Cave Spider

For other uses, see Spider (disambiguation).

Cave Spider

Health points	12HP × 6
Behavior	Neutral
Mob type	Monster Arthropod
Attack strength	Melee: Easy: 2HP Normal: 2HP Hard: 3HP Venom: 1HP per 1.25 seconds Normal: Poison for 7 seconds (HP) Hard: Poison for 15 seconds (HP × 6)
Hitbox size	Height: 0.5 blocks Width: 0.7 blocks
Speed	0.3
Spawn	Sulfur Caves Mineshaft: from monster spawners. Trial Chambers: from trial spawners.

A cave spider is a smaller spider variant that naturally spawns in sulfur caves. It behaves similarly to a normal spider, but has less health and inflicts Poison with its melee attacks on Normal and Hard difficulty.

Spawning

Natural spawning

Cave spiders replace all spider spawns in sulfur caves.

Cave Spider spawns in:

Category: Monster	Java Edition			Bedrock Edition
Spawn area	Spawn weight	Spawn chance	Group size	Spawn weight	Group size
Sulfur Caves	20⁄315	6.35%	1	20	1

Monster spawners

Cave spiders spawn from monster spawners in mineshafts at a light level of 0. These monster spawners are surrounded by cobwebs in corridors.

Trial spawners

Cave spiders have a 25% chance to be selected as the "small melee" mob for trial spawners in trial chambers.

Spider jockeys

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

There is a 1% chance for a cave spider to spawn with a skeleton riding it, forming a cave spider jockey. The skeleton has an 80% chance to be replaced by a stray, bogged, parched, or wither skeleton in the biomes where they spawn. Similar to regular spiders, the skeleton controls how both mobs move. Cave spider jockeys can fit through smaller gaps than spider jockeys.

Drops

On death

Java Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	String	0–2	66.67%	1.00	0–3	83.33%	1.50	0–4	91.67%	2.00	0–5	94.44%	2.50
	Spider Eye[A]	0–1	33.33%	0.33	0–2	66.67%	0.83	0–3	83.33%	1.33	0–4	88.89%	1.83

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	String	0–2	2⁄3	1	0–3	5⁄6	3⁄2	0–4	11⁄12	2	0–5	17⁄18	5⁄2
	Spider Eye[A]	0–1	1⁄3	1⁄3	0–2	2⁄3	5⁄6	0–3	5⁄6	4⁄3	0–4	8⁄9	11⁄6

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	String	0	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		3	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		4	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		5	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	3⁄2 (1.50)	2 (2.00)	5⁄2 (2.50)
	Spider Eye[A]	0	2⁄3 (66.67%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄9 (11.11%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄2 (50.00%)	5⁄12 (41.67%)	5⁄18 (27.78%)
		2	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		3	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	2⁄9 (22.22%)
		4	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1⁄3 (0.33)	5⁄6 (0.83)	4⁄3 (1.33)	11⁄6 (1.83)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drops
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	String	1.00	1.50	2.00	2.50
	Spider Eye[A]	0.33	0.83	1.33	1.83

Bedrock Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	String	0–2	66.67%	1.00	0–3	66.67%	1.33	0–4	66.67%	1.67	0–5	66.67%	2.00
	Spider Eye[A]	0–1	50.00%	0.50	0–2	50.00%	0.75	0–3	50.00%	1.00	0–4	50.00%	1.25

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	String	0–2	2⁄3	1	0–3	2⁄3	4⁄3	0–4	2⁄3	5⁄3	0–5	2⁄3	2
	Spider Eye[A]	0–1	1⁄2	1⁄2	0–2	1⁄2	3⁄4	0–3	1⁄2	1	0–4	1⁄2	5⁄4

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	String	0	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)
		1	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		2	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄3 (33.33%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		3	0	1⁄6 (16.67%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	2⁄9 (22.22%)
		4	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		5	0	0	0	1⁄18 (5.56%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	4⁄3 (1.33)	5⁄3 (1.67)	2 (2.00)
	Spider Eye[A]	0	1⁄2 (50.00%)	1⁄2 (50.00%)	1⁄2 (50.00%)	1⁄2 (50.00%)
		1	1⁄2 (50.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄8 (12.50%)	1⁄12 (8.33%)
		2	0	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄4 (25.00%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		3	0	0	1⁄8 (12.50%)	1⁄6 (16.67%)
		4	0	0	0	1⁄12 (8.33%)
		Average	1⁄2 (0.50)	3⁄4 (0.75)	1 (1.00)	5⁄4 (1.25)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drops
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	String	1.00	1.33	1.67	2.00
	Spider Eye[A]	0.50	0.75	1.00	1.25

• 5XP when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Behavior

Cave spiders inherit their behavior from spiders:

• They are neutral if under daylight or in light levels of 12 or above, otherwise hostile toward players and iron golems. Once they become hostile, light does not affect them.
• They attack by leaping and biting.
• They are unaffected by cobwebs and Poison.
• They are scared of armadillos.

