Warden

| Health points |
500HP × 250 |
|---|---|
| Behavior |
Hostile |
| Mob type | |
| Attack strength |
Melee: |
| Hitbox size |
Height: 2.9 blocks |
| Knockback resistance |
100% |
| Spawn |
When a player activates naturally generated sculk shriekers four times or more |
{
"title": "Warden",
"rows": [
{
"field": "500<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=♥)</span> × 250</span>",
"label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
},
{
"field": "Hostile",
"label": "Behavior"
},
{
"field": "(link to Monster article, displayed as Monster)",
"label": "(link to Mob article, displayed as Mob) type"
},
{
"field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
"label": "Attack<br/>strength"
},
{
"field": "Height: 2.9 blocks<br>Width: 0.9 blocks<br>\n'''While digging/emerging:'''<br>\nHeight: 1 block<br>Width: 0.9 blocks<br>",
"label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
},
{
"field": "100%",
"label": "(link to Attribute#knockbackResistance article, displayed as Knockback<br/>resistance)"
},
{
"field": "When a player activates naturally generated (link to sculk shrieker article, displayed as sculk shriekers) four times or more",
"label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
}
],
"invimages": [
"Warden Spawn Egg"
],
"images": [
"Warden.gif"
]
}
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

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
| Item | Quantity / Chance / Average | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default | Looting I | Looting II | Looting III | ||||||||||
| Sculk Catalyst | 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 | ||||||||||
| Sculk Catalyst | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Item | Amount | Probability | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default | Looting I | Looting II | Looting III | |||
| Sculk Catalyst | 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 | ||
| Sculk Catalyst | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
| Item | Quantity / Chance / Average | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default | Looting I | Looting II | Looting III | ||||||||||
| Sculk Catalyst | 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 | ||||||||||
| Sculk Catalyst | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Item | Amount | Probability | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default | Looting I | Looting II | Looting III | |||
| Sculk Catalyst | 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 | ||
| Sculk Catalyst | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 | |
- 5XP experience if killed by either a player or a tamed wolf.
Behavior

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.

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.

