by MORGAN Jack - Published 7 months ago

Minecraft: Avoid Fall Damage - Tips & Tricks

One of the most annoying aspects of playing Minecraft is falling from great heights while building, mining, or running from mobs. Many players experience fall damage, often leading to death, which can be frustrating.

Fortunately, various methods exist to lessen or completely negate fall damage. Minecraft has introduced new ways to reduce fall damage over time, while players in the past had to find creative solutions. Thankfully, players now have the best of both worlds.

Updated September 12, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: This list has been updated with additional ways to prevent fall damage in Minecraft, allowing players to navigate the blocky world safely.

14 Hay Bales

Hay bales reduce fall damage by 80 percent

Hay bales provide an excellent method to reduce fall damage, although they won't eliminate it completely. Landing on a sufficient number of hay bales from a great height will result in damage, but the 80 percent damage reduction makes it much harder to die from the fall.

You can potentially survive a fall from nearly 100 blocks with hay bales, making them a suitable temporary floor when building at height.

13 Scaffolding

Scaffolding eliminates fall damage from any height, but only while crouching.

Scaffolding is often overlooked as a fall damage mitigation method. Landing on it while crouching is the key to avoiding damage, but mastering this technique takes practice.

To avoid fall damage with scaffolding, you need to place a scaffolding block on the ground before you land. Align yourself to land on it and crouch as you land. Timing is crucial, as not crouching will result in you hitting the ground.

12 Cobwebs

Cobwebs reduce fall damage, but also slow you down to 15 percent.

Cobwebs, similar to water, mitigate fall damage. However, they make exiting difficult, as you'll be stuck in the cobweb.

Cobwebs are useful for escaping mobs in mines. Jumping onto a cobweb will allow you to avoid them. Be aware that mobs can still follow you, and spiders and cave spiders are unaffected by the slow down. Arrows can also pass through cobwebs.

11 Slime Blocks

Slime blocks completely prevent fall damage and can make you bounce.

For a trampoline-like experience, place a Slime Block and jump on it from a height. Landing in the center will result in a bounce without fall damage. You need nine Slimeballs to craft one Slime Block.

At first, the rebound will be 60 percent of the height fallen, but this decreases to about 20 percent as the height fallen increases. If you jump as you land, your fall damage will be completely negated, but the block's bounce effect will also be ignored. Jump to make sure you don't hurt yourself when you bounce off.

10 Potion of Slow Falling

A Potion of Slow Falling makes you fall slower and be immune to fall damage while the potion is active.

There are a few steps to brewing potions, so if you're unsure how to get started, you'll need to learn how. To craft the slow falling potion, you will need the following.

A Brewing Stand
Blaze Powder
A Water Bottle
Nether Wart
Phantom Membrane

First, add the blaze powder to the top left and wait for it to melt and power the brewing stand. Next, place the water bottle in the bottom left slot, just under the yellow line created by your blaze powder. Now add the nether wart to the top slot, just to the left of the down arrow.

Once this has dissolved, add the phantom membrane to the same place. This will produce a regular Potion of Slow Falling that reduces falling speed and prevents fall damage for 90 seconds.

9 Boat

Sitting in a boat can prevent all fall damage.

Using a boat is a creative way to avoid fall damage. Craft a boat using five wooden planks, and you can then place and ride it off high places without taking any damage.

Boats can hold up to two players and are controlled using your regular movement keys. However, be cautious as they can be destroyed by explosions, fire, lava, and cacti.

8 Ladders

Ladders can also prevent fall damage, but only when used carefully.

Similar to scaffolding, using ladders requires patience. If you are near a ladder while falling, you can avoid damage by navigating toward the ladder and climbing on it.

Once you enter the ladder's range, your speed reduces to that of a player climbing a ladder. You can then move up or down the ladder normally. However, if you hit the top of the ladder, you will still die.

7 Feather Falling Boots

The Feather Falling enchantment can reduce fall damage by up to 48 percent.

Feather Falling is an enchantment that you can apply to your boots to reduce fall damage. Unlike the Potion of Slow Falling, Feather Falling does not affect falling speed. It reduces damage by 12 percent at its lowest level, gradually increasing until Feather Falling IV which reduces it by 48 percent.

You can combine the enchantment Protection with Feather Falling to achieve a maximum of 80 percent fall damage reduction. This requires Feather Falling IV, Protection IV and Protection II across your armor.

6 Ender Pearl

Ender Pearls can prevent fall damage but will also cause 2.5 hearts of damage

An Ender Pearl can teleport you to wherever it lands. It's a helpful tool while falling from a fatal drop, but it won't fully prevent damage. You will take 2.5 hearts of damage after using the Ender Pearl so if your health is low you can still die.

Ender Pearls drop from Enderman with a 50 percent chance. The best way to kill an Enderman is by standing under a platform two blocks from the ground so you can hit them, but they can't hit you.

5 Water Bucket

Landing in water prevents all fall damage

Many Minecraft players use this classic technique to reduce fall damage. All you need to do is craft a bucket by placing three iron ingots in a V shape and fill it up with water. Keep that bucket handy because it might be helpful in a fatal situation.

Falling into water negates all fall damage, even if it's just a single block of water. This means that if you are falling from a height you should empty the bucket onto the block you'll land on so the water can break your fall. You can also land in a stream of water to achieve the same thing.

4 Bed

Beds decrease the amount of damage you take from falling by 50%.

Beds can also help you survive a fall. Landing on a bed will cause you to bounce back up with 66% of your impact velocity. You will also take 50% less fall damage. Beds are essential and can be crafted by placing three wool above three planks. The wool colors must match but the planks don't have to.

Because you respawn at the last bed you slept in, you can also click on a bed to sleep in it as you are falling, as long as you are quick enough. Use this option if you don't think you'll survive even the 50% reduction in fall damage, since fall damage is stopped until you wake up. This means that you can sleep to set your spawn point and then immediately respawn by the same bed.

3 Powdered Snow

Powdered snow prevents fall damage if you fall through it, but not if you land on it.

Powdered snow has odd mechanics. You can fall through it slowly without taking damage, in a similar way to cobwebs. However, if you fall from a great height onto it, you will still die.

We've included it here because it's easy to misunderstand its mechanics and hope that it will save you from a fall. In short, never trust powdered snow.

2 Honey Blocks

Honey Blocks decrease the amount of damage you take from falling by 80%.

Honey blocks act like slime, but they only reduce 80 percent of fall damage. This is still helpful, as it could be the only thing keeping you alive. To get honey blocks, you might need to farm bees.

Honey blocks can also make you slide. If you fall down a honey wall, you can stick to the wall and slowly slide down. This eliminates all fall damage, similar to going down a ladder.

1 Chorus Fruit

Instead of blocking fall damage, the chorus fruit is something you eat that teleports you eight blocks in any direction. So, if you are on flat ground with no caves below, eating it will move you slightly.

This isn't the most reliable way to reduce fall damage. If you are too high up, you'll still take damage and die. Interestingly, chorus fruit resets fall damage, which could be helpful if you're just slightly outside a safe falling distance.