Warden

For the warden boss in the Craftmine Update, see Warden (April Fools' joke). For other namesakes, see Warden (disambiguation).
Warden
Warden.gif: Infobox image for Warden the entity in Minecraft
Invicon Warden Spawn Egg.png: Inventory sprite for Warden Spawn Egg in Minecraft as shown in-game with description: Warden Spawn Egg
Health points

500HP♥ × 250

Behavior

Hostile

Mob type

Monster

Attack
strength

Melee:
Easy: 16HP♥ × 8
Normal: 30HP♥ × 15
Hard: 45HP♥ × 22.5
Ranged: (ignores armor and Protection)
Easy: 6HP♥♥♥
Normal: 10HP♥♥♥♥♥
Hard: 15HP♥ × 7.5

Hitbox size

Height: 2.9 blocks
Width: 0.9 blocks
While digging/emerging:
Height: 1 block
Width: 0.9 blocks

Knockback
resistance

100%

Spawn

When a player activates naturally generated sculk shriekers four times or more

A warden is a powerful hostile mob summoned by sculk shriekers in the deep dark biome. It attacks by swinging its arms downward or by using its sonic boom. The arm attack does more melee damage than any attack from any other mob, enough to instantly kill a player without armor on Normal difficulty. In combination with the sonic boom which can go through any blocks, the warden is one of the strongest mobs. Their animations are unusually advanced and varied compared to other mobs. Wardens are completely blind and rely on vibrations, smell, and touch to detect players and mobs. Therefore, a warden can be evaded by sneaking, by diverting its attention to other sounds (for example, the sound of a snowball or arrow hitting a wall), or by hiding behind wool.

Spawning

A warden emerges from the ground after being summoned by sculk shriekers.

Wardens do not follow the standard mob spawning rules. Instead, a warden is spawned when a player in Survival, Adventure or Creative mode activates any number of naturally generated sculk shriekers four times (see details below).

Each player has a warning level, which increases every time that player activates a naturally generated sculk shrieker. This is not specific to any sculk shrieker. A sculk shrieker that has already been activated by a player before activates the same way it does normally, and the warning level does not reset if the player were to activate a new sculk shrieker. The distance between the shriekers doesn't matter. The shrieker spawns a warden 4.5 seconds after the warning level reaches 4, or immediately if the sculk shrieker is destroyed. If the warning level is already at 4, it stays at 4 and spawns another warden.

The light level does not have an effect on shrieker activation or warden spawning, regardless of the warning level.

When a shrieker attempts to spawn a warden, it makes up to 20 attempts to spawn the warden within an 11×13×11 cubic area centered on the shrieker. During each attempt, the game picks a random column (i.e. a stack of blocks parallel to the Y axis), and then picks the highest valid block in that column. A valid block is any block that has a complete top surface (i.e. the top face is a grid-aligned square meter surface with no holes), and that a warden can be placed directly on top of without having the warden collide with any existing blocks or entities. A warden can't spawn if the bottom block that it would occupy has a liquid inside it, but it can spawn with 1 or more liquids in the blocks above that. So, a pressure plate with water flowing on top would be a valid location for the shrieker to spawn the warden (this would place the warden with its feet in the water, one block above the pressure plate).

In Java Edition, warden spawning can be toggled on or off with the game rule doWardenSpawning.

Drops

On death

Java Edition:

ItemQuantity / Chance / Average
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst1100.00%1.001100.00%1.001100.00%1.001100.00%1.00

ItemQuantity / Chance / Average
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst111111111111

ItemAmountProbability
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst11 (100.00%)1 (100.00%)1 (100.00%)1 (100.00%)
Average1 (1.00)1 (1.00)1 (1.00)1 (1.00)

Killed1
ItemExpected Drop
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst1.001.001.001.00

Bedrock Edition:

ItemQuantity / Chance / Average
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst1100.00%1.001100.00%1.001100.00%1.001100.00%1.00

ItemQuantity / Chance / Average
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst111111111111

ItemAmountProbability
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst11 (100.00%)1 (100.00%)1 (100.00%)1 (100.00%)
Average1 (1.00)1 (1.00)1 (1.00)1 (1.00)

Killed1
ItemExpected Drop
DefaultLooting ILooting IILooting III
Sculk Catalyst1.001.001.001.00

Behavior

A warden is blind and seeks out targets by sensing vibrations and by sniffing.

