Wither

Health points	300 × 150‌^{[JE only]} 600 × 300‌^{[BE only]}
Armor points	4 ()
Behavior	Hostile
Attack strength	Birth Explosion: Varies by proximity; maximum: Easy: 49 × 24.5 Normal: 96 × 48 Hard: 144 × 72 Wither Skull: Easy: 5 Normal: 8 + Wither II for 10 seconds (1 per sec) Hard: 12 × 6 + Wither II for 40 seconds (1 per sec) Dash Attack‌^{[BE only]} 15 × 7.5
Hitbox size	*In Java Edition:* Height: 3.5 Blocks Width: 0.9 Blocks In Bedrock Edition: Height: 3.0 Blocks Width: 1.0 Blocks
Spawn	Built by player; 10 second spawn delay.

The wither is an undead hostile boss mob that floats and shoots explosive skulls at players and mobs. It is currently the only player-made hostile mob in the game.

The fight varies across editions; the Bedrock wither has twice as much health and different attacks than its Java counterpart.

The wither drops 50 experience points and a nether star, a crafting ingredient for beacons.

Spawning[edit]

Wither build configuration.

Wither build configuration.

Wither when spawned with its blue shield.

The wither is spawned by placing 4 blocks of Soul Sand and/or Soul Soil in a T shape (see top imageimage to the left), and putting 3 wither skeleton skulls on top of the three upper blocks. The last block placed must be one of the three skulls and can be placed by the player or a Dispenser. Air blocks are required on either side of the base soul sand or soul soil block under the upper blocks (non-solid blocks such as Grass and flowers prevent the wither from spawning). The building pattern can have any orientation (including horizontal and upside-down) as well as the skulls; the wither always spawns at the foot of the pattern. When the wither has successfully spawned, it is angered and creates an explosion around itself.

Like other hostile mobs, the wither despawns when the difficulty is changed to Peaceful. The wither spawning structure also fails in Peaceful difficulty; the blocks simply do nothing.

Drops[edit]

The wither always drops one Nether Star upon death. In Java Edition the dropped nether star takes ten minutes to despawn, twice as long as normal items. In Bedrock Edition the nether star never despawns. It cannot be destroyed by explosions, as all dropped nether stars are immune to them. The Looting enchantment does not increase this drop. It also drops 50 when killed by a player or a tamed wolf. The wither can also make a withered rose if it shoots a poppy or rose bush and it doesn't get destroyed.

Behavior[edit]

The difference between the ender dragon's boss bar and the wither's boss bar.‌^{[Java Edition only]}

When spawned, the wither grows larger in size as its health bar fills up. While in this state, the wither is invulnerable, and neither moves nor attacks. When this state ends (after 10 seconds), the wither creates a large explosion centered on itself, destroying nearby blocks and dealing up to 99 × 49.5 damage to nearby mobs/players. This explosion has a blast power of 7, more than that of a charged creeper or an end crystal. It is accompanied by a loud gruesome sound that can be heard equally from across the map and in all dimensions. After this, the wither attacks nearby mobs and can take damage.

The wither is immune to fire, lava and drowning damage. Suffocation is usually ineffective because, upon taking damage, the wither breaks any block it touches. However, it cannot break bedrock, end gateway blocks, end portal blocks, end portal frames, command blocks, structure blocks, jigsaw blocks, barriers or moving pistons. Accordingly, it can be suffocated in the exit portal or end gateway, for example. Like other undead mobs, the wither is harmed by the Instant Health effect and healed by the Instant Damage effect as well as affected by weapons with the Smite enchantment. It is immune to all other status effects, like the ender dragon.

The wither is hostile toward all mobs except:

Undead mobs
- , , , Zombies and their variants
- , , Skeletons and their variants
- Zombified piglins
- , Zombie Horse And Skeleton Horse
- Phantoms
- Zoglins
- Other withers. Unless one Wither shoots a skull at another Wither
Ghasts
Players in creative or spectator ‌^{[Java Edition only]} mode
Mobs spawned with the Invulnerable NBT tag.

If the wither is idle, it simply hovers and is unable to gain altitude. On Normal or Hard difficulty, it fires blue skulls in random directions until it finds a target.

The wither has a dark purple‌^{[Java Edition only]} or pink‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} boss health bar that appears only when a player is looking in the wither's direction, including through walls. When looking at the wither, the world gets slightly darker. All withers display a boss bar on the screen.

