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Spawning

Blaze spawners can be found only in Nether fortresses and will start spawning Blazes once the player gets within 16 blocks. The mob spawners have a chance of spawning 1-4 Blazes at once. Blazes can only spawn in light level 11 or lower (at the lower half of their body). Blazes can also spawn naturally elsewhere in Nether Fortresses. You can spawn them in the Normal World, or the Aether. You can also spawn them in the End if you have the spawner.

Behavior

Although Blazes are able to fly, they will stay on the ground or sink down slowly in the air when not attacking. Blazes will attempt to swim upwards in lava much like regular mobs behave in water. When they see a player, they will start flying and shooting. They will catch fire briefly. A short cool down period occurs between attacks.

In addition to normal weapons, Blazes can be hurt by snowballs, taking 3 (1 1/2 hearts) per hit. If they have found a way into the Overworld, they are also damaged by water and even rain: Water does roughly 1 damage every second. Like all Nether mobs, they are not damaged by fire or lava. If killed by the player, they drop Blaze Rods.

On the Xbox 360/PS3 version, Blazes do not catch fire when either attacked in Creative mode or when they have spotted the player. They also do not make fireball sounds, making them hard to find where they're coming from. They also drop glowstone dust as well as their blaze rods. (This makes glowstone a renewable resource on the Xbox/PS3.)

Strategy

Blazes are considerably difficult mobs to fight, due to their ranged, unblockable attacks and rapid rate of fire. Their ability to fly usually leaves the player's sword useless, while charging a bow leaves the player vulnerable. Their flight also can make it tricky to collect their loot. One response is to use a fishing rod to reel them in, another is to run behind a corner and ambush them once they get close, or place blocks to take cover between attacks as they advance.

The use of fire resistance is extremely helpful when fighting Blazes, as their attacks usually wind up dealing more fire damage than initial impact. While the armour enchantment by that name can absorb a lot of damage, you really need total fire resistance to shrug off the hail of fire. For the player's first Blaze fight, they can make an Enchanted Golden Apple: Expensive, but it gives 5 minutes of utter immunity to fire (and toughness versus everything else), starting with a half-minute of blindingly fast regeneration. After that first fight, of course, you will be able to make potions of fire resistance. Using a Splash potion on you and an Iron Golem can make blaze rods an easily renewable resource.

Snowballs are deadly to Blazes, doing 3 points of damage apiece, and snowballs can be thrown a lot more quickly than a bow can be charged up. Plus, snow is easy to find in any snowy biome and is even renewable, therefore you can collect an ample supply of them. In case inventory is tight, you can make Snow Blocks to store snowballs until you need them, but you must bring a shovel to break the blocks, otherwise they will not yield snowballs.

Wolves do not do well against Blazes - besides the monster's high health, they tend to get set afire (splash potions of fire resistance can help). If you do try them, bring extra wolves, and plenty of rotten flesh or meat to heal your wolf. (Zombie Pigmen drop rotten flesh, if you can take their gang.) On a positive note, wolf kills do get blaze rod drops.

Iron Golems can be used to kill blazes, but there are several drawbacks:

• They do get set on fire by the Blaze's fireballs, and can also take melee attacks. As with wolves, a splash potion of Fire Resistance can help.
• Blazes won't drop the Blaze Rod unless the Player deals the killing blow.
• The golem's immense knockback is likely to toss Blazes off the balcony entirely.If they die, the experience and probably the Blaze Rod is lost; if they survive, they will hang around sniping at you from a distance.
• Iron Golems don't follow you very well, and may wander off in the down time between Blaze spawns. Stray pigmen are a distraction to the golems - the pigmen won't become angry at the player, but the fights will wear down the golem.

'Camping' at a Blaze spawner is an effective way to gather Blaze Rods, as they will always appear close enough to attack with a sword, and there is a delay in their attack after they spawn because they have to charge first. This is best done in combination with the fire resistance potions in effect.

You can try to build a farm, in several ways. If you can build a box around the entire spawn zone (tip: the fences around the spawner are not far enough away), you can make a doorway to kill them as they come down, or a single hole in the bottom where you can pelt them with arrows or snowballs. Again, stay within 16 blocks of the spawner to keep it going. You can also make a blaze trap by digging a shelter under their balcony, then mine a 1×3 hole up to their balcony. (Sometimes a natural version of this will appear, when a narrow staircase leads up to the spawner room.)

Another good way to hunt Blazes is to use a melee approach that exploits a Blaze's attack cycle: The blaze will "burn" for a few seconds, then fire three, and only three fire charges. If the player is not in line of sight, the Blaze will delay its attack until they are, and eventually the Blaze will itself move into line of sight and fire. After firing, they need to wait a few seconds before they can fire again.

• If the player can find a corner to hide behind, they can wait until it "should" fire, then peek out to draw the fire, and dodge back in so the shots hopefully miss. Then it's the player's turn to kill the Blaze with a sword while it can't attack. If facing multiple Blazes, they can be taken out one at a time.
• Alternatively, the player can simply hide one block below and to the side of a Blaze and strike his "legs". Most, if not all, of the Blaze's attacks simply hit the block above the player or below the blaze. This method is best used next to staircases right below the spawners using a door to block them in, so that the player may quickly enter the danger area to access to any blaze rods that might have fallen out of reach. If set on fire, the player can just retreat and recover. This method has been successfully used with nothing but the player's fist, though of course swords are much faster.

Blazes are an efficient way to farm experience. They drop 10 experience points when killed by the player, as opposed to only 5 dropped by most other hostile mobs. The above camping method, combined with potions of fire resistance, can generate an average of about 65 experience per minute.

Trivia

• The name 'Blaze' means fire , which refers to its projectiles.
• Of all mobs (excluding boss mobs) that can be spawned without using any third party tools, Blazes drop the most exp (10 EXP/Blaze).
• If multiple Blazes get damage by rain, it will sound like xylophones on a parade.
• Throwing snowballs at the blaze will deal it 1.5 hearts
• A very popular YouTube group called Achievement Hunter has a member named Ray who likes to yell "Just Blaze!" whenever anyone else mentions a Blaze. It is a reference to getting high.
• Since 1.8, Blazes (and other Nether mobs) take damage when hit by another Blaze's fireball.