After spawning, wardens wander randomly and move toward nearby vibrations originating from players, mobs, and non-mob sources including projectiles and minecarts. A warden also periodically sniffs the area around it, allowing it to zero in on targets even if they don't create vibrations. As wardens sniff, pick up vibrations, or are touched by other players or mobs, they become increasingly agitated.

Idle

A warden can fit inside any space that is 1 block wide and 3 blocks tall, allowing it to chase players and mobs through small corridors.

Wardens are immune to damage from fire or lava, and are immune to knockback. They pursue through blocks that are usually avoided by other mobs, including rails[1], cacti, or magma blocks.

A warden listens to all vibrations within a 15 block radius ovoid shape, except those from other wardens, armor stands, dying mobs, and players in Creative or Spectator mode. Like with sculk sensors, they cannot detect vibrations from a sneaking player that is moving, jumping, falling or shooting a projectile. A warden has a 2-second cooldown between detecting vibrations.

A warden is aware of all targetable entities within a 49×51×49 box around itself. If the warden has a targetable entity, is not investigating any disturbances, and is otherwise idle, it pathfinds toward the closest entity, prioritizing players over mobs. While pathfinding, the warden can begin a 'sniff' behavior and animation. This takes around 4.2 seconds and has a 5-10 seconds cooldown. A warden can still sniff out sneaking players, despite not being able to detect vibrations from them.

Inflicting Darkness

A warden, whether angered or not, gives 12 seconds of Darkness to all players within a 20 block ovoid radius of it every 6 seconds. The souls in its chest make a low heartbeat that occurs in tandem with the Darkness effect.​ The heartbeat speeds up as the warden becomes increasingly agitated.[2] A warden prefers to track down the most suspicious targets, rather than the ones closest to it.[3]

Suspense

Wardens keep track of how angry they are at each suspect as a number from 0 to 150. When a warden notices a vibration, it adds anger to the player or mob that caused the vibration. It adds 10 anger if the vibration was from a projectile or 35 anger for other vibrations. However, if two projectiles from the same player/mob are heard by the warden within five seconds, it instead adds the full 35 anger toward that player/mob. Wardens do not add anger toward a mob/player if the projectile was shot from more than 30 blocks away, although the projectile does count toward the counter of two projectiles. Anger decays at a rate of 1 per second and immediately clears if the targeted player switches to Creative or Spectator modes, the target or warden leaves the dimension, or if the target dies.

A warden adds 35 anger toward any mob that directly touches it. This effect has a 1-second cooldown.

When it finishes sniffing, a warden adds 35 anger to the nearest mob or player within a 6 block radius horizontally and 20 blocks vertically, a cylindrical volume centered on the warden.

A warden roars before pursuing its target.

Once a warden reaches 80 anger with a target, it roars for 4.2 seconds, adds another 20 anger, and pursues the target. In this angered state, the warden chases the target normally despite being blind. A warden also enters its hostile state and adds 100 anger if directly attacked by a mob. If the attacking player or mob is within 5 blocks, it skips its roaring animation altogether and immediately gives chase.

A warden is biased toward player vibrations, attacks, and contact - even if a warden is angrier at another mob, it still attacks the player first as long as they have angered the warden as well. This is not true of any other mob.[4]

After 60 seconds of being "calm" and not detecting any vibrations or sniffing any mobs, as well as immediately after being spawned by a command block with status effects, a warden burrows back into the ground and despawns. If the warden is floating on a liquid, it instead immediately despawns without any burrowing animation. During its emerging/burrowing animation, a warden cannot detect any vibrations and can take damage only from /kill, though it can still be pushed by entities, pistons, or liquids. Named wardens do not dig or despawn.