Java Edition[edit]

The wither killing a villager.

Upon noticing a mob, the wither hovers above it and rapidly shoots black wither skulls. Each head fires independently, allowing a wither to attack up to three different mobs/players at the same time. The main head controls the Wither's movement, and has a 0.1% chance to shoot a blue wither skull instead of the default black one.

Whenever a wither kills another mob, a wither rose is either planted or dropped as an item at that mob's location; however, it may be destroyed by other wither skulls.

The wither has a passive regeneration rate of 1 every 20 ticks (1 second), and a direct killing blow on a target instantly heals 5.

When its health drops below half (150 × 75), the wither gains a natural "wither armor" effect, which makes it immune to damage from arrows and thrown tridents and causes it to fly at the same height as the player. The armor disappears if it regenerates above half health.

Bedrock Edition[edit]

Upon noticing a player or mob, the wither flies to a random location and hovers in place. It shoots 3 black wither skulls and one blue wither skull before flying to another location. On Normal difficulty or higher, if the wither has targeted an entity but cannot find a location to pathfind to, it will shoot random blue skulls in a random direction along with the skulls directed towards the target.

At half health, it causes a large explosion that spawns 3–4 wither skeletons (except on Easy difficulty), as well as gaining wither armor. Instead of flying to a random location, it dashes toward its target, destroying blocks and damaging mobs in its path. It also fires up to 4 skulls per burst: three black skulls followed by one blue skull. It has different spawn and death animations, both of which involve the wither exploding. Wither roses always drop as an item when the Wither kills a mob. The Wither rose inflicts the Wither effect when stepped on.^[verify]

The sky light level drops to 11 from the moment the wither spawns until it is dead, preventing zombies, skeletons, and drowned from burning in sunlight.

Wither skull[edit]

Wither Skull

Hitbox size	Height: 0.3125 Blocks Width: 0.3125 Blocks
Network ID	JE: 66

The wither rapidly fires explosive projectiles called wither skulls, which look like extra heads of itself, at its target. There are two types of wither skulls: a fast-moving black one, and a slower blue one. Black wither skulls explode with a blast power of 1, the same as a ghast's fireball, and cannot break blocks with a blast resistance above 4. The blue wither skull has the same explosion strength, but moves slower and treats all blocks except for a few "unbreakable" blocks as having a blast resistance of no more than 0.8, making it more destructive to the terrain. This means that blue wither skulls can break obsidian. This doesn't apply to unbreakable blocks, like bedrock or an end portal frame.

If either type of wither skull hits a player or mob, it does 8 damage on Normal difficulty. It also inflicts Wither II for 10 seconds on Normal difficulty and 40 seconds on Hard, which turns the player's hearts black () and drains health, similarly to poison. However unlike poison, it can kill the player.

Like other status effects, the wither effect can be cured by drinking milk.

In Bedrock Edition, the blue skull can be deflected by hitting it with hand or throwable entities (similar to ghast fireballs).

Sounds[edit]

Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
Wither angers	?	?	`entity.wither.ambient`	`subtitles.entity.wither.ambient`	?	?	16
Wither breaks block	?	?	`entity.wither.break_block`	`subtitles.entity.wither.shoot`	?	?	16
Wither dies	?	?	`entity.wither.death`	`subtitles.entity.wither.death`	?	?	16
Wither hurts	?	?	`entity.wither.hurt`	`subtitles.entity.wither.hurt`	?	?	16
Wither attacks	?	?	`entity.wither.shoot`	`subtitles.entity.wither.shoot`	?	?	16
Wither released	?	?	`entity.wither.spawn`	`subtitles.entity.wither.spawn`	?	?	16 (technical) / ∞ (effective)

Data values[edit]

ID[edit]

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Entity tags (JE)	Translation key
Wither	`wither`	None	`entity.minecraft.wither`
Wither Skull	`wither_skull`	`impact_projectiles`	`entity.minecraft.wither_skull`

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Translation key
Wither	`wither`	`52`	`entity.wither.name`
Wither Skull	`wither_skull`	`89`	`entity.wither_skull.name`
Dangerous Wither Skull	`wither_skull_dangerous`	`91`	`entity.wither_skull_dangerous.name`

Entity data[edit]

Withers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- Tags common to all mobs see Template:Nbt inherit/mob/template
- Invul: The number of ticks of invulnerability left after being initially created. 0 once invulnerability has expired.

