How to find and acquire Axolotl in the Minecraft Caves & Cliffs update

One of the most anticipated mobs coming with the Caves & Cliffs update in summer 2021 is the Axolotl. The creatures are adorable passive mobs — almost. They are passive to you, but these cuties are still natural predators.

While they will never hurt you, they can in fact help you and fight off underwater hostile mobs with you. So where and how can you find these new friends?

Finding Axolotls

While there are rivers, ponds, and vast oceans of all sorts in the Minecraft universe, none of those bodies of water are going to contain these feisty little friends. If you are seeking out Axolotls, you have to find a Lush Cave. Lush Caves are a new type of world generation that will only spawn under the newly introduced Azalea trees.

If you see these trees, you are going to want to venture downwards. Once you are inside a cave, you will begin to see growth like the new glow berries and greenery all around you. When you reach the water, it shouldn’t be long until you dive in and find some Axolotls. They come in the iconic pink shade of course, but you can also find them in other variants as well, such as the brown, pictured below.

Acquiring Axolotls

If you want to sit and stay on the edge of the water, you aren’t going to get any new buddies, as you cannot get them with a fishing rod. If you want to have an axolotl of you very own, bring some buckets. Like scooping up other aquatic mobs such as tropical fish and pufferfish, once you use a bucket, the item will become a bucket of axolotl.

This means that you will only be able to carry one axolotl for every bucket you have, so be sure to bring multiples if you are trying to acquire an axolotl army. In bucket form, the axolotl can be transported around like any other item, but like other full buckets, cannot be stacked.