Minecraft camels guide – how to find, ride, and breed camels

Minecraft camels guide – how to find, ride, and breed camels
Finlay Cattanach Updated on by

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With so many new features coming in 1.20, a Minecraft camels guide is a no-brainer for the player seeking to go into the the snapshot beta or upcoming update with all the knowledge they need. Adding some more flavour to the deserts of our favourite blocky game, camels are a powerful new mount that’ll help make your adventures that much easier.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to find the creatures, how to ride them, how to breed them, and more. And if you fancy keeping up to date with all the new mobs, checking out our Minecraft sniffer guide might also be a shout.

Minecraft camels guide: A camel stands by a fountain in a desert village at sunset.

How to find camels in Minecraft

First, to find a camel, you’ll need to head into the desert. You can find camels in desert villages, with at least one camel always spawning in the centre of a village in this biome. Unlike the other rideable mounts in Minecraft, camels won’t simply spawn anywhere in a desert, and will instead be exclusive to the villages. This makes them a somewhat rare mob, but well worth the search.

Camels have a powerful lateral jump/dash ability that will allow players to quickly traverse tricky terrain. In addition, their height means that players will be safe from a variety of hostile mobs with melee attacks, which will be unable to reach. This will include zombies, vindicators, and even zombie piglins (if your mount is somehow unfortunate enough to wind up in the Nether). Their superior movement makes them a better choice at clearing ravines and rivers than a standard horse, although they don’t boast storage space capabilities that donkeys and mules do.

Minecraft camels guide: A camel sits outside a sandstone house in a desert village.

How to ride camels in Minecraft

To ride camels, you’ll need to equip a saddle in your hand and right-click on the creature. From there, right click again, and you’ll mount it. In this sense, riding a camel is a fair bit easier than other mounts, as there is no requirement to tame it before you’re able to control it.

If you’re looking for saddles, you have a chance to find one spawn inside chests within most naturally occurring structures. Though they won’t spawn from blocks you can use the new Minecraft brush tool on, it’s still worth checking out our Minecraft archeology guide if you want another route for collecting rare treasures.

Once you’ve got your hands on a saddle, all you need to do is right click on a camel with it, equipping the gear. Then, right click on the camel with an empty hand. Unlike horses, you won’t need to tame a camel in order to ride them, and will be able to control the creature’s movement as soon as you mount using your normal movement controls.

Minecraft camels guide: A lone player rides a camel through the nighttime desert.

One unique feature you’ll notice though is that camels actually have two spaces on their saddles. This is because they’re the first mount in Minecraft to be able to support two riders at once. Of course, for the camel’s sake, only one of the two will have control over steering at any one point.

Minecraft camels guide: Two players ride a camel through the desert together.

How to breed camels in Minecraft

To breed camels, attract two of the creatures using cactus blocks held out in your hand. As long as they’re within ten blocks of you, they’ll follow. Once you’ve brought two camels together, feed each one a piece of cactus by right clicking on them. Cacti shouldn’t be hard to come by since they’re abundant in desert biomes. The camels will then get to work producing baby camels.

Due to the many unique features of camels, alongside their relative scarcity in-game, it’s not a bad idea to have a way of producing more. While they might be better defended against many melee mobs, camels are not invincible. There’s also been no word from Mojang on whether they plan to one day add camel armour to the game, giving horses at least one win over their new competitors for the time being.

That covers everything you’ll need to know about camels in Minecraft before they make their full debut. While camel armour might not be making an appearance any time soon, Minecraft armour trimming certainly is. Alongside additional uses for bamboo that will turn knowing how to make a bamboo farm in Minecraft into precious knowledge, there’s plenty more to catch up on before the 1.20 update fully launches.

How do I ride camels in Minecraft?

To ride camels, you’ll need to equip a saddle in your hand and right-click on the creature. From there, right click again, and you’ll mount it.

How do I find camels in Minecraft?

To ride camels, you’ll need to equip a saddle in your hand and right-click on the creature. From there, right click again, and you’ll mount it.