Commanding mobs in battle is a massive part of the Minecraft Legends experience, and that means you'll need to use the best mob units to have the best chance at defeating your piglin adversaries. However, it can be tough to know which mobs are the strongest and which ones are more niche without several hours of trial-and-error and experimentation.
Several of us here at team Windows Central have played through Mojang Studios' new spinoff extensively, and after some discussion, we've come up with a full list of all of the best Minecraft Legends mobs. We've also put together a tier list for all of the game's mobs, as well as complete details on what makes the top units so strong, how you can get or unlock them, and more.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: Tier list
Every mob in Minecraft Legends is useful in one way or another, but some of them are definitely better than others. By using the best mobs when putting together your army, you'll significantly increase the chances you'll be victorious when defending Villages or raiding Piglin bases. To help you figure out which units to choose, we've ranked every friendly and combat-capable mob in a tier list that you can view in the image above or the table below. Our rankings are based on our experience playing through the game's campaign and using these units in a variety of different battlefield scenarios.
Note that just because a mob is ranked low on the tier list, it doesn't mean that they're never worth using. Creepers, for example, are great in situations where you need to quickly blow through strong fortifications or deal strong damage to a boss or Nether Portal and can get away with using sacrificial units. Plank Golems, meanwhile, are a cheap unit with fairly high DPS and perform well in the early game despite their extremely low health. Highly ranked mobs are simply less situational and are strong in a wider variety of scenarios.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: Mossy Golem
- Spawner cost: 25 Wood, 25 Stone, 5 Iron
- Mob cost: 1 Iron, 1 Lapis
- Strengths: Provides essential healing to nearby units, fairly resilient
- Weaknesses: Cannot attack, healing is close-range only
Even though it isn't capable of fighting Piglins itself, the Mossy Golem's healing abilities arguably make it the best unit in the entire game. When near injured mobs or allied players, these golems will spray regenerative water in an area-of-effect around themselves. This healing is crucial for surviving battles against poisonous Piglins from the Horde of the Spore faction, and it's incredibly valuable in all other fights, too.
By adding just a few of these golems to your army, you'll significantly improve its survivability, which means you won't have to spend as many resources spawning more mobs over time. During difficult Piglin raids or lengthy base sieges, having utility like that is incredible.
You'll get access to Mossy Golems (Grindstone Golems, too) once you unlock your first Gather Iron improvement towards the start of the campaign.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: Zombie
- Spawner cost: 25 Wood, 25 Stone, 5 Redstone
- Mob cost: 2 Redstone, 2 Lapis
- Strengths: Very durable, solid melee damage
- Weaknesses: No ranged attacks
You and your forces will likely engage Piglins in close-range melee combat most of the time, and for that, you won't find a better unit than the Zombie. These mobs are some of the most basic enemies you can encounter in regular Minecraft, but in Legends, they're very tanky and are capable of dishing out respectable damage, too.
Zombies will excel against any Piglin melee unit, especially when you're using lots of them and are supporting them with Mossy Golems. They won't take down structures as fast as a Cobblestone Golem can, but they still do good damage to them and generally survive much longer.
You'll unlock the ability to spawn Zombies once you help them defend their homestead following the destruction of the Piglins' Night Portal. Their village will likely be located in the Swamp biome, where the Redstone you need to create them can be found. Note that you can also rally Zombies at their homestead with your Banner, allowing you to add them to your ranks without spending resources on them.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: First of Diorite
- Improvement cost: 100 Stone, 100 Prismarine (Wake the Firsts improvement)
- Mob cost: 100 Gold (to wake it up)
- Strengths: Durable, periodically spawns allied mobs
- Weaknesses: No direct attacks
Every First Golem is useful to have on the battlefield, but the First of Diorite is definitely the best of the four. While it's not the best at fighting Piglins directly, it will periodically spawn a small group of random allied mobs in combat. These additional mobs will help you make up for casualties you take mid-battle, allowing you to keep up the pressure without having to retreat to your mob spawners. These spawned units also don't count toward your spawned unit limit, letting you command larger armies. The fact that First Golems like the First of Diorite instantly respawn at the next Village you visit when they die is nice, too.
