This article is about the status effect. For the biome, see Deep Dark. For the absence of brightness, see Light.
Not to be confused with Blindness.
Darkness is a status effect that impairs a player's vision. It is caused by the activation of a naturally-generated sculk shrieker, or by being within detection range of a warden.
Effect
Darkness, when applied, dims the player's vision using a thick black fog similar to Blindness. After the effect initiates, the fog steadily closes in around the player, diminishing the player's eyesight. The player can only see about 14 blocks away. With Vibrant Visuals, all directional light sources are disabled, making the scene appear as in a cave. All fog types apart from default air fog still use their colors. When the effect wears off, the fog retreats and the player's vision reverts to normal.
With the Darkness effect, the screen's brightness slowly cycles every few seconds between complete darkness, and relative visibility where they can see within a distance of roughly 14 blocks. The strength of this pulsing effect can be adjusted using the "Darkness Pulsing"[JE only]/"Darkness effect strength"[BE only] slider under the accessibility settings, which is normally at 100%; when set to 0%, the player's vicinity does not darken at all, but fog still restricts their vision.
Unlike other status effects, Darkness does not cause particles to appear around the player when it is naturally activated, nor does its icon appear in the player's heads-up display in Java Edition.[1] This is similar to when an effect is given using the /effect command with the hideParticles argument set to true. However, the particles do appear when hideParticles is set to false, and the effect's icon can be seen when entering the player's inventory.
Causes
| Cause | Potency | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 Sculk Shrieker (naturally generated)
|
I | 0:13 | When activated, to players within 40 blocks |
 Warden
|
I | 0:13 | Every 6 seconds, to players within 20 blocks |
Immune mobs
- Withers and ender dragons are immune to Darkness.
- All mobs are unaffected by Darkness.
Data values
ID
| Name | Identifier | Translation key |
|---|---|---|
 Darkness | darkness |
effect |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darkness | darkness | 30 |
effect |
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) |
|---|---|---|---|
  | 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:
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. |
History
Reveal
| October 3, 2020 | Darkness was shown in Minecraft Live 2020. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 16, 2021 |  More information was announced about Darkness, revealing that it is a status effect and is given by sculk shriekers. The Darkness effect was delayed until The Wild Update. | ||||||
Java Edition
| Java Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.19 | Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1 | Added Darkness. | |||||
| 22w11a | Darkness is not added yet in this non-experimental snapshot. | ||||||
| 22w12a | Re-added Darkness. | ||||||
| 22w15a | Darkness is now needed for the "How Did We Get Here?" advancement. | ||||||
| 1.20.2 | 23w32a | The game no longer uses numeric values when storing mob effects to world. Prior to the removal of numeric IDs, this effect's numeral ID was 33. | |||||
Bedrock Edition
| Bedrock Edition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.18.0 Experiment | beta 1.18.0.22 | Added Darkness. | |||||
| 1.18.10 Experiment | beta 1.18.10.21 | Moved the Darkness effect to the Wild Update experimental toggle. | |||||
| 1.19.0 | Preview 1.19.0.21 | Darkness is now available without enabling experimental gameplay. | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Darkness" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.
