Wither Skeleton
hostileOurs, not the game's own: the biome names next to that structure, how a wither skeleton behaves. Same on Bedrock v1.26.40.05 for health. Checked 2026-08-22, and here is how we check.
Added InOverview
The Wither Skeleton is a hostile mob in Minecraft, which means it will attack players on sight whenever it is able to reach them.
Its defining trait is simple: melee attacker with stone sword that inflicts Wither effect for 10 seconds.
It carries 20 health points, 10 hearts, and yields 5 experience when it dies.
Players have been encountering the Wither Skeleton since the 1.4.2 update.
One thing worth knowing: Looting III increases skull drop rate to ~5.5%.
Knowing how the Wither Skeleton behaves is mostly about survival: recognising it early and reacting correctly is what keeps a night-time excursion from ending in a respawn.
Damage by Difficulty
Spawning
In the wild, the Wither Skeleton is generated in Nether Fortress.
Spawns in Nether Fortresses at light level 7 or less.
Pay attention to lighting: a light level of 7 or less is required, which is exactly what makes torch placement such an effective way to suppress or encourage these spawns.
Its entire range is the inside of a Nether Fortress in the Nether, at light level 7 or less, so no amount of Overworld exploring will turn one up.
A Wither Skeleton farm is built around its own spawn rule rather than around the light level, so start from what makes them appear at all.
Nether FortressIts name turns up in the spawn rule of the wither, built by placing 4 Soul Sand or Soul Soil in a T-shape and placing 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls on top.
Where the Wither Skeleton spawns
- Inside a fortress the biome list is replaced: weight 8 there, 28.6% of the monster list, in groups of 5.
It does not have that fortress list to itself: the zombified piglin at weight 5, the skeleton at weight 2, the magma cube at weight 3 and the blaze at weight 10.
Drops
Here is what you can expect to collect from a Wither Skeleton:
Nothing here is guaranteed: a kill can give you 1 Coal, 0 to 2 Bones, and 1 Wither Skeleton Skull (rarely, 2.5% chance).
You also collect 5 experience for every Wither Skeleton you defeat.
These are well worth keeping. 3 Wither Skeleton Skulls + 4 Soul Sand/Soil are needed to summon the Wither boss.
The Looting enchantment on your sword raises the quantity and, for many of these items, the drop chance of the rarer rolls, so it is well worth using when you grind this mob.
With nothing guaranteed, output is swingy: over many kills the averages hold, but any single Wither Skeleton may give you little, so farm in volume rather than expecting a jackpot each time.
| Item | Count | Chance | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coal | 0 to 1 | not every kill | Looting III up to 4 |
| Bone | 0 to 2 | not every kill | Looting III up to 5 |
| Wither Skeleton Skull | 1 | 2.5% | player kill |
CoalWither Skeleton attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
 Size | 0.7 x 2.4 blocks |
 Eye height | 2.1 blocks |
 Tracking range | 8 chunks |
 Experience | 5 |
| Follow range | 16 blocks |
 Health | 20 points |
 Movement speed | 0.25 |
The Wither Skeleton does not stand alone on these numbers: the stray, level with it on health, speed and follow range alike.
Wither Skeleton: 1.5 items per kill over 2 drop rows
A wither skeleton averages 1 Bone a kill on the rolls Minecraft Java 26.2 makes for it, before Looting, which puts a full stack of 64 Bone at 64 kills. Next down is Coal at 0.5 a kill, which is 128 wither skeleton kills to 64. 1 further row sit under those, down to 0.025 Wither Skeleton Skull per wither skeleton and 2560 kills a stack. 1 of those 3 rows (Wither Skeleton Skull) only roll when a player lands the killing blow, so a wither skeleton killed by a fall or another mob averages 1.5 items instead of 1.525.
1 situational row left out. How this average is worked out
| Weapon | Attack damage | Full swings | Swings per 64 Bone |
|---|---|---|---|
 golden sword, wooden sword | 4 | 5 | 320 |
 stone sword | 5 | 4 | 256 |
 iron sword | 6 | 4 | 256 |
 diamond sword, golden axe, wooden axe | 7 | 3 | 192 |
 netherite sword | 8 | 3 | 192 |
 diamond axe, iron axe, stone axe | 9 | 3 | 192 |
 netherite axe | 10 | 2 | 128 |
Coming the other way, a wither skeleton hit is 40% of a player's 20 health, 3 of them a full bar, all out of the wither skeleton's 8 damage on Normal. On Easy the same wither skeleton hit is 25%, on Hard 60%, so 4 hits against 2.
Behavior & Combat
Behaviourally, melee attacker with stone sword that inflicts Wither effect for 10 seconds. Immune to fire. 3 blocks tall, can only spawn in areas with 3+ blocks of headroom.
Its 20 health is 23rd of 80, just over the 16 of the spider.
It can hit you for 5 on Easy, 8 on Normal and 12 on Hard, while its own 20 health (10 hearts) determines how many blows it takes to kill.
The fastest way to win is to lean on what it fears: Smite enchantment.
A sword enchanted with Smite shortens the fight considerably against this mob.
Fire is no use against it by its own account, so what is left is the undead rule: a splash of Healing wounds it, a Potion of Harming would repair it, there is no armour in the way of either one, and a Smite V sword puts 12.5 extra damage into every swing at its 20 health.
Native to the Nether, it is completely immune to fire and lava, so burning strategies that work elsewhere are useless here.
The practical takeaway is to respect its strengths, exploit the weaknesses listed above, and you will rarely lose a fight you choose to take.
Wither Skeleton commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /summon minecraft:wither_skeleton | Puts a wither skeleton on the block you are standing on. |
| /give @p minecraft:wither_skeleton_spawn_egg | Hands you the wither skeleton spawn egg, so you can place wither skeletons where you want them. |
| /kill @e[type=minecraft:wither_skeleton] | Removes every wither skeleton that is loaded around you. |
Entity id minecraft:wither_skeleton, spawn egg minecraft:wither_skeleton_spawn_egg.
Wither Skeleton farm
The wither skeleton has no biome of its own to spawn in: it comes with the fortress, at 28.6% of the monster rolls there, 5 at a time.
That turns a wither skeleton farm into fortress work: light everything that is not meant to make wither skeletons, and the rolls land where you want them.
Each kill is worth 5 experience and up to 2 bones, or 5 with Looting III, so the size of the wither skeleton farm follows the number you need of that one item.
5 experience per kill
Bone up to 2, 5 with Looting IIIWither Skeleton version history
Minecraft 1.4.2 brought the wither skeleton in on 24 November 2012, 13 years of wither skeleton by now.
4 other mobs here came with it: the bat, the witch, the wither and the zombie villager. That puts the wither skeleton behind 24 of the 88 mobs here and ahead of 59.
The wither skeleton numbers here come from Java 26.2, the version running now, and not from the one that introduced it.
What Wither Skeleton sounds like
Turn subtitles on and every wither skeleton sound names itself in the corner of the screen. These are the 5 lines a wither skeleton can put there, and you can play any of them yourself with /playsound minecraft:entity.skeleton.ambient master @p.
| Sound | What you hear |
|---|---|
| entity.skeleton.ambient |  Skeleton rattles |
| entity.skeleton.hurt | Skeleton hurts |
| entity.skeleton.death | Skeleton dies |
| entity.skeleton.shoot | Skeleton shoots |
| entity.skeleton.converted_to_stray | Skeleton converts to Stray |
Advancements that need Wither Skeleton
2 advancements ask for wither skeleton by name, and each of them counts other mobs too.
- Monster HunterKill any hostile monster
- Monsters HuntedKill one of every hostile monster