Unlike most hostile mobs, wardens do not despawn randomly when more than 32 blocks from a player, nor do they immediately despawn when more than 128 blocks from a player.

Attacks

A warden's melee attack has a cooldown of 36 ticks (1.8 seconds) and disables shields for 5 seconds, dealing 16HP♥ × 8 to 45HP♥ × 22.5 health points depending on the difficulty.

The warden's sonic boom attack on a chicken

If a warden cannot reach its target, it switches to its ranged attack: a sonic boom. It does so when the following are true:

  • It has been 10 seconds since the warden detected the target
  • It has been 5 seconds since the warden last used a melee or ranged attack
  • The target is within a 14 block radius horizontally and 20 blocks vertically of the warden in an ovoid shape.

The sonic boom aims directly at the only target, making it impossible to dodge, passing through all blocks, but cannot go through entities. A warden takes 1.7 seconds to charge and unleashes the attack, which instantly hits the target as long as the target is within attack range. The attack takes an additional 1.3 seconds to cool down before the warden can use melee attacks again for a total of 3 seconds. The sonic boom is visible via green-blue particles that are projected out of the warden's chest. This attack bypasses all forms of armor, including: shields, armor enchantments (such as Protection), the shell of a closed shulker (the shell on the living mob, not the shulker shell item), the wind armor of a breeze, and the natural armor of a wither. Wolf armor loses durability when hit by a sonic boom, but normal armor does not. Only the 85% magic damage resistance of a witch and the Resistance effect can reduce the damage from a sonic boom.

Sounds

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

Sounds
SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
​Warden whinesHostile MobsRandomly while calmentity.warden.ambientsubtitles.entity.warden.ambient4.00.8-1.216
​Warden groans angrilyHostile MobsRandomly while agitatedentity.warden.agitatedsubtitles.entity.warden.agitated4.00.8-1.216
​Warden ragesHostile MobsRandomly while angryentity.warden.angrysubtitles.entity.warden.angry4.00.8-1.216
​Warden groans angrilyHostile MobsWhen a warden fails to spawn underwaterentity.warden.agitatedsubtitles.entity.warden.agitated5.01.016
​Warden takes notice angrilyHostile MobsWhen all of a warden's spawn attempts failentity.warden.listening_angrysubtitles.entity.warden.listening_angry5.01.0?
​Warden lands hitHostile MobsWhen a warden attacks somethingentity.warden.attack_impactsubtitles.entity.warden.attack_impact10.00.8-1.216
​Warden diesHostile MobsWhen a warden diesentity.warden.deathsubtitles.entity.warden.death4.00.8-1.216
​Warden hurtsHostile MobsWhen a warden is damagedentity.warden.hurtsubtitles.entity.warden.hurt4.00.8-1.216
​Warden emergesHostile MobsWhen a warden spawnsentity.warden.emergesubtitles.entity.warden.emerge5.01.016
​Warden digsHostile MobsWhen a warden despawnsentity.warden.digsubtitles.entity.warden.dig5.01.016
​Warden's heart beatsHostile MobsPeriodically depending on angerentity.warden.heartbeatsubtitles.entity.warden.heartbeat5.00.8-1.216
​Warden takes noticeHostile MobsWhen a warden notices a vibration or smell while calmentity.warden.listeningsubtitles.entity.warden.listening10.00.8-1.216
​Warden takes notice angrilyHostile MobsWhen a warden notices a vibration or smell while agitated or angryentity.warden.listening_angrysubtitles.entity.warden.listening_angry10.00.8-1.216
​Warden approachesHostile MobsWhen a warden is called by a sculk shrieker onceentity.warden.nearby_closesubtitles.entity.warden.nearby_close5.01.016
​Warden advancesHostile MobsWhen a warden is called by a sculk shrieker twiceentity.warden.nearby_closersubtitles.entity.warden.nearby_closer5.01.016
​Warden draws closeHostile MobsWhen a warden is called by a sculk shrieker thriceentity.warden.nearby_closestsubtitles.entity.warden.nearby_closest5.01.016
​Warden's tendrils clickHostile MobsWhen a warden detects a vibrationentity.warden.tendril_clickssubtitles.entity.warden.tendril_clicks5.00.8-1.216
​Warden roarsHostile MobsWhen a warden targets a mobentity.warden.roarsubtitles.entity.warden.roar3.01.016
​Warden sniffsHostile MobsWhen a warden sniffs for nearby entitiesentity.warden.sniffsubtitles.entity.warden.sniff3.751.016
​Warden boomsHostile MobsWhen a warden casts a sonic boomentity.warden.sonic_boomsubtitles.entity.warden.sonic_boom3.01.016
​Warden chargesHostile MobsWhen a warden prepares a sonic boomentity.warden.sonic_chargesubtitles.entity.warden.sonic_charge3.01.016
​FootstepsHostile MobsWhile a warden is walkingentity.warden.stepsubtitles.block.generic.footsteps3.01.016

