Skeleton

Skeletons are common undead humanoid hostile mobs equipped with bows.

Spawning
Skeletons can spawn almost anywhere in the Overworld at a light level of 7 or less, in groups of up to 4 $$ or to 2 $$. 80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky in Snowy Tundra, Snowy Mountains, Ice Spikes, Frozen River, Frozen Ocean, and Deep Frozen Ocean biomes will spawn as strays instead. In the Nether, they can also spawn in nether fortresses at a light level of 7 or less in place of a wither skeleton.

Spiders have a 1% chance to spawn with a skeleton riding them, creating a spider jockey. In Bedrock Edition, cave spiders have 1% chance to spawn with a skeleton riding them, creating a cave spider jockey.

Skeleton horsemen spawn when a skeleton trap is triggered by a player. The skeletons ride on skeleton horses and are equipped with enchanted bows and iron helmets, and have the Resistance effect for 3 seconds after spawning.

Skeletons are 1.99 blocks tall.

Monster spawners
Skeletons can spawn from naturally-generated spawners found in dungeons.

Drops
Skeletons drop:
 * 0–2 s (additional 1 bone drop for every Looting level, with a maximum of 0-5 bones for Looting III)
 * 0–2 s (additional 1 arrow for every Looting level)
 * Any picked-up equipment has a 100% chance of dropping and will drop with the same damage level it had when picked up.
 * Any naturally spawned equipment (including the bow) has a 8.5% chance of dropping (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III). It will usually be badly damaged, and has a chance of being enchanted.
 * A skeleton will drop its head if killed by a charged creeper's explosion.
 * Skeletons drop 5 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf, and 1–3 extra experience if the skeleton has equipment.

Wither Skeleton


Wither Skeletons are a variant of skeletons, but taller, darker and arguably more dangerous than regular skeletons. They have a sword instead of a bow, and spawn in nether fortresses, and also in the general Nether. They inflict the Wither status effect when attacking. See here for more information of the mob.

Stray


Strays are another variant of skeleton. 80% of skeletons that spawn in icy biomes will be strays instead. They attack like normal skeletons, but shoot and drop tipped arrows of slowness instead.

Halloween
During Halloween (October 31), skeletons have a 22.5% chance of spawning wearing a pumpkin and a 2.5% chance of spawning wearing a jack o'lantern. If these skeletons are killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, there will be a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.

Attacking the player
Skeletons will chase any player they see within 16 blocks, and will climb stairs, navigate mazes, and traverse other complex obstacles in order to get within shooting range. When they are within about 16 blocks of the player with a clear line of sight, they will stop chasing and start shooting the player with arrows, one arrow on each 2 seconds (1 in hard difficulty). They will strafe at player's walking speed in circle patterns to try to dodge attacks during the process, and will retreat to safe range if the player comes too close (4 blocks or less) to them. If the player moves more than 16 blocks away from the skeleton, it will not see the player. The detection range of skeletons is reduced to half of their normal range (8 blocks) when the player is wearing a skeleton mob head. If a player shoots a skeleton outside its detection range, then it will temporarily hold up its bow in a shooting position.

The skeleton's accuracy is based on the difficulty. Skeletons have an "error" of 10 on easy, 6 on normal, and 2 on hard. This is compared to the player's "error" of 1. When their target is closer, skeletons shoot faster, but do less damage. To account for gravity, skeletons aim 0.2 blocks higher for every block horizontal they are from the target.

If a skeleton's arrow hits certain hostile mobs, that mob will then attack the skeleton the same way it would attack the player, given it was not hit by the player first. If a skeleton is attacked by another mob (usually another skeleton), it may attack that mob, reorienting on the player once that mob is dead.

If spawned with no weapon at all (which can be spawned with ), a skeleton acts like a zombie (though faster), coming at the player with arms outstretched and damaging the player by touching them.

Skeletons are also able to climb ladders, but only when forced to, as their AI does not handle ladders in a special way.

Skeletons holding tipped arrows in their offhand will shoot that type of arrow; these arrows are not consumed.

Skeletons sink in water and are unable to swim, but they do not drown. Underwater skeletons can only use a melee attack to attack the player and cannot use their bow.

Burning in sunlight
Like zombies, skeleton burning occurs at dawn when the sun is 15 degrees or greater above the ground (that is, when the moon can no longer be seen), unless the skeleton is: If not wearing a helmet, they may make some attempt to seek out shade during the day, or enter bodies of water to protect themselves from burning up. Unlike zombies, which will always chase the player if they see one, skeletons will not exit the shade area even if attacking a player. Burning skeletons have a 50% chance of shooting flaming arrows if the regional difficulty is 3 or greater.
 * Below an opaque block
 * In a sunlight level of 11 or less
 * In water
 * Standing in soul sand
 * Affected by Fire Resistance
 * Wearing head armor (but the armor will take damage).



Wolves
Skeletons run from wolves, as wolves attack and chase skeletons. When skeletons are safe from sunlight, they will shoot at any wolves that attack it.

Attacking other mobs
Skeletons will shoot at any nearby iron golems. Skeletons also search for and attack baby turtles.

Mob type
Skeletons are undead mobs, causing them to be damaged by the status effect Instant Health, healed by the status effect Instant Damage, and unaffected by the status effects Regeneration and Poison.

Skeletons are also ignored by the wither and are affected by the Smite enchantment.

Armed and armored skeletons


Also, like zombies, some spawned skeletons can pick up dropped items from the ground, and if those items happen to be armor, pumpkins, jack o'lanterns or mob heads they will equip them, and if weapons or tools, the skeleton will use them as a melee weapon.

Skeletons spawn already-armed with bows, which may also be enchanted. The chances of that event are listed below and are taken from the game's code. If a skeleton spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor will never be mismatched (i.e. all pieces will be made of the same material).

If a skeleton does spawn with armor, the chances of specific armor are as follows:

The chances of it being of a particular material are:

Skeleton armor is not damaged from most damage sources, which means it cannot "wear out" the way player armor does. Helmets (not blocks like pumpkins) on skeletons can wear away and break if the skeleton is exposed to daylight or has an anvil or other falling block dropped on its head.

If a skeleton has a bow and a sword is given, it will drop the bow (with the same chance as if killed with Looting I) and start using the sword. If a skeleton has a sword or bow in their hand, and one of a better type or with better enchantments is given, they will drop the existing weapon (with the same chance as if killed with Looting I) and start using the better one. Any skeleton that spawns with equipment (picked-up items don't count) will give 1–3 extra experience points per item.

Data values
Skeletons have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia

 * If alerted to a player's presence, skeletons can fire arrows backwards, occasionally hitting themselves.
 * Skeletons cannot see the player through glass, fences, or other transparent blocks.
 * If a skeleton kills a creeper, the creeper will drop a music disc.

Gallery
Kostlivec Skelett Σκελετοί Esqueleto Squelette Csontváz Scheletro スケルトン 스켈레톤 Skelet Szkielet Esqueleto Скелет 骷髅