Skeletons are undead, ranged hostile mobs equipped with bows. Strays are variants of skeletons that only appear in certain biomes.
Spawning
Skeletons can spawn almost anywhere in the Overworld at a light level of 7 or less. In the Nether, they can also spawn in nether fortresses at a light level of 7 or less in place of a wither skeleton.
Spiders have a 1% chance spawn with a skeleton riding them, creating a spider jockey.
Skeleton riders spawn when a skeleton trap is triggered by a player. The skeletons ride on skeleton horses and are equipped with enchanted bows and iron helmets, and have damage immunity for 3 seconds after spawning.
Skeletons are 1.99 blocks tall.
Monster spawners
Skeletons also spawn from spawners found in dungeons.
Variants
Stray
One of the first images of strays, as tweeted by Jeb.
80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky in ice plains, ice mountains, and ice plains spikes biomes will be strays. The 1% of spiders spawned in those biomes which end up spawning as a spider jockey also have an 80% chance to be a stray spider jockey. The Pocket Edition has a stray spawn egg in Creative.
Strays behave much the same as normal skeletons do. However, they shoot tipped arrows that inflict Slowness for 30 seconds on any target that it hits. Despite shooting slowness arrows, strays themselves are not immune to slowness.
Strays make similar noises to Skeletons, but with the addition of an echoing effect.
In addition to normal skeleton drops, strays have a 50% chance to drop a tipped arrow of Slowness. With the Looting enchantment, this chance increases to 2×level+1⁄2×level+2, which comes to 3⁄4 for level I, 5⁄6 for level II and 7⁄8 for level III.
Drops
Skeletons drop 0-2 bones and 0-2 arrows upon death. Any picked-up equipment has a 100% chance of dropping and will drop with the same damage level it had when picked up. When killed by a player any naturally spawned equipment (including the bow) has a 8.5% (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III) chance of dropping and will drop with a random durability. A skeleton will drop its head if killed by a charged creeper's explosion.
Skeletons drop 5 experience when killed by a player or tamed wolf, +1-3 extra experience if the skeleton has equipment.
Halloween
On Halloween, skeletons have a 22.5% chance of spawning wearing a pumpkin and a 2.5% chance of spawning wearing a jack o'lantern. If these skeletons are killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, there will be a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.
Behavior
Dueling skeletons.
Skeletons spawn in dimly lit areas, and will burn in sunlight. When skeletons are nearby, their presence is indicated by the intermittent harsh rattling sound of their bones. Skeletons will chase any player they see within 16 blocks, and will climb stairs, navigate mazes, and traverse other complex obstacles in order to get within shooting range. When they are within 8 blocks of the player with a clear line of sight, they will stop chasing and start shooting the player with arrows. They will strafe during the process, and will retreat to safe range if the player comes too close to them. If the player moves more than 16 blocks away from the skeleton, it will cease pursuit. The detection range of skeletons is reduced to half of their normal range (8 blocks) when the player is wearing a skeleton mob head. Skeletons can attempt to avoid damage from the player by continuously circling around them while shooting at them.
The skeleton's accuracy is based on the difficulty. Skeletons have an "error" of 10 on easy, 6 on normal, and 2 on hard. This is compared to the player's "error" of 1. When their target is closer, skeletons shoot faster, but do less damage. To account for gravity, skeletons aim 0.2 blocks higher for every block horizontal they are from the target.
If a skeleton's arrow hits certain hostile mobs, that mob will then attack the skeleton the same way it would attack the player, given it was not hit by the player first. If a skeleton is attacked by another mob (usually another skeleton), it may attack that mob, reorienting on the player once that mob is dead.
When wielding anything but a bow, they will move at about the player's walking speed. If spawned with no weapon at all (by using commands) a skeleton acts like a zombie (though faster), coming at the player with arms outstretched and damaging the player by touching them.
Skeletons are also able to climb ladders, but only when forced to, as their AI does not handle ladders in a special way.
Like zombies, skeleton burning occurs at dawn when the sun is 15 degrees or greater above the ground, unless the skeleton is either in shade, water, or wearing a helmet. If not wearing a helmet, they will attempt to find shade or water to keep from burning. Unlike zombies, which will always chase the player if they see one, skeletons will not exit the shade area even if attacking a player. Burning skeletons have a 50% chance of shooting flaming arrows if the raw regional difficulty is 3 or greater.
Skeletons holding tipped arrows in their offhand will shoot that type of arrow; these arrows are not consumed.
Skeletons run from wolves, as wolves attack and chase skeletons. When skeletons are safe from sunlight, they will shoot at any wolves that attack it. Skeletons will also shoot at iron golems. Creepers killed by a skeleton's arrow will drop a music disc.
Armed and armored skeletons
A skeleton in 1.4.5 in full gold armor.
