Wither

For other uses, see Wither (disambiguation).

Wither

Wither Armor

Wither Armor

Health points	Java Edition: 300HP × 150 Bedrock Edition:[note 1] Easy: 300HP × 150 Normal: 450HP × 225 Hard: 600HP × 300
Armor points	4 ()
Behavior	Hostile
Mob type	Undead Monster
Attack strength	Birth explosion: Varies by proximity; maximum: Java Edition: Easy: 35.5HP × 17.75 Normal: 69HP × 34.5 Hard: 103.5HP × 51.75 Bedrock Edition: Easy: 37HP × 18.5 Normal: 72HP × 36 Hard: 108HP × 54 Wither skull: Java Edition: Easy: 5HP Normal: 8HP Hard: 12HP × 6 Explosion: 5HP Bedrock Edition: Varies by proximity: Easy: 3HP - 7.5HP × 3.75 Normal: 5HP - 13HP × 6.5 Hard: 8HP - 19.5HP × 9.75 Wither: Normal: Wither II for 10 seconds (1HP per sec) total 10HP Hard: Wither II for 40 seconds (1HP per sec) total 40HP × 20 Dash attack: ‌[BE only] Easy: 8.5HP × 4.25 Normal: 15HP × 7.5 Hard: 22.5HP × 11.25 Death explosion: ‌[BE only] Varies by proximity; maximum: Easy: 37HP × 18.5 Normal: 72HP × 36 Hard: 108HP × 54 Half health explosion: ‌[BE only] Varies by proximity; maximum: Easy: 37HP × 18.5 Normal: 72HP × 36 Hard 108HP × 54
Hitbox size	Java Edition: Height: 3.5 blocks Width: 0.9 blocks Bedrock Edition: Height: 3.0 blocks Width: 1.0 blocks
Speed	0.6
Spawn	Built by player; 11 second spawn delay.

The wither is an undead boss mob spawned by building a specific structure using soul sand or soul soil and three wither skeleton skulls. It is able to fly, fires explosive blue and black skulls at players and most non-undead mobs, and becomes immune to some types of projectiles when it is below half health. It is the only source of Nether stars, which are needed to craft beacons.

Spawning

Wither build configuration. Soul soil can be used interchangeably with soul sand.

The wither is spawned by arranging 4 blocks of soul sand and/or soul soil in a T shape and placing 3 wither skeleton skulls on top of the three upper blocks. The last block placed must be one of the skulls, which can either be placed by hand or by a dispenser. Air blocks are required on either side of the base soul sand or soul soil block.

The orientation of the skulls do not matter, and the structure as a whole can be built upright, horizontally, or upside down. The wither spawns at the base of the structure. Upon spawning, its boss bar appears and gradually fills while the wither remains invulnerable and cannot move or attack. After 220 game ticks (11 seconds), the wither creates an explosion of blast power 7 centered on itself, destroying nearby blocks and damaging nearby entities. It then becomes active.

Drops

On death

On death, the wither always drops a Nether star. In Java Edition, it drops 50XP XP only when killed by a player or tamed wolf. In Bedrock Edition, it always drops 50XP XP no matter how it dies.

Java Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Nether Star	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Nether Star	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Nether Star	1	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drops
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Nether Star	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00

Bedrock Edition:

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Nether Star	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00	1	100.00%	1.00

Item		Quantity / Chance / Average
		Default			Looting I			Looting II			Looting III
	Nether Star	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1

Item		Amount	Probability
			Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Nether Star	1	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)	1 (100.00%)
		Average	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)	1 (1.00)

Killed		1
Item		Expected Drops
		Default	Looting I	Looting II	Looting III
	Nether Star	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00

A Nether star, when dropped by a wither:

• takes 10 minutes (as opposed to 5 minutes normally) to despawn in Java Edition^[1]
• never despawns in Bedrock Edition

Behavior

Creation

When spawned, the wither switches colors between black and blue as its health bar fills up. While in this state, the wither is invulnerable and neither moves nor attacks. When this state ends after 11 seconds or 220 game ticks, the wither creates a large explosion centered on itself, destroying nearby blocks and dealing tons of damage to nearby players and other entities.