Wither skulls have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Entity data
- Tags common to all entities see Template:Nbt inherit/entity/template
- Tags common to all projectiles see Template:Nbt inherit/projectile/template
- power: List of 3 doubles that adds to direction every tick. Act as the acceleration.

Achievements[edit]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
		The Beginning?	Spawn the Wither	Be within a 100.9×100.9×103.5 cuboid centered on the Wither when it is spawned.	20G	Bronze
		The Beginning.	Kill the Wither	Be within a 100.9×100.9×203.5 cuboid centered on the Wither when it drops the nether star.	40G	Silver

Advancements[edit]

Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Namespaced ID
Withering Heights	Summon the Wither	Spooky Scary Skeleton	—	`nether/summon_wither`
Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Adventure	Kill one of these 34 mobs. Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_a_mob`
Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Monster Hunter	Kill each of these 34 mobs. Other mobs, if any, may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.	`adventure/kill_all_mobs`

History[edit]

Java Edition
1.4.2		12w34a			Added withers.
					Withers currently do not spawn naturally.
					Withers have been left unfinished by Jeb and hidden in the code. They were discovered through the presence of its skin in the /mobs/ folder.
					Withers can be spawned only with edited monster spawners, mods, or hacks, and can crash the JVM.
		12w34b			When the wither's health is taken down to half, it now gains wither armor, which makes it immune to arrows.
		12w34b			The projectile firing rate and movement speed of withers has been increased.
		?			At PAX, Dinnerbone revealed that it would be possible to spawn withers by arranging wither skeleton skulls in some way.^[1]^[2]
		12w36a			Withers can now be spawned by arranging soul sand in a T shape and placing three wither skeleton skulls on top.
		12w36a			The wither now drops 20 experience and a nether star upon death.
		12w37a			Withers now make a massive explosion upon their creation after their health is fully charged.
		12w37a			When there are no targets, the wither sometimes shoots blue wither skulls, which move slower and can destroy any block besides bedrock.
		12w38a			Added a sound when withers break blocks.
		12w42b			The experience dropped by withers has been increased from 20 to 50 points.
		1.4			Various new sounds have been added for withers.
1.4.4		1.4.3			The oversight where withers can be created in peaceful difficulty has been fixed. Before this update, attempting to spawn the wither in peaceful resulted in a waste of soul sand and skulls.
1.4.4		1.4.3			Withers can no longer destroy end portals, which are now supposed to be unbreakable.
1.5		13w05a			Withers are no longer able to ride minecarts.
April 1, 2013					Added a pink wither to the april fools update, Minecraft 2.0. The pink wither is passive, starts with one head and can be fed sugar to gain two more heads.
1.7.2		13w37a			Added achievements for spawning and killing the wither.
1.8		14w04a			The player can now spawn withers by dispensing the wither skulls.
		14w11b			The hitbox of the wither has been changed.
		14w20a			Withers no longer break barriers.
		14w25a			Withers now move while invulnerable due to MC-57569.
		14w25a			Withers can now be built sideways and upside-down instead of just upright.
		release			Barriers can now be broken by withers again.
1.8.1		pre3			Barriers can no longer be broken by withers.
1.9		15w46a			Withers no longer move while invulnerable.
1.9		15w49a			Withers no longer travel through portals.
?					Withers now have a uniquely colored boss bar.
1.11		16w32a			The entity ID has been changed from `WitherBoss` to `wither`.
		16w32a			The projectile entity ID has been changed from `WitherSkull` to `wither_skull`.
		16w38a			Structure blocks and structure voids can no longer be destroyed by withers.
		16w40a			The tags `xTile`, `yTile`, `zTile`, `inTile` and `inGround` have been removed from the wither skull entity data.
		16w40a			The wither `life` tag is no longer used for anything, but still saved/read.
1.12		pre3			Withers can no longer break piston extensions or end gateways.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of withers has been changed.
		18w43a			All mobs killed by withers now have one wither rose planted at their location upon death.
		18w44a			Withers now have loot tables.
1.16		20w07a			Withers can now also be summoned using soul soil as well as soul sand.
Pocket Edition Alpha
0.16.0		build 4			Added withers.
					When withers are at half health, they spawn 4 wither skeletons.
					Withers attack differently and have twice the amount of health as Java's withers.
Pocket Edition
1.0.2					Wither skulls from withers can now be deflected with a sword.
1.1.0		alpha 1.1.0.0			The entity ID has been changed from `wither.boss` to `wither`.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of withers has been changed.
1.13.0		beta 1.13.0.9			All mobs killed by withers now have one wither rose planted at their location upon death.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Withers can now also be summoned using soul soil instead of soul sand.
1.16.0		beta 1.16.0.51			Added piglins, which attack withers.
Legacy Console Edition
TU19	CU7	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added withers.
TU60	CU51	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	The behavior of withers has been changed.
					Withers now blow up and spawn wither skeletons at half health. Upon death, withers stop moving, and slowly grow in size while turning white until they explode. They also do the dash attack like in Bedrock Edition.
					Withers are no longer able to regenerate health.
		1.90			The texture of withers has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.3.12					Added withers.

