Skeleton

Skeletons are very easy to kill once you can get up close, but deal a dangerous 10–20 damage (minus Absorb) per attack. Truly, distance is their greatest strength and weakness. Skeletons are most dangerous at range where they can attack with impunity, but are susceptible to being rushed down. Because of their lack of Absorb, it’s not uncommon to see a Skeleton wearing Armor to make up for this. As they are frail, Skeletons are weak to bludgeoning more than slashing.

## Spawning

Skeletons spawn at a light level of 0 in groups of 4 or 5 in the Overworld. They can be found above solid blocks from all Overworld biomes except mushroom fields and deep dark. 80% of skeletons spawned directly under the sky spawn as strays in snowy plains, frozen oceans, and variants.

Spiders have a 1% chance[ to spawn with a skeleton riding them, creating a spider jockey.

Four skeleton horsemen spawn when a skeleton trap is triggered. The skeletons ride on skeleton horses and are equipped with enchanted bows and iron helmets and have damage immunity for 3 seconds after spawning.

### Monster spawners

Skeletons spawn from 25% of the spawners found in dungeons.

### Nether

In Nether fortresses, when a wither skeleton attempts to spawn, there is a 20% chance that a normal skeleton spawns instead.

Skeletons spawn commonly in soul sand valleys. However, existing skeletons lower the spawning chances of other hostile mobs nearby, meaning there are much less skeletons in a given area compared to zombified piglins in nether wastes.

## Drops

Skeletons drop:

* 0–2 bones. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 bones with Looting III.
* 0–2 arrows. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 arrows with Looting III.
* Picked-up items have a 100% chance of dropping and drop with the same damage level it had when picked up.‌
* Any naturally spawned equipment (including the bow) has an 8.5% chance of dropping if killed by the player (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II, and 11.5% with Looting III). It is damaged and sometimes enchanted.
* A skeleton drops its skull if killed by a charged creeper's explosion.

## Appearance

As you might expect, Skeletons are composed of white bones, and are completely bare of garments (excluding armor which it may spawn with). The only other equipment they wear is a Quiver, though the Skeleton Mugger does not have this.

## Behavior

Skeletons chase players and iron golems they see within 16 blocks, climbing stairs, navigating mazes, and traversing other complex obstacles to get within shooting range. They can climb ladders if they are forced to do so. When within 15 blocks of a target, with a clear line of sight, they start shooting with arrows, once every second. If the player leaves the 15-block radius, skeletons wait for some seconds with the bow charged, shooting the moment the player comes within range again.

Their detection range is reduced to 8 blocks if a skeleton skull is worn by the player. This stacks with sneaking and the invisibility effect.

The skeleton's accuracy is based on the game difficulty. Skeletons have an `"error"` of 10 on easy, 6 on normal and 2 on hard. This is compared to the player's `lack of accuracy` of 1. To account for gravity, skeletons aim 0.2 blocks higher for every horizontal block of range to the target.

Strafe in circular patterns to dodge attacks and retreat to a safe range if the player comes within 4 blocks.

Sprint toward the player if they are 14 blocks away or farther.

Use bows even underwater. The water slows down the arrows.

In most cases, if a skeleton's arrow hits a neutral or hostile mob that has not yet been attacked by the player, the mob attacks the skeleton. When a skeleton is attacked by another mob (including another skeleton), it attacks that mob, reorienting on the player once the mob is dead.

Skeletons sink in water and cannot swim, but do not drown.

If spawned with a weapon other than a bow, or no weapon at all (which can be spawned with commands such as `/summon skeleton ~ ~ ~ {HandItems:[{Count:1,id:"iron_sword"}]}`, or `/summon skeleton ~ ~ ~ {}`), a skeleton charges at a player with arms outstretched and deals damage by touch, similar to a wither skeleton.

A skeleton holding a tipped arrow in its offhand always shoots that type of arrow, and the arrow held is not consumed.

### Sunlight

Skeletons burn at dawn when the sun is 15 degrees or greater above the ground (when the moon can no longer be seen) unless the skeleton is:

* Below an opaque block.
* In a sunlight level of 11 or less.
* In water.
* Standing in soul sand.
* Affected by Fire Resistance.
* Wearing a helmet, which absorbs the damage, wearing out completely after several day cycles.
* Standing in cobwebs.

If not wearing a helmet, it seeks out shade during the day or enters water to protect itself. Unlike zombies, which leave the shade to chase a player, skeletons do not exit the shaded area even while attacking.

### Other mobs

Skeletons flee from wolves. A skeleton runs from a chasing wolf until the wolf deals damage, after which the skeleton turns to shoot at the wolf that successfully attacked it.

