Phantom
hostileOurs, not the game's own: where it turns up, how a phantom behaves. Same on Bedrock v1.26.40.05 for health. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
A Phantom is a hostile mob: it will attack players on sight whenever it is able to reach them.
Phantoms make their home in the Overworld, turning up in Overworld (sky).
In practice you will recognise it quickly, because flies in circles above the player, then swoops down to attack.
Stat-wise it sits at 20 health (10 hearts), dropping 5 experience on death.
It was first added in 1.13 and has been a fixture of Minecraft ever since.
One thing worth knowing: Sleep regularly to prevent phantom spawns.
Knowing how the Phantom 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
Phantoms spawn in Overworld (sky).
Spawns in the sky at night or during thunderstorms if the player has not slept for 3+ in-game days.
Like most hostile mobs in the Overworld, it requires darkness (a block light level of 0) to spawn, so lighting an area up with torches stops it from appearing there.
Naturally spawned phantoms will despawn over time when no player is nearby; naming one with a name tag or leading it away on a lead keeps it permanent.
For a reliable Phantom farm, set your spawning floor within the biomes above and light everything else nearby so spawns funnel to one spot.
Drops
The Phantom drop table breaks down like this:
Nothing here is guaranteed: a kill can give you 1 Phantom Membrane.
You also collect 5 experience for every Phantom you defeat.
These are well worth keeping. Phantom Membranes are used to repair Elytra and brew Potions of Slow Falling.
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 Phantom may give you little, so farm in volume rather than expecting a jackpot each time.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phantom Membrane | 0 to 1 | not every kill | player kill, Looting III up to 4 |
Phantom attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.9 x 0.5 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.175 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
 Experience | 5 |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Health | 20 points |
Phantom: 2 values straight out of Minecraft Java 26.2
Nothing in the biome spawn lists and nothing in the rolls on death names the phantom, so the numbers on this page come from one place only: the game's own entry for it in Minecraft Java 26.2sets 20 health and 16 blocks follow range.
128 phantom kills fill a stack of 64 Phantom Membrane, because the ranges Minecraft Java 26.2 rolls for it come out at 0.5 per kill before Looting. 1 of those 1 rows (Phantom Membrane) only roll when a player lands the killing blow, so a phantom killed by a fall or another mob averages 0 items instead of 0.5.
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Phantom Membrane |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 5 | 640 |
 stone sword | 5 | 4 | 512 |
 iron sword | 6 | 4 | 512 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 3 | 384 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 3 | 384 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 3 | 384 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 2 | 256 |
Turned around, 7 unblocked phantom hits empty a player's 20 health, 15% of the bar at a time, which is what the phantom's 3 damage on Normal buys it. On Easy the same phantom hit is 10%, on Hard 20%, so 10 hits against 5.
Behavior & Combat
Flies in circles above the player, then swoops down to attack. Burns in sunlight. Targets only players who haven't slept.
Its 20 health is 23rd of 80, just over the 16 of the spider.
It can hit you for 2 on Easy, 3 on Normal and 4 on Hard, while its own 20 health (10 hearts) determines how many blows it takes to kill.
The fastest way to win is to lean on what it fears: Sunlight, Cats (flees from them), and Fire.
A sword enchanted with Smite shortens the fight considerably against this mob.
As an undead mob it catches fire in direct daylight, so during the day it will either burn up or scramble for shade and water, one reason these are mostly a night-time and cave threat.
Nothing in its weakness list mentions Smite, but it is undead like the rest of them: a splash of Healing wounds it, a Potion of Harming would heal it, and 12.5 extra damage a hit from a Smite V sword lands on the same 20 health every time it dives.
The practical takeaway is to respect its strengths, exploit the weaknesses listed above, and you will rarely lose a fight you choose to take.
Phantom commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:phantom | Puts a phantom on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:phantom_spawn_egg | Hands you the phantom spawn egg, so you can place phantoms where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:phantom] | Removes every phantom that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:phantom, spawn egg minecraft:phantom_spawn_egg.
Phantom farm
There is no platform that produces phantoms. Spawns in the sky at night or during thunderstorms if the player has not slept for 3+ in-game days. Anything you build has to feed that source instead of a dark floor.
Each kill is worth 5 experience and up to 1 phantom membrane, or 4 with Looting III, and that row only drops when you land the killing blow yourself, so a fall or a lava blade collects nothing, and that figure is what decides how big the phantom farm has to be.
5 experience per kill
Phantom Membrane up to 1, 4 with Looting IIIPhantom version history
18 July 2018 is the day the phantom arrived, in Minecraft 1.13, and the phantom has been part of the game for 8 years since.
7 other mobs here came with it: the turtle, the cod, the salmon, the tropical fish, the pufferfish, the dolphin and the drowned. 47 of our 88 mobs are older than the phantom, 33 are younger.
All of the phantom data above is taken from Java 26.2, so it describes the phantom as it is today.
What Phantom sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every phantom sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 6 lines a phantom can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.phantom.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.phantom.ambient |  Phantom screeches |
| entity.phantom.hurt | Phantom hurts |
| entity.phantom.death | Phantom dies |
| entity.phantom.bite | Phantom bites |
| entity.phantom.flap | Phantom flaps |
| entity.phantom.swoop | Phantom swoops |
Advancements that need Phantom
3 advancements ask for phantom by name, 1 of them about the phantom alone.
Two Birds, One ArrowKill two Phantoms with a piercing Arrow- Monster HunterKill any hostile monster
- Monsters HuntedKill one of every hostile monster
