Infested Block

Infested blocks consist of stone, cobblestone, deepslate, or any stone bricks variants that take less time to break and spawn only silverfish when broken without Silk Touch. Silverfish hide in these blocks, and emerge when a nearby silverfish is attacked in order to attack the aggressor. Infested blocks cannot be obtained in item form.

Obtaining[]

Infested blocks are not obtainable by Silk Touch, and are only available through the Creative inventory or commands. However, they can be retained from worlds played in versions where they were legitimately obtainable.

Block	Infested Stone Infested Stone Bricks	Infested Cobblestone	Infested Deepslate
Hardness	0.75	1	1.5
Tool
Breaking time[A]
Default	1.15	1.5	2.25
Wooden	0.6	0.75	1.15
Stone	0.3	0.4	0.6
Iron	0.2	0.25	0.4
Diamond	0.15	0.2	0.3
Netherite	0.15	0.2	0.25
Golden	0.1	0.15	0.2

Breaking[]

When the block is broken, whether by a player or by an explosion, a silverfish spawns where it was broken unless the difficulty is Peaceful or the game rule doTileDrops is set to false (doMobSpawning is irrelevant).

Infested blocks take less time to break than their normal counterparts. When breaking them with a pickaxe, they take half as much time to break as their normal counterparts.

When mined with anything other than a Silk Touch-enchanted tool, an infested block drops nothing and spawns a silverfish that immediately attacks the player. If the player attacks a silverfish directly with a sword, bow, or potion of Harming, or when a silverfish takes Poison damage, nearby infested blocks break, spawning more aggressive silverfish. If the silverfish is killed in one hit, then nearby infested blocks do not break, and no silverfish spawn from them.^[1]

When mined with a tool enchanted with Silk Touch, however, the equivalent non-infested block is dropped without spawning a silverfish on all game difficulties.^[2] Any Silk Touch-enchanted tool (including swords) will cause an infested block to drop its non-infested equivalent (that is, a pickaxe is not required). A player wishing to collect stone bricks from a stronghold safely should use Silk Touch-enchanted pickaxes.

Natural generation[]

Infested stone bricks are occasionally found in strongholds and igloo basements in place of normal stone bricks. Infested mossy and chiseled stone bricks also spawn in igloos, but they do not generate naturally in strongholds.^[3]

Infested cobblestone is found in the rarely generated "End portal" room in woodland mansions.

Infested stone and deepslate can generate in the Overworld in the form of blobs. Infested blocks attempt to generate 14 times per chunk in ore features of size 0-13, from altitudes -64 to 63 in Java Edition or 0 to 64 in Bedrock Edition, within one of the following biomes, or within a chunk that is at least partially occupied by one of these biomes:

• Windswept Gravelly Hills
• Windswept Hills
• Windswept Forest
• Meadow
• Cherry Grove
• Grove
• Snowy Slopes
• Jagged Peaks
• Frozen Peaks
• Stony Peaks

Infested stone blob can replace stone, andesite, diorite, granite, polished andesite‌‌^{[BE only]}, polished diorite‌‌^{[BE only]}, polished granite‌‌^{[BE only]}, tuff‌^{[JE only]}, and deepslate. If it replaces tuff or deepslate, it becomes infested deepslate.

Post-generation[]

Infested blocks are generated when a silverfish enters the respective normal block form.

Usage[]

When mined, an infested block spawns a silverfish that immediately attacks the player. If the player attacks a silverfish directly with a sword, bow, or potion of Harming, or when a silverfish takes poison damage, nearby infested blocks break, spawning more aggressive silverfish. If the silverfish is killed in one hit, then nearby infested blocks do not break, and no silverfish spawn from them.

Identifying[]

Note blocks placed on infested blocks produce flute sounds‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} or harp sounds‌^{[Java Edition only]}, while those placed on the non-infested stone, cobblestone, or stone bricks produce bass drum sounds.

In Bedrock Edition, a player can distinguish infested from normal blocks by observing that an infested block takes a bit faster to break when using a pickaxe than the stone it appears to be, but without a pickaxe, it still breaks faster.

A silverfish does not spawn if the block is destroyed by the ender dragon.

In Java Edition, using the debug screen, a player can identify whether or not a block is infested.

Sounds[]

Stone[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	None[sound 1]	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	None[sound 1]	0.5	0.75	16
	Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	dig.stone	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.27 [sound 1]	0.5
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0

Deepslate[]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.deepslate.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.deepslate.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.deepslate.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	None[sound 1]	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.deepslate.fall	None[sound 1]	0.5	0.75	16
	Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.deepslate.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.deepslate	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	place.deepslate	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.deepslate	0.3	0.5
	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.deepslate	0.4	1.0
	Players	Walking on the block	step.deepslate	0.3	1.0
	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.deepslate	0.12	1.0
	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.deepslate	0.22	1.0

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Translation key
Infested Stone	infested_stone	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_stone
Infested Cobblestone	infested_cobblestone	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_cobblestone
Infested Stone Bricks	infested_stone_bricks	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_stone_bricks
Infested Cracked Stone Bricks	infested_cracked_stone_bricks	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_cracked_stone_bricks
Infested Mossy Stone Bricks	infested_mossy_stone_bricks	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_mossy_stone_bricks
Infested Chiseled Stone Bricks	infested_chiseled_stone_bricks	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_chiseled_stone_bricks
Infested Deepslate	infested_deepslate	Block & Item	block.minecraft.infested_deepslate

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Infested Block	monster_egg	97	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.monster_egg.stone.name tile.monster_egg.cobble.name tile.monster_egg.brick.name tile.monster_egg.mossybrick.name tile.monster_egg.crackedbrick.name tile.monster_egg.chiseledbrick.name
Infested Deepslate	infested_deepslate	709	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.infested_deepslate.name

Block states[]

Bedrock Edition:
Infested Deepslate:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
pillar_axis	Not Supported	y	x	Unsupported	The deepslate is oriented east–west.
			y	Unsupported	The deepslate is oriented vertically.
			z	Unsupported	The deepslate is oriented north–south.

