Cow
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Passive |
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Attack strength |
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Opaque blocks with a (Minimum) two block space above them in some overworld biomes or after shearing a Mooshroom. Only on world generation or unexplored chunks. | |
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1–3 |
Cows are Passive Mobs. They are one of few Passive Mobs that can damage the player if provoked. They are the primary source of Leather, Raw Beef, and Milk.
For more details about the overall changes to animals and how to farm them, see Animal Tweaks.
For more details about the effect of infection from dead souls, see Possession
Appearance
Cows have black/brown skin with white spots. All cows have a pair of horns on their head. Cows which can be milked have larger prominent udders; upon being milked, these deflate.
- Like most animals, cows have a hungry/famished state, and a starving state. If left to starve a cows texture will darken, the ribcage becomes more prominent, and its udders loose their pink color.
Behavior
- Cows roam in the Overworld, spawning in herds of 4.
- By default, cows will wander aimlessly, avoiding water and falling hazards.
- Cows will follow players holding Sheared Grass, Wheat, or Cake. Note that the presence of grass on this list enables players to herd cows long before they can be bred.
- Cows make no attempt to stay out of water and will follow the player holding the aforementioned tasty cow treats.
- Cows will make even deadly attempts to follow the player.
- They also can climb ladders under certain conditions.
- Like other passive mobs, cows will "flee" (quickly and randomly running) if they are hurt, a nearby passive mob is hurt, a block is placed or destroyed nearby, or they are on fire.
- When a cow is "fleeing", it will constantly "kick out" with its back legs. Any mob or player that wanders too close will take 7 damage and be flung through the air--often taking fall damage upon landing.
- Fleeing cows are more apt to accidentally wander off of cliffs.
- Cows will frequently attempt to "graze" on Grass Blocks. Upon doing so, they will gradually regenerate their milk supply until they are milkable.
- Cows unable to graze will starve, then die, be sure pens can replenish grass.
- Cows require 10 successful grazings to fully replenish their milk.
- Cows can only graze on grass directly under themselves. (ie: They are unable to graze grass blocks under a fence post)
- If a cow grazes on Mycelium, it will immediately transform into a Mooshroom.
- A cow can be milked by right-clicking the cow with an empty bucket; doing so will immediately deplete the cow's milk supplies, which can only be replenished by grazing..
- Possession, also known as "Nothing to Worry About" is what happens to living animals and villagers, but not the player, when exposed to the spirits of The Nether after a short time: infected souls start to come out of the Nether and leak into your world. These spirits are invisible, and will seep out a short distance from any Nether Portal, and will also infect potential hosts that enter the Nether entirely, warping their behavior to generally undesirable results.
Breeding & Farming
Breeding cows with cake will create a calf. The parent cows have a delay of 5 minutes until they can breed again. Calves will follow their parents or other adult cows until they're fully grown. A calf looks similar to an adult cow, but its body is smaller while the head remains the normal size of a full adult cow.
- Calves move faster than adult cows and take 20 minutes to fully grow. They do not drop anything when killed, nor can they be milked.
- A Breeding Harness will work with cows.
Farming
Trapping a herd of cows in an enclosed area and breeding them is beneficial to the player. Cows drop more types of useful resources than all other passive mobs (excluding the rare Mooshroom), thus providing the player with an unlimited supply of steak, milk and leather. However, the expense of Cake as a breeding ingredient means that large farms may be impractical until mid-to-late game. Cows also need a fair bit of space, each cow needs about an 8x8 plot of grass to itself to graze, so for 4 cows, a 16x16 plot is needed, as you breed them you will need to increase your farm, or kill cows accordingly. If cows do not have enough room to graze, they will starve to death.