Bedrock Edition:

Sounds
SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
Randomlymob.warden.idle1.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
Randomly ​mob.warden.idle3.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
Randomly when a warden notices somethingmob.warden.agitated10.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
Randomly when a warden targets an enemymob.warden.angry10.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When all of a warden's spawn attempts fail ​mob.warden.listening_angry10.0 0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden attacks somethingmob.warden.attack10.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden spawnsmob.warden.emerge5.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden diesmob.warden.death1.00.8-1.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden is damagedmob.warden.hurt1.00.8-1.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden despawnsmob.warden.dig5.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
Periodically depending on angermob.warden.heartbeat5.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden notices a vibration or smell while calmmob.warden.listening10.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden fails to spawn or notices a vibration or smell from a target while agitated or angrymob.warden.listening_angry10.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker oncemob.warden.nearby_close5.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker twicemob.warden.nearby_closer5.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker thricemob.warden.nearby_closest5.00.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden detects a vibrationmob.warden.clicking1.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden targets a mob while being faced by the player[sound 1]mob.warden.roar10.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden sniffs for nearby entitiesmob.warden.sniff5.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden casts a sonic boommob.warden.sonic_boom3.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
When a warden prepares a sonic boommob.warden.sonic_charge3.01.0
Hostile Creatures‌
Hostile Mobs​
While a warden is walkingmob.warden.step1.00.8-1.2

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierTranslation key
EntitySprite warden.png: Sprite image for warden in Minecraft Wardenwardenentity.minecraft.warden

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
EntitySprite warden.png: Sprite image for warden in Minecraft Wardenwarden131entity.warden.name

Entity data

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

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • [NBT Compound / JSON Object]: Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
    • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
    • [NBT Compound / JSON Object] anger: Anger management of the warden.
      • [NBT List / JSON Array] suspects: List of suspects that have angered the warden.
        • [NBT Compound / JSON Object]: A suspect.
          • [Int] anger: The level of anger. It has a maximum value of 150 and decreases by 1 every second.
          • [Int Array] uuid: The UUID of the entity that is associated with the anger, stored as four ints.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

IconAchievementIn-game descriptionActual requirements (if different)Gamerscore earnedTrophy type (PS)
PS4Other
It SpreadsKill a mob next to a catalyst10Bronze
OverkillDeal 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.30Bronze
Over-OverkillDeal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the MaceDamage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.20Silver
Sneak 100Sneak next to a Sculk Sensor without triggering itSneak next to a Sculk Sensor or Warden without triggering or aggravating it.10Bronze

Advancements

Killing a warden does not grant the Monster Hunter advancement and is not required in order to complete the Monsters Hunted advancement.[5][6]

IconAdvancementIn-game descriptionActual requirements (if different)
A Throwaway JokeThrow a Trident at something.
Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.
Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
AdventureAdventure, exploration and combatKill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
ArbalisticKill five unique mobs with one crossbow shotArmor 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.
How Did We Get Here?Have every effect applied at the same time

The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored 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 SpreadsKill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst Mobs that drop no experience as well as the ender dragon are ignored for this advancement.
Over-OverkillDeal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the MaceDamage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.
Sneak 100Sneak near a Sculk Sensor or Warden to prevent it from detecting youSneak within 8 blocks from a sculk sensor, or 16 blocks from a .
Take AimShoot something with an ArrowUsing a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.

