁄9 (22.22%)
		4	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		5	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	4⁄3 (1.33)	5⁄3 (1.67)	2 (2.00)
	Bowl[A]	1	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drop
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Seagrass	1.00	1.33	1.67	2.00
	Bowl[A]	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00

• 1–3XP, if killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Baby turtles do not drop anything when they die.

Growth

When a baby turtle matures into an adult, it drops 1 turtle scute.

Behavior

Turtles can move around slowly on land and swim at a fast speed in water. Like other passive mobs, they move around aimlessly and flee when attacked. When on land, they generally attempt to move to the nearest water source that is at least 2 blocks deep, regardless if player made or natural. When in an enclosed area, such as a player-made enclosure, they generally swim in circles if the water is in the area, and rarely go on land to explore, if there is any.

Turtles cannot be attached to leads,^[1] but they can be led by a player holding seagrass within 10 blocks of the turtle.

Turtles can be picked up by boats and minecarts.

Turtles are dealt 3.4×10³⁸ ( × 1.7×10³⁸) damage when struck by lightning, In Bedrock Edition, turtles are dealt 10000HP × 5000 damage.

As with other aquatic mobs, turtles suffer extra damage when hit by a trident with the Impaling enchantment in Java Edition, and cannot drown, despite the fact that real-life turtles breathe air.

Predators

Turtles and turtle eggs are attacked by the following mobs:

Mob	Attack baby turtles	Attack adult turtles	Attack turtle eggs
Bogged Fox Skeleton Stray Stray cat Wild ocelot Wild wolf Wither skeleton	Yes	No	No
Drowned Husk Zombie Zombie villager	Yes	No	Yes
Goat Warden	Randomly	Randomly	No
Ravager	No	No	Partial[note 1]‌
Tamed wolf	When owner attacks	When owner attacks	No
Vindicator named "Johnny" Zoglin	Yes	Yes	No
Wither	Yes	Yes	Partial[note 1]
Zombified piglin	No	No	Yes

Zombies and their variants deliberately trample on turtle eggs, causing them to break.

Home position

A turtle remembers the block on which it spawned as its home position. No matter how far away the turtle is, it always attempts to return to its home position to lay its eggs after breeding.

If the player uses a tool enchanted with Silk Touch to obtain and move turtle eggs to a new location before hatching, the baby turtles remember the new hatching location as their home beach.

If a turtle is spawned from a spawn egg, summoned with the /summon command, or spawned by a monster spawner, it remembers the spawn location as its home position.

Breeding

Feeding two turtles seagrass results in them entering love mode and one of the turtles becoming pregnant. The pregnant turtle has eggs in its body and is therefore about 0.2 blocks taller than normal.

Egg laying

The turtle then travels back to its home position, which is where it first spawned. The turtle does not stop traveling until it is within a 9-block distance from its home position. Upon arrival, it seeks a nearby sand block on which to lay its eggs. Then, it spends a few seconds digging vigorously while turning 180 degrees a few times. Finally, it lays a cluster of 1–4 turtle eggs, as a single block. Turtles have a cooldown of 90 seconds (1800 game ticks) after breeding in Bedrock Edition, or 5 minutes (300 seconds; 6000 game ticks) in Java Edition.

Egg hatching

Turtle eggs can be placed on any block in clusters of up to 4; however, they only hatch on sand, red sand, or suspicious sand, above or below water. Eggs can be broken without tools and can also be trampled by living entities falling or walking on them. When a cluster is trampled, the eggs crack and break one at a time. A turtle can walk on turtle eggs without breaking them.

Turtle eggs progress toward hatching by cracking. Cracking occurs during random ticks, and an egg hatches once it has cracked 3 times. When a cluster of eggs hatches, all eggs within the block hatch simultaneously. Eggs grow faster at night and typically take 4 to 5 in-game days to hatch. Mining a cluster of turtle eggs with Silk Touch causes it to drop one egg at a time, which the player can collect. Eggs do not preserve the cracking stage when harvested.

Babies

With a height of 0.12 blocks, baby turtles are among the smallest mobs in the game. Baby turtles are small enough that when they walk on soul sand, they are entirely within the space at the top of the block.

Upon hatching, baby turtles search for the nearest water block within a 47×1×47 region two blocks below the turtle and attempt to approach it.

Baby turtles take one Minecraft day to grow up (20 minutes). The growth can be accelerated using seagrass. Each use reduces the remaining growth duration by 10%. Upon becoming an adult, the turtle drops a turtle scute.

Cats attack baby turtles.

