Skeleton

The skeleton is a hostile mob found in Survival, Indev, Infdev and Alpha. Skeletons are fairly fast-paced enemies that will shoot arrows at the player at a decent speed. 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 lit on fire to take burn damage until death.

One important note about skeletons is that they can shoot arrows through water with little to no effect on their speed and accuracy. Therefore, it is extremely hard to kill a skeleton in water, and it is best to fight skeletons on land. Skeletons can be led to 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 dies.

Skeletons can also mount spiders. Damage

Easy  - 1 heart (2 armor)

Normal - 2 hearts (4 armor)

Hard  - 3 hearts (6 armor)

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

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, it will shoot out 5-6 arrows around it. 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.

Drops
Survival Test: Alpha:
 * Arrows are shot in all direction upon death. Can be picked up and reused.
 * 120 points
 * 0-2 arrows