Stray

Health points	20 × 10
Behavior	Hostile
Classification	Undead
Attack strength	Bow: 3 to 5‌^{[JE only]} (Varies with proximity)‌^{[BE only]} Tipped Arrows: Slowness for 30 seconds Melee (only without bow): Easy: 2 Normal: 2 Hard: 3
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Height: 1.99 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Spawn	Frozen River Snowy Plains Ice Spikes Frozen Ocean‌^{[BE only]} Deep Frozen Ocean‌^{[BE only]}
Natural equipment	Bow (right hand: 89%; left hand: 11%) Jack o'Lantern (Head) Carved Pumpkin (Head)

Strays are variants of skeletons that spawn only in frozen, ice, or snowy biomes.

Spawning[]

Naturally[]

80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky in Snowy Plains, Ice Spikes, Frozen River, Frozen Ocean,‌^{[BE only]} Deep Frozen Ocean‌^{[BE only]} and Legacy Frozen Ocean‌^{[BE only]} biomes spawn as strays.

Strays do not spawn naturally from monster spawners in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition, 1% of spiders and cave spiders can spawn as a spider jockey with 80% chance to be a stray spider jockey or stray cave spider jockey.

The stray has its own spawn egg in the creative inventory.

Conversion[]

When a skeleton is kept inside powder snow for 7 seconds (140 game ticks), it begins shaking. After another 15 seconds (300 game ticks) it becomes a stray. The stray appears with full health even if the previous skeleton did not. Items being held or worn by a skeleton when it becomes a stray remain unchanged.

Drops[]

Strays drop:

0–2 bones. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 bones with Looting III.
0–2 arrows. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 arrows with Looting III.
0–1 arrow of Slowness (if stray was killed by the Player or tamed wolf). Each level of Looting increases the chance of this drop by 50% of the previous chance, resulting in a maximum of 93.75% with Looting III.
Any picked-up equipment has a 100% chance of dropping and drops with the same damage level it had when picked up.
Any naturally spawned equipment (including the bow) has an 8.5% chance of dropping (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II and 11.5% with Looting III). It is usually badly damaged and has a chance of being enchanted.
Strays drop 5 when killed by a player or tamed wolf, and an extra 1–3, if the stray has equipment.

Behavior[]

Strays behave the same as normal skeletons, however, they shoot tipped arrows that inflict Slowness for 30 seconds on any target that they hit. When strays are underwater, they do not shoot arrows. Instead, they use melee attacks that inflict Slowness. Strays themselves are not immune to Slowness inflicted on them.

Strays make similar noises to skeletons, with an echoing effect.

Strays don’t take damage from freezing in powder snow.

Sounds[]

Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Stray rattles	Hostile Creatures	Random	`entity.stray.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.stray.ambient`	?	?	16
Stray dies	Hostile Creatures	Dying	`entity.stray.death`	`subtitles.entity.stray.death`	?	?	16
Stray hurts	Hostile Creatures	Taking damage	`entity.stray.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.stray.hurt`	?	?	16
Footsteps	Hostile Creatures	Walking	`entity.stray.step`	`subtitles.block.generic.footsteps`	?	?	16

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Stray	`stray`	`skeletons`	`entity.minecraft.stray`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Translation key
Stray	`stray`	`46`	`entity.stray.name`

Entity data[]

Strays have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements[]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
Not Today, Thank You	Block a projectile using your shield.	Suit Up	Block any projectile with a shield.	`story/deflect_arrow`
Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	`adventure/root`
Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs: Blaze Cave Spider Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement. Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

History[]

Java Edition
1.10		April 11, 2016			Jens Bergensten tweets an image of a new skeleton-type mob.
		16w20a			Added strays.
		16w20a			Added spawn eggs for strays, which strays can be spawned from.
		pre2			The spawn egg for strays has been removed.
		pre2			New sounds have now been added for strays, which allow them to have their own sounds. Previously, they had the same sounds as a regular skeleton.
1.11		16w32a			The spawn egg for strays has been re-added.
					The entity ID `Skeleton` has been changed to `skeleton`, `wither_skeleton` and `stray` for those respective mobs.
					The `SkeletonType` tag has been removed.
					The in-game name of strays is now "Stray" instead of "entity.Skeleton.name".
1.13		18w19a			Strays now sink underwater.
1.13		18w19a			Strays no longer drown underwater.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of strays has been changed.
1.17		21w05a			Skeletons now convert to strays when in powder snow.
		21w13a			Strays are now immune to freezing.
		21w13a			Skeletons now only take 20 seconds to convert to strays when in powder snow, instead of 45.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0		build 1			Added strays.
v0.16.0		build 5			New sounds have now been added for strays, which allow them to have their own sounds. Previously, they had the same sounds as the regular skeleton.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.2			The clothing of strays now has their own overlay and no longer glitch through their bones.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The entity ID has now changed from `skeleton.stray` to `stray`.
Bedrock Edition
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			Strays now sink underwater.
1.5.0		beta 1.5.0.0			Strays now use melee attacks that inflict Slowness and no longer use ranged attacks while underwater.
1.9.0		beta 1.9.0.5			Strays now have a correct overlay model.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of strays has now changed.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Strays can now pick up items.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Strays now use melee attacks when not holding a bow. Prior to this, strays used any items as ranged weapons to shoot arrows of Slowness normally.
1.17.0		beta 1.16.230.54			Strays are now immune to freezing.
		beta 1.17.0.54			Skeletons now convert to strays when in powder snow.
		release			Strays don’t drop wither skeleton skulls anymore if killed by a charged creeper.^[1]
Legacy Console Edition
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15	1.0.1	Added strays.
TU54	CU44	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Added stray spawn eggs, which strays can be spawned from.
TU69		1.76	Patch 38		Strays now sink underwater.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added strays.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

When explaining the origin of the stray, Jeb stated, "They’re based on a concept that emerged from a game jam the Bellevue team had, where they were just adding a bunch of stuff to Minecraft - whatever they wanted. Jason Major made a bunch of cool mobs and I thought these particular ones fitted [sic] really well with what we were already planning."^[2]
Strays and other variants of a skeleton do not know how to use a crossbow, despite the same using method as a bow.
In their texture, strays appear to be wearing a diamond pendant around their neck, but they do not currently drop diamonds.
According to the official Minecraft website, slowness arrows are actually ice-tipped arrows that freeze on impact.^[2]
The stray's fourth ambient sound is the skeleton's second ambient sound but partly edited.

Gallery[]

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