It is the largest individual explosion that the player can cause in Java Edition without commands, with a blast power of 7, more than that of a charged creeper or an end crystal. It is accompanied by a global sound event (a sound that is played for everyone, no matter how far away they are from the wither‌^{[JE only] [2]}). After this, the wither attacks nearby mobs and can take damage.

Health and damage

In Java Edition, the wither's health is 300HP × 150, regardless of difficulty.

In Bedrock Edition, wither's health depends on difficulty:

• 300HP × 150 on Easy
• 450HP × 225 on Normal
• 600HP × 300 on Hard

The wither is immune to fire, lava, drowning, and freezing. Like other undead mobs, the wither is harmed by the Instant Health effect and healed by the Instant Damage effect as well as affected by weapons with the Smite enchantment. It is immune to all other status effects, and cannot be damaged by other undead mobs.

Upon taking damage, the wither breaks all blocks within a 3×4×3 area around it, including blast-resistant blocks like obsidian, crying obsidian, and ancient debris, dropping them as items if possible. The wither is the only mob in the game that can destroy obsidian. (See Tutorial:Obsidian farming)

The wither cannot break the following blocks:

• Allow‌^{[BE & edu only]}
• Barrier
• Bedrock
• Border‌^{[BE & edu only]}
• Command Blocks
• Deny‌^{[BE & edu only]}
• End Gateway‌^{[JE only]}
• End Portal
• End Portal Frame
• Jigsaw Block‌^{[JE only]}
• Light Blocks
• Moving Piston
• Nether Portal‌^{[JE only]}
• Reinforced Deepslate
• Structure Block
• Structure Void‌^{[BE & edu only]}
• Test Block‌^{[JE only]}
• Test Instance Block‌^{[JE only]}

In Java Edition, these blocks are listed under the wither_immune tag.

The wither's block-breaking behavior makes suffocation ineffective under most circumstances. However, the blocks listed above, as well as some natural structures that include them (like the exit portal), can be used to suffocate the wither due to their wither immunity.

The wither is hostile toward all mobs except:

• Agents‌^{[BE & edu only]}
• Ghasts^[3]
• Undead mobs:
  • Other withers
  • Phantoms
  • Skeletons and their variants
  • Skeleton horses and zombie horses
  • Zombie nautiluses
  • Camel husks
  • Zoglins and zombified piglins
  • Zombies and their variants
• Mobs with the Invulnerable NBT tag.

Armadillos are afraid of withers (and other undead mobs) and hide in their shell if a wither is nearby.

If the wither is idle, it simply hovers and is unable to gain altitude. On Normal or Hard difficulty, it fires blue skulls in random directions until it finds a target.

The color of the wither's bossbar depends on the edition: dark purple in Java Edition or light purple in Bedrock Edition. It appears whenever a player is within the vicinity of a wither. All withers display a boss bar on the screen, with a limit of five boss bars. A renamed wither displays its changed name above its boss bar.

In Java Edition, the fog around a player darkens when a wither is loaded. In Bedrock Edition, the effects from thunderstorms are applied; on Fancy graphics the sky darkens and the clouds turn black, and with Vibrant Visuals all environmental effects get darker and more brown/yellow.

Additionally, the wither's side heads shoot targets slightly slower than the main head. The interval for smaller heads is 2–3 seconds, while the main head's always 2.​

Java Edition

Attacking

Upon noticing a mob or a player within 40 blocks, the wither hovers above it and rapidly shoots black wither skulls. The wither always tries to fly 5 blocks above, and within 3 blocks horizontally from its target. Each head fires independently, allowing a wither to attack up to three different mobs/players at the same time. The wither skulls try to fly toward the middle of the target's eye height and its feet vertically and the middle of its hitbox horizontally.

The main head controls the wither's movement and fires a black wither skull toward its target every 2 seconds, with a 0.1% chance to shoot a blue wither skull instead of the default black one. When the line of sight to its target is blocked, the wither stops firing wither skulls but still pathfinds toward the target. Side heads find a new target and fire black wither skulls toward the new target.

