Sneaking

Sneaking (or crouching) is a gameplay feature that prevents players from falling off of blocks and helps them hide from mobs, among other useful features.

Controls

In Java and Bedrock editions with keyboard controls, the control for sneaking defaults to ⇧ Shift. The player sneaks as long as the key is held down. In Bedrock Edition with touch controls, sneaking is toggled by double-tapping and toggled back by double-tapping . In Bedrock Edition with gamepad controls, sneaking is toggled by pressing on . Certain actions like opening the inventory can cancel sneaking, even if the player is still holding down the key for sneaking. This never happens on touch devices as the player doesn't need to hold down the sneak key.

Effects

A player sneaking to avoid falling into lava.

While sneaking, including being forced to sneak by entering a space less than 1.8 blocks tall but not less than 1.5 blocks:

• The player moves slower, at a speed of about 1.3 m/s.
  • If two movement keys are pressed at once, the player sneaks diagonally at a faster 1.8 m/s.
• Eye level moves down ¹⁄₈ of a block, and the character model bends over slightly. The latter can be seen in third-person view. Additionally, the third-person camera itself moves down.
• The player's hitbox height reduces from its usual 1.8 blocks to 1.5 blocks.

While sneaking by using the sneak control:

• Players are prevented from walking off edges if the difference in height between the two surfaces is higher than 0.6 blocks as long as they are up to 0.6 blocks above the ground,‌ which makes sneaking useful for building horizontally outward over empty space.
  • The player can still dismount blocks while sneaking by jumping over the block's edge.
  • A sneaking player still falls if the block beneath the player's feet is destroyed.
• Hostile mobs do not become aware of the player until within 80% of the usual detection range.
• Players cannot hear their own footstep sounds.
• In multiplayer, a sneaking player's name tag appears fainter than normal, invisible to players more than 32 blocks away, and invisible through solid blocks.
• If players are on a ladder or vines, they do not move down. This gives the impression of holding on to that specific ladder rung or vine. Mining speed is still decreased by a factor of 5.
• Pressing use prioritizes using a held item over interacting with a targeted block. For example, this allows placing a hopper on a chest, a torch on a furnace, or redstone on a command block.
• Players are able to interact with a tamed horse (tamed donkey or mule inventories, also) when pressing use item control while holding the sneak key.
• The player moves downward on scaffolding.
  • The player can't fall through a scaffolding block hanging in mid-air.
• The player moves downward in powder snow if they are wearing leather boots.
  • Without leather boots, the player simply sinks into powder snow without control.
• The player does not bounce on slime blocks.
• Magma blocks do not cause harm.
• Stepping on redstone ore does not light it.
• The player sinks faster in water or lava.
• Sculk sensors and wardens do not detect vibrations from sneaking players, even if they jump while sneaking.
  • Sculk sensors can still detect players that stand on top of them, even when they are sneaking.
  • The warden can still "sniff out" a sneaking player's location and slowly approach them.
• In Java Edition, if sneaking is set to "Toggle" under Accessibility Settings or Controls, the player keeps sneaking when interacting with blocks that have a UI if the player was sneaking when they interacted with the block.
• In Bedrock Edition, sneaking is used to block attacks while holding a shield.

Sneaking does not affect:

• Jump height: players can still jump up to the same heights and at the same vertical speed. Horizontal jump speed and distance is decreased, however.
• Farmland and crops: they are still trampled when jumped upon.

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Sneak 100	Sneak next to a Sculk Sensor without triggering it	Sneak next to a Sculk Sensor or Warden without triggering or aggravating it.	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Sneak 100	Sneak near a Sculk Sensor or Warden to prevent it from detecting you	Sneak within 8 blocks from a sculk sensor, or 16 blocks from a warden.

