Axolotl

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, referred to as "lucy" in its texture file), brown (wild), yellow (gold), and two colors that don't occur among real-world axolotles, 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[upcoming: JE 1.19 & BE 1.19.0] and other axolotls. They also attack drowned. An axolotl deals 2 points of damage per attack.

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.[1]

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

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:

Data values

Java Edition:

ID

Java Edition:

Entity data

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

Java Edition:

Achievements

• Multiple axolotls in a lush cave.
• An axolotl army attacking an Elder Guardian. Note the outdated texture.
• Ditto
• 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.
• A screenshot showcasing the addition of axolotls in 20w51a. A Sculk Sensor can also be seen.

Advancements

• Multiple axolotls in a lush cave.
• An axolotl army attacking an Elder Guardian. Note the outdated texture.
• Ditto
• 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.
• A screenshot showcasing the addition of axolotls in 20w51a. A Sculk Sensor can also be seen.

History

• Multiple axolotls in a lush cave.
• An axolotl army attacking an Elder Guardian. Note the outdated texture.
• Ditto
• 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.
• A screenshot showcasing the addition of axolotls in 20w51a. A Sculk Sensor can also be seen.

Historical images

• Multiple axolotls in a lush cave.
• An axolotl army attacking an Elder Guardian. Note the outdated texture.
• Ditto
• 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.
• A screenshot showcasing the addition of axolotls in 20w51a. A Sculk Sensor can also be seen.

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 an endangered as of 2022), sea turtles, and bees, axolotls were added to the game to raise awareness.[10][11]
• 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.[12]
• Axolotls can eat only buckets of tropical fish and not tropical fish items because axolotls in real life eat only living fish.[12]
• The blue variant was a suggestion by user Darkiceflame on the Minecraft's Suggestion Box Reddit community. It is a reference to Mudkip from the Pokémon series.[13]
• 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.[14] When asked on a livestream, Agnes said she cannot say why the green variant was cut from the game.[15]
• Both the "play dead" behavior and the regeneration ability of axolotls are based on the abilities of real life axolotls.[12]
• 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.[16]

Gallery

• All current axolotl variants. From left to right: blue, cyan, gold, wild, 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.

Screenshots

• All current axolotl variants. From left to right: blue, cyan, gold, wild, 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.

Concept artwork

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

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.
• Official Axolotl artwork.
• All 5 variants of axolotls swimming.
• The green Axolotl in the Caves & Cliffs: Part I trailer.
• Axolotl plushie.
• Lego Minecraft Axolotl.