Mob Menagerie: Happy Ghast

Happy ghasts are not your average ghast. Announced at Minecraft Live 2025 and released in the Chase the Skies update in June 2025, they’re not only happier than their terrifying cousins, but can also be ridden by up to four players at once, and even tow cargo along with them.

I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that most ghasts are not particularly happy, so how can you cheer one up? Well, the answer is a bit involved. First, you’ll need to go to the Nether, and dig around or barter with the locals until you find a dried ghast – which is either the shrivelled up remains of an old ghast or some kind of ghast egg or something else entirely. Mojang’s top biologists are still trying to get to the bottom of that. One of our science team did find out, though, that dried ghasts can be crafted by mashing together eight ghast tears and a block of soul sand in a crafting bench. We weren’t sure whether to fire them or give them a raise after that particular discovery.

However you acquire it, bring your dried ghast back to the Overworld and plop it down in some shallow water. Green particles will appear, and the rehydration process will begin. You’ll see the lil creature get brighter and happier over time. After about 20 minutes, it’ll perk up enough to begin flying – at this stage, it’s known as a ghastling (not to be confused with baby ghasts, which are a different stage of the ghast lifecycle). Look after your ghastling, and feed it snowballs to accelerate its growth, and eventually it’ll mature into an adult happy ghast.

Once grown up, a happy ghast will fly around the area where it grew up. If you approach one holding a harness or a snowball, it’ll fly down to you – at which point you can equip the ghast with a harness and up to four players can ride it. The first player that mounts the ghast gets to steer, while the others can sit on its back and enjoy the views. It can fly both horizontally and vertically – point in the direction you want to go and move forward.

Happy ghasts can also carry extra cargo with them, using leads. Boats, boats with chests, horses, camels, sniffers, and a few other things can be easily attached to a harnessed happy ghast by sneaking while holding a leash and hitting the use key on the ghast. To remove the leash again, use a pair of shears. Sadly, you can’t ride in a boat carried by a ghast (we wouldn’t want you to fall out at a great height), but you can ride a pig or unsaddled horse, so that’s fun. 

When you’re done flying around, hit the dismount button and you’ll be standing on top of the ghast. The ghast will hang out like this for as long as you stand on it – making it easy to build tall structures. But be aware that if you jump off then it might wander away, so be sure to tether it to a post or something.

Now it’s up to you to figure out where you and your happy friend would like to go next. Up a mountain? Down a ravine? Through the cloud layer on a moonless night, with your best friends? The choice is yours!