Overview
A Pufferfish is the only passive mob in Minecraft that can kill you, and it does it without moving. Come within range and it inflates in two visible stages; touching it while inflated deals damage and applies Poison, which is how players swimming through a warm ocean reef lose half their health to something they never attacked. It has 3 health and no attack of its own — the damage is purely contact. Eating one raw is worse: Nausea, Poison and Hunger all at once, for a single point of food restored, making it comfortably the worst food item in the game. What it is actually for is brewing. A Pufferfish is the ingredient in the Potion of Water Breathing, which is what makes an ocean monument, a deep shipwreck or an underwater build practical at all, so bucketing one rather than killing it is usually the right call. They spawn in warm and lukewarm oceans, generally near coral reefs, and a killed Pufferfish also has a 5% chance of bone meal. Keep one in a bucket and it never despawns, which makes a small stock for brewing easy to maintain.
Brewing the Potion of Water Breathing, which is what makes ocean monuments, deep shipwrecks and underwater building workable. It is also the worst food in the game and should never be eaten raw.
A pufferfish inflates in two stages when any player or mob comes close, and touching it while inflated deals damage and inflicts Poison, so it is one of the few passive mobs that can actually kill you. It is the key ingredient in Water Breathing potions, which makes it worth bucketing rather than killing. Eating one raw is a bad idea: Nausea, Poison and Hunger all at once.
Pufferfish is a passive mob in Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.4. You will need to deal 3 damage — 1.5 hearts — to kill one. Its attacks do 2 damage on Normal.
Killing one drops 3 experience.
Properties
Pufferfish has 3 health, which is 1.5 hearts. It drops up to 3 experience when a player kills it. Its hitbox is 0.7 blocks wide and 0.7 tall, which is what decides whether it fits through a gap or a one-block-high opening.
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Added in
- 1.13
Damage by difficulty
Pufferfish hits for 2 on every difficulty; its damage does not scale the way most hostile mobs' does.
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.
| Difficulty | Attack damage | Hearts |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 2 | 1 |
| Normal | 2 | 1 |
| Hard | 2 | 1 |
Spawns in
Spawns in warm and lukewarm oceans, usually near coral reefs.
It is restricted to Warm Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, and Deep Lukewarm Ocean, so it will never turn up outside those biomes however dark it gets.
- Dimension
- Overworld
- Biomes
- Warm Ocean, Lukewarm Ocean, Deep Lukewarm Ocean
- Added in
- 1.13
Dimension: Overworld · Added in 1.13
Drops
Killing Pufferfish drops Pufferfish and Bone Meal, plus up to 3 experience. Looting raises the maximum on most of these by one per level.
- Pufferfish: 1
- Bone Meal: 1 (5%)
How it behaves
The Pufferfish never attacks. The only reason to be careful around one is that killing it is often not what you want: breeding it is worth more than the drop.
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 Pufferfish where you are standing.
Summon
/summon minecraft:pufferfish ~ ~ ~Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
What is a Pufferfish used for?
Brewing the Potion of Water Breathing. It is the only ingredient that produces that effect.
What happens if you eat a Pufferfish?
Nausea, Poison and Hunger, for 1 hunger point restored. It is the worst food item in Minecraft.
Can a Pufferfish hurt you?
Yes. Touching an inflated Pufferfish deals damage and applies Poison, with no attack from the fish itself.
Where do Pufferfish spawn?
Warm, lukewarm and deep lukewarm oceans, usually around coral reefs.
How much health does the Pufferfish have in Minecraft?
The Pufferfish has 3 health points, which is 1.5 hearts.
What does the Pufferfish drop?
It drops Pufferfish and Bone Meal, plus 3 experience when killed by a player.
Where does the Pufferfish spawn?
Spawns in warm and lukewarm oceans, usually near coral reefs.
How much damage does Pufferfish do?
2 on Normal difficulty — 1 hearts — with 2 on Easy and 2 on Hard.
Related pages
How to get it
Pufferfish spawn in warm, lukewarm and deep lukewarm oceans, usually near coral reefs. Kill one for 1 pufferfish and a 5% bone meal roll, or catch it in a water bucket so it never despawns.
Tips
- Never swim into an inflated Pufferfish — contact alone deals damage and applies Poison with no attack involved.
- Keep 2 or 3 in buckets at home so a Water Breathing brew never depends on another ocean trip.
- Brew with an Awkward Potion base; redstone extends Water Breathing to 8:00, which covers a monument run.
- Bucket them rather than killing them, because a bucketed fish never despawns and can be released anywhere.