Sculk Catalyst

Sculk Catalyst

Renewable	Yes
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	3
Hardness	3
Luminous	Yes (6)
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color (Java)	29 COLOR_BLACK

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            "field": "No",
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A sculk catalyst is a block that converts blocks around it to blocks in the sculk family (except for more sculk catalysts) when a mob or player that drops experience dies nearby.

Obtaining

Breaking

A sculk catalyst can be mined with any tool, but hoes are the quickest. It drops itself only if mined with any tool enchanted with Silk Touch. It drops 5 experience if mined without Silk Touch.

Block	Sculk Catalyst
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time (sec)
Default	4.5
Wooden	2.25
Stone	1.15
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Netherite	0.5
Golden	0.4
Options
Efficiency	000
Haste	001 1JEBE

Legend

• incorrect tool, drops nothing
• correct tool, drops nothing or something other than the block itself
• correct tool, drops the block itself
• italicized can be instant mined

Natural generation

Sculk catalysts are generated within the deep dark biome.

Mob loot

A warden drops a single sculk catalyst upon death, unaffected by Looting. This is the only renewable way to obtain sculk catalyst.

Source	Roll Chance	Quantity (Roll Chance)
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
Warden	100%	1	1	1	1

Generated loot

Item	Structure	Container	Quantity	[hide]Chance
Java Edition and Bedrock Edition
Sculk Catalyst	Ancient City	Chest	1–2	16.1% { "item": "Sculk Catalyst", "stacksize": "1–2", "chance": 0.16110641166159667, "structure": "Ancient City", "container": "Chest" }

Usage

Sculk catalyst blooming.

Sculk catalysts convert experience into sculk veins, sculk sensors, and sculk shriekers, and use experience to convert many natural blocks into sculk.

Sculk catalyst detection range.

It turns the blocks around the dead Mob into sculk or sculk veins.

Blooming

When a living entity (a mob or player, including ender dragons , withers, and wardens) dies near a sculk catalyst by any means, it blooms. This sculk bloom turns the mob into sculk charges based off its natural experience drops. Sculk charges grow into new sculk blocks, sensors and shriekers. Sculk blocks are always produced, with up to 1 sculk block per experience point. A sculk charge also has a 9% chance to grow a sculk sensor, and a 1% chance to grow to generate a sculk shrieker.

A bloom occurs for the death of any living entity, and can even consume multiple entities at once. A sculk bloom cannot occur if the entity is not directly above a solid block or if the entity is below the sculk catalyst. A sculk farm can be made using pointed dripstone as long as the sculk catalysts is on the same level as the pointed dripstone.

During a sculk bloom, the catalyst gives off soul particles, and creates a patch of sculk blocks with sculk veins around them. Sculk blooms can replace blocks in the sculk_replaceable tag, including the surface materials of most of the biomes in all the Overworld, the Nether, and the End.

Blooming range

A sculk bloom occurs for the death of any living entity within a Euclidean distance of 8 blocks in Java Edition or 10 blocks in Bedrock Edition from a sculk catalyst.

If the entity dies near multiple sculk catalysts, only the nearest sculk catalyst blooms.

Sculk charges

When a living entity (a player or mob), is consumed by a sculk bloom, it won't drop experience, because the sculk bloom event converts the entity's experience into sculk charges. One experience point is worth one sculk charge. These charges are used to convert the block beneath the entity into a sculk block. If the block is already a sculk block, or if there are extra sculk charges, the sculk block absorbs the sculk charges. Up to 1000 charges can be present in one block.

The sculk charge in a block is lost when the block is destroyed or broken.

Sculk growth

Sculk growth is an event where a sculk bloom starts on a non-sculk block. The sculk growth first tries to convert the charged block into a sculk block. The following blocks can be converted:

• Stone
• Granite
• Andesite
• Diorite
• Tuff
• Calcite
• Deepslate
• Dripstone Block
• Terracotta
• Netherrack
• Nylium
• Basalt
• Smooth Basalt
• Blackstone
• End Stone
• Gravel
• Sand
• Red sand
• Sandstone
• Red Sandstone
• Dirt
• Grass Block
• Mycelium
• Podzol
• Coarse Dirt
• Rooted Dirt
• Clay
• Moss Block
• Pale Moss Block
• Mud
• Muddy Mangrove Roots
• Soul Sand
• Soul Soil

in Java Edition, these blocks are marked under the sculk_replaceable tag.