Skeletons shoot at nearby iron golems and baby turtles. They also attack snow golems in Bedrock Edition. If a creeper dies from a skeleton's arrow, it drops one of any music discs except for Pigstep, Otherside and 5.

### Mob type

Skeletons are undead mobs, causing them to be damaged by the Instant Health status effect, healed by the Instant Damage status effect, and unaffected by the status effects Regeneration and Poison.

Skeletons are ignored by the wither and are affected by the Smite enchantment.

### Geared skeletons

Some spawned skeletons have the ability to pick up dropped items from the ground. Unlike zombies, however, they pick up only weapons or armor. If a picked up item is armor, a carved pumpkin, or a mob head, a skeleton equips itself with the item. If the picked up item is a weapon, the skeleton uses the item as a melee weapon. In Bedrock Edition, skeletons can also pick up and equip illager banners worn in their chest slot.

Skeletons spawn already-armed with bows, which may be enchanted. The chances of that event are listed below from `code`. If a skeleton spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor is never mismatched (all pieces are made of the same material) except if it is spawned as part of a skeleton trap, in which case only the iron helmet may not match the rest of the armor.

 Weapon
 Pick up
 Weapon enchantment
 Armor enchantment

1. ↑ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i Value is based on the regional difficulty.
2. ↑ 100% chance of a bow
3. ↑ Jump up to:a b Enchantment is the same as on an enchantment table at level 5–22.

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

 2 pieces
 3 pieces
 Full set

The armor pieces go from feet to head.

Skeleton armor is not damaged from most damage sources; it cannot "wear out" the way player armor does. Helmets (not blocks like carved pumpkins) on skeletons can break if the skeleton is exposed to daylight or has an anvil or other falling block dropped on its hitbox.

If a skeleton has a bow and a sword is given, it drops the bow, with the same chance as if killed with Looting I and starts using the sword. If a skeleton has a sword or bow in its hand, and one of a better type or with better enchantments is given, the skeleton drops the existing weapon, with the same chance as if killed with Looting I in favor of the better one. Any skeleton that spawns with equipment (picked-up items do not count) gives 1–3 extra experience points per item.

If multiple viable items exist, the skeleton endlessly picks up and drops the items. This feature is intentional.

On Halloween, skeletons may spawn wearing a carved pumpkin or jack o'lantern. They do not drop this, even when killed with Looting.

### Strays

If a skeleton is inside of powder snow for 7 seconds, it converts into a stray.

A newly-converted stray always has full health even if converted from a damaged skeleton.

The converted stray keeps any items worn or held when it was a skeleton.

Only normal skeletons can become strays; wither skeletons cannot be converted.

### Weaknesses

Skeletons are weak to fire, as well as Bludgeoning weapons. The Smite Enchantment also deals extra damage to Undead creatures like Skeletons.

### Resistances

Like nearly all Undead mobs, Skeletons are immune to Cold, Poison, Status, and K.O. spells.

## Strategy

For Skeleton Archers, take advantage of their weakness to being rushed down, and play as aggressive as possible. They will panic, and will not be able to keep up with your attacks. Also worth noting is their weakness to Fire, which can be exploited with Magic.

## Skeleton Mugger

### Spoils

Bones, Dagger, Knife

Some Skeletons will dual-wield Daggers and Knives instead of a Bow. These ones are easier to destroy due to their lack of range advantage. They have the potential to outdamage their archer counterparts with their triple attack, but that’s if you don’t exploit one of their many weaknesses and kill them in one hit.

## Spawning

When a Skeleton attempts to spawn, there is a 35% chance that it will be a Skeleton Mugger.

## Drops

* 0–2 bones. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 bones with Looting III.
* Picked-up items have a 100% chance of dropping and drop with the same damage level it had when picked up.‌
* Any naturally spawned equipment (including the dagger/knife) has an 8.5% chance of dropping if killed by the player (9.5% with Looting I, 10.5% with Looting II, and 11.5% with Looting III). It is damaged and sometimes enchanted.
* A skeleton drops its skull if killed by a charged creeper's explosion.

## Behavior

Skeleton Muggers retain all the same behaviors as Skeleton Archers, but possess different battle strategies. Instead of trying to keep their distance, they will get up close to the player and attempt an attack with their knives/daggers. They slash three times in one attack, each hit dealing between 5 and 10 damage, which can be very dangerous.

## Strategy

The trick here would be to hit the Mugger harder and Faster than they can hit you. They are aggressive, but there is a gap of time after their triple attack. It shouldn't be necessary, but casting the Weariness spell will make their swipes much slower, and easier to dodge.

## See Also

* Mobs
* Wither Skeleton