Skeleton

Skeletons are common undead hostile mobs equipped with bows.

Spawning
Skeletons spawn at a light level of 7 or less in groups of 4 or 5 in the Overworld in Java and 1 to 2 in Bedrock. They can be found above solid blocks from biomes except mushroom fields. 80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky spawn as strays in snowy tundras, frozen oceans and variants.

Spiders have a 1% chance to spawn with a skeleton riding them, creating a spider jockey.

Four skeleton horsemen spawn when a skeleton trap is triggered. The skeletons ride on skeleton horses and are equipped with enchanted bows and iron helmets and have damage immunity for 3 seconds after spawning.

In Bedrock Edition, skeleton horsemen do not have immunity.

Spawners
Skeletons spawn from 25% of the spawners found in dungeons.

Nether
Some of them may spawn in fortresses, replacing 20% of wither skeletons.

Skeletons are common in soul sand valleys, being found at a light level of 7 or less.

Drops
Skeletons drop:
 * 0–2 s. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 bones with Looting III.
 * 0–2 s. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 arrows with Looting III.
 * Picked-up items have a 100% chance of dropping and drop with the same damage level it had when picked up.
 * Any naturally spawned equipment (including the bow) has an 8.5% chance of dropping if killed by the player (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II, and 11.5% with Looting III). It is damaged and sometimes enchanted.
 * A skeleton drops its skull if killed by a charged creeper's explosion.
 * Skeletons drop when killed by a player or tamed wolf and extra  if the skeleton has equipment.

Behavior
Skeletons chase players they see within 16 blocks, climbing stairs, navigating mazes and traversing other complex obstacles to get within shooting range. They are able to climb ladders, but only if they are forced to. When within 15 blocks, with a clear line of sight, they start shooting with arrows, one every second. If you get out the 15-block radius, skeletons wait for some seconds with the bow charged, shooting at the same time that the player enters again.

The skeleton's accuracy is based on the game difficulty. Skeletons have an "error" of 10 on easy, 6 on normal and 2 on hard. This is compared to the player's lack of accuracy of 1. To account for gravity, skeletons aim 0.2 blocks higher for every horizontal block of range to the target.

These mobs' behavior varies across the game editions:


 * Java
 * The detection range of skeletons is reduced to 8 blocks while the player wears a skeleton mob head.
 * Strafe in circular patterns to dodge attacks and retreat to a safe range if the player comes within 4 blocks.
 * Sprint toward the player if they are 14 blocks away or farther.
 * Use bows even underwater. The water slows down the arrows.


 * Bedrock
 * Skeletons typically stop moving to shoot, making no attempt to avoid being hit.
 * An underwater skeleton uses a melee attack because it is unable to use a bow.
 * A skeleton on land shoots quickly at a player in water. The rate of fire increases as the player approaches, making combat difficult due to the knockback.

If their arrows hit most neutral and hostile mobs, the mob attacks the skeleton, if it was not hit by a player first. When a skeleton is attacked by other mobs or even another skeleton, it attacks that mob, reorienting on the player once the mob is dead.

Skeletons sink in water and are unable to swim, but do not drown.

If spawned with a weapon other than a bow, or no weapon at all (which can be spawned with commands such as, or ), a skeleton comes at players with arms outstretched and damages by touching them, similar to a wither skeleton.

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

Skeletons $$ have similar behavior to Java Edition. However, they don't burn in sunlight and they cannot pick up items.

Sunlight


Skeletons burn at dawn when the sun is 15 degrees or greater above the ground (when the moon can no longer be seen) unless the skeleton is:
 * 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 (the helmet absorbs the damage, but may take several day cycles before it wears out completely).

If not wearing a helmet, it seeks out shade during the day or enters water to protect itself. Unlike zombies, which leave the shade to chase a player, skeletons do not exit the shaded area even while attacking.



Other mobs
Skeletons flee from wolves. A skeleton runs from a chasing wolf until the wolf deals damage, after which the skeleton turns to shoot at the wolf that successfully attacked it.

Skeletons shoot at nearby iron golems and baby turtles. Snow Golems are attacked as well in Bedrock. If a creeper dies from a skeleton's arrow, it drops one of any music disc except for Pigstep.

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

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

Geared skeletons
Some spawned skeletons have the ability to pick up dropped items from the ground. If a picked up item is armor, a carved pumpkin or a mob head, a skeleton equips itself with the item. If the picked up item is a weapon, the skeleton uses the item as a melee weapon.

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

If a skeleton does spawn with armor, the chances of specific armor are as follows: $$, the armor pieces go from feet to head, and $$, they go from head to feet.

The chances of it being of a particular material are:

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

If a skeleton has a bow and a sword is given, it drops the bow, with the same chance as if killed with Looting I and starts using the sword. If a skeleton has a sword or bow in its hand, and one of a better type or with better enchantments is given, the skeleton drops the existing weapon, with the same chance as if killed with Looting I in favor of the better one. Any skeleton that spawns with equipment (picked-up items do not count) gives 1–3 extra experience points per item.

If multiple viable items exist, the skeleton endlessly picks up and drops the items. This feature has been intentionally programmed into the game.

Halloween
$$, during Halloween (October 31), skeletons have a 22.5% chance of spawning wearing a carved pumpkin and a 2.5% chance of spawning wearing a jack o'lantern. If these skeletons are killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, the pumpkin or jack o'lantern can drop with a chance equivalent to the level of Looting, up to 3 percent chance with Looting III.

Strays
If a skeleton is inside of powder snow for 45 seconds, it will convert into a stray.

A newly-converted stray always has full health even if converted from a damaged skeleton.

The converted stray keeps any items worn or held when it was a skeleton.

Only normal skeletons can become strays; wither skeletons cannot be converted.

ID




Entity data
Skeletons have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

History
Historical sounds:

Trivia

 * If alerted to a player's presence, a skeleton can fire arrows backward, occasionally hitting themselves.
 * Skeletons cannot see the player through glass, fences, or other transparent blocks.
 * Skeletons and their variants do not know how to use a crossbow, despite the same using method as a bow.
 * The artificial intelligence of skeletons $$ is a mix of skeleton AI from between versions 1.5 and 1.8.9 and the skeletons in Update Aquatic. They shoot faster when they are on land and the target underwater, causing knockback enough to make combat hard. Additionally, they do not strafe left to right, and they shoot more rapidly at closer targets. Skeletons also use ranged attacks on land and switch to melee attacks when sinking underwater.
 * Skeletons and endermen are the only mobs that can spawn in both the Overworld and the Nether. Additionally zombies may also rarely spawn if an attacked zombified piglin spawns in reinforcements.
 * 89% of skeletons hold their bow in their right hand and 11% with the left.
 * If a skeleton has a sword or any other melee item, generally with commands, its AI resembles the wither skeleton's AI.
 * Prior to Bedrock Edition 1.16, skeletons could still shoot their arrows even without a bow.
 * Since Java Edition 1.9.1, skeletons used to shoot an arrow every 1 second on hard and every 2 seconds in Normal and Easy difficulties. As 1.16.3, they shoot with the same speed across the modes (1.5 seconds), which is unknown whether this is a bug or removed feature.