Once you've built the Wake the Firsts improvement at the Well of Fate, you can wake up the First of Diorite and other First Golems with 100 Gold each once you find them in the Overworld.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: Cobblestone Golem
- Spawner cost: 25 Wood, 25 Stone
- Mob cost: 1 Stone, 1 Lapis
- Strengths: Cheap, fairly durable, effective against structures
- Weaknesses: No ranged attacks, low Piglin damage
Between their low resource requirements, fairly high durability, and very effective damage against structures and fortifications, the humble Cobblestone Golems cement themselves as one of Minecraft Legends' best overall mobs. They're an excellent unit to incorporate into your army during raids on Piglin bases, and in a pinch, they're also a good choice if you need a cheap alternative to Zombies.
Cobblestone Golems are melee-only and don't perform as well as some other mobs do when fighting Piglin infantry, so don't use them if you're fighting the Horde of the Hunt faction or if you need ranged units. In any other situation, though, they're great.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: Skeleton
- Spawner cost: 25 Wood, 25 Stone, 5 Diamond
- Mob cost: 2 Diamond, 2 Lapis
- Strengths: Very long range, great damage, can fire over walls
- Weaknesses: Low health, no melee capability
Skeletons are the best defensive unit in Minecraft Legends, as their arrows deal great damage and they're capable of firing at enemies while standing behind your walls. They also have exceptional range, and in many cases will begin sniping piglins before they've even aggroed onto you, your other mobs, or your structures.
Notably, Skeletons can also fire over enemy walls, making them situationally useful when attacking Horde of the Bastion bases. Their main downside is that they have low health, so make sure you keep them behind walls and your front-line troops.
Like with Zombies, you'll need to help the Skeletons reclaim their home before they'll become available to use. Remember to take advantage of the fact that you can "steal" some from their homestead whenever you want, as the Diamond you need to spawn them is one of Minecraft Legends' rarer resources.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: First of Stone
- Improvement cost: 100 Stone, 100 Prismarine (Wake the Firsts improvement)
- Mob cost: 100 Gold (to wake it up)
- Strengths: Tanky, excellent structure damage
- Weaknesses: Not as effective against Piglins
The First of Stone is essentially just a buffed-up version of the Cobblestone Golem, complete with tons of health and a ranged attack. Like the Cobblestone Golem, it's fantastic when used against structures, but instead of punching them, it hurls a massive boulder at them that does incredible burst damage. It also uses this move against Piglin infantry, though it's not as effective in these scenarios.
The First of Stone is worth taking with you to any Piglin base or outpost raid, but it's an absolute must-have when fighting the Horde of the Bastion. Their fortifications are very durable and difficult to take down, but the First of Stone's boulder throws will make punching through them much easier.
Once you find the First of Stone in the open world after purchasing the Wake the Firsts improvement, you can wake it up for 100 Gold.
Best Minecraft Legends mobs: First of Oak
- Improvement cost: 100 Stone, 100 Prismarine (Wake the Firsts improvement)
- Mob cost: 100 Gold (to wake it up)
- Strengths: Tanky, very long range, exceptional single-target damage
- Weaknesses: Gets overwhelmed in melee combat, no melee attack
The First of Oak is essentially an anti-infantry version of the First of Stone. Instead of throwing a large rock, it shoots a massive ballista bolt out of its cannon capable of one-shotting many elite Piglin mobs and heavily wounding miniboss-tier ones like the Lava Launcher. This bolt also does solid damage to buildings, though it's far less effective against them than the First of Stone's boulders are.
The First of Oak also has the best range of any unit or structure, with the golem even outranging Skeleton archers. This means that whether you're assaulting a base or defending one, the First of Oak will be able to kill or soften up many targets before they get close to your troops and/or defenses. It performs very poorly in melee range since it doesn't have a close-range attack, though, so keep it away from the front.
Like other First Golems, the First of Oak can be woken up with 100 Gold once you've gotten the Wake the Firsts improvement and find them in the world.
Minecraft Legends is now available on Xbox, Windows PCs, PlayStation systems, and Nintendo Switch. It's one of the best Xbox games for fans of action-strategy, as it blends base building and unit coordination with hack-and-slash combat and the unique Minecraft charm that players know and love. It fully supports cross-play between every platform, too, and is also accessible through every tier of Xbox Game Pass.
As a first-party Xbox Game Studios game, Minecraft Legends is available in every tier of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, including on Xbox consoles, Windows PCs, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Play it to your heart's content, and enjoy a sweet discount if you wish to buy it.
