Hey guys. I'm Dotoran, a pure vanilla Minecrafter. I never use mods in my worlds, and I really like the generic base look of Minecraft. I run multiple servers that have incorporated different kinds of challenges, but they've all been created using nothing other than what Minecraft itself has to offer. I also do not make use of any external editor software, like MCEdit or similar. Everything I do I do with what you get from purchasing just Minecraft.
With that being said, I'm getting ready to open a new private server for my users, but this one has some history to it. A back-story if you will. It will help explain all the odd things the users will see when they get to join in. This will NOT be an easy adventure for them, as there will be MANY different difficulties for them to endure. Most notably, the MOBS they're going to come across.
In order to make this all happen, I've had to really tear into the new /summon command, which will become official in 1.7. As of this writing, I'm using Snapshot 13w39b. To follow along with this tutorial, I'd highly recommend you create a NEW world, so as not to damage anything you might have created in other worlds. Make it a single player world, and remember to turn on cheats. For this tutorial, I'd also recommend you create this world as a superflat world. If you want to do this with a multiplayer world, then make sure you have yourself set as an op. You'll also want to make sure you can use command blocks in your world, as some of these commands are too long to copy/paste into the chat stream buffer.
The new /summon command, officially introduced in Minecraft 1.7, is both a console and control block command used to summon various types of Minecraft mobs into the game. As of this writing, it is also the only way to create a skeleton horse or zombie horse into the game. It can also be used to bring mobs from one realm into another realm (like a Ghast in the Overworld, an EnderDragon in the Nether, or Giants into The End, etc.)
The most basic syntax for the command is the following:
/summon mob x y z
The word summon MUST be typed in all lowercase letters, and the CASE that you see me use in these examples is VERY important. If you see me use a capital letter, YOU use a capital letter, ok? OK!
Where it says "mob" you can type the name of any mob in the game, but some of the names are a bit off. Here's the full list:
OK, I lied. It's not the FULL list. I left out Villager, but I did that on purpose, since he's more human than mob, and you can have all sorts of fun with those guys using /summon, so maybe I'll write another tutorial all about him, but his place isn't here!
Some of those names might need a bit more help: LavaSlime is actually a MagmaCube, PigZombie is a Zombie Pigman, Wither is actually a Nether Skeleton, Snowman is a Snow Golem, VillagerGolem is an Iron Golem, and WitherBoss is the actual Wither.
OK, now I can't go over everything, but I will cover lots. Let's go back to that basic command, and use it to spawn a Zombie:
/summon Zombie ~ ~ ~
First, note the capital Z on zombie, as that's needed. Next, note the tildes (the little ~'s) after the name. Note there are THREE of them separated by spaces. Lastly, look above at the first syntax line. See the "x y z"? These are the coordinates you'd like the Zombie to appear at. If you use a tilde (~) in place of a number, it means use the value where YOU are standing right now, so when you use the above command, it's gonna be real weird, as the Zombie appears right on top of you, and you'll have to back up a bit to see him.
Let's make this a bit easier before moving on. If using the superflat world like I suggested above, use the TP command to teleport yourself to the exact coordinates x0, z0, something like this:
/tp 0 ~ 0
The ~ means keep the elevation the same as the ground you're currently standing on. Now, dig out the block right under 0,0 and replace it with a bright colored block, like ORANGE WOOL. Now, step back 5 or 6 steps and let's try the above command again, but use some specific coordinate numbers:
/summon Zombie 0 ~ 0
That should be a lot better! (If yours is like mine, your zombie is probably in flames right now, cuz they sure don't like sunlight, do they?!? Let him die and we'll bring out someone who likes the sun:
/summon Creeper 0 ~ 0
I hope you're in Creative mode right now! hehe
Hello Mr. Creeper! How'sssss it going?
Naw, let's get another guy that hates the sun even more, but first, get out a sword and kill that green guy!
