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This article is about the skeleton variant. For the Minecraft Dungeons mob, see MCD:Stray. For the untamed cat, see Stray cat.

A stray is a variant of a skeleton that spawns in a few snow-covered biomes. They behave similarly to skeletons, except they fire tipped arrows of Slowness from their bows.

Spawning[]

A stray may spawn directly under the sky in snowy plains, ice spikes or frozen rivers, replacing 80% of skeletons. Additionally, a stray may spawn in frozen oceans, deep frozen oceans or legacy frozen oceans in Bedrock Edition. Strays do not spawn naturally from monster spawners in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition, 1% of spiders and cave spiders may 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.

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[]

A stray drops

  • From 0 to 2 bones. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 bones with Looting III.
  • From 0 to 2 arrows. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 arrows with Looting III.
  • From 0 to 1 arrow of Slowness if the stray was killed by a 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 damaged and may be enchanted.
  • 5 experience orbs when killed by a player or tamed wolf and an extra 1–3 if the stray has armor.

Behavior[]

Strays behave the same as normal skeletons but make noises with an echoing effect and shoot tipped arrows that inflict Slowness for 30 seconds on any target that they hit. In Bedrock Edition, strays that are underwater use a melee attack that inflicts Slowness. Strays don’t take damage from freezing in powder snow, but they are not immune to Slowness.

Sounds[]

Java Edition:
Strays use the Hostile Creatures sound category for entity-dependent sound events.

SoundSubtitlesSourceDescriptionResource locationTranslation keyVolumePitchAttenuation
distance
Stray rattlesHostile CreaturesRandomlyentity.stray.ambientsubtitles.entity.stray.ambient1.00.8-1.216
Skeleton converts to StrayHostile CreaturesWhen a skeleton converts to a strayentity.skeleton.converted_to_straysubtitles.entity.skeleton.converted_to_stray2.00.8-1.216
Stray diesHostile CreaturesWhen a stray diesentity.stray.deathsubtitles.entity.stray.death1.00.8-1.216
Stray hurtsHostile CreaturesWhen a stray is damagedentity.stray.hurtsubtitles.entity.stray.hurt1.00.8-1.216
Skeleton shoots [sound 1]Hostile CreaturesWhen a stray shoots an arrowentity.skeleton.shoot[sound 1]subtitles.entity.skeleton.shoot[sound 1]1.056-1.2516
FootstepsHostile CreaturesWhile a stray is walkingentity.stray.stepsubtitles.block.generic.footsteps0.151.016
  1. a b c The stray reuses the skeleton's sound events instead of having its own, resulting in these unintuitive subtitles - see MC-98316

Bedrock Edition:

SoundSourceDescriptionResource locationVolumePitch
Hostile CreaturesRandomlymob.stray.ambient1.00.8-1.2
Friendly CreaturesWhen a skeleton converts to a straymob.skeleton.convert_to_stray1.01.0
Hostile CreaturesWhen a stray diesmob.stray.death1.00.8-1.2
Hostile CreaturesWhen a stray is damagedmob.stray.hurt1.00.8-1.2
PlayersWhen a stray shoots an arrow[sound 1][upcoming: BE 1.20.30]random.bow1.00.83-1.25
Hostile CreaturesWhile a stray is walkingmob.stray.step1.01.0

Data values[]

ID[]

Java Edition:

NameIdentifierEntity tags (JE)Translation key
Straystrayskeletonsentity.minecraft.stray

Bedrock Edition:

NameIdentifierNumeric ID Translation key
Straystray46entity.stray.name

Entity data[]

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

Java Edition:

Main article: Entity format
  • Entity data
    • Tags common to all entities
    • Tags common to all mobs

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Advancements[]

Icon Advancement In-game description Parent Actual requirements (if different) Resource location
Advancement-plain-rawNot Today, Thank You
Deflect a projectile with a Shield Suit UpBlock any projectile with a shield.story/deflect_arrow
Advancement-plain-rawAdventure
Adventure, exploration and combat Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.adventure/root
Advancement-plain-rawMonster Hunter
Kill any hostile monster AdventureKill one of these 34 mobs: Only the riders of the chicken jockeys and skeleton horsemen are counted in this advancement. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.adventure/kill_a_mob
Advancement-fancy-rawIt Spreads
Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst Monster HunterKill one of these 70 mobs near a sculk catalyst: Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.adventure/kill_mob_near_sculk_catalyst
Advancement-fancy-rawMonsters Hunted
Kill one of every hostile monster Monster HunterKill each of these 36 mobs: Other mobs 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
1.10April 11, 2016Jens Bergensten tweets an image of a new skeleton-type mob.
16w20aStray JE1 BE3 Added strays. 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."[1]
Added spawn eggs for strays, which strays can be spawned from.
pre2The spawn egg for strays has been removed.
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.
1.1116w32aThe 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".
1.1318w19aStrays now sink underwater.
Strays no longer drown underwater.
1.1418w43aStray JE2 BE4 The texture of strays has been changed.
1.1519w37aMobs that spawn wearing carved pumpkins or jack o'lanterns on Halloween no longer drop them.
1.1721w05aSkeletons now convert to strays when in powder snow.
21w13aStrays are now immune to freezing.
Skeletons now only take 20 seconds to convert to strays when in powder snow, instead of 45.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.15.0build 1Stray BE1 Added strays.
v0.16.0build 5New 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
1.0.0alpha 0.17.0.2Stray BE2 The clothing of strays now has their own overlay and no longer glitch through their bones.
1.1.0alpha 1.1.0.0The entity ID has now changed from skeleton.stray to stray.
Bedrock Edition
1.5.0beta 1.5.0.0Strays now sink underwater.
Strays now use melee attacks that inflict Slowness and no longer use ranged attacks while underwater.
1.9.0beta 1.9.0.5Stray JE1 BE3 Strays now have a correct overlay model.
1.10.0beta 1.10.0.3Stray JE2 BE4 The texture of strays has now changed.
1.16.0beta 1.16.0.51Strays can now pick up items.
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.
1.17.0beta 1.16.230.54Strays are now immune to freezing.
beta 1.17.0.54Skeletons now convert to strays when in powder snow.
releaseStrays don’t drop wither skeleton skulls anymore if killed by a charged creeper.[2]
Legacy Console Edition
TU46CU36 1.38 Patch 151.0.1Stray JE1 BE3 Added strays.
TU54CU44 1.52 Patch 241.0.4Added stray spawn eggs, which strays can be spawned from.
TU69 1.76 Patch 38Strays now sink underwater.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0Stray JE1 BE3 Added strays.

Issues[]

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

Trivia[]

  • 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 are wearing an ice necklace around their neck, but they do not drop ice.
  • According to the Minecraft website, the slowness arrows represent frozen arrows that freeze on impact.[1]
  • The stray's fourth ambient sound is the skeleton's second ambient sound but partly edited.
  • If a stray kills a creeper with an arrow, the creeper will drop a music disc just as when a skeleton kills them.

Gallery[]

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In other media[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. a b "Meet the Stray" by Marsh Davies. Minecraft.net, December 14, 2016
  2. MCPE-35876

External links[]

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