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 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
| Warden whines | Hostile Mobs | Randomly while calm | entity | subtitles | 4.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden groans angrily | Hostile Mobs | Randomly while agitated | entity | subtitles | 4.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden rages | Hostile Mobs | Randomly while angry | entity | subtitles | 4.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden groans angrily | Hostile Mobs | When a warden fails to spawn underwater | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden takes notice angrily | Hostile Mobs | When all of a warden's spawn attempts fail | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | ? | |
| Warden lands hit | Hostile Mobs | When a warden attacks something | entity | subtitles | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden dies | Hostile Mobs | When a warden dies | entity | subtitles | 4.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden hurts | Hostile Mobs | When a warden is damaged | entity | subtitles | 4.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden emerges | Hostile Mobs | When a warden spawns | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden digs | Hostile Mobs | When a warden despawns | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden's heart beats | Hostile Mobs | Periodically depending on anger | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden takes notice | Hostile Mobs | When a warden notices a vibration or smell while calm | entity | subtitles | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden takes notice angrily | Hostile Mobs | When a warden notices a vibration or smell while agitated or angry | entity | subtitles | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden approaches | Hostile Mobs | When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker once | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden advances | Hostile Mobs | When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker twice | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden draws close | Hostile Mobs | When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker thrice | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden's tendrils click | Hostile Mobs | When a warden detects a vibration | entity | subtitles | 5.0 | 0.8-1.2 | 16 | |
| Warden roars | Hostile Mobs | When a warden targets a mob | entity | subtitles | 3.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden sniffs | Hostile Mobs | When a warden sniffs for nearby entities | entity | subtitles | 3.75 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden booms | Hostile Mobs | When a warden casts a sonic boom | entity | subtitles | 3.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Warden charges | Hostile Mobs | When a warden prepares a sonic boom | entity | subtitles | 3.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Footsteps | Hostile Mobs | While a warden is walking | entity | subtitles | 3.0 | 1.0 | 16 | |
| Sounds | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sound | Source | Description | Resource location | Volume | Pitch |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | Randomly | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | Randomly | mob | 3.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | Randomly when a warden notices something | mob | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | Randomly when a warden targets an enemy | mob | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When all of a warden's spawn attempts fail | mob | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden attacks something | mob | 10.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden spawns | mob | 5.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden dies | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden is damaged | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden despawns | mob | 5.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | Periodically depending on anger | mob | 5.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden notices a vibration or smell while calm | mob | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden fails to spawn or notices a vibration or smell from a target while agitated or angry | mob | 10.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker once | mob | 5.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker twice | mob | 5.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden is called by a sculk shrieker thrice | mob | 5.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden detects a vibration | mob | 1.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden targets a mob while being faced by the player[sound 1] | mob | 10.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden sniffs for nearby entities | mob | 5.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden casts a sonic boom | mob | 3.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | When a warden prepares a sonic boom | mob | 3.0 | 1.0 | |
| Hostile Creatures Hostile Mobs | While a warden is walking | mob | 1.0 | 0.8-1.2 | |
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
warden | entity |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
warden | 131 | entity |
Entity data
Wardens have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.
- [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.
- [NBT Compound / JSON Object]: A suspect.
- [NBT List / JSON Array] suspects: List of suspects that have angered the warden.
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 | |||
| Sneak 100 | Sneak next to a Sculk Sensor without triggering it | Sneak next to a Sculk Sensor or Warden without triggering or aggravating it. | 10 | Bronze | |||
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]
| 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 | 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 | Have all of these 33 status effects applied to the player 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. |
![]() | It Spreads | Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst | Kill one of these 73 mobs near a sculk catalyst:
|
![]() | 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. |
![]() | Sneak 100 | Sneak near a Sculk Sensor or Warden to prevent it from detecting you | Sneak within 8 blocks from a sculk sensor, or 16 blocks from a . |
![]() | Take Aim | Shoot something with an Arrow | Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow. |
Videos
YouTube
Other
-
A warden running in ancient city.
-
Steve running away from a warden in an ancient city.
-
A warden with a bow tie, wooden cane and glowing sticks dancing from Minecraft's YouTube.
History
| 2020 | Several pieces of concept art were created for the warden, known at the time as the stalker. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The stalker was renamed to hollowed. | |||||||
| Several pieces of concept art were also created for the hollowed design iteration. | |||||||
| 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 | |||||||
| October 6, 2020 | A set of teaser images regarding the warden's size and behavior were posted on Brandon Pearce's Twitter. | ||||||
| October 16, 2021 | |||||||
| November 26, 2021 | The 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, 2021 | The warden's emerging animations were showcased. | ||||||
| January 22, 2022 | |||||||
| Java Edition | |||||||
| 1.19 | Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1 | ||||||
| 22w11a | Wardens are now removed. | ||||||
| 22w12a | Re-added wardens. | ||||||
| Wardens are no longer considered undead. | |||||||
| 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. | |||||||
| Nametagged wardens no longer burrow. | |||||||
| 22w13a | Wardens can now pass over rails.[1] | ||||||
| 22w14a | Wardens 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] | |||||||
| 22w16a | Decreased the warden's vertical reach again, from 3 to 2 blocks. | ||||||
Added the game rule doWardenSpawning. | |||||||
| 22w17a | Wardens 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. | ||||||
| 22w19a | The warden's ranged attack is now affected by difficulty. | ||||||
| Sculk shriekers now need to be activated four times to summon the warden. | |||||||
| Pre-release 3 | Sonic boom attack damage is no longer reduced by the Protection enchantment. | ||||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||||
| December 9, 2021 | |||||||
| December 17, 2021 | A new burrowing animation was showcased. | ||||||
| 1.18.30 Experiment | Preview 1.18.30.33 | Added 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. | |||||||
| 1.19.0 | Preview 1.19.0.21 | Wardens 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 1.19.0.27 | 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 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 1.19.0.29 | Wardens 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
Renders
-
A warden. -
A warden with all its layers. -
A warden's glowing texture layer. -
A warden's pulsating spots.
Animations
-
A newly spawned warden emerging from the ground -
A warden burrowing into the ground before despawning -
A warden idling -
A warden walking -
A warden sniffing -
A warden hearing a vibration -
A warden roaring -
A warden performing its melee attack -
A warden performing its sonic boom attack -
A warden hurt rotating in a 12-degree angle. -
Ditto, but the warden rotates -12 degree when hurt. -
A glitched warden hurt in Bedrock Edition; this no longer happens[36] -
Warden's old melee attack animation from Java Edition Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1. -
A recreation of the warden's old animations from Minecraft Live 2020. -
The warden's sniffing animation on Bedrock Edition (left) and Java Edition (right) have different head movement in the last few seconds.
Screenshots
-
A warden inspecting a zombie. -
A warden fighting an iron golem. -
Warden in an ancient city. -
A warden.
Mojang images
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The first model of an early iteration of the warden referred to as the stalker.[11] -