The wither skulls from the main head spawn 3 blocks above its body vertically and the middle of its hitbox horizontally. The wither skulls from the side heads spawn 2.2 blocks above its feet vertically, 1.3 blocks offset from the middle of its hitbox horizontally.

Regeneration

The wither has a passive regeneration rate of 1HP every 20 ticks (1 second), and a direct killing blow on a target instantly heals 5HP.

Wither roses

When a wither kills another mob, a wither rose is planted if the ground is grass block, dirt, coarse dirt, moss block, mud, netherrack, soul sand, or soul soil, or otherwise dropped as an item at that mob's location; however, it may be destroyed by other wither skulls. Wither roses are planted/dropped even when the game rule doMobLoot is set to false.^[4]

Wither armor

When its health drops below half (150HP × 75), the wither gains a natural "wither armor" effect, which makes it immune to damage from arrows, thrown tridents and wind charges^[5] and causes it to fly at the same height as the target. Other projectiles, including firework rockets shot from a crossbow, can still hit the wither,^[6][7] as can a warden's sonic boom attack. The armor disappears if the wither regenerates above half health.

Breaking blocks

When being damaged, the wither destroys a 3×4×3 area, with the lowest center block being the block where the wither's tail is located. The block where the wither tail is located is the block at the bottom center of the wither's hitbox (block position of the wither's coordinate).

The attack can destroy any block in the game except moving piston/blocks, unbreakable blocks, and liquids. Withers can do block breaking attacks every 20 ticks.

When a wither is damaged, it sets its block breaking counter to 20. Every time it gets processed, it first decreases the counter by 1, then check if the counter equals 0. If it is 0 after the decrement, it breaks the blocks around it.

Suffocation is processed before the block breaking, so if wither is suffocated or damaged by something else before it ticks, it breaks blocks 19 ticks after the damage instead of 20 ticks.

Side heads behavior

When one of the wither's side heads does not have a target, it locks onto a target randomly within line of sight and attempts to shoot a skull. Each head can lock onto different targets. When it has a target, it fires a black wither skull toward the target every 2–3 seconds. If the side head fails to fire a skull for 9.5–17.2 seconds, or the wither is damaged faster than 12 tick intervals, it fires a blue skull at a random direction. Each head has its own separate wither skull cooldowns. If reloaded, the side heads could possibly shoot at 7.5–17.2 seconds after reloading instead.

Every tick the wither gets processed:

1. It decreases its side head wither skull cooldown by 1
2. The game then checks through each side heads for their respective wither skull cooldown, if the wither skull cooldown equals to 0 after the decrement, it does the followings:
   1. Set the wither skull cooldown to 10 ~ 19
   2. Add 1 to blue wither skull counter
   3. If the blue wither skull counter is greater than 15 after the addition and the game difficulty is set to Normal or Hard:
      1. Shoots a blue wither skull in random direction
      2. Set blue wither skull counter to 0
   4. If the head has a target, it does the followings:
      1. Shoot a black wither skull toward the target
      2. Sets wither skull cooldown to 40 ~ 59
      3. Set blue wither skull counter to 0
   5. If it does not have a target, target a random target with line of sight

When the wither is damaged, the blue skull counters increase by +3. This increment occurs even if the wither is under its invulnerability timer and cannot lose health — the event is still treated as valid for the counter. The 12‑tick threshold and the 2–3 second/9.5–17.2 second intervals are calculated from the wither's processing.

Bedrock Edition

The wither has different spawn and death animations, both of which involve the wither exploding. With Vibrant Visuals, the eyes and mouths of both the wither and its skulls are emissive, and during spawning, shooting, or explosions the blue texture is emissive. The charge overlay below half health is also emissive.

