If it finds no solid blocks to teleport onto (like when in the Void) it does not move. However, if the block the shulker occupies becomes something other than air or the shulker finds itself not adjacent to any solid block, or the shell cannot open, it attempts to teleport (5 attempts per tick) to an air block within a 17×17×17 cuboid centered on the shulker that is adjacent to a solid block. Shulkers generally remain stationary, attached to an adjacent solid block. Spawning shulkers with other colors can be done using the / summon command, as detailed below. Shulkers are uncolored by default when using spawn eggs, while white is the default when using / summon or spawners. Inside the shell of the mob is a small yellow head with two eyes. The shell of the mob looks similar to a purpur block, blending in relatively easily to its surroundings. Shulkers also drop 5 when killed by a player or a tamed wolf. This is increased by 6.25% per level of Looting, for a maximum of 68.75% with Looting III. In Java Edition, shulkers have a 50% chance of dropping a shulker shell when killed. The maximum can be increased by 1 per level of Looting, which is 0–4 shells with Looting III. In Bedrock Edition, shulkers drop 0–1 shulker shells. If the attempt succeeds a new shulker spawns where the old shulker was before it teleported. When five or more other shulkers are nearby, no shulkers will spawn, but the hit shulker still teleports.
If not it proceeds to try this up to 4 more times. For this, it takes a random block in a 17×17×17 cuboid centered on the shulker and then checks if the block has a valid face to teleport to. The hit shulker needs to find somewhere to teleport.The hit shulker must have its lid open.If the attempt fails, it continues with the spawn attempt. It uses the same process as described below. When the shulker gets hit and then has less than half its health remaining, it can teleport without spawning a new shulker.There is a chance that a new shulker of the same color will spawn when one shulker hits another shulker (or itself) with a shulker bullet. Some parts of the game are enhanced by sound, or can give you an advance warning of attack if you aren't looking in the right direction, like a shark bumping the bottom of your boat or the hiss of a snake, so if you can't hear the cues, you need to ensure you're on the lookout for attacks.This feature is exclusive to Java Edition. You can also choose to tone down the ocean motion sickness effect, although not completely remove it. This does not affect creatures, so it can still be difficult to spot them, such as a snake hiding in some foliage. Otherwise, some of these can be hard to notice, such as a small rock on an identically coloured boulder, or a leafy branch on the grass. You can adjust the colour profile to Vibrant, which increases the contrast of the game, and you can also choose to have the game outline elements you can interact with, such as rocks and branches. You can enable a head-up display that tells you the name of the item you are looking at.
This can make it quite difficult to read at times, for example when it's displayed over white clouds or bright sand. Like much of the text in-game, it is white and is overlaid directly over the gameplay.
When you first start playing, you are given several text-based tutorials, telling you what to do and how to do it. You can then select the crafted shelter and press the Save button. When you want to save your game, you need to use the Shelter item, which you'll need to craft from items you find on the islands. You can also choose to enable permanent death, where once you die, all your progress is lost, for a really challenging experience. In addition to these basic difficulty settings, you can also change the hostility of the wildlife (which you can also remove entirely), from passive, where they will not attack you, to hostile, where they will actively seek you out. Once you have started playing, you cannot change the difficulty without deleting all your saved progress, so you should choose carefully. In creative mode, you are invincible, letting you enjoy the game without worrying about your health. In hard mode, skills take longer to learn and you'll take more damage. You can choose to play on one of three difficulty modes normal, hard and creative.