They have some distinctions from regular spiders:

• They can fit through a space that is one block wide and ¹⁄₂ block tall.
• They can go through the spaces between two different types of (unconnected) fences.
• They cannot spawn with status effects in Hard difficulty.‌^{[Java Edition only]}
• They flip 90° upon death.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only][1]}

Being arthropods, they are weak against weapons with the Bane of Arthropods enchantment.

Unlike other neutral mobs, cave spiders don't count toward the AngryAt tag.^[2][3][4]

The red eyes of cave spiders are emissive with Vibrant Visuals, making them easily distinguishable in the dark caves where they spawn.

Poison

On Normal or Hard difficulty, cave spiders inflict Poison upon attacking.^[5] On Normal difficulty, the Poison lasts for 7 seconds and causes 6HP damage. On Hard difficulty, it lasts for 15 seconds and causes 12HP × 6. Poison damage is not taken when the player's health is at 1HP.

Jockey

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

15% of nearby baby zombies, husks, or drowned may ride a cave spider that was not spawned as a spider jockey, to form a jockey.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Cave Spider	cave_spider	arthropod no_anger_from_wind_charge sensitive_to_bane_of_arthropods	entity.minecraft.cave_spider

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Family	Translation key
Cave Spider	cave_spider	40	arthropod cavespider mob monster	entity.cave_spider.name

Entity data

Cave spiders have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill one of these 41 monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this achievement.	15	Bronze
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	Kill any mob that drops experience near a sculk catalyst, with the sole exception of the ender dragon. Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this achievement.	10	Bronze

Achievements that apply to all mobs:

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		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
		Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor stands and players also count for this achievement as they are technically mobs.	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	A Furious Cocktail	Have every potion effect applied at the same time	Have all of these 17​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/18​[upcoming] status effects applied to the player at the same time: Fire Resistance Freezing Infested Invisibility Jump Boost Night Vision Oozing Poison Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wind Charged 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.
	How Did We Get Here?	Have every effect applied at the same time	Have all of these 34​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/35​[upcoming] status effects applied to the player at the same time: Absorption Bad Omen Blindness Breath of the Nautilus Conduit Power Darkness Dolphin's Grace Fire Resistance Freezing Glowing Haste Hero of the Village Hunger Infested Invisibility Jump Boost Levitation Mining Fatigue Nausea Night Vision Oozing Poison Raid Omen Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Trial Omen Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wind Charged Wither 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. 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.
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Kill one of these 41​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/42​[upcoming] monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Frostbite​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill any mob that drops experience near a sculk catalyst, with the sole exception of the ender dragon. Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Kill each of these 41​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]/42​[upcoming] monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Frostbite​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.

Advancements that apply to all mobs:

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	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.
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
	Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement. 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.
	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.

