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This question is from Minecraft 1.1 to 1.6, when getting wool from sheep required hitting them, rather than killing or shearing them.

I haven't read anything that confirms my suspicions, but I can almost swear that after months of playing Minecraft and harvesting a lot of wool for creations (and trying to make the most out of lapis back when you only got one dye per ore) that hitting sheep in different areas are more likely to yield certain quantities of wool.

Maybe it's confirmation bias, but from all my shearing, I feel that hitting them in the head is more likely to yield 3 wool, in the side is more likely to yield 2, and hitting them from behind is more likely to yield 1. Has anyone else observed this behaviour? Is there any confirmation from Notch or another developer that no matter where you hit a sheep, there's an equal chance of getting 1, 2, or 3 wool?

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  • 6
    It's memory bias.
    – Raven Dreamer
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 17:23
  • 11
    No, but it's much more satisfying, so you FEEL like you're getting more wool.
    – GnomeSlice
    Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 6:05
  • 1
    Or, it doesnt matter if you get more wool or not, you hit a sheep in the face!
    – AviD
    Commented Jun 17, 2011 at 8:20
  • 5
    Now that we can use the Minecraft 'profiles' option to go back to earlier versions of Minecraft, this question is no longer too localised.
    – Robotnik ♦
    Commented Dec 18, 2013 at 23:59
  • 1
    Voting to reopen as per this Arqade Meta post, What should be done with out of version questions?
    – galacticninja
    Commented Dec 19, 2013 at 2:53

1 Answer 1

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No.

Hitting a sheep in the head will cause no wool to be dropped until it is killed, when it will drop 1 block of wool. Furthermore, hitting a sheep in the head will not kill it any quicker, but it may relive tension and angst caused by a creeper.

Shearing a sheep with the shears item will result in 2-4 wool blocks being dropped, again, regardless of attack location.

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  • 18
    Cool, thanks. Now I can put my superstitious head-on sheep abuse to rest.
    – Alain
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 17:32
  • 64
    @Alain — Let's not be hasty here! A lack of bias in the code doesn't mean that the universe isn't karmically rewarding you for punching sheep in the head. I think it needs more study. A lot more study. Hmm…
    – Ben Blank
    Commented Jun 16, 2011 at 20:27
  • @BenBlank :-D Too funny!
    – FCTW
    Commented Nov 4, 2011 at 20:25

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