Axolotl

This article is about the mob. For the music track, see Music § Underwater music. For the gold axolotl pet in *Minecraft Dungeons*, see :MCD:Golden Axolotl. For the lucy axolotl pet in *Minecraft Dungeons*, see :MCD:Axolotl (Leucistic). For the wild axolotl pet in *Minecraft Dungeons*, see :MCD:Wild Axolotl.

## Axolotl

* Lucy
* Wild
* Gold
* Cyan
* Blue

### Classification

Animal
Aquatic

### Usable items

* Bucket of Tropical Fish
* Lead
* Water Bucket

## Details

### Size

Height: 0.42 blocks
Width: 0.75 blocks

An **axolotl** is a passive bucketable aquatic mob found in lush caves that hunts most other aquatic mobs, and can assist players with aquatic combat and grant them Regeneration.

## Spawning

Axolotls spawn underwater in the lush caves biome and when there is a clay block less than five blocks below the spawning space.

### Colors

Axolotls can be one of five colors: pink (leucistic), brown (wild), gold, cyan and blue.

When breeding Axolotls, there is a 1⁄1200 (0.083%) chance of the offspring having the blue mutation, leaving 1199⁄1200 (99.917%) chance of matching one of the parents (including blue parents).

## Behavior

Axolotls are passive toward players and can be attached to leads. Axolotls give Regeneration I for 100 game ticks (5 seconds) per Axolotl in the fight, up to a duration of 2400 game ticks (2 minutes)‌[*Java Edition only*], and remove Mining Fatigue when a player kills a mob that is in combat with an axolotl.

Axolotls attack all aquatic mobs except turtles, dolphins, frogs and other axolotls. They also attack the drowned. An axolotl deals 2 points of damage per attack. However, axolotls do not attack the player.

After killing a non-hostile mob, there is a two minute cooldown before another non-hostile mob can be hunted. Axolotls prioritize attacking hostile mobs over non-hostile mobs.

If an axolotl takes damage underwater, it may play dead, dropping to the ground for 200 game ticks (10 seconds) while gaining Regeneration I. Hostile aquatic mobs ignore healing axolotls. There is a 1⁄3 chance for an axolotl to play dead to recover 4. In addition, if either a random integer from 0–2 (inclusive) is less than the amount of incoming damage, or the axolotl's health before the damage is dealt is less than 50% of its maximum health, it plays dead.

Axolotls can leave the water and wander about on land. When an axolotl leaves the water, it wanders as far as 8 or 9 blocks beyond the water's edge before returning to the water, as long as there is water at least 2 blocks deep within 16 blocks of the axolotl. If 2-block-deep water is outside this range, the axolotl can wander off randomly on land in search of more deep water, and die after 6000 game ticks (5 minutes) exposure out of water. Axolotls are not attracted to shallow (1 block deep) water. They require water at least 2 blocks deep within 16 blocks to pathfind to the water.

Axolotls can also die out of water as passengers in a boat. Unlike fish, dolphins, and squid, axolotls do not die on land in rain or in a thunderstorm.

Unlike most mobs, axolotls cannot be moved by flowing water. However, they are still affected by bubble columns.

As aquatic mobs, they take extra damage from the Impaling enchantment.‌[*Java Edition only*]‌[*until JE Edition Combat Tests*] Unlike other aquatic mobs, they cause nearby pufferfish to inflate.

Axolotls picked up with a water bucket and re-spawned do not despawn.

Axolotls can be renamed by placing a bucket of axolotl into an anvil, the same as if renaming any other item.

### Breeding

Main article: Breeding
Adult axolotls can be led and bred with buckets of tropical fish. After breeding, a baby axolotl spawns and 1–7 experience is generated. The parents cannot be bred again for 5 minutes in *Java Edition* or 1 minute in *Bedrock Edition*. The baby axolotl has a 1⁄1200 chance to be the rare blue variant; otherwise, it inherits the color of one parent at random. Babies follow adults, and grow to adulthood in 20 minutes. The growth of baby axolotls can be accelerated using buckets of tropical fish; each use reduces the remaining growing time by 10%.

## Sounds

*Java Edition*:

Axolotls use the Friendly Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

1. ↑ Except `idle_air3`, which is 0.8
2. ↑ Except `idle_air3`, which is 0.96-1.44 (Baby: 1.56-2.04)
3. ↑ 0.9 times the axolotl's momentum, with the horizontal axes' velocity multiplied by 0.2
4. ↑ The axolotl's momentum, with the horizontal axes' velocity multiplied by 0.2

*Bedrock Edition*:

## Data values

### ID

*Java Edition*:

*Bedrock Edition*:

### Entity data

Axolotls have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

*Java Edition*:

Main article: Entity format

* Entity data
	+ Additional fields for mobs that can breed
	+ Tags common to all entities
	+ Tags common to all mobs
	+ FromBucket: 1 or 0 (true/false) – if true, indicates the axolotl has been released from a bucket.
	+ Variant: ID of the axolotl's variant.

#### Axolotl Variant

Main article: Axolotl/DV[edit]

*Bedrock Edition*:

**This page documents the associated data values of the described object.**
This template is to only be transcluded on /DV pages which do not use `{{dvt}}`, as them not using this results in the pages appearing in Special:UncategorizedPages.

