Among one of the initial mobs, Skeleton is the ranged danger of the Minecraft. Their arrows are the first problem early players will have to handle. Without ample equipment, they pose quite a hefty challenge. Thankfully, said challenge gets lessened as we explore and craft. Regardless, it’s worth exploring the capabilities of a Minecraft Skeleton.
Skeleton
Skeletons are decently common in Minecraft, spawning at night with all the regular parameters in place. These Skeletons are powerful on their lonesome, but with a few extra mobs accompanying them, they become even more troublesome. In addition, the ranged arrow attack may not deal excessive damage but will constantly prick the player.
Skeletons look the way you’d expect. With fully exposed bones and a bow in one hand. A very recognizable appearance that we will be able to distinguish from afar. This is useful considering the chance that we’ll take a few arrows to the face even when we have a line of sight of this mob.
Skeleton Behavior
Skeletons have a rather basic way of tracking and attacking players. They will get activated 16 blocks away and pursue the player further. It’s possible for Skeletons to navigate a lot of complex locations with no problem.
They will also be capable of hitting better the higher the difficulty. This is because their accuracy is tied to this parameter. An easy-mode Skeleton will miss far more arrows than a hard-difficulty one. This goes so high to the point that the Skeleton will aim higher to account for drop off of the arrow as it flies over longer distances. Making Skeletons a potent sniper.
Skeleton Attacks
The Skeleton has but a single attack it will consistently use. This is its bow attack which will fire off an arrow with varying accuracy at the player. Ranged damage on normal difficulty varies between 1 to 4. The damage of this attack in Java Edition is 3 to 4 damage on normal difficulty instead. With range of the attack remaining the same no matter the difficulty.
This difference comes from the proximity of the target. Should a Skeleton ever be forced into melee, it will hit with its fists. The normal difficulty damage of this attack is 2, which is inferior to its ranged attack.
Skeleton Drops
A Skeleton drops, expectedly, bones. The drop amount that bones have are up to two. Looting increases extra 3 bones at the maximum level. There is a chance to reach those high drops every time we kill a skeleton.
With that, Skeletons also have arrows as their drop in Minecraft, with two arrows or down to zero being the drops available. However, we can get that drop as high as five arrows. Five arrows are a great reward for the player as they get the chance to turn the shoots against the Skeletons.
If a Skeleton at any point picks up an item, they will also drop them when killed. However, if they spawned with items like armor, the equipment has an 8.5% chance of dropping, which goes up to 11.5% with maximum Looting.