Blaze in Minecraft: How to Fight It and Farm Blaze Rods
Blazes spawn only in Nether fortresses and drop the blaze rods you need for brewing and eyes of ender. Blaze health, fireball damage and safe ways to kill.
Blazes are flying fire mobs that spawn in Nether fortresses and are the only source of blaze rods. You need those rods twice to finish the game: once for a brewing stand, and again as blaze powder for eyes of ender. Each kill by a player drops zero or one rod, so expect to fight a few dozen.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 20 (10 hearts) |
| Fireball | 3.5 / 5 / 7.5 damage (Easy / Normal / Hard), plus 5 s of fire |
| Melee | 4 / 6 / 9 damage |
| Spawns | Nether fortresses at light level 11 or less, and from fortress spawners |
| Drops | 0-1 blaze rod (player kill only, Looting adds up to 3 more); 10 XP |
Finding blazes
Blazes spawn anywhere inside a Nether fortress, not just at spawners. A fortress can also generate up to two blaze spawner platforms: raised rooms ringed with nether brick fence and reached by a short staircase. A spawner is what you want for steady rods.
How a blaze fights
When it sees you, a blaze charges for three seconds (it lights up and smokes), then fires three small fireballs 0.3 seconds apart. After that it waits five seconds before charging again. The fireballs scatter a little horizontally, so moving sideways dodges most of a volley at range. Up close it switches to a melee hit once per second.
Blazes also tend to rise when you’re above them, which is how they end up hovering over lava where you can’t reach them.
A few things make the fight much easier:
- A shield blocks both the fireball damage and the fire.
- Fire Resistance makes the fireballs harmless. Brew it with magma cream (potion recipe) or drink a looted one before you raid. It doesn’t stop the melee hit, which isn’t fire damage.
- Snowballs deal 3 damage each. A stack of 16, dug from snow in any snowy biome, handles a spawner room.
- Breaking line of sight interrupts the charge. Fight from a corner and make them come to you.
Alerting one blaze alerts others in a wide area, so expect company.
Blaze rods and what they make
One rod crafts a brewing stand. Every other rod gets crafted into two blaze powder, which fuels the brewing stand (20 brews per powder) and combines with an ender pearl to make an eye of ender. Later on, a rod plus popped chorus fruit makes end rods.
For a typical run, seven rods covers one brewing stand plus twelve eyes of ender. You’ll want a lot more if you brew regularly.
Farming
Building a farm around a spawner lets you kill blazes on demand. Our blaze farm guide covers the common design: enclose the spawner, funnel blazes down with water, and finish them with a sword so the drops count as player kills. Blazes take damage from water and rain, so plan where the water goes.
Edition notes
In Java blazes sink in water and lava; in Bedrock they try to swim up. Fortress groups are two to three in Java and one to three in Bedrock. Everything else, including drops, is the same.
Common questions
How many blaze rods do you need to beat Minecraft?
Plan on about seven. Twelve eyes of ender is the worst case for an End portal, which needs six rods, and one more rod makes your brewing stand.
Can you kill a blaze with snowballs?
Yes. Each snowball deals 3 damage to a blaze, so seven hits kill one from full health.
Do blazes drop rods if they die to lava or fall damage?
No. Blaze rods only drop when a player or tamed wolf gets the kill. Blazes don't take fire, lava or fall damage anyway.
Sources & verification
Facts on this page are checked against these references and in-game behavior for the stated edition(s). how we verify.
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