OK, hopefully you're not staring at a huge hole. ;-) If not, then type this command:
/summon Skeleton 0 ~ 0
There we go. I love watching them BURN IN THE SUN! hehe, but seriously, that's not very fair for him now, is it? Well, I suppose we could make it night for him:
/time set night
Well, that'll help him for now, but won't the sun be back soon? Is there another way we could protect him from the sun? Yes there is! Starting a few versions ago, if a night mob is wearing a helmet, it protects them
from the sun. For this, we need to EQUIP the mob using Equipment. Here's what it looks like basically:
This command, as is, does exactly what the last one did, because we haven't told the command what to equip the mob with. I want you to see it this way first for a couple of reasons:
1. Note there are FIVE sets of { } in the command
2. Note that all five are enclosed in one set of [ ]
3. Note the entire Equipment: chunk is enclosed in another set of { }
THESE ARE ALL REQUIRED for this command to work correctly. If you leave out any, the command won't work correctly. OK, so why are there five sets of { }? Well, it's because the mobs can be wearing armor AND they can be carrying something in their hands. You list them in this order:
Hands, Feet, Legs, Chest, Head
So, since Head is listed last, it means that if we want to equip him wearing a helmet, we'll need to specify additional info in the 5th slot of the Equipment tag. In order to do this, you'll need to know the item CODE for the item you want to equip. Here's a link to the wiki page that lists the different codes:
When using that picture of codes, remember, the code you want is the one ABOVE the picture. I'd like an iron helmet, because it's the one that most closely matches the color of my skellie, so I want code 306. These codes are also referred to as item id's. so we want
id:306
If we then place the above inside the 5th set of { } above, we get this line:
Now he's perfect and the sun won't kill him! Oh, wait, he's not quite perfect, is he? Isn't he missing something? He needs his bow! That's id:261, so let's add that inside the first set of { }
There! NOW he's perfect! Well, he's as perfect as Minecraft would make him if he naturally spawned in, but let's try something:
/tp 1000 ~ ~
/tp 10 ~ ~
Now find the orange wool. Wait, where'd he go?!? What we created was a skeleton just like the game creates, which includes the ability for him to despawn; either over time, or as we just did, when we leave the area.
What if we wanted him to stay there forever, or until something kills him? We want to add another piece:
PersistenceRequired:1
Note the capital P and R in this command, followed by the colon and 1. If set to 0, and he'll despawn under the same circumstances, but with 1 he stays forever, but where does this go? Note the first { that's in FRONT of the word Equipment. Everything that has to do with the Skeleton must reside inside that initial set of { }. Note how the end of the line ends in: } ] }
The first } closes the last set of five { }'s, while the ] closes the Equipment tag, and the final } closes the entire holdings for the Skeleton. To include other attributes for the skellie, we can add them in using a comma, like this line:
So, this line is almost the same as the old skellie, but did you notice the difference? By adding:
SkeletonType:1
We can change the overworld skeleton into a nether skeleton. (change the 1 to a 0 for a normal skeleton, or simply leave this tag out of the line completely).
The PersistenceRequired is in there again as well, so he'll never despawn. Now, if it's daylight in your world, do you notice something weird about this skellie? You'll see him in flames, but then they disappear. That's because he's a Nether creature, and mobs from the Nether can't be harmed by flames. Finally, note we're using id:267, because Nether Skellies are equipped with swords, not bows.
Since he's holding an iron sword already, let's see what he looks like if he also was wearing an entire suit of iron armor:
/tp 10 ~ ~
...and he's gone, just like the other guy.
The real power of a /summon command comes from a fairly lengthy summon, though, and unfortunately the chat buffer isn't long enough, so we need a command block.
Type this command:
/give username 137
Replace username with your Minecraft username. You'll see a quick little animation as the command block gets added to your inventory. If your pockets are full, look on the ground directly around you. We'll also need a button. I grab a stone button when I test.