Issues[edit]

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

Trivia[edit]

According to Jeb, the wither was inspired by Terraria, which has a summonable boss mechanic. The name itself is inspired by poison spell in another game made by Jeb called Whispers in Akarra.^[3]
There is a painting showing the soul sand and wither skeleton skull formation needed to spawn a wither.
If the wither is damaged by the Void, it frantically attempts to fire blue skulls.
Above half health, the Wither always attempts to stay a few blocks above the mob it is targeting. This means that attempting to build or climb up to hit the Wither using a sword is essentially impossible.
- If the wither is after a blaze and the blaze tries to fly up to it, the wither attempts to keep rising above the blaze, thus making both of them rise higher until they hit a ceiling or until the blaze despawns.
Although the wither is 3.5 blocks tall, 3 blocks wide, and 1 block thick, its hitbox is only 3.5 blocks tall, 1 block wide, and 1 block thick.
- The true dimensions of the wither are: 2.844 blocks tall (varies), 3 blocks wide and 1.719 blocks long (also varies).
A variant of the wither called the Friendly wither appears in two of the April fools updates.
The wither appears on the four sides of chiseled red sandstone.
Withers have the greatest natural health of all vanilla mobs in Minecraft, making it brawnier than even the ender dragon. The wither, however, is slower and deals less damage than the ender dragon.
- However, the wither does not resist damage unlike the ender dragon.
The wither's smaller heads shoot targets slightly slower than the main head. The interval for smaller heads is 2-3 seconds, while the main head's always 2.
An enemy called the Wither Storm appears in Minecraft: Story Mode. It was created by replacing the center block of soul sand with a Command Block.
Despite not having visible feet, withers are still capable of making footstep sounds.^[4]
In Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34, withers drop red keys.
According to Quinn, Marketplace Partner Manager, the wither's name is "Simmons?", similar to the Ender Dragon's name being "Jean?" ^[5]
- The name is a pun for "summon", as the wither is spawned in by the player.
Wither skulls spawned through /summon do 5 magic damage upon a direct hit, as opposed to the usual 8 mob attack damage.
The wither has twice as much health in Bedrock Edition as opposed to Java Edition.
You can deflect wither skulls by shooting an arrow at it. ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
- If you deflect wither skulls and they hit the wither, the wither will take damage from wither skulls ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Gallery[edit]

The withering effect after being damaged by a Wither Skull.
The "wither armor" that blocks arrows.
A larger image to show how to summon the wither.
The wither prepares for explosion with the invulnerable status after summoned.
The pit created after the wither has charged.
The wither attacking horses

In Other Media[edit]

Wither Storm, a variant of Wither as it appears on Minecraft: Story Mode.

References[edit]

Entities

[1] ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqciEbjYd-I&t=03m07s

[2] ttp://www.twitch.tv/pax2/b/330745811 (at 3:57:47)

[3] ttps://minecraft.net/article/meet-wither

[4] MC-92623

[5] ttps://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/ask-mojang-episode--4

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Wither

Contents

Spawning[edit]

Drops[edit]

Behavior[edit]

Java Edition[edit]

Bedrock Edition[edit]

Wither skull[edit]

Sounds[edit]

Data values[edit]

ID[edit]

Entity data[edit]

Achievements[edit]

Advancements[edit]

History[edit]

Issues[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Gallery[edit]

In Other Media[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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