How to Make an Animal Army in Minecraft

Last Updated: September 13, 2019

In Minecraft, an army of animals can be useful in all sorts of situation, from attacking the enemy to defending your base to an emergency supply of food. The possibilities are endless.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Preparing

1
Plan the set-up of your army. Ideally, you'll need three kinds of animals: ones who actively attack your target when you've been hit (e.g., dogs), ones who attack whoever attacks them (e.g., polar bears), and animals to confuse the enemy (e.g., cows). This is an ideal set-up, and it is very hard to get all three kinds in significant amounts, so do what is the most convenient for you.
2
Decide which animals you are going to use. You don't need to restrict yourself to only one kind of animal, that would be very hard if you want to make a big army.
- Avoid mobs that will attack you instead of the target. Here are some examples of animals you may want to use:
  - Wolves - they have to be tamed in order to become dogs, so they're pretty hard to get in large numbers, but they are very good attackers and deal lots of damage.
  - Polar bears - these fluffy animals have been implemented in the 1.10 update. You can't tame them, but if someone hits them, they turn hostile and start attacking whoever hit them.
  - Ocelots - though they are hard to tame and as annoying as real cats can be, they attack creepers, which is pretty good if creepers form a threat to you or your army.
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3
Make a base to put the animals. You can just fence of a large piece of land, or you could make a huge military base. - It's all up to you. Keep in mind the location: if you are going to use this army only once, build the base close to your target, so you don't have to lead your army across half your world to get them there. If you plan on using it multiple times, build the base close to home, where you can keep an eye on them.
- If you have animals that attack other animals (e.g., wolves attack cows), put them in a separate area.
- Make sure other mobs, especially hostiles, can't enter the base.
4
Stock up on luring and taming food. If you want cows, you'll need wheat to get them to follow you -from their natural habitat to your base, or from your base to whomever you want to attack. If you want dogs, you'll need bones and meat to tame wolves and keep them healthy.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Getting Animals

1
Find the animals. Different animals spawn in different biomes, so you have to find out where each animal lives. You can look this up by searching 'Minecraft [animal name] biome'.
- The earlier mentioned animals and their spawn zones:^{[1]
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  - Wolves - forest, taiga, mega taiga, cold taiga, and cold taiga M biomes
  - Polar bears - ice plains, ice mountains and ice spikes biomes
  - Ocelots - jungle biome
2
Lure them to their pen. The place you built earlier is where they need to go. You'll need the correct food to get them to follow you (e.g. cows will follow you if you're holding wheat). This is usually the same type of feed you have to breed them with.
- Wolves and ocelots will automatically follow you (more or less) after you've tamed them.
- If you're having some difficulties getting them in their pen, ask a friend to help you, or use leashes to pull them inside.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Attacking

1
Get a friend to help you. Directing and managing an animal army can be a difficult task for only one person.
2
Fill your hotbar with luring food. You want them to follow you to your target.
3
Walk towards the target whilst switching between the foods. Ideally you have as many friends to help you as there are types of animals, so everyone can direct one kind. If that's not the case, switch to the luring food of the type of animal that isn't following.
4
Attack as you please. It all depends on the of the enemy, the army they have and your army, but try to get all your animals to follow you all of the time.

Community Q&A

Question

How much health does the wolf have?

SunPuppy

Community Answer

Wild wolves have 8 HP (4 hearts) and tamed wolves have 20 HP (10 hearts). The wild's attack power is 2 HP and the tamed wolf's attack power is 4 HP.
Question

While attacking, wolves could eat the cows. What to do?

Alexa

Community Answer

Maybe not have cows in your army? You don't have to have cows, they are just a suggestion.
Question

How do I get a lot of bones?

CeeBee

Community Answer

You can make a skeleton farm, where you make a machine that kills skeletons for you.