Sculk growth can grow all of the sculk family blocks excluding more sculk catalysts. If the charged block can't be converted, sculk veins grow on the block instead. If sculk veins can't grow, the sculk charge is removed and nothing happens. Each sculk block costs 1 experience to grow, while charge can also be used on creating sensors, shriekers, or are lost to decay.

When a sculk block is grown, it also tries to grow sculk veins on every face of every blocks adjacent to it up to 20 sculk veins. Sculk veins cost 1 sculk charge when it grows on a block that cannot be converted into sculk.

Sculk growth can't happen on a block that is completely covered by blocks unless some of those blocks are sculk veins.

Sculk veins are never placed on the sides of a sculk block and they are removed when the block they are attached to is converted to a sculk block.

Discharging

Every other game tick, sculk blocks and veins discharge excess sculk charges. This discharge can cause the sculk charge to spread across a patch of sculk blocks and grow the patch larger.

Every other game tick, when sculk blocks or veins discharge, they transfer all of their sculk charges to a random adjacent block. The adjacent block must be a sculk block, a sculk vein, or one of the blocks that is sculk_replaceable. If there are no adjacent blocks to discharge to, the sculk charge simply stays where it is and eventually decays.

Each time a sculk block is charged, it discharges again. This causes sculk charges to move like electricity in a daisy chain. Sculk charges from different sculk blocks and veins tend to cluster together if there are enough charges, similar to how water collects in a valley or river. Sculk charges keep moving like this until they run out due to converting blocks, constructing shriekers and sensors, or decaying.

If a sculk charge keeps discharging in the same area without creating new sculk family blocks, it decays.

Every time a sculk block or vein discharges, it has a 9% chance to grow a sculk sensor, and a 1% chance to grow a sculk shrieker.

Sculk sensors and sculk shriekers cannot receive sculk charges and are only produced by them.

Sculk sensors and shriekers cannot grow if there are 2 or more sculk sensors and shriekers within a 9×3×9 box, with the bottom center of the box centered on the sculk bloom's origin (or within -4,0,-4 and 4,2,4 in relative coordinates).

Sculk shriekers generated by sculk growth won't summon wardens and shriek more frequently due to their can_summon tag being set to false.

Blooming without spreading

Even though growing new sculk requires experience, sculk blooms still occur for mobs that can not drop experience on death. This is the intended behavior, and a sculk catalyst even blooms when an armor stand is destroyed, because the game has armor stands labeled as being living entities.

When a player with no experience dies in range of a sculk catalyst, it still blooms, and no sculk grows. If keep inventory is on, the player retains experience after dying. This prevents the sculk bloom from consuming the experience and growing sculk.

Light source

Sculk catalysts emit a light level of 6.

Sounds

Generic

Java Edition:

[hide] v t e sculk_catalyst sound type
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.sculk_catalyst.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.sculk_catalyst.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.sculk_catalyst.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.sculk_catalyst.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.sculk_catalyst.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

[hide] v t e sculk_catalyst sound type
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	break.sculk_catalyst	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	break.sculk_catalyst	1.0	0.8-1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.sculk_catalyst	0.3	0.5
	Friendly Creatures	Falling on the block with fall damage	step.sculk_catalyst	0.4	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	Walking on the block	step.sculk_catalyst	0.17	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	Jumping from the block	step.sculk_catalyst	0.12	1.0
	Friendly Creatures	Falling on the block without fall damage	step.sculk_catalyst	0.14	1.0

Unique

Java Edition

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Sculk Catalyst blooms	Blocks	When a mob is killed near a sculk catalyst	block.sculk_catalyst.bloom	subtitles.block.sculk_catalyst.bloom​	0.5	0.6-1.0	12

Bedrock Edition:

[hide]Sounds
Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	When a mob is killed near a sculk catalyst	bloom.sculk_catalyst	2.0	0.6-1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	[hide]Translation key
Sculk Catalyst	sculk_catalyst	Block & Item	block.minecraft.sculk_catalyst

Name	[hide]Identifier
Block entity	sculk_catalyst

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID	[hide]Translation key
Sculk Catalyst	sculk_catalyst	715	Block & Giveable Item	Identical	tile.sculk_catalyst.name

Name	[hide]Savegame ID
Block entity	SculkCatalyst

Block states

Java Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	[hide]Description
bloom	false	false true	Whether the sculk catalyst is actively spreading the sculk or not.

