Minecraft sniffer: everything we know

Minecraft sniffer - the sniffer looks up at the new cherry blossom tree — (Image credit: Mojang)

Sit for a spell with the Minecraft sniffer, the latest and ancient-est of new mobs nearly here with the release of Minecraft 1.20's 'Trails and Tales' update. While the sniffer is a bit weird compared to your average cow or chicken, they’re certainly friendly enough to make you want to hang out with them. In fact, if you can befriend one, they’ll do more than hang out around your builds looking like a mobile grass block—sniffers can actually dig up rare seeds and extinct seeds for you. So whether you’re a collector of unusual mobs for your zoo or just like more fancy flowers for your garden, there’s good reason to be excited for the latest adorable animal addition to Minecraft.

What do Minecraft sniffers do?

Besides beating out the tuff golem and rascal in mob votes, the sniffer has some other handy skills—and an unusual method of discovery.

Unlike most of Minecraft’s cast of reputable mobs, the sniffer is from an ancient era and no longer spawns naturally. Instead, you’ll have to use the new Minecraft archaeology feature to brush off suspicious sand until you find your very own sniffer egg. Mojang has also tipped us off that you can find eggs in underwater ruins, so keep an eye out for them there too. Once you have the egg, you'll need to place it in the world and be patient for it to hatch. You can speed this up by placing it on top of a moss block, if you're in a bit of a hurry.

Once you’ve got a sniffer, they’re a passive mob that spends a lot of time wandering around or competing with the Minecraft camel for the derpiest sitting stance. Besides that, if you can befriend one, Mojang has said that they’ll sniff out and dig up ancient and rare seeds for you to grow. So far, sniffers can dig up torchflower seeds and pitcher pods for you to grow. We also know that you can breed the sniffer with torchflower seeds, which is rather convenient of them.

Where do you find sniffers? From their eggs, via archaeology or in underwater ruins.
Can you breed sniffers? Yep! So far sniffers are bred with the seeds from the new torchflower.
Are sniffers hostile? Nope. They’re big snuggly grass blocks.
Can sniffers be tamed? So far no, you cannot tempt or tame a sniffer, only breed them.
Can you ride sniffers? Nope, though they’re certainly big enough.
What do sniffers drop? Sniffers currently just drop one to three experience points, so there's every reason to keep them healthy.
How many hearts do sniffers have? Sniffers have 14 points of health, which is equivalent to seven player hearts. Make sure to protect them since they can drown or take damage like any other passive mob.

When will the sniffer get added to Minecraft?

You can play with the sniffer right now, with no waiting necessary, thanks to the release of Minecraft 1.20. With the release of the latest update sniffers are in along with the cherry blossom forest biome and archaeology, so now you can get your petting hands on the real deal.

Sarah is a contributor for PC Gamer, formerly of TechRadar Gaming. With five years of experience writing freelance for several publications, she's covered every genre imaginable and probably a few she made up. She has a passion for diversity and the way different genres can be sandboxes for creativity and emergent storytelling, and loves worldbuilding. With thousands of hours in League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, and countless survival, strategy, roguelike, and RPG entries, she still finds time for offline hobbies like tabletop RPGs, wargaming, miniatures painting, and hockey.