Everything You Need To Know About Turtles In Minecraft

Where Do Turtles Spawn?

Turtles in Minecraft spawn on sand blocks on any beaches in the Overworld, but only in daylight. Turtles won't spawn in snowy beach biomes or in stony shore biomes.

Up to 5 sea turtles will spawn at a time, with different conditions needed in the Java and Bedrock editions:

• In the Java edition, the light level has to be above 8

• In the Bedrock edition, the light level has to be above 7, and a group of 2-6 will spawn

Turtles can also be spawned using creature spawners, turtle spawn eggs (in creative mode only, spawn eggs are not available in survival mode) and with the /summon command.

What Do Turtles Drop In Minecraft?

In Minecraft, turtles drop the following if killed by the player or a tamed wolf:

• 0-2 seagrass (if killed with a weapon enchanted with Looting III, this is increased to a maximum of 5 seagrass)

• 1-3 experience points

  
  

If a turtle is killed by a lightning strike, it will drop one bowl.

Baby turtles don’t drop anything when killed, however when they age up to adulthood, they drop one scute.

What Is SeaGrass Used For In Minecraft?

Seagrass is used for breeding turtles as well as leading them, as they cannot be led by a lead. Seagrass can also be placed on blocks as decoration.

What Are Scutes Used For?

Scutes are fragments of turtle shells, which are crafted together in stacks of 5 to make one shell. Turtle shells can then be used as a turtle shell helmet or to use a turtle shell helmet to create the Potion of the Turtle Master, among other things (multiple potions can be brewedwith multiple shells).

Scutes can also be traded with certain villagers for emeralds:

• Expert clerics in the Java edition have a ⅔ chance of offering a trade of 4 scutes for 1 emerald

• Expert clerics in the Bedrock edition have a 50% chance of offering a trade of 4 scutes for 1 emerald

• Expert leather workers will offer a trade of 4 scutes for 1 emerald

Will Turtles Hurt Me?

No, turtles are passive mobs and they won’t hurt you, even if the player attacks them. If attacked, sea turtles flee.

Sea turtles have 15 hearts worth of health, and take extra damage from tridents enchanted with the impale enchantment.

Turtles cannot drown.

Will Other Mobs Attack Turtles?

Yes, there are some mobs that are hostile to turtles and baby turtles. The following mobs will hurt adult turtles, baby sea turtles or break turtle eggs:

Zombies and zombie variants will intentionally stomp all over turtle eggs, crushing them.

Can You Tame Turtles In Minecraft?

No, turtles cannot be permanently tamed in the game, however players can use seagrass to lead them into pens made from fencing and a gate. If there is sand available in the pen, turtles can be bred.

Do Turtles Have A Home Beach?

Yes, sea turtles remember where they spawn (if via mob spawner, spawn egg or /summon command) and where they naturally hatch from if born from an egg.

Adult turtles will remember the specific block they hatched on and will try to lay their own eggs in the same area once bred - their home beach.

Can You Breed Turtles In Minecraft?

Yes, you can breed adult turtles to get baby sea turtles in Minecraft.

Once two turtles are successfully bred, 1-7 experience points are dropped.

To breed adult turtles, they must be fed seagrass.

How To Breed Turtles

1. Collect two pieces of seagrass

2. Find two turtles you wish to breed

3. Hold the seagrass in your main hand and press ‘use’ while standing in front of the first adult turtle to feed it

4. This will place the turtle into love mode. Do the same to the other adult turtle

5. The turtles will pathfind to each other automatically and will breed

Once a turtle has bred, one of the turtles (the pregnant turtle) will generate turtle eggs in its inventory and will get slightly bigger.

The turtle will then make its way to its home beach, will dig a hole in the sand within 9 blocks of its hatching block, and will lay turtle eggs, form 1-4 in one cluster.

In the Java edition, a sea turtle will re-enter love mode 30 seconds after laying.

In the Bedrock edition, there is a 90 second cooldown after mating.

Can You Use Silk Touch To Pick Up Turtle Eggs?

Yes, players can use a tool enchanted with Silk Touch (such as a Silk Touch pickaxe) on turtle egg clutches to pick up individual turtle eggs.

These turtle eggs can then be moved to a separate sand block to be hatched into baby turtles.

What Do Turtle Eggs Do?

Turtle eggs hatch into baby turtles. Players can place turtle eggs on blocks in clusters up to 4, but turtle eggs will only hatch on sand or red sand, above or below the water.

Turtle eggs hatch after 3 crack events occur.

The first crack is the first step in the baby turtle hatching process, with each crack happening on random ticks. If there are multiple turtle eggs per block, all the turtle eggs will hatch into baby turtles at the same time.

Baby turtles will immediately try to reach water after hatching.

Baby turtles take 20 minutes real time to mature, and can be fed seagrass to decrease remaining maturation time by 10%.

When baby turtles reach adulthood, they drop a scute.

Other Fun Facts About Turtles

• Baby turtles are only 0.12 blocks tall, they’re so small they will suffocate in soul sand

• Turtles originally ate raw cod in previous iterations

• Turtles cannot be attached to a lead

• Turtles can be picked up by boats in the Java edition

• Turtles can be picked up by minecarts

• Turtles are killed instantly by lightning

• Sea turtles swim very fast under water, but walk slowly on land