Spider

A spider is a neutral mob that attacks the player in dark areas. Spiders attack by biting the target, and they can also climb walls and lunge at them.

Spawning[]

Up to four spiders may spawn in a 3×1×3 space centered on an opaque block in the Overworld at a light level of 0, except in mushroom fields and deep dark biomes. The block above the spawning space cannot be a full solid block, including transparent ones such as leaves or glass, but non-full blocks, such as soul sand or slabs, are allowed.^[2] In Bedrock Edition, spiders can also spawn overhead in 3×2×3 empty spaces on leaves, causing more of them to spawn in forested biomes due to more possible spawning surfaces, although they do not spawn in groups.

Monster spawners[]

Spiders spawn from monster spawners found in monster rooms (25% chance) as well as in secret rooms surrounded by cobwebs in woodland mansions.

Status effects[]

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

Spiders occasionally spawn with status effects in Hard difficulty. For each pack spawn, there is a (10×clamped regional difficulty)% chance of the game applying a status effect. This does not apply to cave spiders. These spiders can spawn with following effects:

Speed (40% chance)
Strength (20% chance)
Regeneration (20% chance)
Invisibility (20% chance)

The effect is then applied to all entities within the pack, lasting forever. If the Invisibility status effect is applied to a spider, its eyes remain visible.

Spider jockeys[]

There is a 1% chance for a spider to spawn with a skeleton riding it, forming a spider jockey. In the Nether, if a spider is spawned there with a spawn egg, commands or monster spawners, it has a 0.8% chance to spawn a wither skeleton on its back and form a wither jockey instead.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} In some of snowy biomes, a spider has a 0.8% chance to spawn a stray on its back and form a stray jockey instead.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} A spider jockey can also be spawned by the command /summon spider ~ ~ ~ {Passengers: [{id:skeleton}]}.

The spider controls how both mobs move. The spider acts like a normal spider and the skeleton acts like a normal skeleton, except its movement is determined by the spider it rides upon. The skeleton's arrows can sometimes damage the spider jockey itself, if the spider happens to be in the way of the shot.

Drops[]

Upon death, a spider drops up to two strings. The maximum is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for 0 to 5 strings with Looting III. 5 experience orbs are dropped by a spider when it is killed by a player or tamed wolf. There is also a ¹⁄₃ chance of dropping a spider eye when killed by a player or tamed wolf. The maximum amount of spider eyes is increased by 1 per level of Looting. The chance of a spider not dropping any spider eyes can be found using the formula 2 / (Looting Level + 3). For example, Looting III gives a ¹⁄₃ chance of not dropping any spider eyes.

Behavior[]

A spider stays hostile toward the player and an iron golem as long as the light level immediately around the spider is 11 or less; otherwise, it does not attack unless attacked first.

Hostile spiders see up to 16 blocks, continuing to chase even when exposed to well-lit locations. If a spider sustains damage from a source other than a direct attack, such as falling, its hostility resets to a neutral state. If shot with arrows when outside of the detection range, a spider turns and runs in the direction from which the arrow was fired. If the player moves away, the spider continues following the same path unless the player enters the detection range, in which case the spider changes direction and attacks.

An aggressive spider pounces at close range. When it is swimming in 1-block-deep water it pounces upon touching the submerged floor. They can attack when their Y-axis position is changed, biting in mid-air.

Spiders can climb up over solid blocks that are not magma blocks‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}, but do not climb on underside surfaces. A spider pursuing a player can detect a player through blocks. If a spider cannot find an ideal path to the player due to a wall barring the way, it approaches as close as possible to the player's position and proceeds to climb the wall vertically until it gets to the top, even if it loses its aggression toward the player. When a spider loses its aggression, it continues moving forward blindly for 2 seconds; this behavior causes the spider to climb up any walls in its path.

If a spider tries to go through the world border, it starts climbing the world border instead.‌^{[JE only]}

Spider can also climb on full boats, full boats with chests and shulkers.

Even though normal spiders do not inflict the Poison status effect, they are immune to it. They are also immune to the slowing applied to most mobs when walking through cobwebs.

