Sneaking

Sneaking, crouching, or shifting is a form of movement. Its effects include causing the player to move slower, preventing them from falling off blocks, reducing the radius in which mobs detect them, and concealing their username and Locator Bar position to other players in multiplayer.

In Java and Bedrock editions with keyboard controls, the control for sneaking defaults to . The player sneaks as long as the key is held down. In Bedrock Edition with touch controls, sneaking is toggled by double-tapping 👁 Image
and toggled back by double-tapping 👁 Image
. In Bedrock Edition with gamepad controls, sneaking is toggled by pressing on 👁 Right stick click
. Certain actions like opening the inventory can cancel sneaking, even if the player is still holding down the key for sneaking. This never happens on touch devices as the player doesn't need to hold down the sneak key.

While sneaking, including being forced to sneak by entering a space less than 1.8 blocks tall but not less than 1.5 blocks:

• The player moves slower, at a speed of about 1.3 m/s.
  • If two movement keys are pressed at once, the player sneaks diagonally at a faster 1.8 m/s.
• Eye level moves down 0.35 of a block, and the character model bends over slightly. The latter can be seen in third-person view. Additionally, the third-person camera itself moves down.
• The player's hitbox height reduces from its usual 1.8 blocks to 1.5 blocks.

While sneaking by using the sneak control:

• Players are prevented from walking off edges if the difference in height between the two surfaces is higher than 0.6 blocks as long as they are up to 0.6 blocks above the ground,‌^{[Java Edition only]} which makes sneaking useful for building horizontally outward over empty space.
  • The player can still dismount blocks while sneaking by jumping over the block's edge.
  • A sneaking player still falls if the block beneath the player's feet is destroyed.
• Hostile mobs do not become aware of the player until within 80% of the usual detection range.
• Players cannot hear their own footstep sounds.
• In multiplayer, a sneaking player's name tag appears fainter than normal, invisible to players more than 32 blocks away, and invisible through solid blocks.
• The player's waypoint in the Locator Bar is not shown to other players.
• If players are on a climbable block (such as ladder or vines) other than scaffolding, they do not move down. This gives the impression of holding on to that specific ladder rung or vine. Mining speed is still decreased by a factor of 5.
• Pressing use prioritizes using a held item over interacting with a targeted block. For example, this allows placing a hopper on a chest, a torch on a furnace, or redstone on a command block.
• Players are able to interact with a tamed horse (tamed donkey or mule inventories, also) when pressing use item control while holding the sneak key.
• The player moves downward on scaffolding.
  • The player can't fall through a scaffolding block hanging in mid-air.
• The player moves downward in powder snow if they are wearing leather boots.
  • Without leather boots, the player simply sinks into powder snow without control.
• The player does not bounce on slime blocks.
• Magma blocks do not cause harm.
• Stepping on redstone ore does not light it.
• The player sinks faster in water or lava.
• Sculk sensors and wardens do not detect vibrations from sneaking players, even if they jump while sneaking.
  • Sculk sensors can still detect players that stand on top of them, even when they are sneaking.
  • The warden can still "sniff out" a sneaking player's location and slowly approach them.
• In Bedrock Edition^[1], if playing with Controller or Touch controls, and if sneaking is set to "Toggle to sneak" under Controls, the player keeps sneaking when opening or interacting with blocks that have a UI if the player was sneaking when they interacted with the block.
• In Bedrock Edition, sneaking is used to block attacks while holding a shield.
• In Java Edition, while holding a shield in the off-hand, the player can strip or scrape blocks with an axe in the main-hand if they use while sneaking.
  • If the player is not sneaking, they defend with a shield instead of stripping/scraping a block.

Sneaking does not affect:

• Jump height: players can still jump up to the same heights and at the same vertical speed. Horizontal jump speed and distance is decreased, however.
• Farmland and crops: they are still trampled when jumped upon.

The sneaking speed attribute affects movement speed while sneaking. With the Swift Sneak enchantment, sneaking speed is increased by 15% per level of enchantment.

Issues relating to "Sneaking" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

• While flying in Creative mode, holding the jump and sneak buttons simultaneously causes the player to remain at the same height.
• In Bedrock Edition, the player uses a sneaking stance when flying downward. The player can also place blocks on chests, furnaces and other utility blocks in this stance, suggesting the player is actually in a sneaking mode. In Java Edition, the player no longer enters sneak mode when flying downward, but they still don't interact with blocks by right-clicking.
• In Bedrock Edition, the player can bridge out by looking at the air block they are placing on, though it must be adjacent to an existing block. This works even if the player is not sneaking.^[13]
  • In Java Edition, the player must travel to the edge of the block (usually by sneaking) and look backward to place the next block.
• If the player begins to sneak while sprinting, they sneak faster than someone who sneaks without sprinting.^[14]
  • This is more noticeable when the player is wearing pants or leggings with the Swift Sneak enchantment.

• 👁 Alex
  
  Alex
• 👁 Alex with wide arms
  
  Alex with wide arms
• 👁 Ari
  
  Ari
• 👁 Ari with slim arms
  
  Ari with slim arms
• 👁 Efe
  
  Efe
• 👁 Efe with wide arms
  
  Efe with wide arms
• 👁 Kai
  
  Kai
• 👁 Kai with slim arms
  
  Kai with slim arms
• 👁 Makena
  
  Makena
• 👁 Makena with wide arms
  
  Makena with wide arms
• 👁 Noor
  
  Noor
• 👁 Noor with wide arms
  
  Noor with wide arms
• 👁 Steve
  
  Steve
• 👁 Steve with slim arms
  
  Steve with slim arms
• 👁 Sunny
  
  Sunny
• 👁 Sunny with slim arms
  
  Sunny with slim arms
• 👁 Zuri
  
  Zuri
• 👁 Zuri with slim arms
  
  Zuri with slim arms

• 👁 The first image of sneaking.
  
  The first image of sneaking.
• 👁 A player sneaking under a slab at a pillager outpost.
  
  A player sneaking under a slab at a pillager outpost.
• 👁 A side view of sneaking.
  
  A side view of sneaking.

• Crawling
• Swimming
• Sprinting