-
A stalker, one standing and two in 1 block tall mode. -
The hollowed. -
Vibration particles of the hollowed. First starting off as one pixel then four pixels encircled by a ring then bigger circles. -
Early texture of the final warden iteration.[37] -
A warden in the deep dark. -
A warden approaching the player. -
A warden in Minecraft Live 2020. -
A warden in Minecraft Live 2020. -
The iron golem and warden next to each other. -
Warden and rabbit. -
Player and warden next to each other. -
Warden emerging from the ground of the deep dark. -
A warden within an ancient city. -
The showcase of the new warden subtitles. -
An alternative sonic boom animation made by Chi Wong as a joke.[38] -
Chi Wong making the warden scarier by giving it a fishing rod referencing 1.8 PvP as a joke. -
Chi animating the warden in Blender. -
Warden's old digging animation revealed by Marcio. -
Behind the scenes of a warden in the Minecraft Live trailer.[39] -
An early design of the warden known as the "stalker" that can transform from a tall mob to a 1 block high mob.
-
An early design of the warden known as the "hollowed."
-
The warden using its sonic boom attack on a chicken. -
Moments before disaster. -
Warden attacking steve. -
Warden in ancient city. -
Warden in ancient city.
- Recreations
-
The legs were thicker in the first model. -
Stalker. -
Ditto. -
Stalker 1 block tall transformation. -
Hollowed. -
Warden iteration.
Concept artwork
-
Sketches of the axolotl and warden. -
A "scale of cuteness" depicting the axolotl, goat, and warden. -
One of the early concepts of the warden, referred to as the shade. -
One of the early concepts of the warden, referred to as the stalker. -
The stalker with a rearranged form. -
Various concepts of the warden before sculk's appearance was fully-decided on. Two concepts resemble a wither. -
Early concepts of the warden, featuring a smile on it. -
More early concepts of the warden, involving particles. -
Early concepts of the warden, having white as a main color with sculk referred to as the hollowed. -
An early concept of the warden with an ethereal style. -
An early concept of the warden, using the current sculk colors. This one floated or hovered. -
Early iterations of the warden, using the current sculk colors. -
Mood concept art for the warden. -
Sketches of the final iteration of the warden, as well as other iterations for its ears. -
Ditto but warden is roaring at bunny instead of looking at it. -
Early iterations of the warden's tendrils. -
Ditto but the third warden has a different tendril shape. -
Ditto but the middle has another different tendril shape and color. -
Early concepts of the warden's animations. -
A warden in an ancient city standing with Alex. -
A warden in an ancient city. -
Ditto. -
Concept art of mojang's mojavatar maker with a warden head.
Textures
-
Warden texture file. -
Warden bioluminescent layer texture file. -
Warden heart layer texture file. -
Warden pulsating spots 1 layer texture file. -
Warden pulsating spots 2 layer texture file.
In other media
Official media
-
A warden in official artwork for The Wild Update. -
A warden in an ancient city. -
Warden artwork. -
Looping animation of the Warden running through a tunnel outside an ancient city. -
A warden burrowing through blocks.[40] -

