How We Build the Minecraft Database

These are labelled "Calculated" wherever they appear. Each mirrors the game's code.

• Drop chances: each loot pool rolls its entries by weight; the chance an item drops at least once is computed exactly from the roll counts, weights, conditions and count ranges (a count of 0–2 means a third of rolls give nothing).
• Looting: extra drops are round(level × random 0–1) per level as in the game, and Looting-boosted chances (wither skeleton skulls, rare zombie drops) use the table's per-level bonus.
• Ore distribution: veins per chunk × vein size × the height distribution of each ore feature (uniform or trapezoid, computed exactly), with the bedrock layers at the bottom removed. That's why diamonds peak at Y −59, just above the bedrock.
• Mining time: per tick, a block takes tool speed ÷ hardness ÷ 30 of its strength with the correct tool (÷ 100 without); the time is the number of ticks to reach 100%, without enchantments or effects, standing on the ground.
• Anvil costs: each step costs both items' prior-work penalties plus every added enchantment's anvil cost × its level (halved for books), +1 per conflicting enchantment; 40 levels or more is "Too Expensive!". The calculator searches every merge order for the cheapest.
• Mob damage by difficulty: Easy deals half the damage +1 (never more than Normal), Normal the listed value, Hard 1.5×.
• Experience: levels 0–15 need 2×level+7 points each, 16–30 need 5×level−38, 31+ need 9×level−158.
• Fuel: a furnace smelts one item every 200 ticks (10 seconds), so a fuel's burn time ÷ 200 is the items it smelts.

Names and translations

Limits

What this data doesn't cover:

• Bedrock Edition: everything here is Java Edition. Bedrock differs in places (some recipes, enchantment behaviour, mob stats).
• Spawn weights are the biome's natural-spawn table; the exact numbers you see also depend on light, space and the mob cap.
• Structure loot is matched to structures by the game's loot table names; a few structures place extra containers in ways the files don't list.
• Drop names like "Wilderness Bound" come from Mojang's announcements, not from the game files.
• Snapshot content (26.4-snapshot-5) can change before release and gets its own pages only once released.

How often it's updated

Every release and new snapshot is pulled from Mojang's servers and run through the same pipeline, so the database follows the game within days. Current data: Java 26.3; previous release 26.2; latest snapshot 26.4-snapshot-5 (game files require Java 25).