All About Minecraft Fox Mobs
Added as part of the Village & Pillage update, here is everything you need to know about the super-cute fox…
Spawning
Foxes are generated in two places: Taiga and Snowy Taiga biomes. Those that appear in Taiga biomes have an orange coat, while those that form in the snowy region have a white coat – otherwise they are the same. Foxes spawn in groups of 1-3, and more commonly appear at night, when they generate asleep in their forest homes. They can also spawn as babies, and one in six naturally spawned foxes will be a baby regardless of which biome you are in.
Fox Loot
One cool thing foxes can do is hold items in their mouth. These items are there when they spawn, and there is an 83.5% chance of this happening, so about one in 12 foxes will be holding an item. Right now, only eight items can be held in a fox’s mouth and they are not that interesting, though the emeralds are definitely worth grabbing. The complete list is: egg, emerald, feather, leather, rabbit hide, rabbit’s foot, wheat, porkchop. They seem to have an equal chance of appearing, and if you kill the fox they have a chance to drop what they are carrying in their mouth.
Sleeping Foxes
During the day, foxes will sleep as long as the weather isn’t thunder. They will find shelter and curl up, only waking if the player or another mob gets too close. You can, however, sneak up on a sleeping fox if you move slowly enough and use the sneak button. Foxes will also wake up if the light level becomes high enough (usually if you destroy the block they are sleeping under) or they are moved. When foxes sleep, they drop the items they are carrying in their mouth, although they can also pick up items while asleep.
Fox Attacks
Foxes are around the same speed as ocelots, and will automatically run from any players or wolves when they spot them. If a fox sees a rabbit or a chicken, it will immediately try to attack it. To make an attack, the fox crouches for two seconds, then jumps high into the air – it can even jump over fences and walls if low enough. Foxes will also attack baby turtles if they spot them on land and all fish mobs. Arctic foxes prefer to attack fish mobs more than red foxes. Amusingly, foxes can get stuck in snow. If they crouch down to pounce while sitting in a snow layer, they get stuck in place and will have to wriggle free.
Sweet Berry Bushes
Sweet berry bushes were added to the game at the same time as foxes, and are tied to fox behaviour. Although foxes will eat any food they carry, they prefer to eat from sweet berry bushes. When a fox sees a sweet berry bush that is old enough to carry fruit, they will run towards it and harvest the bush to eat the berries, dropping any item they are currently holding. When a fox eats a sweet berry – either from a bush or from being fed one – it will enter breeding mode. Any baby that breeds as a result of its parents being fed by the player will trust the player and not run away from it, even when it grows to adulthood. The fox isn’t technically tame, as it will ignore the player and cannot be controlled, but it can be put on a lead.
Fox Drops
When foxes are killed, they don’t drop any items under normal circumstances. If a player or a tame wolf kills an adult fox, it will make it drop 1-2 experience orbs. Any item a fox is carrying in its mouth will be dropped when the fox is killed. As with other mobs, killing a baby fox gets you no experience and no drops, though if the baby fox is carrying an item in its mouth that will still have a chance to drop, just like equipment does.
Fox Secrets
- Foxes can run straight through the prickly sweet berry bushes without taking any damage or being slowed down, which other mobs, including the player, cannot do.
- If you want to guarantee that you collect the item a fox is holding, you should try to make it drop the item by feeding it a sweet berry. You can also wait until it falls asleep and places the item on the floor.
- Although wolves are aggressive towards them, foxes are normally fast enough to outrun a wolf.
- Foxes can pick up any item they find lying on the ground, but if they are killed while picking up an item they collected it will always drop – only naturally spawned items have a chance of disappearing.
- Foxes will eventually eat food items that they carry in their mouth, so if you see one you want don’t leave it too long.
- If a fox is killed while it is holding a totem of undying in its mouth, the fox will come back to life. Likewise, if a fox is holding any other items with effects, such as enchantments, the fox can potentially be affected by them.
- Foxes are one of only three mobs that sleep – cats and bats are the other two.
- Foxes are also the only mob in the Overworld that can jump higher than the player without a status effect. They can leap up to three blocks high!
- At night, foxes will sometimes steal crops from villagers.
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Keywords: Minecraft, Mobs, Foxes, Biomes, Tips.