Silverfish
hostileOurs, not the game's own: where it turns up, how a silverfish behaves. Same on Bedrock v1.26.40.05 for health. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
In Minecraft, the Silverfish is classified as a hostile mob: it will attack players on sight whenever it is able to reach them.
Silverfishes make their home in the Overworld, turning up in Stronghold and Mountains.
Its defining trait is simple: small and fast.
It carries 8 health points, 4 hearts, and yields 5 experience when it dies.
The Silverfish has been part of the game since version Beta 1.8.
A useful detail many players miss: Found in Strongholds and mountain biomes.
Knowing how the Silverfish 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
Silverfishes spawn in Stronghold and Mountains.
Spawns from monster spawners in Stronghold end portal rooms. Hides in Infested Stone variants in mountains and igloo basements.
Naturally spawned silverfishes 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.
A Silverfish farm is built around its own spawn rule rather than around the light level, so start from what makes them appear at all.
Stronghold
MountainsDrops
The Silverfish leaves behind nothing collectable on death; you gain experience but no loot.
Because there is nothing to harvest from its corpse, the reason to engage a Silverfish is almost always the experience or simply clearing it out of the way, not farming a resource.
If you are after specific items, the Silverfish is not your source for them; look to mobs with populated drop tables or to mining and trading instead.
You also collect 5 experience for every Silverfish you defeat.
Since there is nothing to pick up, you do not need to worry about a hopper or collection system for silverfishes; they leave the ground exactly as they found it.
The game rolls nothing for it when it dies, so it leaves nothing behind at all.
Silverfish attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Attack damage attribute | 1 |
 Size | 0.4 x 0.3 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.13 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
 Experience | 5 |
 Health | 8 points |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Movement speed | 0.25 |
The Silverfish does not stand alone on these numbers: the endermite on the same 8 health, the sheep at that same figure and the wolf at that same figure.
Silverfish: 4 values straight out of Minecraft Java 26.2
Nothing in the biome spawn lists and nothing in the rolls on death names the silverfish, so the numbers on this page come from one place only: the game's own entry for it in Minecraft Java 26.2sets 8 health, 1 attack damage, 0.25 movement speed and 16 blocks follow range.
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings |
|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 2 |
 stone sword | 5 | 2 |
| iron sword | 6 | 2 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 2 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 1 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 1 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 1 |
Turned around, 20 unblocked silverfish hits empty a player's 20 health, 5% of the bar at a time, which is what the silverfish's 1 damage on Normal buys it.
Behavior & Combat
Behaviourally, small and fast. When attacked, calls nearby silverfish from Infested Stone blocks. Swarms can be overwhelming.
Its 8 health is 66th of 80, just under the 10 of the cow.
Its combat profile is 8 health (4 hearts) with attacks dealing 1 damage on every difficulty.
To deal with one efficiently, exploit its weaknesses: it is vulnerable to Bane of Arthropods enchantment and Fire.
A sword enchanted with Bane of Arthropods shortens the fight considerably against this mob.
The practical takeaway is to respect its strengths, exploit the weaknesses listed above, and you will rarely lose a fight you choose to take.
Silverfish commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:silverfish | Puts a silverfish on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:silverfish_spawn_egg | Hands you the silverfish spawn egg, so you can place silverfishes where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:silverfish] | Removes every silverfish that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:silverfish, spawn egg minecraft:silverfish_spawn_egg.
Silverfish farm
There is no platform that produces silverfishes. Spawns from monster spawners in Stronghold end portal rooms. Hides in Infested Stone variants in mountains and igloo basements. Anything you build has to feed that source instead of a dark floor.
5 experience per killSilverfish version history
Minecraft Beta 1.8 brought the silverfish in on 14 September 2011, 14 years of silverfish by now.
2 other mobs here came with it: the enderman and the cave spider. 14 of our 88 mobs are older than the silverfish, 71 are younger.
The silverfish numbers here come from Java 26.2, the version running now, and not from the one that introduced it.
What Silverfish sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every silverfish sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 3 lines a silverfish can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.silverfish.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.silverfish.ambient |  Silverfish hisses |
| entity.silverfish.hurt | Silverfish hurts |
| entity.silverfish.death | Silverfish dies |
Advancements that need Silverfish
2 advancements ask for silverfish by name, and each of them counts other mobs too.
- Monster HunterKill any hostile monster
- Monsters HuntedKill one of every hostile monster