Place the command block right where you're standing; again, about 10 blocks away from the orange wool sitting on x0 ~ z0. Now hold down your SHIFT key and place the button on the side of the command block, so you can be standing behind the block and see the button and the orange wool beyond.
Now, copy this command, then right-click the command block and paste the line into the top box:
After pasting into the command block, click DONE and then push the button. When the new skellie appears, run your tp test again:
/tp 1000 ~ ~
/tp 10 ~ ~
Note the skellie should still be here, while the earlier one is now gone!
OK, very cool, but we can do better, and now that we have a command block to use, we can lengthen our lines even more. He looks OK wearing the iron armor, but one of the things that really scared me about this guy in the Nether was that he was so dark, it was sometimes hard to see him until it was too late! What if we could change the armor and sword to more blend in to the night? Perhaps a stone sword and some leather armor?
Swapping to the stone sword is easy, we just need to change the id:267 to an id:272, and we can change the iron armor to leather armor, so the new line looks like this:
Yeah, he definitely looks scarier now, but we can do better. What if the leather armor was BLACK?
For this explanation, let's grab just the chestplate chunk:
{id:299}
Note that the id:299, which is the chestplate, is enclosed in { }. That's because we can add even more stuff inside those { }'s to further modify the armor. We use commas in here as well to separate each value. Here's the new tag we want to add:
tag:{display:{color:?????}}
The ? marks get replaced by a numeric code representing the proper color. Here's a list of the proper color codes (thanks to Extreme_Squid for doing the proper math needed):
This one uses all the stuff we just talked about to create a zombie holding a bow wearing an entire set of GREEN leather armor. Crazy, right?
OK, before we move on, the colored leather armor offers us a lot of possibilities, but in the end, it's still only leather armor which isn't very strong. Any mob we create wearing this armor won't be very tough to take out, which is one reason I gave that zombie a bow. Let's see if there's something else we could do to make him a bit more challenging.
AbsorptionAmount:30
The Absorption level of both a player and a mob controls how fast you heal after taking damage provided your overall health (your food level) is at it's highest level. In my testing, if we set it to 30, that leather armored zombie won't die until TEN hits with a diamond sword. We can add it into the line like this:
Now we have both a lethal and a powerful foe to go up against! It makes using colored leather armor a real plus!
Alright, now let's shift gears and talk about RIDING. While it's a little funky, you can use the summon command to make one mob RIDE (or stack) on top of another mob. You've probably seen other posts or videos showing how this can be done using some really strange combinations, like a Ghast riding a Spider, or a Pig on a Pig on a Pig, etc. Our examples will be a bit more realistic, while also having some fun as well.
To start, let's bring out both a skeleton horse and the zombie horse:
/summon EntityHorse 0 ~ 0 {Type:4,Tame:1}
/summon EntityHorse 0 ~ 0 {Type:3,Tame:1}
The type 4 is the skeleton horse, while the type 3 is a zombie horse. Type 0 is a standard horse, 1 is a donkey, and 2 is a mule.
Tame:1 will make the horse "broken", meaning it's ready to be saddled and ridden by a player. Tamed skellie and zombie horses may also be ridden by human players.
If you specify Saddle:1 the horse will have a saddle. (Note: According to the wiki, this tag was removed as of 13w21a, but it appears to be working again) The "ArmorItem" and "SaddleItem" tags don't appear to work as of this writing (13w39b). If this gets changed or updated, I'll update this section.
OK, so what about riding...
Riding:{id:"EntityHorse",Type:4,Tame:1}
This is the tag we'll need to add inside of the long line that defines the rider. Note the similarity to the line we use to spawn just the horse. This line allows the rider to ride a skeleton horse, so let's put a skeleton on this horse:
Riding can also be used to create some interesting altering affects to mobs as well. One popular one which actually looks rather cool is a witch riding a bat:
/summon Witch 0 ~ 0 {Riding:{id:"Bat"}}
Now, wouldn't it be even more cool if the witch WAS flying? Watch this one:
ActiveEffects allows you to give a mob the effects of any potion you can think of. In this case, Id:14 is for a potion of invisibility. Note the I is capital here (I believe it's the only id tag that HAS to have a capital I).