Attacking

Upon noticing a player or mob, the wither flies to a random location horizontally near the target, sometimes strafing a few blocks before settling, then hovers in place. It always attempts to be above the player's reaching distance (about 4 blocks). It shoots 3 black wither skulls and one blue wither skull before flying to another location. The time between each shot decreases when the wither reaches 500HP × 250 and 400HP × 200. At half health it fires skulls at the original rate, then once again shoots faster at 200HP × 100 and 100HP × 50. On Normal difficulty or higher, if the wither has targeted an entity but cannot find a location to pathfind to, it shoots random blue skulls in a random direction along with the skulls directed toward the target.

A blue wither skull can be deflected by hitting it or using a projectile. If a deflected blue wither skull hits the wither, the wither takes damage.

Half health behavior

At half health, it crashes into the ground causing a large explosion that spawns 3 wither skeletons (except on Easy difficulty), as well as gaining wither armor. It then sometimes dashes into the ground destroying all the blocks around it, until it goes down approximately 40 blocks or reaches a block it cannot break.

Instead of flying to a random location, the wither moves by dashing toward its target, destroying blocks and damaging players or mobs in its path. When dashing, the wither pauses and tilts its body completely horizontal before moving at a high speed. It continues firing wither skulls like before, dashing after every second volley.

The wither's dash ability breaks all blocks in a 6x8x6 volume around it, rounded to the south-east if required. Despite the wither being able to destroy obsidian with blue skulls, the wither cannot dash through it.

A wither retains its anti-projectile armor after regenerating over 1/2 of its total HP, though it disappears after the game is restarted.^[8]

Wither roses

Wither roses always drop as an item when the wither kills a mob. Wither roses are dropped even when the game rule doMobLoot is set to false.^[9] The wither rose inflicts the Wither effect for a couple of seconds when stepped on.

Easy difficulty

On Easy difficulty, the wither does not inflict the wither effect or summon wither skeletons.

Wither skulls

Not to be confused with Wither Skeleton Skull.

When attacking, the wither rapidly fires explosive projectiles called wither skulls, which look similar to its own heads, at its target. There are two types of wither skulls: a fast-moving black one, and a slower blue one.

• Black wither skulls explode with a blast power of 1, the same as a ghast's fireball, and cannot break blocks with a blast resistance above 4.
• Blue wither skulls have the same explosion strength, but move slower and are more destructive to terrain. They treat all breakable blocks as having a blast resistance lower than 0.8 (except reinforced deepslate), such as obsidian, ancient debris and blocks of netherite. Blue skulls are able to destroy water and lava source blocks, but cannot break unbreakable blocks like bedrock and end portal frames. In Minecraft Education, blue wither skulls deal increased damage, but with the same explosion radius.

If either type of wither skull hits a player or mob, it does 8HP damage on Normal difficulty in Java Edition. It also inflicts Wither II for 10 seconds on Normal difficulty and 40 seconds on Hard, which turns the player's hearts black () and drains health, similarly to Poison. However, unlike Poison, it can kill the player.

Like other status effects, the Wither effect can be cured by drinking milk.

In Bedrock Edition and Legacy Console Edition, the blue skull can be deflected by hitting it with an empty hand, weapon, tool, throwable projectiles such as tridents, arrows, snowballs, and throwable potions and explosions. Deflected blue skulls can damage the wither if it hits the body, but not the heads. Killing a wither with a blue skull drops a wither rose as it is considered to be killed by a wither.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Wither	wither	can_breathe_under_water fall_damage_immune freeze_immune_entity_types ignores_poison_and_regen inverted_healing_and_harm undead wither_friends sensitive_to_smite	entity.minecraft.wither
Wither Skull	wither_skull	impact_projectiles	entity.minecraft.wither_skull

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Family	Translation key
Wither	wither	52	mob monster skeleton undead wither	entity.wither.name
Wither Skull	wither_skull	89	None	entity.wither_skull.name
Wither Skull	wither_skull_dangerous	91	None	entity.wither_skull_dangerous.name

Entity data

Java Edition:

