Silverfish are small, bug-like mobs which have silver skin and
black eyes that hide in special blocks found in strongholds. These blocks look identical to stone
bricks, cobblestone, or regular stone but take slightly more time to mine than
normal with a pickaxe, and will take noticeably less time to mine without one.
When the block is mined, the Silverfish will pop out and attack. Destroying the
blocks via Creepers or TNT simply kills the silverfish. In regular
gameplay, Silverfish blocks occur rarely. If left alone, silverfish can re-enter
some blocks, namely cobblestone, regular stone, and stone bricks.
As of 1.0.0 (and possibly earlier), Silverfish can cause damage to a player.
The coding behind them allows this to occur when a silverfish is touching a
player and a change of the Y-coordinate of either the player or silverfish
occurs. This can easily kill a player, since - in a confined space - receiving
damage causes the player to perform a short "hop," which counts as a Y-cord
change, which allows for the silverfish to damage the player again as the player
is coming back down from the initial damage hop. Formerly, Silverfish could not
damage the player directly, but would scurry towards the player and push them
around, with the tendency to be aggravating and potentially dangerous (e.g. when
around Lava/Fire).
When attacked (but not killed), Silverfish may awaken other Silverfish blocks
within a 21x11x21 block area around them. This can lead to a terrifying swarm if
there are enough in the vicinity, and an uncontrolled swarm can quickly destroy
dozens of stone bricks within a Stronghold. They scurry away after the player
moves a short distance. In addition to the special blocks, Monster Spawners that spawn silverfish can also
be found in strongholds.
black eyes that hide in special blocks found in strongholds. These blocks look identical to stone
bricks, cobblestone, or regular stone but take slightly more time to mine than
normal with a pickaxe, and will take noticeably less time to mine without one.
When the block is mined, the Silverfish will pop out and attack. Destroying the
blocks via Creepers or TNT simply kills the silverfish. In regular
gameplay, Silverfish blocks occur rarely. If left alone, silverfish can re-enter
some blocks, namely cobblestone, regular stone, and stone bricks.
As of 1.0.0 (and possibly earlier), Silverfish can cause damage to a player.
The coding behind them allows this to occur when a silverfish is touching a
player and a change of the Y-coordinate of either the player or silverfish
occurs. This can easily kill a player, since - in a confined space - receiving
damage causes the player to perform a short "hop," which counts as a Y-cord
change, which allows for the silverfish to damage the player again as the player
is coming back down from the initial damage hop. Formerly, Silverfish could not
damage the player directly, but would scurry towards the player and push them
around, with the tendency to be aggravating and potentially dangerous (e.g. when
around Lava/Fire).
When attacked (but not killed), Silverfish may awaken other Silverfish blocks
within a 21x11x21 block area around them. This can lead to a terrifying swarm if
there are enough in the vicinity, and an uncontrolled swarm can quickly destroy
dozens of stone bricks within a Stronghold. They scurry away after the player
moves a short distance. In addition to the special blocks, Monster Spawners that spawn silverfish can also
be found in strongholds.