Minecraft:Wither

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

Spawning

Template:FakeImage The wither is spawned by placing 4 blocks of Minecraft:soul sand and/or Minecraft:soul soil in a T shape, and putting 3 Minecraft: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 Minecraft:dispenser) then it will load a boss bar that takes 12 seconds to fully charge up, this then is followed by a large explosion. Minecraft:Air blocks are required on either side of the base soul sand/-soil. The orientation of the skulls does not matter, and the structure as a whole can be built upright, lying down, or upside-down. The wither spawns at the base soul sand/soil.

Drops

On death

On death, the wither always drops a Minecraft:Nether star. In Template:JE, it drops Template:Xp XP only when killed by a Minecraft:player or tamed Minecraft:wolf. In Template:BE, it always drops Template:Xp XP no matter how it dies. Template:DropTable A Nether star, when dropped by a wither:

• takes 10 minutes (as opposed to 5 minutes normally) to despawn Template:In<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
• never despawns Template:In

Behavior

Creation

File:Blue Wither 2.png

Wither when spawned with its blue shield

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 Minecraft:explosion centered on itself, destroying nearby blocks and dealing tons of damage to nearby players and other Minecraft:entities.

It is the largest individual explosion that the player can cause Template:In without commands, with a blast power of 7, more than that of a Minecraft:charged creeper or an Minecraft: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 witherTemplate:Only <ref name="MC-177741">Template:Bug</ref>). After this, the wither attacks nearby mobs and can take damage.

Health and damage

File:HealthBarComparison.png

The color difference between the ender dragon's boss bar and that of the wither

Template:IN, the wither's health is Template:Hp, regardless of Minecraft:difficulty.

Template:IN, wither's health depends on difficulty:

• Template:Hp on Easy
• Template:Hp on Normal
• Template:Hp on Hard

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

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

The wither cannot break the following blocks:

• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockSprite Template:BlockSprite Template:BlockSprite Minecraft:Command Blocks
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLink
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockSpriteTemplate:BlockSpriteTemplate:BlockSpriteTemplate:BlockSpriteTest BlockTemplate:Only
• Template:BlockLinkTemplate:Only

Template:IN, these blocks are listed under the Template:Cd Minecraft:tag.

File:WitherAttack 2.png

The wither attacking a villager

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

The wither is hostile toward all Minecraft:mobs except:

• Template:EntityLinkTemplate:Only
• Template:EntityLink<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
• Minecraft:Undead mobs:
  • Template:EntitySprite Other withers
  • Template:EntityLink
  • Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Skeletons and their variants
  • Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Skeleton horses and Minecraft:zombie horses
  • Template:EntityLink
  • Template:EntityLink
  • Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Zoglins and Minecraft:zombified piglins
  • Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Template:EntitySprite Minecraft:Zombies and their variants
• Mobs with the Template:Cd Minecraft:NBT tag.

Minecraft:Armadillos are afraid of withers (and other Minecraft: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 Minecraft:difficulty, it fires blue skulls in random directions until it finds a target.

The color of the wither's Minecraft:bossbar depends on the edition: dark purple Template:In or light purple Template:In. It appears whenever a Minecraft: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.

Template:IN, the Minecraft:fog around a player darkens when a wither is loaded. Template:IN, the effects from Minecraft:thunderstorms are applied; on Fancy graphics the Minecraft:sky darkens and the Minecraft:clouds turn black, and with Minecraft: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.Template:Info needed

Java Edition

File:Wither with wither armor effect.gif

Wither with 'wither armor' effect, after half health depleted

Attacking

Upon noticing a Minecraft:mob or a Minecraft: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 Template:Hp every 20 ticks (1 second), and a direct killing blow on a target instantly heals Template:Hp.

Wither roses

When a wither kills another mob, a Minecraft:wither rose is planted if the ground is Minecraft:grass block, Minecraft:dirt, Minecraft:coarse dirt, Minecraft:moss block, Minecraft:mud, Minecraft:netherrack, Minecraft:soul sand, or Minecraft: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 Minecraft:game rule Template:Cd is set to Template:Cd.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>

Wither armor

When its health drops below half (Template:Hp), the wither gains a natural "wither armor" effect, which makes it immune to Minecraft:damage from Minecraft:arrows, thrown Minecraft:tridents and Minecraft:wind charges<ref>Template:Bug</ref> and causes it to fly at the same height as the target. The armor disappears if it regenerates above half health. Other projectiles, including firework rockets shot from a crossbow, can still hit the wither,<ref>Template:Bug</ref><ref>Bug reports for other projectiles bypassing wither armor are linked as related to Template:Bug, and most have also been resolved as Works As Intended.</ref> as can a Minecraft:warden's sonic boom attack.