Withers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Wither skulls have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Monster Hunter	Attack and destroy a monster.	Kill one of these 41 monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this achievement.	15	Bronze
		It Spreads	Kill a mob next to a catalyst	Kill any mob that drops experience near a sculk catalyst, with the sole exception of the ender dragon. Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this achievement.	10	Bronze
		The Beginning?	Spawn the Wither	Be within a 100.9×100.9×103.5 cuboid centered on the Wither when it is spawned.	20	Bronze
		The Beginning.	Kill the Wither	Be within a 100.9×100.9×203.5 cuboid centered on the Wither when it drops the nether star.	40	Silver

Achievements that apply to all mobs:

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.	20	Silver
		Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor stands and players also count for this achievement as they are technically mobs.	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Not Today, Thank You	Deflect a projectile with a Shield	Block any projectile with a shield.
	Withering Heights	Summon the Wither	Be within a 100.9×100.9×103.5 cuboid centered on the wither when it is spawned.
	How Did We Get Here?	Have every effect applied at the same time	Have all of these 34​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/35​[upcoming] status effects applied to the player at the same time: Absorption Bad Omen Blindness Breath of the Nautilus Conduit Power Darkness Dolphin's Grace Fire Resistance Freezing Glowing Haste Hero of the Village Hunger Infested Invisibility Jump Boost Levitation Mining Fatigue Nausea Night Vision Oozing Poison Raid Omen Regeneration Resistance Slow Falling Slowness Speed Strength Trial Omen Water Breathing Weakness Weaving Wind Charged Wither The source of the effects is irrelevant for the purposes of this advancement. Other status effects may be applied to the player, but are ignored for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	Monster Hunter	Kill any hostile monster	Kill one of these 41​[until: Fourth Drop 2026]/42​[upcoming] monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Frostbite​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.
	It Spreads	Kill a mob near a Sculk Catalyst	Kill any mob that drops experience near a sculk catalyst, with the sole exception of the ender dragon. Mobs that drop no experience are ignored for this advancement.
	Monsters Hunted	Kill one of every hostile monster	Kill each of these 41​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]/42​[upcoming] monsters: Blaze Bogged Breeze Camel Husk Cave Spider Creaking (by destroying its creaking heart) Creeper Drowned Elder Guardian Ender Dragon Enderman Endermite Evoker Frostbite​[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026] Ghast Guardian Hoglin Husk Magma Cube Parched Phantom Piglin Piglin Brute Pillager Ravager Shulker Silverfish Skeleton Slime Spider Stray Vex Vindicator Witch Wither Wither Skeleton Zoglin Zombie Zombie Horse Zombie Nautilus Zombie Villager Zombified Piglin Other mobs may be killed, but are ignored for this advancement.

Advancements that apply to all mobs:

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
	Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.