Others:

Name	Metadata Bits	Default value	Allowed values	Values for Metadata Bits	Description
monster_egg_stone_type	0x1 0x2 0x4	stone	stone	0	Infested Stone
			cobblestone	1	Infested Cobblestone
			stone_brick	2	Infested Stone Brick
			mossy_stone_brick	3	Infested Mossy Stone Brick
			cracked_stone_brick	4	Infested Cracked Stone Brick
			chiseled_stone_brick	5	Infested Chiseled Stone Brick

History[]

Java Edition Beta
1.8		Pre-release			Added infested stone, infested cobblestone, and infested stone bricks.
					They currently lack an in-game name, and are not in the Creative inventory, so they are commonly referred to as "Block 97" due to their numeral ID.
Java Edition
1.3.1		12w17a			Infested blocks are now labeled as "Stone Monster Egg", "Cobblestone Monster Egg", or "Stone Brick Monster Egg" depending on what kind of block it is.
		12w21b			Stone monster egg is now available in the Creative mode inventory.
		12w22a			Cobblestone and stone brick monster eggs are now available in the Creative mode inventory.
1.4.2		12w38a			Stone monster eggs now rarely generate in Extreme Hills biomes.
1.6.1		13w17a			Silverfish do not cause monster eggs to break when /gamerule mobGriefing is set to false.
1.7.2		13w36a			Added mossy stone brick monster egg, cracked stone brick monster egg and chiseled stone brick monster egg variants, likely as a fix for MC-7449. These are available in the Creative inventory.
					Silverfish are now spawned when a monster egg is destroyed by an explosion.
1.8		14w04a			Silverfish are no longer spawned when mining a monster egg with a Silk Touch tool.
					Silverfish are no longer spawned when destroying a monster egg in Creative mode.
1.9		15w43a			Monster eggs now generate among the stone bricks of igloo basements, with either regular, mossy or chiseled stone brick appearance.
1.11		16w39a			Cobblestone monster eggs now generate in woodland mansions.
1.13		17w47a			The different block states for the monster_egg ID have been split up into their own IDs.
					"<block> Monster Egg" have been renamed to "Infested <block>".
					Infested blocks now break instantly, regardless of the tool, instead of taking longer to break than their non-infested counterparts. This makes them harder to identify.
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 97.
1.14		18w43a			The textures of infested blocks have been changed.
		18w44a			The texture of infested stone has been changed, once again.
		18w47a			The textures of all infested stone bricks have been changed to appear more smooth.
		18w50a			The texture of infested cobblestone has been changed, once again.
1.15		19w39a			Silverfish are no longer spawned when an infested block is destroyed in an explosion.
1.16		20w07a			Silverfish are now spawned from blown up infested blocks again.
1.17		21w10a			Added infested deepslate.
		21w15a			Now infested deepslate has correct sounds.[4]
		21w16a			Infested Deepslate can now be placed on any axis. Also can now have random texture rotation like deepslate.
		21w18a			Instead of breaking instantly, infested blocks now take half of the time to break compared to their regular counterparts.
		21w19a			Pickaxes are now the appropriate tool for breaking infested blocks.[5]
1.18		Experimental Snapshot 2			Infested stone now generates in mountain meadows, mountain groves, snowy slopes, lofty peaks, and snow capped peaks.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0		build 1			Added monster eggs.
					The only way to create monster eggs in-game is with the help of silverfish, as all variants cannot be accessed in the Creative inventory.
v0.11.0		build 1			Monster eggs now generate in Extreme Hills biomes.
v0.16.0		build 1			Six variants of Monster eggs are now available in the Creative inventory.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Monster eggs now generate among the stone bricks of igloo basements, with either regular, cracked, mossy or chiseled stone brick appearance.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			Cobblestone monster eggs now generate in woodland mansions.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			"Monster Eggs" have been renamed to "Infested Blocks".
					The textures of infested blocks have been changed.
1.17.0		beta 1.17.0.54			Added Infested Deepslate.
		?			Pickaxes are now the appropriate tool for breaking infested blocks.
Legacy Console Edition
?	?	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added silverfish blocks. [more information needed]
TU5	CU1				Silverfish stone, silverfish cobblestone, and silverfish stone bricks; are available in the Creative inventory.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Added silverfish mossy stone brick, silverfish cracked stone brick and silverfish chiseled stone brick; variants of monster eggs (to the Creative inventory).[more information needed]
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					The textures of silverfish blocks have been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added monster eggs. All six variants are available in the Creative inventory.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Infested Block" or "Monster Egg" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

• Despite silverfish being able to infest cobblestone, stone bricks, and mossy stone bricks, they cannot infest mossy cobblestone.^[6]

References[]

External Links[]

• Block of the Month: Infested Block – Minecraft.net on January 26, 2023