Magma Cube
hostileOurs, not the game's own: how a magma cube behaves. Bedrock v1.26.40.05 differs: spawn weight 2 on most Java biome lists (it runs from 2 to 100) against 10 on Bedrock; groups of 2 to 4 on Java against 1 to 4 on Bedrock. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
In Minecraft, the Magma Cube is classified as a hostile mob: it will attack players on sight whenever it is able to reach them.
Its defining trait is simple: like slimes but immune to fire and lava.
With 1 to 16 HP (0.5 to 8 hearts) on its bar, killing one rewards 1 to 4 experience.
Players have been encountering the Magma Cube since the 1.0.0 update.
A useful detail many players miss: Frogs can eat small magma cubes to produce Froglights of different colors based on frog variant.
Knowing how the Magma Cube behaves is mostly about survival: recognising it early and reacting correctly is what keeps a night-time excursion from ending in a respawn.
Damage by Difficulty
Spawning
Magma Cubes spawn in Nether Wastes and Basalt Deltas.
Your best bet is to head straight for Basalt Deltas, since that is where it turns up most reliably out of the handful of biomes it favours.
Spawns anywhere in the Nether. Most common in Basalt Deltas.
Being a Nether mob, it ignores the Overworld's darkness rules and can spawn regardless of light level within its home biomes, which makes the Nether dangerous even in well-lit areas.
Anywhere in the Nether can produce one, most often in Basalt Deltas, which makes the Overworld simply the wrong side of the portal to be looking.
A Magma Cube farm is built around its own spawn rule rather than around the light level, so start from what makes them appear at all.
Where the Magma Cube spawns
Basalt Deltas is where it stands strongest: weight 100 on the monster list and 71.4% of it, arriving 2 to 5 at a time. There it shares the list with Ghast at 40, 140 weight together, of which 100 is magma cube. It also turns up in Nether Wastes at 1.2%.
| Biome | Weight | Share | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
 Basalt Deltas | 100 | 71.4% | 2 to 5 |
 Nether Wastes | 2 | 1.2% | 4 |
- Inside a fortress the biome list is replaced: weight 3 there, 10.7% of the monster list, in groups of 4.
It does not have that fortress list to itself: the zombified piglin at weight 5, the skeleton at weight 2, the blaze at weight 10 and the wither skeleton at weight 8.
Drops
Killing a Magma Cube produces the following loot:
Nothing here is guaranteed: a kill can give you 1 Magma Cream only in specific situations, 1 Pearlescent Froglight only in specific situations, 1 Verdant Froglight only in specific situations, and 1 Ochre Froglight only in specific situations.
You also collect 1 to 4 experience for every Magma Cube you defeat.
These are well worth keeping. Frogs can eat small magma cubes to produce Froglights of different colors based on frog variant.
The Looting enchantment on your sword raises the quantity and, for many of these items, the drop chance of the rarer rolls, so it is well worth using when you grind this mob.
With nothing guaranteed, output is swingy: over many kills the averages hold, but any single Magma Cube may give you little, so farm in volume rather than expecting a jackpot each time.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magma Cream | 0 to 1 | situational | Looting III up to 4 |
| Pearlescent Froglight | 1 | situational | |
| Verdant Froglight | 1 | situational | |
| Ochre Froglight | 1 | situational |
Magma CreamMagma Cube attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Health | 1 to 16 points |
 Size | 0.52 x 0.52 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.325 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
 Movement speed | 0.2 |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Experience | 1 to 4 |
Its health is not fixed: health is the size multiplied by itself, and a magma cube spawns at size 1, 2 or 4.
Experience: the experience equals the size it was killed at, so 1, 2 or 4.
Magma Cube: 1.1% of its category, rank 30 of 52
On 2 of the 66 biome lists (2 spawn entries in total), and 1.1% of every spawn the game puts in its monster group is a magma cube.
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings |
|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 4 |
 stone sword | 5 | 4 |
 iron sword | 6 | 3 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 3 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 2 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 2 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 2 |
Turned around, 5 unblocked magma cube hits empty a player's 20 health, 20% of the bar at a time, which is what the magma cube's 4 damage on Normal buys it. On Easy the same magma cube hit is 15%, on Hard 30%, so 7 hits against 4. On health, attack and what a kill yields a magma cube reads exactly like the slime. 2 spawn entries against 55 spawn entries for the slime is the split, how often the biome files name them, counted over the spawn lists.
Behavior & Combat
In the field, like slimes but immune to fire and lava. Bounces higher and splits when killed. Found in large numbers in Basalt Deltas.
At 0.2 it is 53rd of 72 for speed, just below the horse at 0.225.
Its combat profile is 1 to 16 health (0.5 to 8 hearts) with attacks dealing 3 on Easy, 4 on Normal and 6 on Hard.
To deal with one efficiently, exploit its weaknesses: it is vulnerable to Water (takes damage).
Native to the Nether, it is completely immune to fire and lava, so burning strategies that work elsewhere are useless here.
The practical takeaway is to respect its strengths, exploit the weaknesses listed above, and you will rarely lose a fight you choose to take.
Magma Cube commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:magma_cube | Puts a magma cube on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:magma_cube_spawn_egg | Hands you the magma cube spawn egg, so you can place magma cubes where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:magma_cube] | Removes every magma cube that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:magma_cube, spawn egg minecraft:magma_cube_spawn_egg.
Magma Cube farm
A magma cube farm copies the rule the game already uses for magma cube spawns. Spawns anywhere in the Nether. Most common in Basalt Deltas.
Of the 2 biome spawn lists the magma cube stands on, Basalt Deltas gives the magma cube its largest share at 71.4%, so a magma cube platform there fills faster than the same build anywhere else.
2 to 5 magma cubes arrive per roll, so give the magma cube platform width instead of stacking it.
Each kill is worth 1 to 4 experience and up to 1 magma cream, or 4 with Looting III, and that figure is what decides how big the magma cube farm has to be.
Magma Cube version history
17 November 2011 is the day the magma cube arrived, in Minecraft 1.0.0, and the magma cube has been part of the game for 14 years since.
4 other mobs here came with it: the mooshroom, the blaze, the ender dragon and the snow golem. Of the 88 mobs we list, 17 were in the game before the magma cube and 66 arrived after it.
The magma cube numbers here come from Java 26.2, the version running now, and not from the one that introduced it.
What Magma Cube sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every magma cube sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 3 lines a magma cube can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.magma_cube.hurt master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.magma_cube.hurt |  Magma Cube hurts |
| entity.magma_cube.death | Magma Cube dies |
| entity.magma_cube.squish | Magma Cube squishes |
Advancements that need Magma Cube
2 advancements ask for magma cube by name, and each of them counts other mobs too.
- Monster HunterKill any hostile monster
- Monsters HuntedKill one of every hostile monster
