Cave Spider mob in Minecraft
The Cave Spider is the small blue spider of mineshafts. It pours out of spawners, slips through one-block gaps and poisons you with its bite on Normal and Hard. The spawner, not the spider, is the real problem: deal with it and the corridor goes quiet.
- Health
- 126 hearts
- Behavior
- Neutral
- Main drop
String- Found in
- Sulfur Caves
Cave Spider stats
- Health
- 12 6 hearts
- Behavior
- Neutral
- Main drop
- String
- Spawns in
- 1 biomes
- Size
- 0.7 × 0.5 blocks
- XP when killed
- 5
- Speed
- 0.3
- Detection range
- 16 blocks
// Experience drops only when a player kills it. Speeds are the game’s internal values, not blocks per second.
How much damage Cave Spider deals
Damage to a player without armor, by world difficulty. 1 ♥ = 2 damage points.
Poison: Easy — · Normal 7 s · Hard 15 sWhat else changes with difficulty
- Can spawn with a permanent effect (Speed, Strength, Regeneration or Invisibility): Hard only
// Armor, Protection and Resistance reduce these values. Base values read from the game code (26.3).
Where to find Cave Spider
Biomes where it spawns naturally, with its share of the spawns in each group.
- Group size
- 1
- Light level
- Block light 0and light 7 or less overall
Structures
Cave Spider drops
Cave Spider and its family
Mobs built on the same base in the game code, compared on their game values.
| Mob | Health | Attack | XP | Speed | Dismounts underwater |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cave Spider | 12 | 2 | 5 | 0.3 | · |
 Spider | 16 | 2 | 5 | 0.3 | ✓ |
Traits
Properties set in the game files.
Effects
Advancements with Cave Spider
Advancements whose criteria involve this mob, from the game files.
Command
/summon minecraft:cave_spider ~ ~ ~Where Cave Spiders come from
Most Cave Spiders come from a Monster Spawner hidden in a mineshaft corridor. You usually spot the place before the spawner itself: the tunnel is choked with cobwebs. They also appear from trial spawners in Trial Chambers, and they spawn naturally in the Sulfur Caves.
What makes them dangerous
A Cave Spider behaves like a small Spider: it climbs walls, leaps at you, ignores cobwebs and is neutral in bright light. Its size is the difference. It fits through holes one block wide, so a gap that stops a Spider does not stop it.
On Normal and Hard, its bite also poisons you. Poison alone never kills: it stops at half a heart. The danger is the next bite, or a fall, while you are that low. A Milk Bucket clears the effect at once, so bring one into any mineshaft.
How to clear a spawner corridor
- Cut the cobwebs first. A sword clears them fast. Shears collect them as blocks.
- Do not wait for the next wave. Run to the spawner and break it with a pickaxe, or place torches on and around it so it stops spawning.
- Close the side tunnels. Cave Spiders reach you from every gap. A few blocks behind you keep the fight in front of you.
- No poison weapons. Like Spiders, Cave Spiders are immune to Poison.
What to do with the spawner
If you keep the spawner instead of breaking it, it becomes an early experience farm: build a drop shaft and kill the spiders at the bottom. You also get string and spider eyes. Those cobwebs are worth keeping too: one in an awkward potion brews a Potion of Weaving.
✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026
Cave Spider — FAQ
Can Cave Spider poison kill you?
No. Poison stops at half a heart. Another hit or a fall can still finish you, so drink milk or back off.
Do Cave Spiders poison you on Easy?
No. Their bite only poisons on Normal and Hard difficulty.
How do you stop a Cave Spider spawner?
Break it with a pickaxe, or light it up with torches placed on and around it so it stops spawning.
Where does the Cave Spider spawn?
In Sulfur Caves.
What does a Cave Spider drop?
String and Spider Eye. Only when killed by a player: Spider Eye.
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