Fox

Overview

A Fox will pick your dropped gear off the ground, put it in its mouth, and run away with it. That is the first thing to know about the taiga's resident scavenger, and it is why players who fight near one come back to find a diamond sword gone. The flip side is that a Fox always drops whatever it is holding when killed, so a wild one often carries an emerald, a feather, a rabbit hide or an egg picked up somewhere else. It has 10 health, hits for 2 on Normal, sleeps through the day, and hunts chickens, rabbits, cod and baby turtles at night. Foxes sprint away from any player who comes close, which makes them hard to interact with at all — the exception is a kit born from two foxes you bred yourself, which trusts you, follows you, and will defend you. Getting there means leading two adults somewhere safe with sweet berries and breeding them, then keeping the baby on a lead so it does not follow its parents back into the woods. Snowy taigas produce the white variant instead of the red one. Wolves scare foxes off, so pen the two apart.

A defensive pet that fights for you, plus whatever it is carrying. A trusted Fox attacks what attacks you, and any Fox drops its held item — often an emerald — when killed.

Foxes sleep during the day, hunt chickens, rabbits, cod and baby turtles at night, and sprint away from players who get too close. They carry one item in their mouth and will pick up anything you drop, including your gear, so keep them off your loot. A fox raised from two tamed parents trusts the player who bred them. Feeding a fox sweet berries breeds it; wolves scare them off.

Fox is a neutral mob in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. You will need to deal 10 damage — 5 hearts — to kill one. Its attacks do 2 damage on Normal.

Killing one drops 3 experience.

Properties

Fox has 10 health, which is 5 hearts. It drops up to 3 experience when a player kills it. Its hitbox is 0.6 blocks wide and 0.7 tall, which is what decides whether it fits through a gap or a one-block-high opening.

Damage by difficulty

Fox hits for 2 on Easy, 2 on Normal and 3 on Hard — the site's stat strip shows the Normal figure, which is the one most guides quote.

A full set of diamond armour cuts that by up to 80% against a small hit and less against a large one, and Protection IV on all four pieces — 16 EPF — takes a further 64% off what is left.

Spawns in

Spawns in groups of two to four; foxes in snowy taigas are white instead of red.

It is restricted to Taiga, Old Growth Pine Taiga, Old Growth Spruce Taiga, Snowy Taiga, and Grove, so it will never turn up outside those biomes however dark it gets.

Dimension

Overworld

Light level

Any

Biomes

Taiga, Old Growth Pine Taiga, Old Growth Spruce Taiga, Snowy Taiga, Grove

Added in

1.14

Dimension: Overworld · Added in 1.14

How it behaves

The Fox ignores you until provoked, and once provoked it usually stays provoked — often for the whole group, which is what makes a single mistake expensive.

Killed by a player it drops up to 3 experience; killed any other way it drops none.

Command

In a world with cheats on, this spawns one Fox where you are standing.

Guides and tools that cover this

• GuidesHow to Fight Every Hostile Mob in Minecraft→
• GuidesHow to Build a Base That Mobs Cannot Enter→

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

BeeDolphinEndermanGoatLlamaPandaPiglinPolar Bear

How to get it

Foxes spawn in groups of 2 to 4 in taiga, old growth taiga, snowy taiga and grove biomes at any light level. Breed a pair with sweet berries or glow berries; the kit trusts whoever bred it and can be kept on a lead.

Tips

• Never drop loot near a Fox: it picks up items and carries them off, and you get them back only by killing it.
• Breed two adults with sweet berries and lead the kit away immediately, because only a kit born in captivity trusts you.
• Give a trusted Fox a totem of undying or an enchanted item to hold and it will use it in a fight.
• Keep foxes and a tamed Wolf in separate pens, since wolves frighten foxes into running.