Wither skeletons are hostile mobs with stone swords found in fortresses.
Spawning
Wither skeletons spawn in fortresses in the Nether at a light level of 7 or less, in groups of 5.
Halloween in Java
| “ |
|
„ |
| — The Pretty Scary Update promo poster |
On Halloween, wither skeletons have a 22.5% chance of spawning wearing a carved pumpkin and a 2.5% chance of spawning wearing a jack o'lantern.
Withers in Bedrock
On normal or hard difficulties, the wither spawns 4 wither skeletons when below half health.
Jockeys in Bedrock
Spiders and cave spiders spawned in the Nether have a 0.8% chance of spawning as a wither jockey.
Drops
- 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.
- 1⁄3 chance to drop a single coal. Each level of Looting increases the maximum drop by 1, so that Looting I drops 0-2 coal with an average of 0.67 coal per kill, Looting II drops 0-3 coal with an average of 1.11 coal per kill, and Looting III drops 0-4 coal with an average of 1.58 coal per kill.
- 2.5% chance to drop a wither skeleton skull when killed by the player or tamed wolf. Looting increases the chance by 1% per level, for a maximum of 5.5% chance with Looting III. Their skull is always dropped if killed by a charged creeper.
- 8.5% chance of dropping their stone sword, which has a random durability and is unenchanted. This chance increases by 1% per level of Looting, for a maximum of 11.5% chance with Looting III.
- They drop 5 when killed by a player or tamed wolf. If it has armor, an additional 1 to 3 experience is dropped per piece.
If a wither skeleton wearing a pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, there is a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.
Farming
Behavior
Wither skeletons wander when idle, but sprint to attack players, snow golems, iron golems, baby turtles and piglins within 16 blocks. Still, they sprint away from wolves.
When an entity is attacked, it is inflicted with the wither effect for 10 seconds in any difficulty, which turns the health bar black (
× 10) and decreases it by 1
every 2 seconds, similarly to poison. A wither doesn't attack them.
In normal or hard difficulties, some wither skeletons may have the capacity of picking up gear. The chance depends of regional difficulty, with up to 55% of them equip dropped iron, diamond or netherite swords and any armor.
Although they may, wither skeletons never take bows; if they hold a bow (which can be done with /summon wither_skeleton ~ ~ ~ {HandItems:[{id:bow,Count:1b}]}) they shoot flaming arrows even if their bows are unenchanted. They cannot use crossbows.
Wither skeletons are immune to regeneration, poison, fire and the wither effect. They still seek for shade and water whereas under daylight; they sink in water, don't swim and will not drown.
Sounds
| Sound | Subtitles | Source | Description | Resource location | Translation key | Volume | Pitch | Attenuation distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wither Skeleton rattles | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Wither Skeleton dies | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| Wither Skeleton hurts | ? | ? | entity | subtitles | ? | ? | 16 | |
| None | ? | Step sounds | entity | ? | ? | ? | 16 |
Data values
Wither skeletons have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.
- Entity data
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
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 | ||
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Spooky Scary Skeleton | Obtain a Wither Skeleton's skull | A Terrible Fortress | Have a wither skeleton skull in your inventory. | nether/get_wither_skull
|
![]() | 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:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_all_mobs
|
![]() | Sniper Duel | Kill a Skeleton from at least 50 meters away | Take Aim | Be at least 50 blocks away horizontally when a skeleton is killed by an arrow after the player has attacked it once. | adventure/sniper_duel
|
History
| Java Edition | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4.2 | 12w36a | ||||
| 12w38b | Wither skeletons now spawn more frequently. | ||||
| 1.4.4 | ? | Wither skeletons can now sprint toward the player. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w11a | Wither skeletons now run away from creepers that are about to explode. | |||
| 14w30a | Wither skeletons now drop their skull when killed by a charged creeper. | ||||
| 1.8.1 | pre1 | Wither skeletons no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | ||||
| Wither skeletons now sometimes (11% of times) spawn with their left hand as their main hand. | |||||
| Wither skeletons now have the ability to hold items in both of their hands. | |||||
| 15w39a | Wither skeletons are now slightly shorter (2.4 blocks tall rather than 2.535) and narrower (0.7 blocks instead of 0.72). | ||||
| 1.10 | 16w20a | Added wither skeleton spawn eggs, which can be used to spawn wither skeletons. | |||
| pre2 | The wither skeleton spawn egg has now been removed. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The wither skeleton spawn egg has now been re-added. | |||
Entity ID has now been changed changed from Skeleton to wither_skeleton, SkeletonType tag is removed. | |||||
| The wither skeleton's in-game name is now "Wither Skeleton" instead of "Skeleton". | |||||
| 16w39a | Wither skeletons now have their own sounds. | ||||
| 1.13 | 18w19a | Wither skeletons now sink underwater. | |||
| Wither skeletons no longer drown underwater. | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a | ||||
| Wither skeletons are now immune to the wither effect. | |||||
| September 28, 2019 | Announced piglins, which attack wither skeletons. | ||||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.16 | 20w07a | Added piglins which attack Wither skeletons. | |||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | ||||
| build 9 | Wither skeletons are now larger than regular skeletons. | ||||
| build 12 | Added new sounds for dying wither skeletons. | ||||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | ||||
| Added wither skeleton spawn eggs, which can be used to spawn wither skeletons. | |||||
| 0.16.0 | build 4 | Wither skeletons now spawn when a wither's health reaches 50%. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | The entity ID has now been changed from skeleton.wither to wither_skeleton. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| ? | Wither skeletons no longer spawn with gear (or enchanted gear). | ||||
| 1.5.0 | beta 1.5.0.0 | Wither skeletons now sink in water, and don't drown. | |||
| beta 1.5.0.4 | Wither skeletons now seek and attack baby turtles. | ||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | ||||
| Upcoming Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.16.0 | beta 1.16.0.51 | Wither skeletons now have ability to pick up items. | |||
| Added piglins which attack these mobs. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU19 | CU7 | 1.12 | Patch 1 | - | |
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Wither skeletons now drop their skull when killed by a charged creeper. | |
| TU46 | CU26 | 1.47 | Patch 14 | ||
| TU54 | CU44 | 1.52 | Patch 24 | 1.0.4 | Added wither skeleton spawn eggs, which can be used to spawn wither skeletons. |
| PlayStation 4 Edition | |||||
| 1.90 | |||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | |||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Wither Skeleton" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.