Videos

YouTube

Other

History

2020Several pieces of concept art were created for the warden, known at the time as the stalker.
A prototype of the original stalker design was programmed into the game.
A second version of the stalker could transform into a form that was less wide and tall when chasing an entity or player, while its regular form was meant to disguise as a treasure totem. This iteration got scrapped as it was considered too goofy and insufficiently scary.
The stalker was renamed to hollowed.
Several pieces of concept art were also created for the hollowed design iteration.
A prototype of the hollowed design was programmed into the game.
The visuals for this iteration were ultimately scrapped, as they were considered too uncanny and overall frightening for Minecraft. However, the mechanics remained mostly the same.
October 3, 2020 The warden was announced at Minecraft Live 2020.
October 6, 2020A set of teaser images regarding the warden's size and behavior were posted on Brandon Pearce's Twitter.
October 16, 2021 New spawning conditions and textures for the warden were revealed at Minecraft Live 2021.
November 26, 2021The warden was revealed to have a sense of smell; it can detect and pathfind toward the general location of a player or mob through a "smelling" action. It also prioritizes smelling the player or mob that it is most suspicious of, rather than the one closest to it.[7][8]
December 18, 2021The warden's emerging animations were showcased.
January 22, 2022 The warden's in-between texture between Minecraft Live 2020 and 2021 were showcased at The Secrets of Minecraft series.
Java Edition
1.19Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1 Added wardens.
22w11aWardens are now removed.
22w12aRe-added wardens.
Wardens are no longer considered undead.
Wardens have been given a new attacking animation.
Increased warden's vertical reach from 3 blocks to 4 blocks.
Wardens no longer slow down in water.
Wardens are now immune to fire and lava.
Warden textures have been changed. The tusks on the chest have been separated and new overlays have been added.
Nametagged wardens no longer burrow.
22w13aWardens can now pass over rails.[1]
22w14aWardens now become angry at all living mobs that bump into it, not just players.
Wardens now slow down in water and are affected by bubble columns again.
22w15a Wardens now charge and release a ranged attack when the target is found to be well beyond the melee attack's range. This attack can penetrate walls.
Wardens can now smell players from further away.
The vertical range in which wardens get angry has been increased from 6 to 20 blocks.
Reverted the warden's vertical reach back to how it was before 22w12a.[9]
22w16aDecreased the warden's vertical reach again, from 3 to 2 blocks.
Added the game rule doWardenSpawning.
22w17aWardens now drop one sculk catalyst upon death.
The amount of damage dealt by its ranged attack has been decreased from 30HP♥ × 15 to 10HP♥♥♥♥♥.
The cooldown for their ranged attack has been decreased from 5 to 2 seconds.
The ranged attack can bypass shields and armor.
22w18a Updated the textures of the sonic boom particle.
22w19aThe warden's ranged attack is now affected by difficulty.
Sculk shriekers now need to be activated four times to summon the warden.
Pre-release 3Sonic boom attack damage is no longer reduced by the Protection enchantment.
Bedrock Edition
December 9, 2021 Development of deep dark content, including the warden, was revealed for Bedrock.
December 17, 2021A new burrowing animation was showcased.
1.18.30
Experiment
Wild Update
Preview 1.18.30.33Added wardens behind the "Wild Update" experimental toggle.
At that time, there were no hit or death sound effects, and some of its features were outdated compared to the latest Java Edition snapshots.
1.19.0Preview 1.19.0.21Wardens are now available without having to enable experimental gameplay.
Added hurt, death, and angry listening sound effects.
Wardens can now preserve anger levels toward despawned entities.
Wardens no longer get angry toward other wardens or inanimate objects.
Preview 1.19.0.27Wardens now charge and release a ranged attack when the target is found to be well beyond the melee attack's range. This attack can penetrate walls.
Wardens can now smell players from further away.
The vertical range in which wardens get angry has been increased to 6 to 20 blocks.
Wardens now gets angry at all living mobs that bump into it, not just players.
Wardens now prioritize attacking players over other mobs.
Preview 1.19.0.29Wardens now drop one sculk catalyst upon death.
The amount of damage dealt by its ranged attack has been decreased from 30HP♥ × 15 to 10HP♥♥♥♥♥.
The cooldown for their ranged attack has been decreased from 5 to 2 seconds.
The ranged attack can bypass shields and armor.

