I wrote this post to organize information about obtaining the Happy Ghast, a new neutral mob introduced in Minecraft 1.21.6, along with various related details.
Contents
- Obtaining the Happy Ghast and Hatching the Dried Ghast
- How to Obtain It in the Nether
- How to Obtain It by Crafting
- Obtaining it Through Bartering / Using Commands
- Hatching Method
- Basic Information about the Happy Ghast
- Harness / Transportation / Control / Behavior Range
- Harness
- Controls
- Behavior Range
- Transportation Ability
Obtaining the Happy Ghast and Hatching the Dried Ghast
The Happy Ghast is a mob that cannot be bred by default. To obtain one in Survival mode, you must first acquire a Dried Ghast and then hatch it using water.
1. How to Obtain It in the Nether
The Dried Ghast can be found in the Soul Sand Valley biome of the Nether, an area characterized by soul sand and bone structures. It has a 33% chance to generate when the world is first created and appears underneath bone structures, as shown in the image.
It can be mined by hand without any special tools so that you can collect it easily.
2. How to Obtain It by Crafting
The Dried Ghast can also be obtained through crafting rather than collection. It can be crafted using 8 Ghast Tears and 1 block of Soul Sand.
Be careful not to use Soul Soil instead of Soul Sand, as the recipe will not work if Soul Soil is used.
3. Obtaining It Through Bartering / Using Commands
As a final method, you can obtain a Dried Ghast through bartering with Piglins by giving them gold. The known probability is approximately 2.13%, meaning you can expect to get about one Dried Ghast for every 50 gold ingots used, which is relatively low.
Alternatively, you can obtain it by entering the command below:
/give <player> minecraft:dried_ghast <amount>
4. Hatching Method
To obtain a Happy Ghast, you must place a Dried Ghast in water to hatch it into a Baby Ghast and then raise it. After placing the Dried Ghast in water, it will hatch into a Baby Ghast after 20 minutes of real-world time.
As time passes, its color gradually becomes brighter every 5 minutes, its expression changes from neutral to a smiling face, and you can continuously see green particles appearing, indicating the hatching progress.
A newly hatched Baby Ghast can be grown into a Happy Ghast by using snowballs to increase its growth speed. If you give a newly hatched Baby Ghast 72 snowballs, it will immediately grow into an adult.
Additionally, be aware that a newly grown Happy Ghast may start following other mobs or entities if the player moves out of range, so extra caution is needed.
Basic Information about the Happy Ghast
Because the Happy Ghast is designed as a monster that likes water, you can see it follow the player when holding a snowball, even without a harness. Its movement speed is quite slow at 3.6 m/s, and it has 20 health points (10 hearts).
Under normal conditions, it regenerates half a heart every 30 seconds. However, due to these mechanics, its regeneration speed increases to half a heart per second when it is raining or snowing, or when the Happy Ghast’s body rises above y195.
Unlike other mobs, the Happy Ghast does not spawn naturally, and it does not panic or move erratically when it takes damage.
Harness / Transportation / Control / Behavior Range
Harness
To ride a Happy Ghast, you need a special item called a Harness. The harness can be crafted using 3 Leather, 1 Wool, and 2 Glass blocks.
You can customize the color of the harness by using colored wool during crafting, or by applying dye to the harness afterward.
A Happy Ghast equipped with a harness can carry up to four players, with one player riding on each side. If the player stops moving while in the air, the Happy Ghast may remain hovering in place. The harness can be removed using shears.
Controls
While riding a Happy Ghast with a harness equipped, players can control its movement using the WASD keys based on the direction the player is facing.
- Press the spacebar to ascend vertically
- Use the Shift key to descend or to stand on top of the Happy Ghast
- To descend intentionally, look downward and press the W key
Behavior Range
Unlike other neutral mobs, the Happy Ghast can remember a “home” location. When any of the following four events occur, its home position will be updated to that new location.
- When a harness is equipped or removed
- When a lead is broken
- When the player dismounts
- When a snowball disappears from the Happy Ghast’s line of sight
By default, Baby Ghasts and Happy Ghasts equipped with a harness will only move within a range of 32 blocks in all directions (up, down, left, and right) from their home location.
Happy Ghasts without a harness, however, can move within a wider range of 64 blocks in all directions from their home location.
Transportation Ability
One of the Happy Ghast’s greatest abilities is its capacity to transport entities (such as animals, boats, and monsters) that are attached to a lead.
The order of actions is important. First, right-click the entity you want to transport with a lead to attach it. Then, while facing the Happy Ghast, press Shift and right-click it. As shown in the image, its appearance will change, indicating that it is now ready to move while carrying the attached entity.
For more Minecraft-related information, please explore the other guides available here.