Over the years, Minecraft has evolved from a simple PC indie game into a cross-platform franchise whose creator is worth almost $2 billion USD. With that time and money, the people behind Minecraft have been able to add content in free updates and expand their brand like never before.
One of these additions was the jockey, which first appeared as a skeleton riding a spider and only expanded from there. As part of our ever-growing anthology of Minecraft guides and walkthroughs, this guide will tell you everything you need to know in order to survive against these fateful opponents.
The Basics
A jockey is any mob riding another mob that can spawn into the Minecraft world.
There are five types:
- spider jockeys
- chicken jockeys
- skeleton horsemen
- ravager jockeys
- strider jockeys
Any other kind of mob riding another mob (which can be spawned in using the /summon command) is not technically a jockey. A Baby Piglin riding a Hoglin doesn't count as a jockey either, since they do not spawn into the world together. The pair can only be separated if one of them is killed.
The mob being ridden is usually in charge. The jockey's name is based on whichever mob is on bottom and jockeys usually spawn based on the patterns of the bottom mob. Which mob controls behaviour, however, is different for each jockey.
Types of Jockeys
Spider Jockey
The top of a Spider Jockey will be a Skeleton, a Stray (in snow biomes), or a Wither Skeleton (in the Nether). The skeleton may ride either a spider or a cave spider. In this pairing, the spider is controlling the movement, so it behaves as a normal spider would. The skeleton on top will attack with a bow any time it sees a player.
Spider:
- 16 health points
- Damage on easy or normal: 2 health points
- Damage on hard: 3 health points
Cave Spider:
- 12 health points
- Damage on easy or normal: 2 health points
- Damage on hard: 3 health points
Skeleton or Stray:
- 20 health points
- Armour: None
- Damage with a bow on easy or normal: 1-4 health points
- Damage with a bow on hard: 1-5 health points
- Damage with melee weapon on easy or normal: 2 health points
- Damage with melee weapon on hard: 3 health points
Wither Skeleton:
- 20 health points
- Armour: None
- Damage on easy: 5 health points
- Damage on normal: 8 health points
- Damage on hard: 12 health points
Spider jockeys have a 1% chance to spawn under normal conditions, and a 0.8% chance to spawn in the Nether or snowy biomes.
Chicken Jockey
A Chicken Jockey is a Baby Zombie, Zombified Piglin, Zombie Villager, Baby Drowned, or Baby Husk who is riding a chicken. Chicken Jockeys follow the AI of the Zombie Baby, not the chicken — meaning they run around everywhere. It's worth noting, though, that the Bedrock Edition is an exception to this rule.
Chicken:
- 20 health points
- Passive behaviour
Baby Zombie, Baby Zombie Villager, Baby Husk, Baby Drowned:
- 20 health points
- 2 Armour points
- Hostile behaviour
- Damage on easy: 2 health points
- Damage on normal: 3 health points
- Damage on hard: 4 health points
Baby Zombified Piglin:
- 20 health points
- 2 Armour points
- Neutral Behaviour
- Damage on easy: 5 health points
- Damage on normal: 8 health points
- Damage on hard: 12 health points
The Chicken Jockey spawn rate is dependent on the baby's spawn. When a Baby Zombie, Zombified Piglin, Zombie Villager, Baby Drowned, or Baby Husk spawns into the world, there's a 5% chance it will look around itself for a chicken to ride. If it finds one, it becomes a Chicken Jockey. If it doesn't, there's then a 5% chance a new chicken will spawn for it to ride. The Bedrock Edition of Minecraft is slightly different: the babies don't look for a chicken to ride when spawning — they instead look for one to ride when attacking.
Skeleton Horseman Jockey
Skeleton Horsemen are Skeletons riding on top of Skeleton Horses. Skeleton Horsemen use the Skeleton's AI, which makes them extraordinarily quick on their feet.
Skeleton Horse:
- 15 health points
- Passive Behaviour
Skeleton:
- 20 health points
- Hostile Behaviour
- Enchanted Iron Helmet
- Damage with a bow on easy or normal: 1-5 health points
- Damage with a bow on hard: 2-5 health points
- Damage with melee weapon on easy: 2 health points
- Damage with melee weapon on normal: 2.5 health points
- Damage with melee weapon on hard: 3 health points
Skeleton Horsemen usually spawn during thunderstorms. A "Skeleton Trap Horse" has a chance to appear as a result of some lightning strikes (but also has a low chance of spawning anytime). If the player gets too close to a Skeleton Trap Horse, lightning strikes it and it becomes a Skeleton Horseman.
Ravager Jockey
Ravager Jockeys are a Ravager being ridden by a Pillager, Vindicator, or Evoker. They each deal damage (sometimes leading to bugs where the rider hurts its own Ravager). Ravager Jockeys behave almost as though they were not together — each AI acts as it normally would, except for the fact that the Pillager cannot move freely away from its Ravager.
Ravager:
- 100 health points
- Hostile behaviour
- Roar damage: 6 health points
- Melee damage on easy: 7 health points
- Melee damage on normal: 12 health points
- Melee damage on hard: 18 health points
Pillager:
- 24 health points
- Hostile behaviour
- Ranged damage on easy: 3-4 health points
- Ranged damage on normal: 4 health points
- Ranged damage on Hard: 4-5 health points
- Melee damage on easy: 2 health points
- Melee damage on normal: 3 health points
- Melee damage on hard: 5 health points
Vindicator:
- 24 health points
- Hostile behaviour
- Armed damage on easy: 7.5 health points
- Armed damage on normal: 13 health points
- Armed damage on hard: 19 health points
- Unarmed damage on easy: 3 health points
- Unarmed damage on normal: 5 health points
- Unarmed damage on hard: 7 health points
Evoker:
- 24 health points
- Hostile behaviour
- Java Edition damage: 6 health points
- Bedrock Edition damage on easy: 4 health points
- Bedrock Edition damage on normal: 6 health points
- Bedrock Edition damage on hard: 9 health points
Ravager Jockeys will only ever spawn when villagers (among other mobs) attack a village (even ones you've created yourself) in waves — this event is called a raid. In the java edition, a Pillager Ravager Jockey will spawn in the fifth wave, and a Vindicator Ravager Jockey will spawn in the seventh wave.
In the Bedrock edition, up to five will spawn during any raid. Three are guaranteed spawns: at the fifth wave, a Pillager Ravager Jockey, and at the seventh wave a Pillager Ravager Jockey and an Evoker Ravager Jockey.
Strider Jockey
Strider Jockeys are Zombified Piglins who ride on Striders. Their behaviour is preset as neutral to the player, which puts the Zombified Piglin AI in charge.
Strider:
- 20 health points
- Passive behaviour
Zombified Piglin:
- 20 health points
- Neutral behaviour
- Armed damage on easy: 5 health points
- Armed damage on normal: 8 health points
- Armed damage on hard: 12 health points
- Unarmed damage on easy: 3 health points
- Unarmed damage on normal: 5 health points
- Unarmed damage on hard: 7 health points
There's a 0.033 chance that a spawning Zombified Piglin (or Baby Zombified Piglin) will spawn on top of a Strider to create a Strider Jockey. This only occurs in the Nether lava oceans.