Issues

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

Trivia

  • Although the warden is supposed to be blind, spectating it reveals that it still has normal vision.[10]
  • The concept for the warden was originally planned for the Nether Update as a "blind piglin that could only respond to sounds" that could be found within a "new biome".[11]
  • Brandon Pearce considers the warden as something entirely new, as it isn't a boss, a mini boss or a regular enemy, but a force of nature: "when a tornado is barreling towards you, you don't try to kill it - you run away! The warden is exactly the same."[12]
  • Brandon's thought process on finally giving the warden a drop after he was heavily against it was the warden should never drop something that is important or hard to get that would be worth going through the trouble of fighting it. In this case, fighting a warden is not worth a sculk catalyst. This change was made for renewability farms and tech players.[13]
  • When Chi Wong was working the warden's digging animation he wanted to make sure the timing was right and make sure while it was going down, it's not going down like an elevator, but it actually digs, and the feeling Chi wanted to convey with it is it has tons of rage, it is annoyed, and it wants to go down.[14]
  • The warden is the most concepted and worked through mob in Minecraft in terms of sound design.[15] When Brandon was first developing the warden, sound design was important to him, and the warden was designed with that in mind.[16]
  • While designing the warden, Brandon wanted to hear the player's "heartbeat" as the warden got closer for anticipation but he thought that it felt out of place and didn't make sense to hear the player's heartbeat. His solution was for something else to make the heartbeat, and thus the warden gained a heartbeat. It was also a design choice to mimic some really interesting sound design without breaking immersion. It also adds more to the warden itself and lore reasons as to why a warden has a heartbeat.[17]