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

## Issues

Issues relating to "Axolotl" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

## Trivia

* In the release notes Minecraft Launcher there is an encrypted message T⍑ᒷ ᔑ ̇/𝙹ꖎ𝙹ℸ ̣ ꖎᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ∴⍑ᔑℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ|| ᓭᒷᒷᒲ, which translates to "The Axolotls are not what they seem".
* Axolotls are small salamanders that are endemic to Mexico, which are critically endangered. Following Mojang Studios' trend of adding endangered species such as polar bears, giant pandas (no longer endangered as of 2022), sea turtles, and bees, axolotls were added to the game to raise awareness.
* The probability of a blue axolotl spawning is 1 in 1200 because that is approximately the number of axolotls left in the wild in real life.
* Axolotls can eat only buckets of tropical fish and not tropical fish items because axolotls in real life eat only living fish.
* Even though they are not in the game, the green variant appears in the Caves & Cliffs: Part I announcement trailer and caves and cliffs recap. When asked on a livestream, Agnes said she cannot say why the green variant was cut from the game.
* Both the "play dead" behavior and the regeneration ability of axolotls are based on the abilities of real life axolotls.
* Because real axolotls don't actually vocalize, the sounds of axolotls were recorded from the incidental "hiccups" and "burps" real axolotls occasionally make when surfacing, as well as heavily edited dog sounds.

## Gallery

### Animations

* An axolotl playing dead.
* An axolotl swimming.
* An axolotl walking underwater.
* An axolotl walking in land.
* An axolotl idling.
* An axolotl idling in underwater floor.
* An axolotl underwater.

### Screenshots

* All current axolotl variants. From left to right: blue, cyan, gold, brown, and leucistic.
* A baby axolotl on the side of a group.
* Three axolotls attacking a glow squid underwater.
* All 5 types of axolotls swim in a lush cave.

### Development images

* Multiple axolotls in a lush cave.
* Early axolotls attacking an elder guardian.
* Early axolotls hurting the elder guardian.
* Axolotl variants from development, including unreleased green one.
* The pose of the `no-pose` in development.
* An axolotl playing dead in development.
* Buckets of axolotl and powder snow in item frames.
* Buckets of axolotl and powder snow in item frames.
* A screenshot showcasing the addition of axolotls in 20w51a. A sculk sensor can also be seen.
* Axolotls as seen during Minecraft Live 2020.
* Axolotls underwater.
* Axolotls breeding.
* Axolotls swarming.
* An axolotl dying to the sword.
* An axolotl about to explode.
* An axolotl in serious danger.
* Axolotls burning to death.

### Concept artwork

* Concept art depicting other iterations for legs and frills, along with the unimplemented "suction" behavior.
* "Axolotl Patterns" - Grayscale art of unimplemented axolotl patterns.
* "Axolotl Colors" 1 - Sketches for other axolotl colors.
* "Axolotl Colors" 2 - Flipped gold axolotl depicting a concept for its belly.
* "Axolotl Possible Combinations" - The unimplemented patterns mixed with various axolotl colors.
* Iterations of legs tested on the model.
* Other iterations of legs tested on the model.
* "Having Fun!" - A group of axolotls swimming.
* "Cutie in a Bucket" - concept art for the bucket of axolotl.
* "Axolotl & Warden" - Sketches of the axolotl and warden.
* "Scale of Cuteness" - sketches of the axolotl, goat, and warden.
* An axolotl.
* An axolotl crying.

### In other media

* An Axolotl in promotional artwork for the Caves & Cliffs: Part I update.
* An axolotl in promotional artwork for the Caves & Cliffs: Part II update.
* An axolotl in promotional artwork for the GOAT Update.
* Axolotls in promotional artwork for Mobile, Multiplayer & More.
* Official axolotl artwork.
* All 5 variants of axolotls swimming.
* The green axolotl in the Caves & Cliffs: Part I trailer.
* An axolotl as it appears on the cover of Minecraft Legends: Return of the Piglins.
* Axolotl plushie.
* Lego Minecraft Axolotl.
* An official axolotl beanie.
* An officially licensed T-Shirt featuring outliens of three axolotls.

## References

1. ↑ MCPE-146260
2. ↑ MC-208659
3. ↑ MC-208626
4. ↑ MC-208601
5. ↑ "MINECON Live 2019" by *Minecraft* – youtube.com, September 28, 2019. "...since the bee population is decreasing in the world, which is a big problem, we really felt that we wanted to teach the players..." - Agnes Larsson
6. ↑ "Minecraft Live: Caves & Cliffs - First Look" by *Minecraft* – youtube.com, October 3, 2020. "And then we also found out that axolotls are endangered in the real world, and we think it's good to add endangered animals to Minecraft to create awareness about that." - Agnes Larsson
7. ↑ a b c "Dev Diaries: Caves & Cliffs Mobs"
8. ↑ Caves & Cliffs Update: Part I - Official Trailer
9. ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/cbsunstoppable/clip/YummyClumsyWoodcockBrainSlug-D8T140VjP-Ok2tCk
10. ↑ "The Secrets of Minecraft: Death Sounds, Secret Animals, and Other Delights! @3:22" – Minecraft on YouTube, November 19, 2021