Hiding¶

When something is after you at night, you don't always have to fight. You can crawl under a bed or a table, climb into a double chest or shut yourself in a closet, and wait. Hidden, nothing can see you. Stay hidden long enough and what was hunting you gives up, and is gone. Make a sound, though, and it will find you.

Hiding needs the mod on the server.

How to hide¶

Sneak (Shift) and use (right-click) a hiding spot with both hands empty. You're held in place, the view narrows, and a card above the hotbar says where you are: Hiding under the bed, with "All quiet out there. Sneak to come out" under it.

To come out, sneak again. You also come out if you're hurt, if the spot is broken, if you die, sleep, change dimension or leave the game, or if the server turns hiding off. You come out where you went in; out of a chest or a closet, you step out in front of it.

While hidden you can look around but not move, and you can't use or break anything, not even the bed over your head. Left clicks never swing at anything (they belong to the heartbeat minigame), the crosshair fades away, and your hand is hidden.

Where to hide¶

Under a bed or a table, in a double chest or in a closet: each is built and found in its own way, see Hiding spots. Once you're in, keep quiet (Noise and searches), and if something is hunting you, keep your heart slow (The heartbeat minigame).

Out of sight¶

While you hide, nothing can take you as a target, and anything already after you loses you. The only exceptions are bosses, which find you as easily as anywhere: the Wither, the Ender Dragon, the Warden and Elder Guardians. These are the #whycantisleep:ignores_hiding entity tag, which data packs and other mods can add to (Data packs). Remember that being hurt brings you out, so hiding from a boss doesn't help for long.

When a monster is within 12 blocks, you tremble, and the card turns red: Something's out there "Stay still and don't make a sound". Its foot line then counts down the time left until they give up.

Shaking them off¶

Stay hidden for the hide time (15 seconds by default) and the monsters give up. Then:

• the monsters that were after you (within 48 blocks of you), and
• any monsters prowling within 12 blocks of the spot

vanish in a puff of smoke, and you're told "It's quiet now. Whatever was out there is gone." If nothing came looking for you at all: "All quiet. Nothing came looking for you." You stay hidden until you sneak out.

Some monsters never vanish: anything named, tamed or otherwise kept from despawning, and anything in the #whycantisleep:ignores_hiding tag.

The hide time¶

The hide time depends on the spot and on what's around it:

• Each spot takes its own share: the full time under a bed or a table, 90% in a chest, 85% in a closet.
• Cover: each side of the spot closed off by a full block (not the spot's own blocks) takes 10% off, for up to three sides. A bed tucked into a corner shakes them off sooner.

The hide time is never less than one second. The server sets the base time (3 to 120 seconds) and can turn cover off.

Eyes and ears¶

Hiding, your eyes narrow: dark eyelids close in from above and below, leaving an almond of view. How far depends on the spot: a little in a closet, half under a bed or table, to a slit in a chest. They sway with your breath, blink now and then, and squint tighter while monsters are near. You can pick the eyelids' look in the client settings: retro (the default), soft, banded or grainy.

Sounds come muffled, as much as the spot shuts them out. Air lets sound through, glass a little, a solid block or wool almost nothing, a door or trapdoor as much as its window lets through. In a chest only the crack under the lid is open. A sound from the open side of your spot comes through clearer than one from behind a wall. Your own sounds (your heartbeat) aren't muffled.

You also hear the monsters prowling within 10 blocks: muffled footsteps on whatever they walk on, and shuffling when they stand about. Lying under a bed or table, you see a puff of shadow where each step lands nearby.

You can turn the muffling off in the client settings.

Critters¶

Now and then, something got there first. There's a 5% chance a silverfish or a cave spider is already in the spot: it scurries out and leaps at you, and you don't get in ("Something was already in there!"). If a monster is sitting in the spot, you're told "Something's in there."

The hide cooldown¶

After coming out of a spot, however it happened, you have to wait before hiding again: 10 seconds by default. Try sooner and a gold card says Still catching your breath, "You can hide again in 7s", its foot line running down until you can. (Without the mod on your client, you get the seconds above the hotbar instead.) The server can change the cooldown (up to 300 seconds) or turn it off with 0.