  • Some previous names being considered for the warden were the shade,[18] the stalker and the hollowed.[19]
    • The shade was a vaguely humanoid translucent mob with glowing eyes. It was meant to be a more ambient mob, which would stand in darkness with only its eyes visible and would slowly fade away as the player approached it. It would also imitate the noise of other mobs, making it sound as though they were right behind the player. Rather than an iteration on the warden, by then called the "stalker", the shade had come to be a completely separate mob to the stalker, though in some concepts it was meant to be sort of complementary, living in the ancient cities and helping the stalker by tricking players into alerting it. It was eventually scrapped due to a feeling that it would grow to become annoying rather than creepy, and so the team could better focus on developing the stalker.[20]
    • The stalker iteration was tall and asymmetrical with a glowing core, sometimes referred to as a chest crystal.[11] It occurred in totems throughout the deep dark. The stalker would stand completely still to trick players into taking its core and aggravating it, and could transform into a form one block high form to prevent players from escaping through small tunnels. This iteration, specifically its appearance and transformation mechanic, felt clunky and was deemed more goofy than scary, so it was scrapped by the Mojang Studios gameplay developers. The vibration-sensing aspect, which was developed in this version, however, was passed down to and refined in the later iterations.[21][22]
    • The hollowed was designed with the intent of inciting trypophobia and had white flesh with holes in it. According to Brandon Pearce, its design was an experiment to see how far the boundaries of Minecraft could be pushed and to try and draw a line as to what would be acceptable. The design had to ultimately be toned down multiple times due to said metaphorical line being crossed and after many back-and-forths between the developers, the directors and art team, a design similar to the current one was landed on.[23][24]
  • The warden also had a number of other mechanics and abilities planned:
    • If the player managed to get out of the warden's attack and pathfinding range but still be within its detection range, the warden would use a "mind-altering" attack that would cause the player to move erratically (walking forward would cause the player to go backward, etc.) and deal damage overtime. The mechanic was eventually scrapped due to being deemed too complicated.[25][26]
    • The warden would destroy blocks or burrow through them. The former was rejected due to the developers wanting to limit the number of "destructive" mobs there are in the game and the latter was rejected due to being too difficult to implement.[26]
    • The warden could hide the player's hunger bar and health bar.[27]
    • Brandon Pearce wanted the warden to be immune to damage to discourage players from fighting it, but he didn't think that would work for a sandbox game.[28]
  • The warden would originally burn when exposed to daylight.[29]
  • The warden and sculk were inspired by Lovecraftian horror as the developers wanted to make something that wasn't in the traditional scary like jumpscares and etc. but in a mysterious and unknown scary.[30]
  • In the fifth episode of Minecraft Now, it was revealed by Jasper Boerstra that the warden went through over 175 different concept iterations and they have explored everything because they wanted the warden to be something really special and also for it to be scary, beautiful, ugly cute and have some empathy.[31]
  • In the sixth episode of The Secrets of Minecraft, it was joked that the warden's personal names are "Jonathan" and "William", depending on the scene, similar to how the player, the ender dragon or the wither all have personal joke names.[19] "Warden" itself was also jokingly broken down into "War! Dens!" in the description.
    • "Jonathan" can be seen on a blackboard for name suggestions alongside "the stalker" and "the hollowed".
    • It is also joked that the name "warden" was the result of calling it "William" and spelling it wrong.
    • In the tenth episode, both names were used when Narrator spotted the warden behind him.[32] He mistakenly called the warden Jonathan before correcting himself as William, foreshadowing Jonathan Minecraft, who appears in the eleventh and final episode leading into Around the Minecraft World in 80 Biomes.[33]
  • Brandon Pearce stated in a tweet that the souls in the warden's chest is important to its lore.[34]
    • He also stated that the warden is inspired by the mystery heard at the end of the Music Disc 11.[35]

