Lightning Bolt
A lightning bolt is the entity a lightning strike makes where it lands.
Spawning
Lightning strikes only during a thunderstorm. Weather gives how often, and which space it lands in. Nothing else makes a lightning bolt.
Behaviour
Flashes
A bolt flashes two to four times: once when it lands, then one to three more times. Each flash lasts 2 ticks, and the next begins at most 9 ticks after the last ends. The bolt is gone once its last flash ends.
The first tick sounds thunder and an explosion. The sky lights up on every tick of a flash. A bolt breaks no blocks.
In singleplayer the thunder is heard at any distance. On a server, only players within 512 blocks of the bolt see or hear it.
Fire
On Normal and Hard, the first flash sets fire to the struck space, and makes four tries at spaces up to 1 block from it in each direction. Every later flash sets fire to the struck space, on any difficulty. Fire is placed only in an empty space where fire can stand.
Entities
A flash strikes every entity that touches a box 6 blocks square and 12 tall. The box is centred on the corner of the struck space at its lowest x and z, and runs from 3 blocks below the struck space to 9 above. It strikes on both ticks of the flash.
| Entity | A strike |
|---|---|
| Player | deals 5 damage |
| Any other mob | deals 5 damage, and sets it alight for 300 ticks |
| Ghast, pig zombie | sets it alight, and deals no damage |
| Pig | turns it into a pig zombie |
| Creeper | deals 5 damage, sets it alight, and charges it |
| Dropped item | destroys it |
| Boat, minecart | breaks it |
| Painting | breaks it, and it drops |
| Arrow, snowball, egg, lit TNT, falling sand, fireball | nothing |
Rain puts out a struck entity standing in the open at once; see Damage#Catching fire.
A mob or player struck on both ticks of a flash takes the damage once; see Damage#The invulnerability window. A dropped item has no such protection. Items dropped by whatever a flash breaks or kills are struck on its second tick, and destroyed if they are still in range.
Data values
A lightning bolt has no entity network ID, and is not saved with the world.