Skeleton

Skeleton

Health points	20 ()
Attack strength	Bow: Easy: 1 () - 4 () Normal: 1 () - 4 () Hard: 1 () - 5 () Sword: Easy: 2 () Normal: 2 () Hard: 3 ()
Size	Height: 1.99 Blocks Width: 0.6 Blocks
Spawn	Overworld: Light level of 7 or less. Nether: Nether fortresses in light level 7 or less. Strays: Ice plains, Ice mountains, Ice spikes
First appearances	See History
Drops	See Drops
Natural equipment	Bow (Main Hand) Jack o'Lantern (Head) Pumpkin (Head)
Experience	5
Internal ID	PC: (Skeleton: 51, Stray: 6) PE: (Skeleton: 34, Stray: 46)
Entity ID	skeleton, stray

This article is about regular skeletons and their stray variants. For the larger skeleton that inhabits nether fortresses, see Wither Skeleton.

Skeletons are undead, ranged hostile mobs equipped with bows.

Strays are variants of skeletons that only appear in snowy 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 to 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.

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.

Variants

Stray

One of the first images of strays, as tweeted by Jeb.

	“	Stay alert as you travel through the frozen landscape: there are more deadly things here than the cold! Lurking in the snow are strays - ragged wanderers with baleful eyes and deadly bows, ever on the lookout for foolish warm-bloods intruding into their territory. And beware! Those arrowheads will do more than stick you - their icy tips will cast a freezing pall, slowing their hapless victim to a frosty shuffle.	„
		—Marsh Davies

80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky in ice plains, ice mountains, and ice plains spikes biomes will be strays. Strays will not spawn from naturally spawned monster spawners, even when exposed to direct sky.^{[Java Edition only]} 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.^{[Pocket Edition only]} The stray has its own spawn egg in Creative mode.^{[Pocket and Java editions only]}

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.

Halloween

During 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 (light level 7 or lower), 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.^{[Java Edition only]} If a player shoots a skeleton outside its detection range, then it will temporarily hold up its bow in a shooting position.^{[Pocket Edition only]}

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.^{[Java and Console editions only]}

Armed and armored skeletons

A skeleton 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%	1.875%–15%
Weapon	100%	100%	100%
Pick up	0%	0%–55%	6.875%–55%
Weapon enchantment	0%	0%–25%	3.125%–25%
Armor enchantment	0%	0%–50%	6.25%–50%

If a skeleton does spawn with armor, the chances of specific armor are as follows:

Armor	Easy & Normal	Hard
Boots	100%	100%
Boots & Leggings	75%	90%
Boots & 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.

Data values

See also: Chunk format

Skeletons and strays have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity IDs are skeleton and stray respectively.

Skeleton

• 
  Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template

Stray

• 
  Entity data
  • Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
  • Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Icon	Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Availability				Xbox points earned	Trophy type (PS)
				Xbox	PS	Pocket	Nintendo
	Sniper Duel	Kill a skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters	Use a launched arrow to kill a skeleton, wither skeleton, or a stray from 50 or more blocks away, horizontally.	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	30G	Silver

Advancements

Main article: Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Internal ID
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration, and combat	—	Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity.	minecraft:adventure/root
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 22 mobs. Other mobs are ignored for this advancement.	minecraft:adventure/kill_a_mob
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 22 mobs. Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for the advancement.	minecraft:adventure/kill_all_mobs
	Sniper duel	Kill a skeleton with an arrow from more than 50 meters	Take Aim	Use a launched arrow to kill a skeleton from 50 or more blocks away, horizontally.	minecraft:adventure/sniper_duel

Video

Note: This video doesn't mention skeletons running away from wolves.

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.
Alpha
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.
Beta
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.
Official release
1.0.0			?		Skeletons now hold their bow with one hand again but they still had the 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.
			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.
			1.10-pre2		Removed stray spawn egg.
1.10					Added Strays their own sound, previously they had the same sound as a regular skeleton.
1.11			16w32a		Re-added stray spawn eggs.
					Entity ID Skeleton is now skeleton, wither_skeleton and stray for those respective mobs.
					Removed the SkeletonType tag.
					Strays' in-game name is now "Stray" instead of entity.Skeleton.name.
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 and intelligence, 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.
					Added stray spawn egg.
0.16.0			build 5		Strays now have their own sound.
Pocket Edition
1.1			build 1		The entity ID for stray is changed from skeleton.stray to stray.
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.
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Added strays.
					Skeletons may now spawn from skeleton trap horses.

Issues

Issues relating to “Skeleton” are maintained on the issue 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.
• According to Jeb, the concept for the stray 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 he thought this one fit really well with what they were already planning.

Gallery

• 

  A skeleton in Beta 1.8. You can see it wielding its bow with both hands.

• 

  Dying skeleton mob

• 

  Two skeletons shooting each other. The skeleton on the right is a spider jockey.

• 

  A skeleton in 12w34b with leather armor.

• 

  A skeleton in the Nether used as the 12w36a snapshot image.

• 

  A skeleton naturally spawned with iron armor is able to survive in daylight.

• 

  A skeleton from the Pocket Edition (before 0.11.0). Like in beta 1.8, it holds its bow with both hands.

• 

  A skeleton riding a minecart.

• 

  A skeleton kills an attacking wolf.

• 

  A stray standing next to a normal skeleton.

• 

  A skeleton wearing an iron helmet.

• 

  A skeleton wearing a leather cap.

• 

  One of the first images of strays, as tweeted by Jeb.

• 

  A player trying to give armor to a skeleton.

• 

  Two strays, one in full gold armor. Note the old texture.

• 

  Skeletons spawned from skeleton trap horses.

• 

  A glitch where skeletons have no bow.

• 

  Naturally armored skeletons.

See also

• Bone

References

Entities

View at: Template:Entities/content [edit]