Skeleton

Skeletons are common undead hostile mobs equipped with bows.

Spawning
Skeletons spawn at a light level of 0 in groups of 4 or 5 in the Overworld $$ and 1 to 2 $$. They can be found above solid blocks from all Overworld biomes except mushroom fields. 80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky spawn as strays in snowy plains, 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.

$$, skeleton horsemen do not have immunity.

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

Nether
In Nether fortresses, when a wither skeleton attempts to spawn, there is a 20% chance that a normal skeleton spawns instead.

Skeletons spawn commonly in soul sand valleys. However, existing skeletons prevent the spawning of other skeletons nearby, meaning there are much less skeletons in a given area compared to zombified piglins in nether wastes.

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 and iron golems they see within 16 blocks, climbing stairs, navigating mazes and traversing other complex obstacles to get within shooting range. They can climb ladders if they are forced to do so. When within 15 blocks of a target, with a clear line of sight, they start shooting with arrows, once every second. If the player leaves the 15-block radius, skeletons wait for some seconds with the bow charged, shooting the moment the player comes within range again.

Their detection range is reduced to 8 blocks if a Skeleton Skull is worn by the player. This stacks with sneaking and invisibility effect.

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.

Skeleton behavior varies between the game editions:


 * Java


 * 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 underwater.
 * 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.

In most cases, if a skeleton's arrow hits a neutral or hostile mob that has not yet been attacked by the player, the mob attacks the skeleton. When a skeleton is attacked by another mob (including another skeleton), it attacks that mob, reorienting on the player once the mob is dead.

Skeletons sink in water and cannot 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 charges at a player with arms outstretched and deals damage by touch, similar to a wither skeleton.

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

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 a helmet, which absorbs the damage, wearing out completely after several day cycles.
 * Standing in cobwebs.

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 Edition. If a creeper dies from a skeleton's arrow, it drops one of any music discs 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. Unlike zombies however, they pick up only weapons or armor. Since they already hold bows, they do not pick up and hold any other dropped item from the ground other than a weapon. 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. In Bedrock Edition, skeletons can also pick up and equip illager banners worn in their chest slot.

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) except if it is spawned as part of a skeleton trap, in which case only the helmet may be mismatched, and it would be iron.

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 is intentional.

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 7 seconds, it converts 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.




 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.
 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

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.
 * In Java Edition, 89% of skeletons hold their bow in their right hand and 11% with the left. This reflects estimated handedness percentages in the real world.
 * 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).
 * In Bedrock Edition, skeletons do not animate their bow.