History

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.4.2			12w34a				Added withers.
							Withers currently cannot spawn in Survival.
							Withers have been left unfinished by Jeb and hidden in the code. They were discovered through the presence of its skin in the /mobs/ folder.
							Withers can be spawned only with edited monster spawners, mods, or hacks, and can crash the JVM.
			12w34b				When the wither's health is taken down to half, it now gains wither armor, which makes it immune to arrows.
							The projectile firing rate and movement speed of withers has been increased.
			?				At PAX, Dinnerbone revealed that it would be possible to spawn withers by arranging wither skeleton skulls in some way.[11][12]
			12w36a				Withers can now be spawned by arranging soul sand in a T shape and placing three wither skeleton skulls on top.
							The wither now drops 20 experience and a Nether star upon death.
			12w37a				Withers now make a massive explosion upon their creation after their health is fully charged.
							When there are no targets, the wither sometimes shoots blue wither skulls, which move slower and can destroy any block besides bedrock.
			12w38a				Added a sound when withers break blocks.
			12w42b				The experience dropped by withers has been increased from 20 to 50 points.
			1.4				Various new sounds have been added for withers.
1.4.4			1.4.3				The oversight where withers can be created in Peaceful difficulty has been fixed. Before this update, attempting to spawn the wither in peaceful resulted in a waste of soul sand and skulls.
							Withers can no longer destroy End portals, which are now supposed to be unbreakable.
1.5			13w05a				Withers are no longer able to ride minecarts.
1.7.2			13w37a				Added achievements for spawning and killing the wither.
1.8			14w04a				The player can now spawn withers by dispensing the wither skulls.
			14w05a				The armor that protects the wither from arrows when it is taken down to half no longer turns red when the wither takes damage.
			14w11b				The hitbox of the wither has been changed.
			14w20a				Withers no longer break barriers.
			14w25a				Withers now move while invulnerable due to MC-57569.
							Withers can now be built sideways and upside-down instead of just upright and require air blocks next to the base soul sand.[13]
1.8.1			pre3				Barriers can no longer be broken by blue wither skulls.
1.9			15w31a				Withers now have a uniquely colored boss bar.
							Wither health bar now starts at full health instead of filling up during the spawning animation.
			15w46a				Withers no longer move while invulnerable.
			15w49a				Withers no longer travel through portals.
1.11			16w38a				Structure blocks and structure voids can no longer be destroyed by withers.[14]
			16w40a				The tags xTile, yTile, zTile, inTile and inGround have been removed from the wither skull entity data.
							The wither life tag is no longer used for anything, but still saved/read.
1.12			pre3				Withers can no longer break piston extensions or end gateways.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of withers has been changed.
							All mobs killed by withers now have one wither rose planted at their location upon death.
			18w44a				Withers now have loot tables.
			19w12a				Due to the rewriting of the sound system the wither spawning sound now always plays at full volume even if the player moves while it is playing.
1.16			20w07a				Withers can now also be summoned using soul soil.
			pre3				Withers can now be built sideways even at Y=0 and Y=1.
1.17			20w46a				Wither health bar once again fills up during the spawning animation instead of starting directly at full health.
			21w17a				Withers are now immune to freezing.
1.18			21w37a				Fixed bug where withers do not pursue players in survival mode unless attacked.[15]
			21w41a				Tweaked the wither skull's texture to use the new wither face from the Texture Update.
1.19			Deep Dark Experimental Snapshot 1				Added reinforced deepslate, which cannot be broken by withers.
1.19.3			22w44a				Added spawn eggs for withers, which can be obtained only with commands as to avoid potential destruction of creative builds.[16]
1.21.2			24w34a				Wither skulls no longer go through the world border if hit.
1.21.5			25w08a				The texture of wither spawn eggs has been changed.

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.16.0			build 4				Added withers.
							When withers are at half health, they spawn 4 wither skeletons.
							Withers attack differently and have twice the amount of health as Java Edition withers.
							Withers also trigger explosions when created, when at half health, and when killed, rather than just when created as in Java Edition.
Pocket Edition
1.0.2							Wither skulls from withers can now be deflected with a sword.
Bedrock Edition
1.10.0			beta 1.10.0.3				The texture of withers has been changed.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.9				All mobs killed by withers now have one wither rose planted at their location upon death.
1.16.0			beta 1.16.0.51				Withers can now also be summoned using soul soil instead of soul sand.
							Added piglins, which attack withers.
1.17.0			beta 1.17.0.56				Withers are now immune to freezing.
1.18.10			beta 1.18.10.20				Tweaked the wither skull's texture to use the new wither face from the Texture Update.
1.19.60			Preview 1.19.60.20				Added spawn eggs for withers.
1.21.70			Preview 1.21.70.24				The texture of wither spawn eggs has been changed.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU19	CU7	1.12	1.12	1.12	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added withers.
TU24	CU12	1.16	1.16	1.16			The armor that protects the wither from arrows when it is taken down to half no longer turns red when the wither takes damage.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		The player can now spawn withers by dispensing the wither skulls.
							Withers can now be built sideways and upside-down instead of just upright.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Wither health bar now starts at full health instead of filling up during the spawning animation.
							The maximum amount of boss mobs that can be loaded at once has been increased from 1 to 5. This means outside the end it is possible to have up to 5 withers instead of only 1 and in the End it is possible to have up to 4 only if the ender dragon is alive.
TU60	CU51	1.64	1.64	1.64	Patch 30	1.0.11	The behavior of withers has been changed to match the behavior of withers in Pocket Edition Alpha v0.16.0.
							Withers now blow up and spawn wither skeletons at half health. Upon death, withers stop moving and slowly grow in size while turning white until they explode. They also do the dash attack like in Bedrock Edition and the amount of health that they get when spawning also depends on the difficulty.
							Withers are no longer able to regenerate health.
							Wither health bar once again fills up during the spawning animation instead of starting directly at full health.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
1.3.12							Added withers.

