Squid
passiveOurs, not the game's own: how a squid behaves. Bedrock v1.26.40.05 differs: spawn weight 1 on most Java biome lists (it runs from 1 to 10) against 8 on Bedrock; groups of 1 to 4 on Java against 2 to 4 on Bedrock. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
The Squid is a passive mob in Minecraft, which means it will never attack a player and simply goes about its own behaviour.
You will normally come across squids in the Overworld, where they appear in Ocean, River, and Beach.
What sets it apart is its behaviour: swims aimlessly in water, squirts ink cloud when attacked.
Stat-wise it sits at 10 health (5 hearts), dropping 1 to 3 experience on death.
It was first added in Beta 1.2 and has been a fixture of Minecraft ever since.
The reason to seek out the Squid is what it leaves behind: Ink Sac, which is worth more than the fight it puts up.
Spawning
Squids spawn in Ocean, River, and Beach.
Because it appears across 11 different biomes, it is one of the easier mobs to track down, and heading to any of them should turn one up before long.
Spawns in water between Y=46 and Y=62 in any biome with water.
Height matters too: these spawns are tied to between Y=46 and Y=62, so the vertical slice you build or explore at directly affects how many you encounter.
With no attack to worry about, the Squid is something you gather rather than fight, and since it does not breed, every one you want has to come from a fresh spawn.
The game sorts every spawn into a group, and this one shares its water creature group with the dolphin and the nautilus.
Where the Squid spawns
Frozen River and River are where it stands strongest: weight 2 on the water creature list and 100% of it, arriving 1 to 4 at a time. The other 9 biomes on its list run from 60% down to 14.3%.
| Biome | Weight | Share | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
 Frozen River | 2 | 100% | 1 to 4 |
 River | 2 | 100% | 1 to 4 |
 Cold Ocean | 3 | 60% | 1 to 4 |
 Deep Cold Ocean | 3 | 60% | 1 to 4 |
 Lukewarm Ocean | 10 | 58.8% | 1 to 2 |
 Warm Ocean | 10 | 58.8% | 4 |
 Deep Lukewarm Ocean | 8 | 53.3% | 1 to 4 |
 Deep Frozen Ocean | 1 | 33.3% | 1 to 4 |
 Frozen Ocean | 1 | 33.3% | 1 to 4 |
 Deep Ocean | 1 | 14.3% | 1 to 4 |
 Ocean | 1 | 14.3% | 1 to 4 |
Drops
Killing a Squid produces the following loot:
Every kill yields 1 to 3 Ink Sac.
In terms of experience, each kill is worth 1 to 3 XP orbs.
These are well worth keeping. Ink sacs are used for black dye and crafting books and quills.
Since every item here is guaranteed, the only variable is quantity, which makes this mob a dependable, low-variance source of what it carries.
As a harmless mob, the Squid is best gathered opportunistically while you explore, and there is no danger in collecting from it, so it rarely justifies a dedicated trip.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ink Sac | 1 to 3 | always | Looting III up to 6 |
Squid attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.8 x 0.8 blocks |
 Eye height | 0.4 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Health | 10 points |
 Experience | 1 to 3 |
The Squid shares this stretch of the scale: the glow squid, level with it on health, follow range and experience alike.
Squid: 8.88% of its category, rank 10 of 52
On 11 of the 66 biome lists (11 spawn entries in total), and 8.88% of every spawn the game puts in its water creature group is a squid.
A squid averages 2 Ink Sac a kill on the rolls Minecraft Java 26.2 makes for it, before Looting, which puts a full stack of 64 Ink Sac at 32 kills.
| Item | Average per kill |
|---|---|
 Ink Sac | 2 |
How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Ink Sac |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 3 | 96 |
 stone sword | 5 | 2 | 64 |
 iron sword | 6 | 2 | 64 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 2 | 64 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 2 | 64 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 2 | 64 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 1 | 32 |
Behavior & Combat
In the field, swims aimlessly in water, squirts ink cloud when attacked. Takes suffocation damage on land.
Its 10 health is 53rd of 80, just over the 8 of the sheep.
It is completely harmless and deals no damage, so the only risk it poses is wandering into lava, cacti or a long fall.
The Squid cannot be bred, so the only way to get more is to find them spawning naturally in their home biomes.
It is a water-dwelling creature and will suffocate if it ends up on dry land, so keeping it in water is essential if you want to transport or keep one.
All told, the Squid is a low-risk part of the world that rewards patience more than aggression.
Squid commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:squid | Puts a squid on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:squid_spawn_egg | Hands you the squid spawn egg, so you can place squid where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:squid] | Removes every squid that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:squid, spawn egg minecraft:squid_spawn_egg.
Squid farm
A squid farm copies the rule the game already uses for squid spawns. Spawns in water between Y=46 and Y=62 in any biome with water.
The squid is heaviest in Frozen River at 100%, out of the 11 biome spawn lists it stands on, so a squid farm belongs there rather than in the first cave you find.
1 to 4 squid arrive per roll, so give the squid platform width instead of stacking it.
Each kill is worth 1 to 3 experience and up to 3 ink sac, or 6 with Looting III, so the size of the squid farm follows the number you need of that one item.
Squid version history
The squid was added in Minecraft Beta 1.2, which came out on 12 January 2011, so the squid has been in the game for 15 years.
No other mob on this site arrived in Beta 1.2, so the squid is the only page here that carries that version. Of the 88 mobs we list, 12 were in the game before the squid and 75 arrived after it.
Every squid figure on this page is read from Minecraft Java 26.2 as it stands today, not from the version above.
What Squid sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every squid sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 4 lines a squid can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.squid.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.squid.ambient |  Squid swims |
| entity.squid.hurt | Squid hurts |
| entity.squid.death | Squid dies |
| entity.squid.squirt | Squid shoots ink |
