Health Points

The health gauge and monitor in *Minecraft* displays how much damage the player is able to take before dying. Every class has a different HP stat, which is represented as a fraction on the HUD, above the hotbar.

## Hearts

HP is represented by a fraction above the hotbar. When the player takes damage, the number goes down. Once it reaches zero, the player dies.

Health can be recovered through several means, both "naturally" and through status effects.

* The Instant Health effect restores health immediately, the amount depending on the source and effect level.
* On Peaceful difficulty, the health meter continuously refills over time.
* On other difficulties, health regenerates slowly when the player's hunger is at or above 18 ( × 9).
* The Regeneration effect makes health regenerate fairly quickly, and the hearts of the health meter bounce in a wave. Aside from potions of Regeneration, this is also provided by beacons and golden apples. The "basic" golden apple provides it (level II) for 5 seconds, restoring a total of 4. The "enchanted" golden apple provides Regeneration II for 20 seconds, regenerating about 16 × 8.
* The Health Boost effect adds 4 () per effect level to the player's total health that can be healed or regenerated by normal means, which is removed when the effect expires. After the effect expires, the player's health may remain above the normal maximum, but the extra health is not recovered once lost to damage. This effect can be gained only through commands or mods. At the levels of 252-256 (with amplifiers 251 to 255), the player has 512 hearts (1024 health points, the "red health" limit for entities).
* The Absorption effect likewise adds 4 for each effect level. Different from the Health Boost effect, this special health cannot be healed or regenerated by normal means. Naturally, it is removed when the effect expires. The "basic" golden apple provides it (level I) for 2 minutes, providing a total of 4. The "enchanted" golden apple provides it at higher level (level IV), providing a total of 16 × 8.

Damage is split between the health and armor bars. Each full armor point takes 8% of damage, to a maximum of 80%, rounded up. Armor points also protect less damage (and deal more hearts) with stronger attacks.

In Creative mode, the player is immune to all forms of damage.

The player's health bar is invisible while holding or wearing an item that gives negative health points that exceed the player's current health points. For example, the player's default health is 20, and if holding an item with the attribute −21 health, the player can take two hits before dying; it doesn't matter how much damage these hits inflict. The first one deals enough damage to reduce health to 1, and the second one kills the player. If the player uses a modified item to reduce health, sometimes the death screen appears. After clicking respawn, the player would shake in the death position and this can be fixed by ceasing to use the modified item.

Wolves and iron golems are the only mobs that show their remaining health visually. Horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, allays, and the wither are the only mobs that regenerate health naturally over time.

## Death

Death occurs when all of a player or mob's health is depleted.

Upon the death of a player, a death message describing the cause of death is shown to everyone in that world. The death of a player's pet also creates a death message, but one that is shown only to its owner.

The `/kill` command also instantly brings about death, and a parrot can be instantly killed by feeding it a cookie.‌

Players and most mobs fall on their left side to the ground when killed; the death animation always lasts 20 ticks (1 second). Squid don't have a death animation; spiders, endermites, and silverfish flip upside-down; the ender dragon ascends and explodes. When killed, mobs drop items at the location of death. They also drop XP and GP of varying amounts upon death.

Mobs still count toward the mob cap during their death animation.

### Player effects

For players, a "You Died!"‌ screen (or "Game Over!" in Hardcore mode) appears, displaying the player's score,‌ and a death message (see Death messages). The view of the world is tinted red, render distance is reduced to default, the camera-view slowly tilts as if falling over, shudders, and zooms in somewhat.

As long as the player remains on the death screen, their corpse lingers on the ground. A Cleric may revive the player at this point using the Life spell.

* Respawn: either in the last point the player rested in, at their default spawn point (their first spawn point in the game), their respawn anchor, or at the spawn point set by commands. In Hardcore mode, the player can respawn only in Spectator mode, and cannot continue because cheats are disabled.
* Return to the title screen.

The death screen is not shown upon death if:

* The player holds a Totem of Undying in the main hand or off-hand and died without falling into the void, in which case the player resurrects upon death. Resurrection does not happen if the player fell into the void.
* the game rule `doImmediateRespawn` is set to `true`, in which case the player instantly respawns upon death without the death screen appearing, but still showing death message.

With `keepInventory` set to `false`, any items and/or blocks that were in the player's inventory (except items enchanted with Curse of Vanishing) are dropped from their head, and scattered around the spot where the player died (unless the game rule `keepInventory` is set to `true`). Like any dropped item, these drops decay after five minutes while that chunk is loaded. This is disabled by default.

The player also loses 1/4 of their total GP, dropping them as GP orbs at the player's death point. These can be recovered by the player by returning to the spot before they despawn. These can be picked up by any player.

The player also loses all effects upon respawning, even when the game rule `keepInventory` is set to `true`.

Despite the fact that dead players disappear like all other mobs, it is still possible for the player to see their own hand while in the first-person mode.