To get a happy ghast in Minecraft, place a Dried Ghast in water and wait: after about 20 minutes it becomes a ghastling, a baby that grows into a happy ghast in 20 more minutes, sooner if you feed it snowballs. Put a harness on the grown ghast and up to four players can fly it.
Happy ghasts came with the Chase the Skies drop on June 17, 2025 (Java 1.21.6, Bedrock 1.21.90). Everything below, from Mojang's changelogs, the game's own files and the Minecraft Wiki, still holds in Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.50; the last table lists what differs between the two.
Step 1: get a Dried Ghast
- Find one in the Nether. Dried Ghasts lie next to the Nether fossils of soul sand valleys, the giant skeletons half buried in soul sand: each fossil has a 1 in 3 chance of one. A bare hand breaks it instantly, and it always drops itself.
- Craft one. Eight Ghast Tears around a block of Soul Sand on a crafting table, as our Dried Ghast recipe shows. Without Looting, a ghast drops a tear about every other kill, so count on some 16 ghasts.
- Trade for one. A piglin gives a Dried Ghast for about 1 gold ingot in 47 (a 10 in 469 chance per barter).
Soul sand valleys are hard to miss: blue soul fire, brown soul sand and fossils sticking out of the ground. Note the coordinates: our Nether coordinates calculator converts them to the Overworld and back, and our Nether portal guide covers the way there.
Step 2: hydrate it, about 20 minutes
Put the Dried Ghast in water so that the block is waterlogged: place it in a water source, or empty a water bucket on it. Water cannot be placed in the Nether, so do it in the Overworld or the End.
- It hydrates in three visible steps and releases a ghastling after about 20 minutes. Each step is a 250-second timer that only starts on a random game tick, so 20 to 25 minutes is normal.
- Remove the water and it dries out again at the same pace; mine the block and it starts over.
- Placing it in water earns the "Stay Hydrated!" advancement, which our advancements checklist ticks off with all the others.
Step 3: grow the ghastling, 20 minutes or less
The ghastling is a baby happy ghast. It stays close to nearby players, follows anyone holding a snowball, and grows up after 20 minutes (24,000 game ticks). Snowballs speed it up, but Java and Bedrock count them differently:
| Snowballs fed |
Java: time left |
Bedrock: time left |
| None |
20 min |
20 min |
| 1 |
18 min |
18 min |
| 5 |
11 min 49 s |
10 min |
| 10 |
6 min 58 s |
Grown up |
| 20 |
2 min 26 s |
— |
- In Java, each snowball takes 10% off the time still left, so the first ones count the most, and snowballs alone never finish the job: time does.
- In Bedrock, each snowball is a tenth of the growth: ten make an adult at once.
- Snowballs come from snow: a shovel on a snow block gives 4, and a Snow Block is 4 snowballs packed for the trip.
- To keep it small, give it a Golden Dandelion, eight gold nuggets around a dandelion, added in Java 26.1 and Bedrock 26.10: the ghastling stops growing until you give it a second one.
Step 4: craft and put on the harness
A happy ghast needs a harness before anyone can ride it. It is what many players call the happy ghast saddle; a regular saddle does not fit.
- Recipe: three Leather across the top row of a crafting table, then Glass, Wool, Glass under them. The wool sets the color, and a harness can be re-dyed in the crafting grid: see our White Harness page and the 15 other colors in our crafting recipes.
- Put it on: use the harness on a grown happy ghast. A ghastling cannot wear one.
- Take it off: shears, while nobody is riding. Since the same drop, shears also take saddles off horses, and our horse and saddle guide shows how to craft a saddle.
Flying: riders, controls and speed
Up to four players ride at once. The first one aboard sits in front and steers; the others take the other sides, clockwise. While someone steers, the ghast pulls its goggles down over its eyes.
| Control |
What it does |
| Forward |
Flies where you look: look down to descend |
| Jump |
Goes straight up |
| Sneak |
Gets off |
A ridden happy ghast flies at about 3.6 blocks per second, slower than a sprinting player. The Speed effect does nothing to it, and nothing in survival makes it faster. In a Java world with cheats on, /attribute @n[type=happy_ghast] minecraft:flying_speed base set 0.1, typed next to the ghast, doubles its speed (the default is 0.05); Bedrock has no such command. Our ID list gives the id of every mob for commands.
It also pulls cargo: on leads, a happy ghast tows a boat, or a horse, donkey, mule, camel or sniffer, tied at four points, and its leads hold up to 16 blocks before they break.
Food, healing and home
- Food: snowballs tempt ghastlings and happy ghasts and make ghastlings grow; a harness in your hand tempts adults too. Happy ghasts cannot be bred.
- Health: 20 (10 hearts). A happy ghast heals 1 health every 30 seconds, and 1 per second in rain or snow, or flying at cloud height (Y 187 to 196) under the open sky.
- Home: left alone, it stays within 64 blocks of its home, or 32 with a harness on.
Java and Bedrock: what differs
| What |
Java 26.3 |
Bedrock 26.50 |
| Snowballs on a ghastling |
Each takes 10% off the time left |
Each takes 2 minutes; ten make an adult |
| A faster happy ghast |
The /attribute command, with cheats |
No command for it |
| Dried Ghast, hydration, harness, four riders, healing |
Same |
Same |
