The night is the most dangerous time of a Minecraft day. It lasts about 7 minutes in real-time.
Effects on Gameplay[]
During the nighttime, the Moon is the primary source of natural light, but it only provides a light level of 4, making it very hard to see.
The primary danger during the night is the hostile mobs that spawn. Most of the Overworld's hostile mobs will spawn in the darkness. This includes Zombies, skeletons, spiders, Endermen, Creepers, Spider Jockeys, and Chicken Jockeys.
Slimes will also spawn during the night in swamp biomes, but this truly depends on the Moon's lunar cycle (so do the spawning of mobs). During a New Moon, no slimes will spawn, but during a full moon, many slimes will spawn.
During the night, villagers will stay in their homes. Any villagers that are caught out at night will still attempt to go indoors. Also during the night, Villages can experience sieges, where groups of zombies will attempt to break down the doors of houses to kill the villagers inside.
During the night, a player can sleep in a bed to skip the night, but this only works if there are no hostile mobs that are too close. In a multiplayer game, all players must sleep in a bed to skip the night.
The night proceeds to dawn which in turn leads to daytime.
Survival Tips[]
- Do not venture outside at night unless familiar with the terrain, equipped with a full set of good Armor (preferably iron at least), and in possession of a weapon, such as a sword.
- Players should always be aware of their surroundings, and not allow themselves to be potentially outflanked by mobs.
- If it is a player's first night and they are unarmed and without armor, a quick shelter can be made by digging a 1x3 hole in the ground and "capping" it with a Dirt block. The player will be able to safely hide from hostile mobs until dawn.
- The night is one of the best times to harvest items commonly obtained from hostile mobs, such as rotten flesh (from zombies), bones and arrows (from skeletons), spider eyes and string (from spiders).