Sounds

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

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Turtle	turtle	aquatic can_breathe_under_water not_scary_for_pufferfish sensitive_to_impaling	entity.minecraft.turtle

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Turtle	turtle	74	entity.turtle.name

Entity data

Turtles 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 (PS)
PS4	Other
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	—	10	Bronze
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.	20	Silver

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand also counts 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.
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill one of these 73 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Armadillo Axolotl Bee Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Giant Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Illusioner 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 Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience as well as the ender dragon are ignored for this advancement.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
	The Parrots and the Bats	Breed two animals together	Breed a pair of any of these 26 mobs: Armadillo Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Trader Llama Wolf A mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs are ignored for this advancement.
	Two by Two	Breed all the animals!	Breed a pair of each of these 25 mobs: Armadillo Axolotl Bee Camel Cat Chicken Cow Donkey Fox Frog Goat Hoglin Horse Llama Mooshroom Mule Ocelot Panda Pig Rabbit Sheep Sniffer Strider Wolf A trader llama does not count as a llama, and a mule must be the result of breeding a horse and a donkey for this advancement as they are not breedable together. Other breedable mobs can be bred, but are ignored for this advancement.

History

October 17, 2012							On Reddit, Jeb was asked "I asked at pax about turtles, any work done about those?" and replied "No... I saw Mo' Creatures' turtles and got a bit demotivated to do my own ones. Maybe later..."
September 19, 2012							In a Reddit post anticipating the addition of another animal mob (which turned out to be the bat in 12w38a), Jeb replied to confirm that it would not be a turtle: "The truth is that I'll maybe end up adding turtles one day, it's just that Mo's turtles are difficult to top."
December 26, 2017							Turtle mobs were announced on Minecraft.net.
Java Edition
1.13			18w07a				Added turtles.
			18w07b				Turtles are now bred using seagrass, instead of raw cod.
			18w11a				Added drowned, which attack baby turtles.
1.14			18w44a				Added stray cats, which attack baby turtles.
			19w07a				Added foxes, which attack baby turtles.
1.15			19w39a				The turtle models have changed; adult and baby turtles look different from each other, rather than simply being scale differences.
			19w40a				The turtle models have reverted.[2]
1.18.2			22w03a				Baby turtles no longer suffocate when on soul sand.[3]
1.19.3			22w44a				Turtles now have a breeding delay like other mobs.[4]
1.20.2			23w31a				Turtles clearing away sand now emit an entity_action vibration of frequency 4.[5]
1.20.5			23w51a				The subtitles of baby turtles have been updated to be grammatically correct.[6]
Bedrock Edition
1.5.0			beta 1.5.0.4				Added turtles (named sea turtles) and baby turtles.
1.8.0			beta 1.8.0.8				Added stray cats, which attack baby turtles.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.1				Added foxes, which attack baby turtles.
1.16.100			beta 1.16.100.51				Sea turtles now play a sound when they lay eggs.
1.19.80			Preview 1.19.80.20				Sea turtles can now ride boats and boats with chests, to match Java Edition.
Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Added sea turtles and baby sea turtles.

Data History

Issues

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

Gallery

Mojang images

• 
  The first released screenshot of a turtle.
• 
  Turtle in early development.
• 
  A baby turtle on top of the head of an adult.
• 
  Happy World Sea Turtle Day!
• 
  "Sunny trying out the new /ride command."^[7]
• 
  A classic track & field race.

Screenshots

• 
  A baby turtle moving on the beach after being hatched.
• 
  A turtle moving on land.
• 
  A turtle swimming in a small pool of water.
• 
  A skeleton attacking a baby turtle.
• 
  A wolf attacking a group of baby turtles.
• 
  Two turtles mating.
• 
  A player luring a group of turtles using seagrass.
• 
  Two turtles with some turtle eggs.
• 
  More turtles with eggs.
• 
  A turtle picked up by a boat.
• 
  A large number of turtles in an artificial lake.

Textures

• 
  Turtle texture file.

In other media

• 
  Turtles as seen in the Update Aquatic artwork.
• 
  Artwork of a turtle.
• 
  Official turtle artwork.
• 
  Artwork of a baby turtle alongside several other animals.^[8]
• 
  Artwork of baby turtles.
• 
  Artwork of a turtle with a red parrot.
• 
  Lego Minecraft turtle.
• 
  Mojang Studios' animation showing when a turtle becomes a bowl.
• 
  A Turtle icon used in the Minecraft Minigames results icons
• 
  A silhouette of a turtle as seen in A Minecraft Movie.
• 
  Unused turtle pixel art image from bedrock edition.

References

External links

• Sea Turtle article on Wikipedia
• Mob Menagerie: Turtle – Minecraft.net on June 1, 2023

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