-
Warden in the Minecraft Live announcement trailer. -
Warden shooting a sonic boom. -
A warden riding a minecart in the Minecraft Live announcement trailer. -
The warden sniffing. -
Warden with different rib cage design from merch. -
Suprised warden from official Minecraft Discord. -
Pixel art version of the warden made by Nekofresa. -
Warden chasing Alex holding the silence armor trim. -
Steve slaying the Warden with a mace. -
Pixel art of the Warden used on a banner for the Minecraft Marketplace. -
A sleep paralysis demon in the form of a warden. -
The warden under your bed that keeps unplugging your charger.
Merchandise
-
Warden action figure, produced by Mattel. -
Lego Minecraft warden. -
Minecraft Mini Mode Warden -
Minecraft Mini Mode Rise of the Warden Playset -
Warden figure of Flippin' Figs
References
- ↑ a b MC-249642 — Wardens can't pass over rails — resolved as "Fixed".
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ MC-251045 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ "No" – @kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), July 7, 2021
- ↑ MC-249515 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ MC-250192 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ MC-249500 — resolved as "Works As Intended".
- ↑ a b c "Meet the Warden" by Per Landin – Minecraft.net, June 3, 2022.
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "Minecraft 1.19: Secret Sounds & Fabulous Frogs" – Minecraft on YouTube
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "Minecraft Now: Wild Update and Farlands ft AntVenom!" – Minecraft on YouTube, May 19, 2022
- ↑ a b "The Secrets of How We're Making the Warden" – Minecraft on YouTube, January 21, 2022
- ↑ "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy on YouTube, November 22, 2022
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy @ 1:04:15 on YouTube, November 22, 2022
- ↑ "146 - From Modding to Mojang with Kingbdogz // The Spawn Chunks: A Minecraft Podcast" – The Spawn Chunks @ 2:55 on YouTube, June 21, 2021
- ↑ "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy @ 1:07:47 on YouTube, November 22, 2022
- ↑ "I think something a little more.. mind altering." – @kingbdogz on X (formerly Twitter), October 26, 2020
- ↑ a b "Podcast: Warden Iterations with kingbdogz" – Minecraft Ideas Academy @ 1:15:31 on YouTube, November 22, 2022
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "Minecraft 1.19: The Deep Dark – Not So Scary After All! (If You’re The Warden)" – Minecraft on YouTube, August 12, 2022
- ↑ "Minecraft Now: The Warden and Mangroves" – Minecraft on YouTube, June 30, 2022
- ↑ "The Secrets of Minecraft's Deep Dark" – Minecraft on YouTube, June 24, 2022
- ↑ "The FINAL Secrets of Minecraft!!" – Minecraft on YouTube, July 22, 2022
- ↑ "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
- ↑ "Ask Mojang #11: All About Caves & Cliffs" – Minecraft on YouTube, October 30, 2020
- ↑ MCPE-153967
- ↑ "The Scariest Cow Ever Created | The Story Of The Warden @ 3:12" – Minecraft on YouTube, March 30, 2024
- ↑ "Minecraft Now: Wild Update and Farlands ft AntVenom! @ 24:35" – Minecraft on YouTube, May 19, 2022
- ↑ "Everything WRONG with our videos: MINECRAFT LIVE! (PART 1) @ 10:59" – Element Animation on YouTube, March 25, 2023
- ↑ "Minecraft Live 2022: A Warden’s Song" – Minecraft on YouTube
External links
- "Meet the Warden" by Per Landin – Minecraft.net, June 3, 2022.
- "Mob Menagerie: Warden" by Duncan Geere – Minecraft.net, April 9, 2024.



