Wither
bossOurs, not the game's own: its whole drop list, how a wither behaves. Bedrock v1.26.40.05 differs: 300 health on Java against 600 on Bedrock. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
The Wither is a boss in Minecraft, which means a rare, high-health encounter with its own boss health bar and unique mechanics.
Unlike most creatures, the Wither does not spawn naturally in the world. Built by placing 4 Soul Sand or Soul Soil in a T-shape and placing 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls on top.
What sets it apart is its behaviour: shoots Wither Skulls that inflict Wither effect.
It carries 300 health points, 150 hearts, and yields 50 experience when it dies.
It was first added in 1.4.2 and has been a fixture of Minecraft ever since.
Also worth noting: Destroys all blocks except bedrock, end portal frames, and barriers.
Beating the Wither is a milestone: it gatekeeps progression and the reward it leaves behind is worth the effort of preparing for the fight.
Damage by Difficulty
Spawning
Built by placing 4 Soul Sand or Soul Soil in a T-shape and placing 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls on top.
As a result, the Wither never shows up during ordinary world generation or the normal mob-spawning cycle.
Treat each Wither as a set-piece fight: there is no endless supply, so going in with full gear matters.
Drops
Killing a Wither produces the following loot:
Every kill yields 1 Nether Star.
The headline reward is the 50 experience it drops, far beyond what any common mob gives.
These are well worth keeping. Nether Star is used to craft a Beacon, one of the most powerful utility blocks.
Because the kill is so rare, plan to be standing where the loot lands so none of it is lost to lava, the void, or a long fall.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nether Star | 1 | always |
Wither attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Armour | 4 points |
 Size | 0.9 x 3.5 blocks |
 Tracking range | 10 chunks |
 Experience | 50 |
 Health | 300 points |
| Follow range | 40 blocks |
 Movement speed | 0.6 |
Where the Wither lands, it has company: the blaze, whose 48 follow range has nothing we list nearer than this 40, the ender dragon at 200 health, the nearest we list to its 300, the breeze at 0.63 movement speed, the nearest we list to its 0.6 and the zombified piglin at 35 follow range, the nearest we list to its 40.
Wither: 4 values straight out of Minecraft Java 26.2
Nothing in the biome spawn lists and nothing in the rolls on death names the wither, so the numbers on this page come from one place only: the game's own entry for it in Minecraft Java 26.2sets 300 health, 0.6 movement speed, 40 blocks follow range and 4 armour.
64 wither kills fill a stack of 64 Nether Star, because the ranges Minecraft Java 26.2 rolls for it come out at 1 per kill before Looting.
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Nether Star |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 90 | 5760 |
 stone sword | 5 | 72 | 4608 |
 iron sword | 6 | 60 | 3840 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 52 | 3328 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 45 | 2880 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 40 | 2560 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 36 | 2304 |
The 4 armour points on a wither are already in that column: they cut a 4 damage swing to 3.36, worth 15 extra swings at the cheap end, and 36 rather than 30 at the expensive one. On the receiving end a wither takes 40% off a player's 20 health per hit, so 3 of them land the kill; that share is the wither's 8 damage on Normal. On Easy the same wither hit is 25%, on Hard 60%, so 4 hits against 2.
Behavior & Combat
In the field, shoots Wither Skulls that inflict Wither effect. Creates massive explosion upon spawning. Second phase (half HP): gains Wither Armor, immune to arrows, charges at players.
It is one of the few mobs that wears armour: 4 points, which takes about 16% off every hit it receives.
In a fight it brings 300 health (150 hearts) to the table and hits for 5 on Easy, 8 on Normal and 12 on Hard, so come with enchanted armour and plenty of healing.
The fastest way to win is to lean on what it fears: Smite enchantment, Bedrock ceiling trap (Java), and Melee in second phase.
A sword enchanted with Smite shortens the fight considerably against this mob.
Since it can attack from range, closing the distance quickly or breaking line of sight with cover is often safer than trading hits at a distance.
Throwing a Potion of Harming at it is the one move that can undo an entire fight, because it is undead: Harming heals it and a splash of Healing is what actually hurts, and against 300 health behind 4 armour points a Smite V sword adds 12.5 damage a hit where Sharpness V would add 3.
Rather than spawning on its own, this one is built by the player, so it only exists where you choose to assemble it, handy for placing defences or utilities exactly where you need them.
In short, do not wander into a Wither fight casually: plan the encounter, bring the right gear, and the rewards make it worthwhile.
Wither commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:wither | Puts a wither on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:wither_spawn_egg | Hands you the wither spawn egg, so you can place withers where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:wither] | Removes every wither that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:wither, spawn egg minecraft:wither_spawn_egg.
Wither farm
There is no platform that produces withers. Built by placing 4 Soul Sand or Soul Soil in a T-shape and placing 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls on top. Anything you build has to feed that source instead of a dark floor.
Each kill is worth 50 experience and up to 1 nether star, which is the number to scale the wither farm against.
50 experience per kill
Nether Star up to 1Wither version history
Minecraft 1.4.2 brought the wither in on 24 November 2012, 13 years of wither by now.
4 other mobs here came with it: the bat, the witch, the wither skeleton and the zombie villager. Of the 88 mobs we list, 24 were in the game before the wither and 59 arrived after it.
The wither numbers here come from Java 26.2, the version running now, and not from the one that introduced it.
What Wither sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every wither sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 5 lines a wither can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.wither.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.wither.ambient |  Wither angers |
| entity.wither.hurt | Wither hurts |
| entity.wither.death | Wither dies |
| entity.wither.shoot | Wither attacks |
| entity.wither.spawn | Wither released |
Advancements that need Wither
3 advancements ask for wither by name, 1 of them about the wither alone.
- Withering HeightsSummon the Wither
- Monster HunterKill any hostile monster
- Monsters HuntedKill one of every hostile monster