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	[hide]Description
bloom	0	0 1	Whether the sculk catalyst is actively spreading the sculk or not.

Block data

A sculk catalyst has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

• [NBT Compound / JSON Object] Block entity data
  • Tags common to all block entities see Template:Nbt inherit/blockentity/template[show]
  • [NBT List / JSON Array] cursors: List of sculk charge clusters associated with the sculk catalyst.
    • [NBT Compound / JSON Object]: A sculk charge cluster. Each cluster is stored within a single sculk block.
      • [Int] charge: How many sculk charges are being carried in the cluster.
      • [NBT List / JSON Array] pos: List of three integers representing the coordinates of the cluster.
      • [Int] decay_delay: 1 or 0 (true/false) - Not to be confused with update_delay. This controls the decay of the cluster. If this is true, then the cluster was spread from a sculk block or sculk vein, and this cluster can only spread to sculk, sculk veins, and blocks with the [Boolean] sculk_replaceable tag set to true. If this is false, then all the sculk charges disappear when the cluster discharges to a block that is not in the sculk family.
      • [Int] update_delay: Delay in game ticks until the cluster begins to discharge (or travel) after being created. Usually starts at 1 game tick when a cluster discharges to a new block.
      • [NBT List / JSON Array] facings: If the block to replace is an air or water block, the block is replaced with sculk veins, and the faces where the sculk veins are placed are also stored in their block state. The sculk veins never grow directly on the faces of a sculk block. The same thing is done to any air or water blocks that are adjacent to blocks that are adjacent to this sculk block, if sculk veins can't grow in the blocks adjacent to this sculk block without growing directly on the faces of sculk blocks.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Achievements

[hide]
Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	—	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill one of these 73 mobs near a sculk catalyst:[show] Mobs that drop no experience as well as the ender dragon are ignored for this advancement.

History

October 3, 2020							Sculk catalysts are shown unnamed at Minecraft Live 2020.
November 13, 2020							The sculk catalyst has a new texture in a tweet from Brandon Pearce.
April 26, 2021							Kingbdogz states that sculk features aren't coming in 1.17.
October 16, 2021							Sculk features were delayed to 1.19.
							New sculk catalyst functions were shown.
[hide]Java Edition
1.19			Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1				Added sculk catalysts.
			22w11a				Implemented sculk catalysts into normal snapshot.
			22w17a				Wardens now drop a single sculk catalyst upon death, making them renewable.
1.19.1			Pre-release 6				Sculk catalysts now drop five experience instead of 20.
[hide]Bedrock Edition
1.17.30			beta 1.17.30.22				"Sculk Catalyst" was mentioned in Bedrock Beta documentation.
			beta 1.17.30.23				Sculk Catalyst textures were shown in internal Caves & Cliffs textures.
1.18.0 Experiment Vanilla Experiments			beta 1.18.0.22				Added sculk catalysts behind the "Vanilla Experiments" experimental toggle.
1.18.10 Experiment Wild Update			beta 1.18.10.21				Moved sculk catalysts to the "Wild Update" experimental toggle.
1.18.30 Experiment Wild Update			Preview 1.18.30.23				Sculk catalysts were updated to match Java Edition's behavior.
1.19.0			Preview 1.19.0.21				Sculk catalysts are now available without enabling experimental gameplay.
			Preview 1.19.0.29				Wardens now drop a single sculk catalyst upon death.
1.19.20			Preview 1.19.20.23				Sculk catalysts now drop five experience instead of 20.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.20.21				Increased the blast resistance of sculk catalysts from 1.8 to 3.

Issues

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

Trivia

• The sculk catalyst is made of a "bone-like material".

Gallery

Textures

• 

  The bottom texture of the sculk catalyst.

Screenshots

• 

  Slicedlime "corrupting" a canyon into sculk block by using sculk catalyst and dying skeleton in his video.

• 

  Particles appear above blocks when a sculk charge travels over them.

• 

  A sculk catalyst generated in a wall.

• 

  Sculk from a catalyst spreading over a savanna.

• 

  Lots of sculk from a catalyst.

• 

  Sculk spreading from a catalyst.

• 

  Lots of sculk spreading from a catalyst.

In other media

• 

  Steve claiming a sculk catalyst from a Warden that was slain using a mace.

• 

  Sculk catalyst figure of Flippin' Figs

See also

• Moss Block
• Pale Moss Block