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Silverfish are hostile mobs that hide in infested blocks found in strongholds located in Extreme Hills or Extreme Hills Edge biomes. They are relatively small, have a bug-like figure with silver skin with tiny black eyes. Provoking a Silverfish can attract others in the same area. Since they can see through walls, they find their way to the player and start inflicting damage. It's better to avoid conflict with them because they can generate a massive swarm enough to overwhelm any player. On the other hand, this property can also be used to create an infinite XP farm.
Silverfish also drop no reward for killing them aside from 5 experiences. Silverfish was the basis for Endermite's and Redstone Bug's design.
| Hostility Level | Hostile Mob |
| Health Points | 8 health points |
| Where to Find | Near the End portal |
| Weapon | None |
| Attack Strength | Easy and Normal: 1; Hard: 1.5 |
| Attack Method | Runs towards you and tries to hit you |
| Drops | None |
| Experience Points | 5 experience points |
Silverfish can spawn from infested blocks, which generate in strongholds, igloos with basements, woodland mansion fake portal rooms, and mountain biomes upon being broken. However, they do not spawn Silverfish do not appear if the block is broken with Silk Touch. When the block is broken, Silverfish will pop out and attack. Destroying one of these blocks via creepers or TNT will kill the silverfish instantly before it has time to emerge. In regular gameplay, silverfish blocks occur rarely.
They will spawn only at light level 11 or less while spawning from monster spawners. They will also not spawn within a 5-block radius of any player. Naturally, silverfish spawners are created in strongholds in end portal rooms.
Silverfish can "call" other silverfish in the area upon being hit. These silverfish can see through walls and find their way to the players. When idle, silverfish will enter a nearby stone, cobblestone, stone bricks, mossy stone bricks, cracked stone bricks, or chiseled stone bricks block, transforming it into the respective infested block if /gamerule mob griefing is set to true. They cannot infest mossy cobblestone, slab, and stairs variants of these blocks.
When they suffer poison damage or damage inflicted by the player and survive, they may cause other silverfish within a 21×11×21 area to break out of their monster eggs. The player can, therefore, prevent other silverfish from appearing by killing them in one shot. They take more damage from tools with the Bane of Arthropods enchantment. They are the fifth smallest mobs in Minecraft.
Silverfish can cause damage to a player. This occurs when a silverfish is touching a player and a change of the Y-coordinate (elevation) of either a player or silverfish occurs. This can easily kill a player, in a confined space, since receiving damage causes a player to perform a short "hop," which counts as a Y-cord change. This allows the silverfish to damage a player again as a player is coming back down from the initial "damage hop". Successive hits by silverfish will cause player’s health to decrease drastically. If a silverfish is standing on soul sand, it will slowly take suffocation damage and die.
It is advised to avoid conflicts with silverfish altogether, as they will simply generate a massive swarm that can easily overwhelm any player. If a player does choose to challenge silverfish or ends up having an encounter, it is advised that they wear armor, as silverfish can quickly deal massive amounts of damage as the swarm grows.
It is advisable to use melee weapons as they are amongst the smaller naturally spawning mobs. If a player is experienced with a bow, then using ranged combat may reduce the size of a swarm. A simple tactic to combat a swarm of silverfish is to simply build a two-block high pillar and attack from there as silverfish do not have any range and only deal damage via contact. Do not use splash potions as nearby silverfish will be provoked, causing greater difficulty with combating silverfish.
High-level enchantments equipped on a sword can also be very efficient, like a diamond sword with Sweeping Edge complemented by a high level of Bane of Arthropods can take out an entire swarm of silverfish in one swipe.
In Bedrock Edition, letting a silverfish enter regular stone bricks turns them into infested stone instead of infested stone bricks.
Both Silverfish and Endermites, which they are very similar to, suffocate in Soul Sand.
Silverfish and Cave Spiders are the only mobs whose spawning is completely unaffected by the command /gamerule doMobSpawning false. Because they only spawn from spawners and special blocks, they are not affected by the command.
No. Not always. There can silverfish blocks that spawn in extreme hills biomes. It does not really mean that you're near a stronghold.
They aren’t very useful; however, you can use them as a way of bottling up experience, but there are much faster ways of getting exp.
Destroying one of these blocks via creepers or TNT will kill the silverfish instantly before it has time to emerge. Try killing them in a single shot so they do not have the chance to summon silverfish from nearby.
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