Skeleton

The skeleton is a hostile mob that was introduced to the game in Survival Test and remained in all later versions of the game. Skeletons are fairly fast-paced enemies that will shoot arrows at the player. Like Zombies, skeletons only spawn in dark areas, such as unlit areas on the surface at night, or in unlit caves. If the sun is at a 15 degree angle or greater on land, they will be set on fire and take burn damage until death.

Skeletons can hit other mobs with their arrows. If they hit another hostile mob it will cause both of them to ignore the player and start fighting each other until one of them dies.

Since the Halloween Update, skeletons now hold a bow in their hands.

Behavior
Upon spotting the player, skeletons will start firing arrows in their direction with medium accuracy. When possible, they will strafe to their right and bunny-hop, making them more difficult targets. However, when fighting skeletons in caves this behavior often gets them stuck in small alcoves, where they will not move. Their shots travel in a wide arc, which sometimes causes the arrows to get stuck in the ceiling. If skeletons are in a 2 block high area, they can almost never hit you unless they are very close. This tactic is good for harvesting bones and arrows by finding a skeleton dungeon, filling in the roof to a 2 block tall room (carefully), and waiting for them to spawn.

If a skeleton's arrow hits another aggressive mob, that mob will turn to attack the skeleton the same way it would attack the player; a creeper will even attempt to explode on it. The skeleton, however, will continue to attack the player until it is damaged by the mob. In short, mobs will always attempt to attack the last mob (including a player) to cause damage to them.



History
In Survival Test, Skeletons are spawned randomly in new Survival maps and follow players when approached, much like Zombies. They appear to fire arrows at a faster and more random rate and upon death, will shoot out 5-6 arrows around themselves. Arrows fired by skeletons at that time could be picked up and used by players. They take 5 hits to kill and can wear NPC armour, although the armour does not give them any additional hit points.

Combat
Though it is really difficult and takes practice, you are able to beat back a skeleton's arrow. You can do this with any object, or by casting a fishing rod at it, just like a Ghast's fireball.

The skeleton can also shoot through doors from the inside of them (to confront this problem, always build doors by placing them from the outside). Skeletons will not actively shoot a door unless the door is opened or they are already chasing you as they cannot see through doors like spiders can.

Skeletons are probably the second most difficult mob in the game to kill, with the first being the Ghast. They are particularly dangerous underground, where the uneven nature of caves and tunnels will often give them cover. A full set of Iron Armor is preferable, as well as having some food on hand.

Skeletons are most easily killed melee with a sword, in confined spaces where the player is on one side of a 2x1 (that is, 2 blocks high, one wide) pillar, and the Skeleton is on the other. It may take some maneuvering to get a Skeleton into that position, but if you can do so, it is ideal. Players should particularly avoid fighting them at long range, as the Skeleton AI will generally have better than human aim, and is also able to fire more quickly when coming out of cover.

Drops
Survival Test:
 * Arrows are shot in all directions upon death. These can be picked up and reused.
 * 120 points

Alpha:
 * 0-2 arrows

Beta:
 * 0-3 bones
 * 0-3 arrows

Trivia

 * Skeletons have the same face as zombies, but with a mouth and a different colour.
 * If a skeleton kills a creeper, the creeper will drop a music disc.
 * Skeletons' legs have the same texture as their arms.
 * In Beta, if you are under the skeleton, it will shoot itself.
 * Though they have the same pose as a zombie, they will not deal any damage from touching you like zombies do. However, being that they fire their bows even at point blank range, there is little difference although a Skeleton cannot fire as rapidly as a zombie can touch you.
 * Skeletons fire arrows immediately when the player is in shooting range, making it hard to sneak up on them.
 * A skeleton in a minecart will not burn on contact with sunlight.
 * If a skeleton is trapped in a 2 block high area it will attempt to fire arrows at the player but the arrows will get stuck on the block above them, making them an easy target in man-made tunnels.