Mob head

Mob head

Type	Wearable items; Non-solid Block
Rarity	Uncommon
Requirements	None
Physics	No
Transparency	Yes
Luminance	0
Blast resistance	5
Hardness	1
Tool	Any tool
Renewable	Skeleton, Wither Skeleton, Zombie, Creeper Yes Dragon Yes‌[Legacy Console Edition only] Player No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Flammable	No
Drops	Itself
Block Entity ID	See § Data values
Data values	Block dec: 144 hex: 90 bin: 10010000 Item dec: 397 hex: 18D bin: 110001101
Namespaced ID	See § Data values

Mob heads, or mob skulls, are decorative blocks. There are six types of mob skulls: player, zombie, skeleton, wither skeleton, creeper, and dragon.

Obtaining

Mob heads can be broken using anything, and will drop itself when broken. If a player head has a custom skin, the skin will be preserved when broken.

Block	Mob Head
Hardness	1
Breaking time
Hand	1.5

If a head is pushed by a piston, or comes in contact with water or lava, it will also break off as an item.

Natural generation

Dragon heads generate on end ships.

Drops

A wither skeleton has a 2.5% chance of dropping a wither skeleton skull when killed by the player or tamed wolf. The chance is increased by 1% per level of Looting, for a maximum of 5.5% with Looting III.

Skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, and creeper heads are also dropped by the respective mob if it dies due to a charged creeper's explosion. Player heads cannot be obtained as drops.

Usage

Decoration

Mob heads 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, but they don't require a supporting block.

The dragon head will open and close its mouth repeatedly like the ender dragon when placed and powered by redstone. The same animation will occur when worn by a (horizontally) moving player, zombie, skeleton, or armor stand (note: the animation will not play if the NoGravity tag is set to 1)

Wearing

The player can wear heads, similarly to pumpkins or helmets. This will overlay the second layer of the player's skin.

Disguise

Wearing the corresponding mob head will reduce the detection range for skeletons (but not wither skeletons), creepers, and zombies to 50% of the normal range. This is similar to (and stacks with) the reductions in detection range from sneaking and the Invisibility status effect. In Bedrock Edition, wearing any mob head or carved pumpkin, will make the player Invisible towards other players if looked upon a localization map.

Withers

Wither build configuration

Withers can be created by placing soul sand in a T shape, and putting 3 wither skeleton skulls on top of the three upper blocks. The last block placed must be one of the three wither skeleton skulls. A dispenser can also create a wither, by placing the final skull onto soul sand directly in front of and below it.

Dispensers

Dispensers will equip a mob head on a player, mob or armor stand with an empty helmet slot, within the block the dispenser is facing.

Crafting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe
Banner Pattern Skull or Banner Pattern Creeper	Paper + Wither Skeleton Skull or Creeper Head
Firework Star	Any Mob head + Gunpowder + Any Dye

Enchantments

Mob heads can receive the following enchantments, but only through an anvil.

• Curse of Binding
• Curse of Vanishing

Player skins

Human heads have an extra usage for map makers, they can be given NBT data so that they appear with the skin of any Minecraft account. This means if a player knows that a specific account has a head which they want to be displayed, the NBT data can be edited to make it appear.

The command to give the player a head skinned as another player is /give @s minecraft:player_head{SkullOwner:"<PlayerName>"}.

A player head will save the skin of the player from the time it was created, meaning if the player changes their skin, the head will still display the original texture.

Mojang skins

All MHF mob heads provided by Mojang.

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. These accounts have names in the format MHF_<Name>, 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.

Because these are names of player accounts, these heads are obtained or placed using the SkullOwner tag, for instance: /give @p minecraft:player_head{SkullOwner:"MHF_<Name>"}.

