TL;DR — Wither Skeletons have 20 HP, hit with a stone sword, apply the Wither effect, and drop a skull 2.5% of the time. You need three skulls to fight the Wither boss. That's a lot of skeletons.
Strategy notes
Skull drop rate is 2.5% base — ~120 kills for three skulls on average. Looting III bumps to ~5.5%, the difference between a weekend and a month. Get Looting III before you start farming.
Wither effect: looks like Poison but worse — can take you below half a heart and finish the kill. Healing stops working. Bring milk to cure.
Spawn rules: Nether Fortresses only, light level 7 or below, alongside regular Skeletons (mixed pool).
Farm strategy:
- Find a Fortress with multiple corridors at the same Y.
- Turn the floor into a 22-block drop chute with a half-slab kill platform at the bottom.
- Looting III sword. The 22-block drop leaves them at 1 HP, one hit finishes.
- Regular Skeletons fall too — sort with hoppers or let lava clean.
Lore color
A Wither Skeleton is what's left when fire wasn't enough. Three meters tall, charred bone, eyes that glow the dim red of a coal forgotten for a long time. They walk through the Fortresses they've always walked through.
Stats table
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 20 HP |
| Damage | Stone sword: 4–8 + Wither II effect |
| Drops | Coal (0–1), Bone (0–2), Stone Sword (rare), Skull (2.5%) |
| Spawn biomes | Nether Fortresses (light 7-) |
| Special | Skulls needed (3) to summon the Wither boss |
Common mistakes
- Fighting without milk (Wither stops healing)
- Skipping Looting III (more than doubles time-to-skull)
- Building the farm too low (less than 22 blocks)
- Mixing the spawn pool with regular Skeletons and not sorting
- Engaging multiple at once in narrow corridors
Related
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