Data history

Java Edition

Bedrock Edition

Issues

Issues relating to "Wither" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• The wither was originally supposed to shoot flaming skulls, but the game would not stop crashing despite the best efforts of the developers. So, the skulls were changed to no longer be on fire.^[17]
• According to Jeb, the wither was inspired by Terraria, which has a summonable boss mechanic. The name itself is inspired by a poison spell in another game made by Jeb called Whispers in Akarra.^[18]
• There is a painting showing the soul sand and wither skeleton skull formation needed to spawn a wither.
  • Similarly, the wither appears on the four sides of chiseled red sandstone.
• If the wither is damaged by the void, it frantically attempts to fire blue skulls.
• Above half health, the wither always attempts to stay a few blocks above the mob it is targeting. This means that attempting to build or climb up to hit the wither using a sword is essentially impossible.
  • If the wither is after a blaze and the blaze tries to fly up to it, the wither attempts to keep rising above the blaze, thus making both of them rise higher until they hit a ceiling or until the blaze despawns or dies.
• Although the wither is 3.5 blocks tall, 3 blocks wide, and 1 block thick, its hitbox is only 3.5 blocks tall, 1 block wide, and 1 block thick.
  • The true dimensions of the wither are: 2.844 blocks tall (varies), 3 blocks wide, and 1.719 blocks long (also varies).
• An enemy called the wither storm appears in Minecraft: Story Mode. It was created by replacing the center block of soul sand with a command block.
• Despite not having visible feet, withers can make footstep sounds.^[19]
• In Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34, withers drop red keys.
• According to Quinn Richter, Marketplace Partner Manager, the wither's name is "Simmons?", similar to the ender dragon's name being "Jean?".^[20]
• On the webpage for the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, an image of the wither is referred to internally as a ghast.^[21]
• in Bedrock Edition when the wither dies it plays its death sounds three times because of its special death animation.

Gallery

Renders

• 
  The wither and its armor
• 
  The wither prepares for explosion with the invulnerable status after summoned

Screenshots

• 
  The withering effect after being damaged by a wither skull
• 
  The "wither armor" that blocks arrows
• 
  A larger image to show how to summon the wither
• 
  The pit created after the wither has charged
• 
  The wither attacking horses
• 
  The wither attacking a sheep
• 
  The wither attacking a village
• 
  A wither summoning set-up
• 
  Image from Dinnerbone of a wither being built horizontally
• 
  A player avoiding a wither by using the Invisibility effect
• 
  First image of a wither being built in Bedrock Edition
• 
  The darker sky when a wither is nearby

Textures

• 
  Wither texture file
• 
  Invulnerable wither texture file
• 
  Wither armor texture file

In other media

• 
  Efe and Zuri defeating the wither
• 
  Wither in promotional artwork for the Pretty Scary Update
• 
  Artwork of the Wither used on the 10th anniversary website^[21]
• 
  Wither pictured in the Mobestiary
• 
  The Wither on the cover of Castle Redstone
• 
  LEGO Minecraft wither
• 
  "Acid Wither," an official T-Shirt design
• 
  "Jolly Mobs Flying Head," another T-Shirt design
• 
  A painting of the Wither as seen in A Minecraft Movie
• 
  A wither-themed spinner produced by ThinkGeek
• 
  Steve, Alex, and a tamed wolf trying to fight the wither

See also

• Ender Dragon, the other boss mob in Minecraft

References

External links

• "Meet the Wither" by Marsh Davies – Minecraft.net, February 13, 2017.