Gallery

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Recreations

Concept artwork

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In other media

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References

  1. a b MC-249642 — Wardens can't pass over rails — resolved as "Fixed".
  2. "Currently the Warden's heartbeat gets faster the angrier or "close" it is to find its prey. In real time, this has really felt like it mimics the panic level of the player itself — the closer the Warden is to finding you, the more anxious you're probably going to be."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), October 17, 2021
  3. "Also currently it sniffs out the mob/player that it is most suspicious of, rather than the nearest mob/player."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), November 26, 2021
  4. MC-251045 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
  5. "No"@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), July 7, 2021
  6. MC-249515 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
  7. "Kinda. Wardens have no capability to detect players through vision. It technically has no idea where the player is, a system tells the Warden a general location that the player MIGHT be, not exactly. Only when the warden suspects a mob enough that it knows their exact position"@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), November 26, 2021
  8. "Also currently it sniffs out the mob/player that it is most suspicious of, rather than the nearest mob/player."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), November 26, 2021
  9. MC-250192 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
  10. MC-249500 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
  11. a b c "Meet the Warden" by Per Landin – Minecraft.net, June 3, 2022.
  12. "I'd actually consider it something entirely new. The Warden is a force of a nature, not a boss. When a tornado is barreling towards you, you don't try to kill it - you run away! The Warden is exactly the same."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), October 4, 2020
  13. "The key is that the Warden should never drop something that is important or hard to get that would be worth going through the trouble of fighting it. In this case though, fighting a Warden is not worth a Sculk Catalyst. This change is only made for renewability farms/tech players"@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), April 28, 2022
  14. "Minecraft 1.19: Secret Sounds & Fabulous Frogs" – Minecraft on YouTube
  15. "Hey thats a looooong story. Probably the most concepted and worked through entity(s) in Minecraft, in sound design. Hoping to share some WIPs and behind the scenes in the future."@slamp0000 on X (formerly Twitter), June 26, 2022
  16. "I want to talk about the heartbeat in the Warden videos: when developing the Warden for the first time, sound design was super important to me and the mob was designed with that in mind. Part of me wanted to hear the player's "heartbeat" as the Warden got closer, for anticipation"@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), October 18, 2021
  17. "That would be the opposite of immersive though. Do Steve or Alex have heartbeats? Would it even make sense to hear it? In my opinion no. It feels too out of place.My solution instead was, what if something else made that heartbeat sound? Thus the Warden gained a heartbeat."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), October 18, 2021
  18. "Minecraft Now: Wild Update and Farlands ft AntVenom!" – Minecraft on YouTube, May 19, 2022
  19. a b "The Secrets of How We're Making the Warden" – Minecraft on YouTube, January 21, 2022
  20. "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy on YouTube, November 22, 2022
  21. "Some ideas we had for early iterations of the Warden. Stalkers were going to have a glowing item in the middle of its chest that you would also randomly find throughout the biome floating on totems. The idea was stalkers would stand perfectly still to "fake" those glowing items."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), January 22, 2022
  22. "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy @ 1:04:15 on YouTube, November 22, 2022
  23. "146 - From Modding to Mojang with Kingbdogz // The Spawn Chunks: A Minecraft Podcast" – The Spawn Chunks @ 2:55 on YouTube, June 21, 2021
  24. "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy @ 1:07:47 on YouTube, November 22, 2022
  25. "I think something a little more.. mind altering."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), October 26, 2020
  26. a b "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy @ 1:15:31 on YouTube, November 22, 2022
  27. "Fun fact: One warden prototype hid your hunger and health bar. That would have been scary Source: Minecraft Ideas Academy"@CagilMartin on X (formerly Twitter), August 3, 2022
  28. "Fun fact: Kingbdogz originally wanted the warden to be invincible to discourage combat but he scrapped that idea. Source: Minecraft Ideas Academy"@CagilMartin on X (formerly Twitter), August 8, 2022
  29. "1. It will not. This is both for design reasons (we want it to be something more "physical", like motion), and for technical reasons. 2. It will probably investigate the location it "felt/heard" the vibration. 3. Nope, but in the current design it will burn in sunlight."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), May 22, 2021
  30. "Minecraft 1.19: The Deep Dark – Not So Scary After All! (If You’re The Warden)" – Minecraft on YouTube, August 12, 2022
  31. "Minecraft Now: The Warden and Mangroves" – Minecraft on YouTube, June 30, 2022
  32. "The Secrets of Minecraft's Deep Dark" – Minecraft on YouTube, June 24, 2022
  33. "The FINAL Secrets of Minecraft!!" – Minecraft on YouTube, July 22, 2022
  34. "In terms of character, the souls in its chest were incredibly important to its lore and, likewise with the color palette. It all comes together to tell a story that I think can be really more unsettling than any of these previous iterations, despite it being less "gory"."@kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), January 23, 2022
  35. "Ask Mojang #11: All About Caves & Cliffs" – Minecraft on YouTube, October 30, 2020
  36. MCPE-153967
  37. "The Scariest Cow Ever Created | The Story Of The Warden @ 3:12" – Minecraft on YouTube, March 30, 2024
  38. "Minecraft Now: Wild Update and Farlands ft AntVenom! @ 24:35" – Minecraft on YouTube, May 19, 2022
  39. "Everything WRONG with our videos: MINECRAFT LIVE! (PART 1) @ 10:59" – Element Animation on YouTube, March 25, 2023
  40. "Minecraft Live 2022: A Warden’s Song" – Minecraft on YouTube

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