spawn_monsters
booleanJava 26.2 onlyControls whether hostile monsters (zombies, skeletons, creepers, etc.) spawn naturally in the world. Unlike spawn_mobs, this targets only hostile mobs — passive animals continue to spawn normally when this is false.
Enable spawn_monsters
Hostile mobs spawn naturally in low-light conditions as normal.
Java
/gamerule spawn_monsters trueDisable spawn_monsters
No new hostile mobs spawn naturally. Existing mobs remain. Spawners and /summon are unaffected.
Java
/gamerule spawn_monsters falseDefault: true. Restore with /gamerule spawn_monsters true
What spawn_monsters does
Controls whether hostile monsters (zombies, skeletons, creepers, etc.) spawn naturally in the world. Unlike spawn_mobs, this targets only hostile mobs — passive animals continue to spawn normally when this is false.
spawn_monsters is a Java Edition-only gamerule and is not available in Bedrock.