Minecraft Loot Table

Loot Table

Loot tables decide which items generate in which situations. Java Edition only (Bedrock: official docs).

Vanilla Uses

Vanilla uses loot tables for: naturally generated container contents, suspicious block contents, block drop loot, entity death drops, fishing, and piglin bartering. They do not control XP drops or entities that drop nothing (e.g. slime splits, silverfish from infested blocks).

Built-in tables live under data/minecraft/loot_table/ in client.jar, grouped by purpose:

• archaeology/ — brushing from suspicious blocks (desert_pyramid, desert_well, ocean_ruin_cold/warm, trail_ruins_common/rare).
• blocks/ — block break drops (one table per block ID).
• brush/ — brush results (armadillo).
• carve/ — carved results (pumpkin).
• charged_creeper/ — charged Creeper kills (creeper, piglin, root, skeleton, wither_skeleton, zombie; the root table drops extra items once per kill — only one victim per kill rolls it).
• chests/ — structure containers (abandoned_mineshaft, ancient_city(_ice_box), bastion_bridge/hoglin_stable/other/treasure, buried_treasure, desert_pyramid, end_city_treasure, igloo_chest, jungle_temple(_dispenser), nether_bridge, pillager_outpost, ruined_portal, shipwreck_map/supply/treasure, simple_dungeon, spawn_bonus_chest, stronghold_corridor/crossing/library, trial_chambers/* (corridor, entrance, intersection, reward & variants), underwater_ruin_big/small, village & villager profession houses).
• dispensers/ — trial chambers dispensers.
• entities/ — mob death drops (per entity ID; sheep has per-color wool tables).
• equipment/ — trial chamber mob equipment (trial_chamber_melee/ranged).
• gameplay/ — armadillo_shed, cat_morning_gift, chicken_lay, fishing (fish/junk/treasure + main table), hero_of_the_village gifts, panda_sneeze, piglin_bartering, sniffer_digging, turtle_grow.
• pots/ — trial chamber decorated pots.
• harvest/ — block harvesting (beehive, cave_vine, sweet_berry_bush).
• shearing/ — shearing interactions (bogged, mooshroom, sheep, snow_golem).
• spawners/ — trial spawner victory rewards (consumables, key, items_to_drop_when_ominous).

Notes: unbreakable blocks (bedrock, end portal) have no loot tables; wall/floor variants share tables (e.g. white banner and white wall banner); the Wither's nether star drop is not loot-table-controlled.

Custom Invocation

• Containers (chests, minecarts with chest/hopper, decorated pots, suspicious blocks): NBT LootTable (namespace ID; a double chest only rolls for the half carrying the tag) + LootTableSeed (0/absent = world random sequence). Tags are removed once the container is interacted with, and only then does loot appear.
• Trial spawner: normal_config/ominous_config with items_to_drop_when_ominous and loot_tables_to_eject (weighted list of {data, weight}).
• Vault: config.loot_table (default chests/trial_chambers/reward) and override_loot_table_to_display.
• Mobs: DeathLootTable + DeathLootTableSeed.
• Spawner spawn equipment: spawn_data.equipment.loot_table.
• Advancement rewards can grant loot tables; /loot invokes tables directly (existing or inline SNBT).

Definition Format

Registry LOOT_TABLE, data pack path loot_table (files in data/<namespace>/loot_table/).

{
  "type": "generic",
  "random_sequence": "minecraft:...",
  "functions": [ ... ],
  "pools": [ ... ]
}

• type (default generic) — used to validate the loot context parameter set (warns on missing required parameters).
• random_sequence — the random sequence used; sharing a sequence between tables makes their results interdependent.
• functions — item modifiers applied to every stack (in order).
• pools — loot pools drawn in order.

Pools

• rolls (required) — base draw count (number provider).
• bonus_rolls (default 0) — extra draws from luck: (player luck attribute + fishing_luck_bonus enchantment level) × value, floored. Luck only applies for opening loot containers, unlocking vaults, fishing, killing mobs, and brushing suspicious blocks.
• conditions — loot predicates; all must pass for the pool to be used.
• functions — item modifiers applied to every stack this pool produces.
• entries (required) — the pool entries; draws are independent (with replacement).

Entries

Common fields (singleton): functions (modifiers), weight (default 1), quality (default 0; adjusted weight = max(⌊weight + quality·luck⌋, 0) when luck applies), conditions (entries failing conditions are removed before drawing).

• item — a single item stack (default count 1): name (item ID).
• loot_table — draws from another table: value (table ID or inline; cycles not allowed).
• dynamic — depends on the broken block: name = sherds (decorated pot: drops its 4 sherds) or contents (shulker box: contents drop into the world).
• empty — generates nothing.
• slots — generates stacks from item slots: slot_source (see the slot-source skill).
• tag — item tag entry: name (item tag), expand — false: a singleton that generates one stack per item in the tag (default count 1); true: expands into equally-weighted item-like entries (no item modifiers allowed).

Composite entries (expand into entries, no direct weight): children + conditions:

• alternatives — picks the first child whose conditions pass.
• group — includes all children whose conditions pass.
• sequence — walks children from the start until one fails its conditions.

After expansion, only singleton entries remain (condition-failing ones removed), and one is drawn by weight.

Item Modifiers and Predicates

Loot tables use item modifiers and loot predicates; see the item-modifier and predicate skills for the full lists.

Loot Context

Generating loot creates a loot context holding current parameters, used by predicates/modifiers. The type field in the file is only for validation, not for actual generation.

External tool: Loot Table Generator on misode.github.io.