Mobs

Every creature that spawns in the world — the monsters of the night and the animals of the day — what it does to you, and what it looks like from every angle.

What comes out depends on the light. In the dark — at night, under a dark enough storm, or at any hour in a cavern — a world tops itself up to 10 monsters; by day it puts out up to 6 animals instead, and none of the night’s monsters — though now and then a bear that will not stand for company. Either way it tries to place one every 4 seconds in a ring 24–40 units around a living player, and never within 24 units of anyone — beyond every monster’s aggro radius, so a fresh spawn wanders into view rather than appearing at your side. Empty worlds spawn nothing. A monster wanders aimlessly until a player strays inside its aggro radius, then chases them down and swings whenever it is in range and off cooldown — or, for a ranged mob, hurls a projectile and keeps its distance. A grazing animal never attacks: it wanders, stops to graze, and bolts from whatever hurts it for 4 seconds. Each world can narrow this down: a peaceful world only ever gets its grazing animals (nothing that attacks, no structure garrisons), and a world set to no mobs gets nothing at all. Which one spawns is a weighted roll among the mobs of the current light that may spawn on the ground at the chosen spot (a few only ever spawn in certain biomes: see each entry’s “Spawns in”), so the rarer types show up less often — and a roll landing on a type with no room left spawns nothing that time, so a rare one stays rare however full the world is; Evil Wizards never spawn at random at all, only as the garrison of a structure; Broodmothers, Wraiths, Stone Golems, Hellhounds, Dread Knights and Demon Kings are only ever met in dungeons. Some come in more than one coat, rolled as they spawn; only the look differs.

In the overworld, mobs do not follow you forever. One that has been more than 72 units from every player in the world for 30 seconds straight quietly despawns, freeing its slot for a fresh spawn near whoever is still playing; wandering back within range before then resets its clock. A world everyone has left drains its mobs the same way. Come daylight, the night’s monsters count as distant from just 24 units, so the ones nobody is fighting melt away with the dawn (a structure’s guards hold their posts). Each world chooses this: dungeon-style worlds set to never despawn keep every monster until someone kills it, so clearing the place means clearing it.

Each preview below is the mob’s actual in-game model, rendered in your browser — drag it around to look at the thing that is about to bite you, or the one you are about to have for dinner, and try each coat on the mobs that come in several.