The following names/heads have been made available:

Mobs

• MHF_Alex
• MHF_Blaze
• MHF_CaveSpider
• MHF_Chicken
• MHF_Cow
• MHF_Creeper
• MHF_Enderman
• MHF_Ghast
• MHF_Golem
• MHF_Herobrine
• MHF_LavaSlime
• MHF_MushroomCow
• MHF_Ocelot
• MHF_Pig
• MHF_PigZombie
• MHF_Sheep
• MHF_Skeleton
• MHF_Slime
• MHF_Spider
• MHF_Squid
• MHF_Steve
• MHF_Villager
• MHF_WSkeleton
• MHF_Zombie

Blocks

• MHF_Cactus
• MHF_Cake
• MHF_Chest
• MHF_CoconutB
• MHF_CoconutG
• MHF_Melon
• MHF_OakLog
• MHF_Present1
• MHF_Present2
• MHF_Pumpkin
• MHF_TNT
• MHF_TNT2

Bonus

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

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Head	Namespaced ID	Item form
Skeleton	skeleton_skull	Yes
Wither Skeleton	wither_skeleton_skull
Zombie	zombie_head
Player	player_head
Creeper	creeper_head
Dragon	dragon_head
Skeleton on a wall	skeleton_wall_skull	No
Wither Skeleton on a wall	wither_skeleton_wall_skull
Zombie on a wall	zombie_wall_head
Player on a wall	player_wall_head
Creeper on a wall	creeper_wall_head
Dragon on a wall	dragon_wall_head
Block entity	skull	-

Bedrock Edition:

Head	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID
Block	skull	144
Item		397
Block entity	Skull	-

Block data

See also: Data values

In Bedrock Edition, mob heads use the following data values:

For the block, data values determine the block placement:

	DV	Description
	0	(unused)
	1	On the floor (rotation is stored in the tile entity)
	2	On a wall, facing north
	3	On a wall, facing south
	4	On a wall, facing east
	5	On a wall, facing west

For the item and for the tile entity, data values determine the skull type:

	DV	Description
	0	Skeleton Skull
	1	Wither Skeleton Skull
	2	Zombie Head
	3	Head
	4	Creeper Head
	5	Dragon Head

Item data

Player heads use item NBT to save the owner.

•  tag: The item's tag tag.

• •  SkullOwner: The username of the player this is a skull of. This will be converted to the compound version on almost any action.
  •  SkullOwner: Different definition for the skull's owner. Note that Owner is used for skulls placed on the ground.
    •  Id: UUID of owner. Optional. Used to update the other tags when the chunk loads or the holder logs in, in case the owner's name has changed.
    •  Name: Username of owner. If missing or empty, the head will appear as a Steve head. Otherwise, used to store or retrieve the downloaded skin in the cache. Need not be a valid player name, but must not be all spaces.
    •  Properties
      •  textures
        • : An individual texture.
          •  Signature: Optional.
          •  Value: A Base64-encoded JSON object.
            •  timestamp: Optional: Unix time in milliseconds.
            •  profileId: Optional: Player UUID without hyphens.
            •  profileName: Optional: Player name.
            •  isPublic: Optional.
            •  textures
              •  SKIN
                •  url: URL of a player skin on textures.minecraft.net.
              •  CAPE: Optional.
                •  url: URL of a player cape (64x32 PNG).

Block states

See also: Block states

Java Edition:
Floor

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
rotation	0	0	The block is facing south.
		1	The block is facing south-southwest.
		2	The block is facing southwest.
		3	The block is facing west-southwest.
		4	The block is facing west.
		5	The block is facing west-northwest.
		6	The block is facing northwest.
		7	The block is facing north-northwest.
		8	The block is facing north.
		9	The block is facing north-northeast.
		10	The block is facing northeast.
		11	The block is facing east-northeast.
		12	The block is facing east.
		13	The block is facing east-southeast.
		14	The block is facing southeast.
		15	The block is facing south-southeast.

Wall

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	east north south west	The direction the head is facing. Opposite from the direction a player is facing when placing it.

Block entity

See also: Block entity format

A mob head has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

• Block entity data
  • Tags common to all block entities see Template:Nbt inherit/blockentity/template
  •  Owner: The definition of the skull's owner. When this is a player_head or player_wall_head, shows this player's skin; if missing, shows the head of the default Steve skin.
    •  Id: UUID of owner.
    •  Name: Username of owner.
    •  Properties
      •  textures
        • : An individual texture.
          •  Signature
          •  Value

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Availability				Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
				Xbox	PS	Bedrock	Nintendo
	Camouflage	Kill a mob while wearing the same type of mob head.		Yes	Yes	Yes	Wii U, Switch	30G	Bronze

Advancements

Main article: Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
	Spooky Scary Skeleton	Obtain a Wither Skeleton's skull	A Terrible Fortress	Have a wither skeleton skull in your inventory.	minecraft:nether/get_wither_skull