History

[hide]Java Edition Classic
May 18, 2009							Sneaking was first suggested on the TIGSource forums.
[hide]Java Edition Alpha
v1.1.1							Added sneaking.
v1.2.3_05							In multiplayer, players can now see other players sneaking. Names of sneaking players are fainter and visible at a shorter distance, and are not visible through solid blocks.
							Leaving sneak mode no longer rapidly plays all the step sounds that it silenced during the sneak.
[hide]Java Edition Beta
1.4							Sneaking now allows the player to hold their place on a ladder.
1.6			Test Build 3				The ability to sneak up and down half-meter slopes has been added.
[hide]Java Edition
1.3.1			?				The player no longer falls off the edge of a block if they stop sneaking too soon after reaching the edge.
1.4.6			12w49a				The player can now place blocks, such as redstone dust or levers, on interactable blocks while sneaking.
1.6.1			13w16a				Sneaking is now used to get out for all transportation methods, such as boats, horses and minecarts.
1.8			14w06a				A smooth transition is no longer applied to the camera when the player sneaks.
							The player's arm changes position when sneaking in first person view.
			14w10a				The player's arm no longer changes position when sneaking in first person view.
			14w18b				Sneaking can now be used to prevent bouncing on slime blocks.
1.9			15w42a				Sneaking now lowers the player's hitbox from the normal height of 1.8 blocks to 1.65 blocks.
			15w49a				Sneaking now increases exhaustion by 0.005/m, decreased from 0.01/m.
			16w04a				Players now keep their smaller hitbox when stopping sneaking in spaces that they cannot fit in with the larger hitbox. Leaving that area causes the player to regain their normal hitbox.
1.10			16w20a				Sneaking now prevents taking damage from magma blocks.
1.11			16w32a				Sneaking no longer increases exhaustion.
			16w39a				Sneaking can now be used to access a llama's inventory.
			16w44a				Sneaking now now prevents drops from heights of more than 0.6 blocks; previously, it was 1 full block or greater.
1.13			18w07a				A smooth transition is once again applied to the camera when the player sneaks.
1.14			19w12a				Sneaking now lowers the player's hitbox to 1.5 blocks.
			19w14a				Entering any vertical space 1.5 or taller, but less than 1.8 blocks tall initiates the sneaking pose.
			Pre-Release 1				Entering any vertical space 1.5 or taller, but less than 1.8 blocks tall initiates actual sneaking, the non-interactivity of blocks.
1.15			19w41a				Sneak inputs can now be switched between Hold and Toggle mode in the Accessibility Options.
1.16			20w27a				Sneaking now also prevents falling from heights when being up to 0.6 blocks above the ground; previously the player had to be on the ground.
1.19			22w19a				Sneaking no longer creates an invisible barrier to prevent falling from heights when the player is moving upwards.
1.20.5			23w51a				Added the generic.step_height attribute, which controls the minimum height from which it prevents falling and the minimum amount of blocks to be above the ground for it to prevent falling from heights.
1.21.2			pre2				Landing on slime blocks no longer deals fall damage, even when sneaking.
[hide]Upcoming Java Edition
Combat Tests			1.14.3 - Combat Test				When in the off-hand, shields now activate when sneaking.
			Combat Test 4				An option to disable shields being activated by pressing crouch has been added.
							The option to hide the shield has been removed.
							Shields in the offhand are now also activated if the player is forced to sneak due to not having enough space.
[hide]Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.5.0							Added sneaking exclusively on the Xperia PLAY gaming console.
v0.12.1			build 1				Added sneaking on all other devices.
v0.15.0			build 1				Sneaking can now be used to access a horse, donkey, or mule's inventory.
							Sneaking is now used to dismount from animals.
v0.16.0			build 1				The player now uses a sneaking stance when flying downward.
[hide]Pocket Edition
1.1.0			alpha 1.1.0.0				Sneaking can now be used to access a llama's inventory.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.2.0			beta 1.2.0.2				Sneaking is now used to change armor stand poses.
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				Sneaking is now used to block with shields.
1.19.70			Preview 1.19.70.20				Sneaking now lowers the player's hitbox to 1.5 blocks.
							Entering any vertical space 1.5 or taller, but less than 1.8 blocks tall initiates actual sneaking, the non-interactivity of blocks.
			Preview 1.19.70.24				Changes from 1.19.70.20 temporarily reverted.
1.19.80 Experiment Short Sneaking			Preview 1.19.80.20				The player's hitbox is once again lowered to 1.5 blocks when sneaking with the "Short Sneaking" experimental toggle enabled.
1.20.10			Preview 1.20.10.20				Sneak under 1.5 blocks tall is now behind the "Short Sneaking and Crawling" experimental toggle.
			Preview 1.20.10.23				Sneak under 1.5 blocks tall is now available without the "Short Sneaking and Crawling" experimental toggle.
							Players can now be forced into sneak state while flying.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.20.20				The player now gets forced out of sneak state when riding.
			Preview 1.20.30.21				Players can now toggle flying when sneaking in Creative mode.
[hide]Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU1	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added sneaking.
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12			The player can now place blocks, such as redstone dust or levers, on interactable blocks while sneaking.
							Sneaking is now used to get out for all transportation methods, such as boats, horses and minecarts.
TU24	CU12	1.16	1.16	1.16			A smooth transition is no longer applied to the camera when the player sneaks.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Sneaking can now be used to prevent bouncing on slime blocks.
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13		Sneaking now prevents taking damage from magma blocks.
TU46	CU36	1.38	1.38	1.38	Patch 15		Sneaking now lowers the player's hitbox from the normal height of 1.8 blocks to 1.65 blocks.
							Players keep their smaller hitbox when stopping sneaking in spaces that they cannot fit in with the larger hitbox. Leaving that area causes the player to regain their normal hitbox.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Sneaking now now prevents drops from heights of more than 0.6 blocks; previously, it was 1 full block or greater.
							Sneaking no longer increases exhaustion.
							Sneaking can now be used to access a llama's inventory.
TU60	CU51	1.64	1.64	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	Sneaking is now used to change armor stand poses.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		A smooth transition is once again applied to the camera when the player sneaks.
			1.90				Sneaking is now used to block with shields.
[hide]New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added sneaking.

Issues

Issues relating to "Sneaking" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• While flying in Creative mode, holding the jump and sneak buttons simultaneously causes the player to remain at the same height.
• In Bedrock Edition, the player uses a sneaking stance when flying downward. The player can also place blocks on chests, furnaces and other utility blocks in this stance, suggesting the player is actually in a sneaking mode. In Java Edition, the player no longer enters sneak mode when flying downward, but they still don't interact with blocks by right-clicking.
• In Bedrock Edition, the player can bridge out by looking at the air block they are placing on, though it must be adjacent to an existing block. This works even if the player is not sneaking.
  • In Java Edition, the player must travel to the edge of the block (usually by sneaking) and look backward to place the next block.

Gallery

Renders

• 

  Alex

• 

  Alex with wide arms

• 

  Ari

• 

  Ari with slim arms

• 

  Efe

• 

  Efe with wide arms

• 

  Kai

• 

  Kai with slim arms

• 

  Makena

• 

  Makena with wide arms

• 

  Noor

• 

  Noor with wide arms

• 

  Steve

• 

  Steve with slim arms

• 

  Sunny

• 

  Sunny with slim arms

• 

  Zuri

• 

  Zuri with slim arms

Screenshots

• 

  The first image of sneaking.

• 

  A player sneaking under a slab at a pillager outpost.

• 

  A side view of sneaking.

See also

• Crawling
• Swimming
• Sprinting