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NEUTRAL PASSIVE Present since 1.14 or earlier

Dolphin mob in Minecraft

The Dolphin is a friendly ocean mob that swims in pods, plays around boats and makes you swim much faster when you stay close to it. Feed it a fish and it guides you to the nearest shipwreck or ocean ruin. It only fights back if you attack it, and then the whole pod joins in.

Health: 105 hearts
Behavior: Neutral
Main drop: Raw Cod
Found in: 5 biomes

Dolphin stats

Health: 10 5 hearts
Behavior: Neutral
Main drop: Raw Cod
Spawns in: 5 biomes
Size: 0.9 × 0.6 blocks
XP when killed: 1 to 3none as a baby
Speed: 1.2
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 Dolphin deals

Damage to a player without armor, by world difficulty. 1 ♥ = 2 damage points.

Melee attack

Peaceful00 ♥

Easy2.51.25 ♥

Normal31.5 ♥

Hard4.52.25 ♥

// Armor, Protection and Resistance reduce these values. Base values read from the game code (26.3).

Where to find Dolphin

Biomes where it spawns naturally, with its share of the spawns in each group.

Spawning

Group size: 1 to 2

Dolphin drops

Dolphin dropsFrom the loot table · chance per kill

Raw Cod+1 per Looting level · Cooked if it dies on fire0–1

Carried items and gearDropped on death, outside the loot table (game code)

The item it is holdingAlways dropped100%

Health compared

Health vs other neutral mobshealth points

Zombie Nautilus15

Cave Spider12

Bee10

Dolphin10

Goat10

Wolf8

Pufferfish3

Traits

Properties set in the game files.

AquaticImpaling deals extra damage to it.

Ignored by pufferfishPufferfish do not puff up near it.

Weak to ImpalingImpaling deals extra damage to it.

Effects

GivesDolphin's Grace

What you can do with Dolphin

Items to use on it and what happens.

FeedRaw Cod · Raw SalmonGive it raw fish: it swims toward the nearest ocean ruin or shipwreck.

Baby Dolphin

Spawn egg on an adult All baby mobs →

Command

Summon a Dolphin/summon →

/summon minecraft:dolphin ~ ~ ~

Where to find Dolphins

Dolphins live in groups in regular, lukewarm and warm oceans, deep or not. Look for them near the surface: they jump out of the water, follow boats and swimming players, and push dropped items around as if playing with them.

Dolphin's Grace: swim faster

Swim right next to a Dolphin and it gives you Dolphin's Grace, a strong boost to your swimming speed. It is the fastest way to cross a stretch of ocean without a boat. The effect is short and renews as long as you stay with the pod, so follow the Dolphins rather than the other way round.

How Dolphins find treasure

Feed a Dolphin raw cod or raw salmon, and it starts swimming toward the nearest shipwreck or ocean ruin. Follow it, ideally with Dolphin's Grace on, and you reach chests full of loot, including treasure maps that lead to buried treasure and its Heart of the Sea. If you lose sight of it, feed it again: it sets off once more.

Do Dolphins attack?

Not on their own. Hit one, though, and it fights back with the rest of its pod, which can hurt in deep water. Leave them alone and they stay the best travel companion of the oceans.

Keeping a Dolphin alive

It needs air. A Dolphin breathes air and must reach the surface regularly. Trapped under ice or a roof, it drowns.
It dries out on land. Out of the water, it slowly loses health. A rain shower helps, but it needs to get back to the sea.
It cannot be bred. Dolphins have no breeding food, and you cannot carry one in a bucket like a fish. Every Dolphin you see comes from a wild pod, so treat them with care.

✓ Checked in Java Edition 26.3 · updated 1 November 2026