Spiders flip onto their backs when they die, unlike all other mobs, which land on their sides.

The Bane of Arthropods enchantment inflicts Slowness IV and deals more damage to spiders.

Sounds[]

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

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Spider hisses	Hostile Creatures	Randomly	`entity.spider.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.spider.ambient`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
Spider dies	Hostile Creatures	When a spider dies	`entity.spider.death`	`subtitles.entity.spider.death`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
Spider hurts	Hostile Creatures	When a spider is damaged	`entity.spider.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.spider.hurt`	1.0	0.8-1.2	16
Footsteps	Hostile Creatures	While a spider is walking	`entity.spider.step`	`subtitles.generic.block.footsteps`	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
Hostile Creatures	Randomly	`mob.spider.say`	1.0	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a spider dies	`mob.spider.death`	1.0	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	When a spider is damaged	`mob.spider.say`	1.0	0.8-1.2
Hostile Creatures	While a spider is walking	`mob.spider.step`	0.35	0.9-1.1

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Translation key
Spider	`spider`	`entity.minecraft.spider`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Spider	`spider`	`35`	`entity.spider.name`

Entity data[]

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

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements[]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill a hostile mob or one of the following neutral mobs: an enderman, a piglin, a zombified piglin, a spider, or a cave spider.	15G	Bronze

Advancements[]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	`adventure/root`
Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Monster Hunter	Kill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Axolotl Bee Blaze Camel Cat Cave Spider Chicken Chicken Jockey Cod Cow Creeper Donkey Dolphin Drowned Elder Guardian Enderman Endermite Evoker Fox Frog Ghast Goat Glow Squid Guardian Hoglin Horse Husk Llama Magma Cube Mooshroom Ocelot Panda Parrot Phantom Pig Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Polar Bear Pufferfish Rabbit Ravager Salmon Sheep Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Skeleton Horse Skeleton Horseman Slime Sniffer Stray Spider Spider Jockey Squid Strider Trader Llama Tropical Fish Turtle Vex Vindicator Warden Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Wolf Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

History[]

