Everything to Know About the Minecraft Sniffer

The Minecraft Sniffer is a passive mob that won the 2022 Mob Vote and was announced in Minecraft Live 2022 to be added to version 1.20. It “sniffs” the ground to find seeds of new decorative flowers added to version 1.20.

What Does a Sniffer Do?

The sniffer walks around and digs ancient seeds (a pitcher pod or torchflower seeds) out of coarse dirt, dirt, grass, mud, muddy mangrove roots, moss, podzol, or rooted dirt every 8 minutes.

From left to right coarse dirt, dirt, grass, mud, muddy mangrove roots, moss, podzol, and rooted dirt
From left to right coarse dirt, dirt, grass, mud, muddy mangrove roots, moss, podzol, and rooted dirt

Where to Find a Minecraft Sniffer

Sniffers don’t actually spawn in the world. The only way to have a sniffer in your world is to hatch a sniffer egg. You have a 1 in 15 chance to get a sniffer egg by brushing suspicious sand in warm ocean ruins.

This might sound low, but this is the chance of each suspicious sand block, not the entire warm ocean ruins.

Brushing out a sniffer egg from suspicious sand in a warm ocean ruins
Brushing out a sniffer egg from suspicious sand in a warm ocean ruins

How to Hatch a Sniffer Egg

To hatch a sniffer egg, place it on any block. It will take around 20 minutes to hatch (full day/night cycle).

Placing the egg on a moss block doubles the speed of this process (hatching in 10 minutes).

A sniffer egg on a moss block
A sniffer egg on a moss block

The hatching is a three stages process, each with its own visual representation.

The player must be within 128 blocks of an egg for it to hatch.

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The three stages of cracking (hatching) of a sniffer egg
The three stages of cracking (hatching) of a sniffer egg

The Snifflet

After the sniffer egg has been in the last stage of cracking for a few minutes, a Snifflet hatches from it. The snifflet is the baby form of the sniffer, and it takes it 40 minutes to become a grown sniffer. This makes it the slowest growing mob in Minecraft.

A snifflet (left) and a grown sniffer (right)
A snifflet (left) and a grown sniffer (right)

How to Get the Flower Seeds From the Sniffer

As mentioned above, the sniffer walks around and digs out a pitcher pod or torchflower seeds every 8 minutes. To do that, the sniffer must be placed in an area of at least 6 by 6 blocks.

A minecraft sniffer digs out ancient seeds from the grass
A sniffer digs out ancient seeds from the grass

How to Make the Minecraft Sniffer Follow You

There are two ways to make the sniffer follow you. Just like cows, pigs, sheep, and other passive mobs, you can use a lead to move it around or hold its favorite food item: tourchflower seeds.

Two sniffers and a snifflet following a player holding torchflower seeds
Two sniffers and a snifflet following a player holding torchflower seeds

How to Breed the Sniffer

To breed two adult sniffers, feed each of them tourchflower seeds when they are within 16 blocks of each other. Then, they’ll enter ‘Love Mode’ and drop a sniffer egg as an item.

Feeding torchflower seeds to a sniffer also recovers two health points (1 full heart).

Two sniffers breeding
Two sniffers breeding

Finishing Thoughts

The Minecraft sniffer is a unique mob that features a whole new mechanic. The most exciting part about the sniffer is that its full potential is probably to be discovered by the community, yet.

Additional Resources

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