Amplifier:0 means it's a Level I potion.
Duration:999999 is the number of tics this potion is good for, so six 9's will make it last a LONG, LONG time.
Ambient:1 is a cool one. Ever make a beacon pyramid? Ever notice how the particle effects of a power a beacon gives you aren't as visibly evident than if you had taken a potion with the same effect? This makes it so you can barely see the particles from the bat.
Alright, let's try one more example using these potion effects:
That's right, it's a basic Spider Jockey, but BOTH the Spider and the Skeleton are invisible!
Spiders are cool when invisible, as their particle effect are the red eyes and mouth.
Toss that in with the skeleton shooting at you and you have a wicked little foe to go up against!
It IS a little cheesy, though, as you'll see the bow and if you don't give him a helmet, he burns up in the daylight anyways, and if you do give him a helmet, you'll see that too.
That MIGHT make for another interesting foe, though, if all you saw was the weapon and armor. Try this one:
Only thing new here is the mob. This is a Zombie Pigman who is invisible, carrying an iron sword and wearing iron armor. We're using the AbsorptionAmount tag again to make him harder to kill, because he heals quickly, and because he's a pigman, when you hit him ONCE, he goes nuts and comes after you!
Alright, let's leave our humanoid mob buddies for awhile. Remember our green dude:
/summon Creeper ~ 0 ~
Have you ever seen an electrified Creeper:
/summon Creeper 0 ~ 0 {powered:1}
These guys are cool, but WATCH OUT, as they have QUITE A BANG!
Since these guys are kinda rare, wouldn't it be cool if we could NAME him:
The CustomNameVisible:1 sounds a bit misleading. At first, you might think it's needed in order to see the name you gave it at all, but what it really means is, should the name ALWAYS be visible. Try backing away from him. You can see the name from many blocks back.
This line will create our nice pet Creeper, Fluffy. He just graduated from Behavior Modification classes for his anger management issues, and will no longer blow up. He doessss still missss you a bit, though.
If you want to try this last one; we'll call him the delinquent of the class, make him in a NEW world other than this one and see what happens:
The Anger:1 tag gets him nice and ticked off. I just threw the PersistenceRequired:1 tag in there to make him never despawn, so he'll ALWAYS be mad at you; better kill him fast!
Speaking of ticked off animals, what about a rabid wolf:
/summon Wolf ~ ~ ~ {Angry:1,PersistenceRequired:1}
Same Angry:1 tag can be used with him. I have noted, though, that he isn't that tough. One hit from my diamond sword and he was done. I added this:
/summon Wolf 0 ~ 0 {AbsorptionAmount:10,Angry:1,PersistenceRequired:1}
A value of 10 took THREE hits from my diamond sword. Since these guys can often be found in packs, I think that's good enough.
OK, before we move on, I wanted to mention there's another tag called DropChances, which is supposed to be used very similarly to the Equipment tag, and is supposed to allow you to specify whether or not the mob will DROP that item when it dies, but I've both tried tons of variations on formatting this tag, as well as searched it out on the net; here, the wiki, youtube, etc. and haven't found any help. If it ever gets fixed or someone can figure out the right formatting, I'll include it here.
Alright, I saved the last two guys for last. These are the BIG guys, EnderDragon and Giant:
I was going to leave you with one last EnderDragon line; one that would KEEP the dragon on the ground by having it ride on something that couldn't fly, but I've tried just about every mob there is, and he just bucks it off and takes to the air.
Oh well. I hope someone finds this info helpful. It's helped ME a lot. If things change, I'll try and update this one in the future.
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its just that Minecraft version is where the command is developed
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Thanks for your hep Dotoran! Here's kuffs!
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Thanks ravbug, Here is Kuffs for a reward, Enjoy your little police!
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I cant get the title in my command block! here's kuffs minecraft