Like zombies, some spawned skeletons can pick up dropped items from the ground, and if those items happen to be armor, pumpkins, jack o'lanterns or mob heads they will equip them, and if weapons or tools, the skeleton will use them as a melee weapon.
Skeletons spawn already-armed with bows, which may also be enchanted. The chances of that event are listed below and are taken from the game's code. If a skeleton spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor will never be mismatched (i.e. all pieces will be made of the same material).
| Easy | Normal | Hard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armor | 0% | 0%-15%[note 1] | 1.875%-15%[note 1] |
| Weapon[note 2] | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Pick up | 0% | 0%-55%[note 1] | 6.875%-55%[note 1] |
| Weapon enchantment[note 3] | 0% | 0%-25%[note 1] | 3.125%-25%[note 1] |
| Armor enchantment[note 3] | 0% | 0-50%[note 1] | 6.25%-50%[note 1] |
If a skeleton does spawn with armor, the chances of specific armor are as follows:
| Armor | Easy & Normal | Hard |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | 100% | 100% |
| Helmet & Chestplate | 75% | 90% |
| Helmet & Chestplate & Leggings | 56.25% | 81% |
| Full set | 42.19% | 72.9% |
The chances of it being of a particular material are:
| Armor Type | Chance |
|---|---|
| Leather | 37.06% |
| Gold | 48.73% |
| Chain | 12.90% |
| Iron | 1.27% |
| Diamond | 0.04% |
Skeleton armor is not damaged from most damage sources, which means it cannot "wear out" the way player armor does. Helmets (not blocks like pumpkins) on skeletons can wear away and break if the skeleton is exposed to daylight or has an anvil or other falling block dropped on its head.
If a skeleton has a bow and a sword is given, it will drop the bow (with the same chance as if killed with Looting I) and start using the sword. If a skeleton has a sword or bow in their hand, and one of a better type or with better enchantments is given, they will drop the existing weapon (with the same chance as if killed with Looting I) and start using the better one. Any skeleton that spawns with equipment (picked-up items don't count) will give 1–3 extra experience points per item. Note that skeletons seem to always drop their equipment in pocket edition.[verify]
Data values
Skeletons have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is Skeleton.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- StrayConversionTime: The number of ticks until this skeleton converts to a stray (default value is -1, when no conversion is under way).
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| Sniper Duel | Kill a Skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters. | Use a launched arrow to kill a skeleton, spider jockey, wither skeleton, or a stray from 50 or more blocks away, horizontally. | 30G | Bronze | ||
Video
- Note: This video doesn't mention skeletons running away from wolves.
Skeleton/video
History
| classic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.24_02 | Skeletons are added. They spawned randomly in new Survival maps and followed players when approached, much like zombies. | ||||
| 0.25 SURVIVAL TEST 2 | Skeletons fired arrows with a purple/magenta colored shaft, appeared to fire arrows at a faster and more random rate, and shot 6 arrows outward a short range in all directions when dying. Arrows fired by skeletons at that time could be picked up and used by players. | ||||
| Skeletons now drop 0 - 2 arrows upon death. | |||||
| Skeletons took five hits to kill and could appear wearing NPC armor (that gave them no additional protection) and gave 120 points when killed. | |||||
| indev | |||||
| 0.31 | Skeletons no longer wear armor and their attacking animation was also removed as well. | ||||
| Purple arrows that skeletons throw were removed and were replaced by brown arrows. | |||||
| a | |||||
| 1.2.0 | Skeletons now hold a bow in their right hand, however they were held as an item just like a player would hold it at this period. | ||||
| b | |||||
| 1.2 | Skeletons can drop 0 - 2 bones in addition to arrows. | ||||
| 1.8 | Skeleton's bow is now larger and held more realistically (full-sized bows, two-handed, and pulling the arrow back) than in previous versions (in one hand) and they also fire arrows slightly slower (probably because bows had now needed "charging"). Their arrows however, are shot with more force. | ||||
| release | |||||
| 1.0.0 | ? | Skeletons now hold their bow with one hand again but they still had the more larger and held realistically bow. | |||
| 1.2.1 | 12w04a | The skeleton's AI was updated so they are "smarter", i.e. if a skeleton catches fire in daylight, it will rush to the nearest shadow or body of water for safety. | |||
| 12w06a | There is a small chance that skeletons drop a bow when killed. There is also a small chance that the bow will be enchanted. | ||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w32a | Skeletons, zombies and zombie pigmen now pick up dropped items. They also have the ability to wear armor and wield a weapon, so if they pick up armor, they will wear it. If they pick up a weapon, they wield it. But there is a bug that skeletons will fire arrows even if they are wielding a sword. | |||