History

Java Edition
August 28, 2012					Jeb released images of the skeleton head, hinting of more types to come.
PAX 2012					At PAX, Dinnerbone revealed that there would be very rare drops of these mobs.
1.4.2		12w36a			The 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.
		12w37a			Added 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. 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.
November 7, 2012					Jeb states that the official opinion is that "[dropping] player heads [on player kills] are a bit too gory for Minecraft, so it's better suited for a plugin or mod."
1.4.6		12w49a			Any kind of mob head can be used to craft a firework star with creeper-face effect.
1.7.2		13w36a			Custom heads can now be obtained without third party programs via /give.
		13w37a			The item form of block ID 144, skull, was removed from the game. It can no longer exist in inventories, only as a block in the world.
1.8		14w03a			Player heads now show the skin's hat layer (this also works when a mob/player wears the head.)
		14w29a			Heads now display a cracking animation.
		14w30a			Player and mob heads in inventories and held by mobs/players now display as blocks.
					Skulls worn by mobs and players are now displayed on the armor layer. Previously, the skull replaced the mob/player's head texture; the hat layer appeared over the skull.
					Skeleton, zombie, and creeper heads are now available in Survival. One can obtain them by killing the appropriate mob with a charged creeper.
					Creeper heads and wither skeleton skulls are now used in crafting specific banner patterns.
		14w30b			A single charged creeper explosion will no longer yield more than one mob head.
1.8.4					For security reasons, custom heads can only have textures from mojang.com and minecraft.net.
1.9		15w31a			Added dragon head, which is currently only available in creative mode.
					Mob Heads now appear larger in inventory.
		15w32a			Creeper, zombie, and skeleton heads can be worn to reduce detection by the corresponding mobs by 50%.
		15w32c			Dragon heads generate on end ships, meaning they are now obtainable in survival.
		15w33c			Disguise now reduces detection range to 37.5% of normal.
		15w36a			Disguise reduces detection range to 50% of normal again.
		15w39a			Dispensers can now equip mob heads onto players, mobs and armor stands.
1.13		17w47a			The ID of heads is split into 12; one of each available standard head, as well as a wall counterpart of each.
					skeleton_skull, wither_skeleton_skull, player_head, zombie_head, creeper_head and dragon_head are available as items and placed blocks with a rotation block state of 0-15
					skeleton_wall_skull, wither_skeleton_wall_skull, player_wall_head, zombie_wall_head, creeper_wall_head and dragon_wall_head are only available as placed blocks with a facing block state of north, south, east or west.
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 144, and the item's 397.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.12.1		build 1			Added skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads. They use the texture prior to 14w30a.
0.14.0		build 1			Mob heads can now be worn as armor.
0.16.0		build 4			Can now be used to spawn the wither.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added dragon head. It uses a two-dimensional sprite, unlike Java Edition at the time.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Mob head can be used to craft firework star.
					Creeper head and wither skeleton skull are now used to crafting specific pattern on an banner.
		beta 1.2.0.11			Player and mob heads in inventories and held by mobs/players now display as blocks.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Wither skeleton skull and creeper head can now be used to craft banner pattern.
Legacy Console Edition
TU12	CU1	1.0	Patch 1		Added skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads to the creative inventory. Wither skeleton skulls didn't have a use.
TU19	CU7	1.12			Wither skeleton skulls can be obtained by killing wither skeletons, and can be used to build the wither.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Skeleton, zombie, and creeper heads are now available in Survival. One can obtain them by killing the appropriate mob with a charged creeper.
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Added dragon head.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.7.10					Added dragon heads.

Issues

Issues relating to "Mob 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.
• When breaking any head, the particle effect of breaking it is the same as soul sand.
• Interestingly, despite there being a default Steve head, an Alex head cannot be obtained without using custom names.
• In Java Edition, the mouth of the ender dragon's head will show an animation when clicked with the debug stick. This is because the debug stick is changing it to a state that is used when powered by redstone.

Gallery

• 

  First screenshot released of heads.

• 

  All of the heads.

• 

  Heads oriented different directions.

• 

  Heads are the same scale as cobblestone wall posts.

• 

  A picture of player heads, including some Mojang characters.

• 

  An image of some of the heads on accounts that Marc Watson made.

• 

  A dragon head found at an end ship.

References

Blocks

View at: Template:Blocks/content [edit]

Items

View at: Template:Items/content [edit]