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 Minecraft: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 Minecraft: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 Minecraft:player or Minecraft: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 Template:Hp and Template:Hp. At half health it fires skulls at the original rate, then once again shoots faster at Template:Hp and Template:Hp. On Normal Minecraft: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 Minecraft:explosion that spawns 3 Minecraft: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 Minecraft: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.<ref>Template:Bug – After healing a wither boss over 1/2 HP, it still retains its anti-projectile shield</ref>

Wither roses

Wither roses always drop as an item when the wither kills a mob. Wither roses are dropped even when the Minecraft:game rule Template:Cd is set to Template:Cd.<ref>Template:Bug</ref> The Minecraft:wither rose inflicts the Minecraft: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

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 Minecraft:ghast's fireball, and cannot break blocks with a Minecraft: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 Minecraft:reinforced deepslate), such as Minecraft:obsidian, Minecraft:ancient debris and Minecraft:blocks of netherite. Blue skulls are able to destroy Minecraft:water and Minecraft:lava source blocks, but cannot break unbreakable blocks like Minecraft:bedrock and Minecraft:end portal frames. Template:IN, 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 Template:Hp damage on Normal difficulty. It also inflicts Wither II for 10 seconds on Normal difficulty and 40 seconds on Hard, which turns the player's hearts black (Template:Healthbar) and drains health, similarly to Minecraft:Poison. However, unlike Poison, it can kill the player.

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

Template:IN and Template:LCE, the blue skull can be deflected by hitting it with an empty hand, weapon, tool, throwable projectiles such as tridents, arrows, Minecraft: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

Template:JE: Template:SoundTable

Template:BE: Template:SoundTable

Data values

ID

Template:JE: Template:ID table Template:ID table

Template:BE: Template:ID table Template:ID table Template:ID table

Entity data

Template:JE: Template:Main Withers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

<section begin="entity data" />

• Template:Nbt Entity data
  • Template:Nbt inherit/entity
  • Template:Nbt inherit/mob
  • Template:Nbt: The number of ticks of invulnerability left after being initially created. 0 once invulnerability has expired.

<section end="entity data" />

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

<section begin="skull entity data" />

• Template:Nbt Entity data
  • Template:Nbt inherit/entity
  • Template:Nbt inherit/fireball
  • Template:Nbt inherit/projectile
  • Template:NbtTemplate:Note: Template:Cd or Template:Cd (Template:Cd/Template:Cd) - If Template:Cd, the wither skull renders as blue, moves more slowly, and ignores the hardness values of most blocks upon exploding.

<section end="skull entity data" />

Template:BE:

See Minecraft:Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Achievements that apply to all mobs: Template:Collapse

Advancements

Advancements that apply to all mobs: Template:Collapse

History

Trivia

File:Wither (painting texture) JE1 BE1.png

The painting depicting how to spawn a wither

• 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.<ref>Template:Mcnet</ref>
• According to Minecraft: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.<ref>Template:Mcnet</ref>
• There is a Minecraft:painting showing the Minecraft:soul sand and Minecraft:wither skeleton skull formation needed to spawn a wither.
  • Similarly, the wither appears on the four sides of Minecraft: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 Minecraft: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 Minecraft:wither storm appears in Template:MCSM. It was created by replacing the center block of soul sand with a Minecraft:command block.
• Despite not having visible feet, withers can make footstep sounds.<ref>Template:Bug</ref>
• In Minecraft:Java Edition 3D Shareware v1.34, withers drop red keys.
• According to Minecraft:Quinn Richter, Marketplace Partner Manager, the wither's name is "Simmons?", similar to the ender dragon's name being "Jean?".<ref>Template:Ytl</ref>
• On the webpage for the 10th anniversary of Minecraft, an image of the wither is referred to internally as a ghast.<ref name=":Ghast">Template:Citation</ref>

Gallery

Renders

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

Screenshots

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

Textures

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

In other media

• Minecraft:Efe and Minecraft:Zuri defeating the wither
  Minecraft:Efe and Minecraft:Zuri defeating the wither
• Wither in promotional artwork for the Minecraft:Pretty Scary Update
  Wither in promotional artwork for the Minecraft:Pretty Scary Update
• Artwork of the Wither used on the 10th anniversary website<ref name=":Ghast" />
  Artwork of the Wither used on the 10th anniversary website<ref name=":Ghast" />
• Wither pictured in the Mobestiary
  Wither pictured in the Mobestiary
• The Wither on the cover of Minecraft:Castle Redstone
  The Wither on the cover of Minecraft:Castle Redstone
• Minecraft:LEGO Minecraft wither
  Minecraft:LEGO Minecraft wither
• "Acid Wither," an official T-Shirt design
  "Acid Wither," an official T-Shirt design
• "Jolly Mobs Flying Head," another T-Shirt design
  "Jolly Mobs Flying Head," another T-Shirt design
• A painting of the Wither as seen in Template:AMCM
  A painting of the Wither as seen in Template:AMCM
• A wither-themed spinner produced by Minecraft:ThinkGeek
  A wither-themed spinner produced by Minecraft:ThinkGeek
• File:Noah-003.jpeg

See also

• Template:EntityLink, the other boss mob in Template:MC

External links

• Template:Mcnet