Java Edition Classic
October 23, 2009					Spiders were proposed in a blog post, where they would produce "web tiles".
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST/Development					Tested spiders.
0.26 SURVIVAL TEST					Added spiders.
					The texture of spiders was changed from brown on October 23, 2009, at 23:45 UTC, roughly 28 minutes before the release of this version, because of a suggestion from a user on the TIGSource forums.^[3]
					Spiders are the fifth mob added in Survival Test.
					Spiders currently cannot jump far.
					Killing spiders gives the player 105 points.
					The eyes of spiders currently do not glow.
Java Edition Indev
0.31		20091223-1			Spiders and other mobs no longer spawn naturally.
		20100202			Spiders and other mobs now spawn naturally again. However, they are currently passive.
		20100204-2			Spiders are now hostile again.
20100213					The eyes on spiders now glow in the dark.
20100213					Spiders now don't attack the player in daylight unless provoked.
20100219					Spiders now drop 0–2 string upon death.
Java Edition Alpha
v1.0.17					Added spider jockeys, which are skeletons spawned riding spiders.
Java Edition Beta
1.2					Spiders have been given the ability to climb vertical walls made of any block and could "see" the player through solid blocks to track them down.
1.4					Spiders no longer trample crops.^[4]
1.4					Spiders now make quieter step sounds.^[5]
Java Edition
1.0.0		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2			Spiders now drop 0-1 spider eye when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2			The health points of spiders have been reduced from 20 × 10 to 16 × 8.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Spiders are now immune to the poison status effect.
		Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4			Spiders are now considered arthropods.
1.3.1		?			Spiders now become aggressive toward the last mob or player that hit them.
1.4.2		12w39a			Spiders have been given a new walking sound.
1.6.1		13w24a			Spiders now have a chance of spawning with the Speed, Strength, Regeneration, or Invisibility status effects on Hard difficulty.
1.7.2		1.7-pre			Spiders are no longer provoked when attacked by the player in creative mode.
1.8		14w06a			Spiders can no longer see the player through blocks.
		14w06a			Spiders have been updated to the new AI system, including AI specially made for spiders, allowing them to better take control of their climbing ability.
		14w11a			Spiders now run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.8.1		pre1			Spiders no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.9		15w36a			Spiders can now draw lines of sight through blocks again.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from `Spider` to `spider`.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of spiders has been changed.
1.14		18w43a			As a result of the spider texture change, the spiders that spawn with the Speed, Strength, or Regeneration status effects on Hard difficulty now have a different look.
1.19.4		Pre-release 4			Natural potion effects on spiders now last infinitely long instead of about 3.3 years.^[6]
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.3.3					Added spiders.
v0.3.3					On Android mobile devices, the abdomen on spiders is sometimes missing.^[7]^[8]
v0.7.3					The eyes on spiders now glow in the dark.
v0.8.0		build 1			Spiders now have abdomens on Android mobile devices.
v0.8.0		build 3			Spiders are a little faster.
v0.9.0		build 1			Leaves now have a chance of spawning spiders, creating a higher amount of spiders in tree-rich biomes at night.
		build 1			The spider's AI has been updated.
		build 4			The animation for spiders is now twice as fast.
v0.9.2					Spiders no longer draw a line of sight through solid blocks.
v0.11.0		build 1			Added spider jockeys, which are skeletons spawned riding spiders.
v0.12.1		build 1			Spiders now drop spider eyes.
v0.12.1		build 1			Spiders that spawn in the Nether now have a chance to spawn as wither jockey.
v0.14.0		build 1			Baby zombie jockeys now check for nearby spiders to mount prior to attacking the player, villagers, and golems.
v0.15.0		build 1			Baby husks can now mount spiders.
v0.15.0		build 1			Spiders that spawn in snowy biomes in view of sky can now spawn as stray jockeys.
Bedrock Edition
?					Spiders can now draw lines of sight through blocks again.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of spiders has been changed.
1.18.30		beta 1.18.20.27			Spiders now deal 2 damage on Normal difficulty instead of 3, matching Java Edition.
Legacy Console Edition
TU1	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added spiders.
TU14	CU1	1.04	Patch 1		Spiders now become aggressive toward the last mob or player that hit them.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Spiders can no longer see the player through blocks.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Spiders have been updated to the new AI system, including AI specially made for spiders, allowing them to better take control of their climbing ability.
PlayStation 4 Edition
1.90					The texture of spiders has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added spiders.

The original spider in 0.26 SURVIVAL TEST development because Markus Persson made it black with red eyes before releasing that version.
A recreation of the original brown spider texture.
A spider during late alpha.
Image of a giant spider shared by Jeb.

Issues[]

Issues relating to "Spider" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia[]

Spiders are able to climb walls because they are programmed by Jens Bergensten to treat the sides of blocks as ladders.^[9]
In normal conditions, spiders actually float above the ground, but this is often not noticeable due to the difference between the player's height and a spider's height.
When a spider wanders inside an enclosed space, it often climbs up a wall until reaching the ceiling, after which it become stuck, unable to exit the climbing state even if it is attacked or becomes hostile to the player.^[10]
Hurt sound of spiders have the same sound as when a spider is ambient

Gallery[]

A spider.
A spider spawning on a single block.
With the same amount of space given, these spiders can spawn under the bottom slabs, but not under the glass blocks, because glass is a full block, even though it is transparent, but slabs are not full blocks.
A spider jockey.
Spiders are one of the most visible mobs at night due to their glowing red eyes.
Spiders climbing.
A view of a spider from below.
Spider shot by a skeleton.
A spider and its monster spawner in a monster room.
A spider in a 1.5×1.5 space.
A spider's vision when spectating it.
The bottom of a ravine through a spider's eyes.
Spiders can even climb soul sand.
A spider climbing a wall.
A spider jockey spawning with skeleton's head in the glass.
A spider with invisibility during the night.
Another spider with invisibility during the night.
A spider with the swiftness effect.
A spider with the strengh effect.
A spider with the regenertion effect.
A spider with the invisibility effect.