History

Java Edition

Java Edition Beta
1.8			Pre-release				Added cave spiders.
			Pre-release 2 ;)				Cave spiders now apply Poison for a shorter duration on Normal and no longer apply Poison at all on Easy.
Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2				Cave spiders now drop 0-1 spider eye when killed by a player or tamed wolf.
							The cave spider's health points have been reduced from 20HP × 10 to 12HP × 6.
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4				Cave spiders are now immune to the Poison status effect.
							Cave spiders are now considered arthropods.
1.2.1			12w06a				Cave spiders now swim extremely fast with the water stream toward the player, but seem to be almost not moving against the water stream.
							Cave spiders can now climb ice blocks.
1.7.2			1.7				Cave spiders no longer attack after being provoked by players in Creative mode.
1.8			14w06a				Cave spiders no longer draw a line of sight through opaque blocks.
							Cave spiders have been given the new AI that regular spiders have received.
			14w11a				Cave spiders now run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.8.1			pre1				Cave spiders no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode.
1.11			16w32a				The cave spider's entity ID has been changed from CaveSpider to cave_spider.
October 16, 2017							Jasper Boerstra tweets an image of an updated cave spider texture.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of cave spiders has been changed.
1.16			20w10a				Firework damage now provokes cave spiders.[6]
1.19			22w11a				Fixed texture mapping of cave spiders.[7]
1.20.3 Experiment Update 1.21			23w45a				Cave spiders now spawn in trial chambers behind the "Update 1.21" experimental data pack.
1.20.5			24w03a				Cave spiders are now scared of armadillos when not in a rolled up state.
1.20.5 Experiment Update 1.21			24w04a				Cave spiders no longer retaliate against attacks from the breeze.
26.2			snap1				Added the sulfur caves, which can naturally spawn cave spiders.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.11.0			build 1				Added cave spiders with their jockey variant.
v0.12.1			build 1				Cave spiders now have a walking sound.
							Cave spiders can now spawn with wither skeletons riding them when spawning as a spider jockey in the Nether.
							Cave spiders now drop spider eyes.
v0.14.0			build 1				Cave spiders can now be ridden by baby zombies and baby zombie villagers.
v0.15.0			build 1				Cave spiders can now spawn with strays riding them when spawning as a spider jockey in snowy biomes with a view of the sky.
							Cave spiders can now be ridden by baby husks.
Pocket Edition
1.1.0			alpha 1.1.0.0				The cave spider's Poison time from attack has been changed to be based on difficulty.
							The cave spider's entity ID has been changed from cavespider to cave_spider.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of cave spiders has been changed.
1.19.0			Preview 1.19.0.21				Fixed texture mapping of cave spiders.[8]
1.20.60 Experiment Update 1.21			Preview 1.20.60.20				Cave spiders now spawn in trial chambers behind the "Update 1.21" experimental toggle.
1.20.70 Experiment Armadillo and Wolf Armor			Preview 1.20.70.20				Cave spiders now flee from armadillos that are not rolled up.
1.20.70 Experiment Update 1.21			Preview 1.20.70.21				Cave spiders no longer retaliate against attacks from breezes.
1.21.130			Preview 1.21.130.26				Baby zombie villagers can no longer mount cave spiders.
26.0			Preview 26.0.27				Baby drowned can now search for cave spiders to mount.
							Due to a bug, baby husks can no longer mount cave spiders.[9]
26.10			Preview 26.10.24				Baby husks can once again mount cave spiders.
26.30			Preview 26.30.29				Cave spiders can now spawn in sulfur caves.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU5	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added cave spiders. They are as large as regular spiders.
TU9							The size of cave spiders has been corrected.
TU12							Cave spiders now swim extremely fast with the water stream toward the player, but seem to be almost motionless against the water stream.
							Cave spiders can now climb ice blocks.
			1.90				The texture of cave spiders has been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added cave spiders.

Issues

Issues relating to "Cave Spider" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• While a cave spider's hitbox is only 13.9% the volume of a normal spider's, its model's volume is 34.3% as large. The shadow is even larger: compared to the normal spider's shadow it has an area of 49%.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  A cave spider
• 
  A cave spider and its monster spawner
• 
  The health bar turns yellow-green when bitten by a cave spider
• 
  Size comparison between a cave spider and a regular spider
• 
  Picture of cave spider going through a 1×1×0.5 block
• 
  Four cave spider monster spawners generated in close proximity
• 
  Cave spider monster spawner enclosed in an area, able to be safely killed
• 
  Another cave spider farm generated in a mineshaft
• 
  A group of cave spiders trying to swim after the player in a mineshaft
• 
  A cave spider in Xbox 360 Edition before TU9, having the same size as a regular spider

Textures

• 
  Cave spider texture file
• 
  Spider eyes texture file

In other media

• 
  Lego Minecraft Cave Spider
• 
  Cave spider plush made by JINX
• 
  "Spider Cave," an official T-Shirt design
• 
  A Cave Spider, as it appears in Minecraft Dungeons
• 
  A Cave Spider, as it appears in Minecraft Story Mode
• 
  Nerf cave spider
• 
  An action figure of a cave spider
• 
  The same figure, but unboxed

References

External links

• Meet the Cave Spider – Minecraft.net on September 5, 2017