| Skeletons, zombies, and zombie pigmen can spawn wearing any type of armor (including chain); both armor and weapons may be enchanted. | |||||
| 12w36a | Skeletons can be found in Nether fortresses along with wither skeletons, their Nether equivalent. | ||||
| ? | On Halloween, skeletons, wither skeletons, zombies and zombie pigmen now have a chance of spawning with a pumpkin or jack o'lantern. | ||||
| 12w38a | Skeletons were given new sounds. | ||||
| 1.4.4 | 1.4.3-pre | Skeletons now rush to the player instead of shooting arrows if they don't have a bow. | |||
| 1.5 | 13w02a | Skeletons shoot from a range of 15 blocks instead of 10. | |||
| 13w03a | Skeletons begin to fire rapidly at players who come within close range in an attempt to knock them back. This makes melee combat in water hard, if not impossible. | ||||
| 1.8 | 14w10a | Now run away from wolves instead of fighting back. | |||
| 14w11a | Now run away from creepers that are about to explode. | ||||
| 14w30a | Drops skull when killed by a charged creeper. | ||||
| 1.8.1 | 1.8.1-pre1 | No longer runs away from creepers that are about to explode. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Now animate their bow, they pull it out when becoming hostile and draw it back to shoot arrows. | |||
| They have a small chance to spawn with their bow in their left hand. | |||||
| Skeletons now have the ability to dual wield. | |||||
| Skeletons now hold their bow with two hands again. | |||||
| 15w32a | The detection range of skeletons is halved when the player is wearing a skeleton mob head. | ||||
| 15w33c | The detection range for players wearing the skeleton mob head is adjusted, now 37.5% of the normal range. | ||||
| 15w36a | The detection range for players wearing the skeleton mob head is again 50% of the normal range. | ||||
| 15w38a | Skeletons have a new AI which allows them to strafe while shooting the target. | ||||
| Skeletons may spawn from skeleton trap horses. | |||||
| 15w39a | Skeletons are slightly taller (1.99 blocks tall rather than 1.95). | ||||
| 1.10 | April 11, 2016 | Jens Bergensten tweets an image of a new skeleton-type mob. | |||
| 16w20a | Added strays. | ||||
| Added spawn eggs for stray and wither skeleton variants. | |||||
| 1.10-pre1 | Skeletons can now shoot flaming arrows when burning and regional difficulty is 3 or greater. | ||||
| Skeletons holding tipped arrows in their off hand will now shoot that type of arrow. | |||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.3.3 | Added skeletons. | ||||
| 0.5.0 | Skeletons have new animations. | ||||
| 0.9.0 | build 8 | Skeletons now have new AI. | |||
| build 9 | Skeletons use the old AI again because they don't fire arrows correctly. | ||||
| 0.11.0 | build 1 | Skeletons no longer hold their bow with 2 arms. | |||
| build 14 | Skeletons now have improved accuracy. | ||||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Skeletons use the new AI again, thus improving accuracy, which made them much smarter, so when the skeleton gets burned in the daylight it will hide to the nearest tree or a big shallow lake. | |||
| Skeletons can now spawn wearing armor. | |||||
| Skeletons now have the ability to pick up items. | |||||
| build 12 | New sounds for dying skeletons. | ||||
| 0.13.0 | build 1 | Skeletons now run away from wolves. | |||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Now animate their bow, they pull it out when becoming hostile and draw it back to shoot arrows. | |||
| Added strays. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Added skeletons. | |
| TU5 | The skeleton's bow is now larger and held more realistically (full-sized bows, two-handed, and pulling the arrow back) than in previous versions (in one hand) and they also fire arrows slightly slower (probably because bows had now needed "charging"). Their arrows however, are shot with more force. | ||||
| TU12 | The skeleton's AI was updated so they are "smarter", i.e. if a skeleton catches fire in daylight, it will rush to the nearest shadow or body of water for safety. | ||||
| There is a small chance that skeletons drop a bow when killed. There is also a small chance that the bow will be enchanted (power I). | |||||
| TU19 | CU7 | 1.12 | Skeletons can now spawn wearing armor and weapons. | ||
| Once you get closer to a skeleton, it fires arrows more frequently. | |||||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Now run away from wolves instead of fighting back. | |
| Drops skull when killed by a charged creeper. | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Skeleton" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- If alerted to a player's presence, skeletons can fire arrows backwards, occasionally hitting themselves.
- Skeletons cannot see the player through glass, fences, or other transparent blocks.
- When holding a sword, skeletons are actually much faster than zombies and sprint at you as a wither skeleton. This is because they share the same Entity ID as a wither skeleton.
Gallery
- Skeleton burnt.jpg
Dying skeleton mob
Two skeletons shooting each other. The skeleton on the right is a spider jockey.
- Skeleton leather.png
A skeleton in 12w34b with leather armor.
- Skeleton In Iron Armor.png
A skeleton naturally spawned with iron armor is able to survive in daylight.
A skeleton wearing an iron helmet.
A skeleton wearing a leather cap.







