Knockback (mechanic)

This article is about the game mechanic. For the enchantment, see Knockback.

Knockback represents the pushback from attacks or natural causes.

Attack knockback

When receiving damage from players, mobs, explosions, and most projectiles, entities are also knocked back. The direction of knockback is determined by the direction of the incoming attack.

Versus grounded entities

Knockback dealt to grounded entities knocks them into the air and away from the attack.

Versus airborne entities

Knockback dealt to airborne entities differs between Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. In Java Edition, knockback against airbone entities only knocks them away from the attack and does not knock them further into the air. In Bedrock Edition, knockback against airborne entities is identical to knockback against grounded entities.

Versus entities in vehicles

Entities inside minecarts or boats, as well as entities that are riding mountable entities like horses and camels, never receive any knockback when attacked.

Versus entities during attack invulnerability time

Knockback dealt to entities during attack invulnerability time, the 0.5 seconds (500ms) of invulnerability received after taking damage, is ignored.

Attacking with a sword or spear that has the Knockback enchantment will still deal the enchantment's knockback against invulnerable entities, assuming the damage that entity previously took is surpassed by the damage of the follow-up sword or spear attack.

Knockback sources

Natural damage

Most types of natural damage—i.e. indirect damage—cause the screen tilt characteristic of all damage, and disrupt movement instead of dealing knockback. These include burning, drowning, lightning, falling, suffocation, entity cramming, and starvation; block-inflicted damage from fire, cactus, lava, magma blocks, campfires, and sweet berry bushes; and damage from status effects like Poison, Wither, and Instant Damage.

Indirect damage sources that do deal knockback include the breath attack of the ender dragon, the beam attack of guardians and elder guardians, the sonic boom attack of wardens, the roar attack of ravagers, evoker fangs, damage from the Thorns enchantment, and the effect cloud from lingering potions of Harming.

Knockback received from players or mobs using a sword enchanted with Knockback is greater than normal.

Damageless attacks

Attacks that deal 0HP or less fail to deal knockback. The Weakness status effect can cause attacks that deal 0HP, causing them to deal no knockback.

Snowballs and eggs

Thrown eggs and snowballs cause knockback to mobs even if they do not deal any damage. In Bedrock Edition, thrown eggs and snowballs also apply knockback to players.

Sprint-knockback attack

Doing a melee attack while sprinting causes a sprint-knockback attack to be performed, inflicting extra knockback and canceling the sprint. In Java Edition, sprint-knockback attacks play a unique sound when performed, and they require an attack cooldown charge of at least 84.8%. Spears are the only item type that cannot do sprint-knockback attacks.

In Java Edition, sprint-knockback attacks cannot be performed at the same time as critical hits or sweep attacks. If a sprint-knockback attack is performed at the same time as a critical hit, the sprint-knockback attack takes priority. They can however be performed at the same time as smash attacks and crushing blows.

The extra inflicted knockback stacks with the Knockback enchantment. Like the Knockback enchantment, sprint-knockback attacks do not increase knockback against entities that are immune to knockback, such as iron golems or shielding players. The only exceptions to this are armor stand and boats, which ordinarily do not take knockback when hit but do when hit by a sprint-knockback attack.

Knockback resistance

Attributes

Knockback resistance

Knockback resistance reduces knockback by multiplying the velocity value that a mob receives from an attack's knockback. If the velocity the mob would have without any knockback resistance is , and the mob has a knockback resistance of , then the mob's actual velocity is determined by the formula . Each piece of netherite armor adds 10% knockback resistance to its wearer, giving 40% knockback resistance with a full set.

Explosion knockback resistance

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

Explosion knockback resistance reduces knockback from explosions and fireworks. It is received through the Blast Protection enchantment, and uses the formula (15 × level)%. The effect stacks with multiple armor pieces, with two pieces of Blast Protection IV armor resulting in 100% explosion knockback resistance. It also reduces the knockback affect of wind charges and the Wind Burst enchantment.

Natural knockback resistance

Certain mobs have natural knockback resistance that causes them to resist knockback from attacks. Iron golems, shulkers, agents, NPCs, wardens, creakings, and ender dragons have 100% knockback resistance, while other mobs have varying levels of knockback resistance.

Mob	Knockback resistance
Agent	100% (are invulnerable)
Creaking	100% (when looked at, if spawned naturally)
Drowned	0%–5% (determined on spawn)
Ender Dragon	100% (when perching) 100%[BE only]
Frostbite	0%–5% (determined on spawn)
Glow Squid	85%
Hoglin	60%
Husk	0%–5% (determined on spawn)
Iron Golem	100%
Nautilus	30%
NPC	100% (are invulnerable)
Ravager	75%
Shulker	100%
Squid	85%
Warden	100%
Zoglin	60%
Zombie	0%–5% (determined on spawn)
Zombie Nautilus	30%
Zombie Villager	0%–5% (determined on spawn)
Zombified Piglin	0%–5% (determined on spawn)

Sounds

Java Edition:

History

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Legacy Console Edition

Java Edition Combat Tests

Issues

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

References