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Template:BlockTileEntity Mob heads are decorative blocks. There are five variants of mob heads: Skeleton, Wither Skeleton, Zombie, The Player and Creeper. The Wither Skeleton variant is a rare drop from the respective mob, with the other heads only available in Creative mode.

Obtaining

The Wither Skeleton skull is a rare drop of Wither Skeletons, while the other heads are only available in Creative mode. Obtaining a human head with the same texture as a specific player's head requires /give, and is achieved by changing the NBT tag of SkullOwner to the player's username.

Usage

The main use of heads is for decoration. They can be oriented in 16 different directions on top of a block, and 4 directions on the sides of blocks, similar to signs. They cannot be placed on top of each other.

The player can also wear heads as disguise, similarly to pumpkins. This will only replace the first layer of the player's skin. If the player has a second layer over their head, it will still render over the head (this also applies to Zombie Pigmen wearing heads). They can also be used as a decorative disguise, using dyed leather armor. Occasionally, another mob may pick up a skull and wear it just as the player would. This is common when a wither skeleton drops a skull next to another mob in the Nether. The only mobs which can wear the heads are the Skeleton, Wither Skeleton, Zombie, and Zombie Pigmen.[1] Other mobs can only wear heads when spawned using custom spawners via /setblock.

Heads are not able to be pushed by pistons, as they have tile entities.

Spawning a Wither

Wither build configuration

Wither skeleton skulls are essential for spawning a Wither. To do so, place 4 soul sand in a vertical T-shape, then place three wither skeleton skulls on top. The orientation of the skulls does not matter.

As a crafting ingredient

Heads are used in the crafting of Firework Stars. Firework rockets crafted with said stars will have an explosion shaped like a Creeper face, regardless of which type of head was used.

Name Ingredients Crafting recipe
Firework Star
(forms Creeper shape)
Any Mob head +
Gunpowder +
Any Dye


Player Heads

Human heads have an extra usage for map makers, they can be given NBT data (as shown here) so that they appear with the skin of any Minecraft account. This means if you know that a specific account has a head which you want to display, you can edit the NBT data to make it appear. The command to give yourself a head, skinned as another player, is "/give @p skull 1 3 {SkullOwner:PlayerName}", where @p is the player, and PlayerName is the name of the account of the head you'd like to use.

Mojang has created a number of accounts with specific skins, so that map makers can use common heads without the risk that someone will change their skin.[2] Those players have names in the format "MHF_MobName", for example "MHF_PigZombie" is the name of a Minecraft user with a Zombie Pigman head. MHF stands for "Marc's Head Format". There are also a few blocks and "bonus" heads, for more variety.

The following names/heads have been made available:

Mobs:

  • MHF_Blaze
  • MHF_CaveSpider
  • MHF_Chicken
  • MHF_Cow
  • MHF_Enderman
  • MHF_Ghast
  • MHF_Golem
  • MHF_Herobrine
  • MHF_LavaSlime
  • MHF_MushroomCow
  • MHF_Ocelot
  • MHF_Pig
  • MHF_PigZombie
  • MHF_Sheep
  • MHF_Slime
  • MHF_Spider
  • MHF_Squid
  • MHF_Villager

Blocks:

  • MHF_Cactus
  • MHF_Chest
  • MHF_Melon
  • MHF_OakLog
  • MHF_Pumpkin
  • MHF_TNT
  • MHF_TNT2

Bonus:

  • MHF_ArrowUp
  • MHF_ArrowDown
  • MHF_ArrowLeft
  • MHF_ArrowRight
  • MHF_Exclamation
  • MHF_Question

Video

Head/video

History

r
August 28, 2012Jeb released images of the skeleton head, hinting of more types to come.
at PAX 2012At PAX, Dinnerbone revealed that there would be very rare drops of these mobs.[3]
1.4.212w36aThe skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads were introduced in the update. Wither Skeleton skulls are rarely dropped by the Wither Skeleton upon death (2.5% chance), while the other four are only obtainable from the creative inventory.
12w37aAdded as a hidden and disabled feature, human heads can now have the skin of a specific player. A line in the language file implies that there either used to be, or in a future update, the possibility of obtaining a specific player's head.[4] Dinnerbone hinted at the possibility of player heads being dropped at death like trophy heads.[citation needed] Player heads do not/will not drop in vanilla, but mapmakers/modders/etc. can make them by adding an NBT string tag "SkullOwner" -> (player name) on the skull items.[5]
1.4.612w49aAny kind of mob head can be used to craft a Firework Star with Creeper-face effect.
1.7.213w36aCustom heads can now be obtained without third party programs via the give command.
u
1.814w03aPlayer heads now show the skin's hat layer (This also works when a mob/player wears the head.)

Issues

Issues relating to "Head" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

  • Heads are one of the few blocks that do not have their own textures and take their textures from other objects.
    • As such, when breaking any head, the particle effect of breaking it is the same as soul sand.
      • The most possible reason is because they don't have their own texture, so a texture that made sense was chosen.
  • All heads are the same size (even though Wither Skeletons have larger heads than the other represented mobs).
  • Heads will break upon contact with water and lava.
  • In demo mode after the demo period has ended, breaking a Wither Skeleton skull will cause it to reappear as a normal skeleton skull.
  • Although mob heads do not protect the player, an enchanted mob head, when worn, will apply the said effects to the player. The only advantage over an identically enchanted helmet is the mob head has no durability rating and thus effectively has infinite durability.
  • Heads won't cause Cacti to break when placed next to them.

Gallery

References

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