Wither Skeletons in Minecraft

 First introduced in 1.4.2, Wither Skeletons are hostile mobs, found in Nether Fortresses. 

How do wither skeletons appear? 

Wither Skeletons are similar to skeletons, despite that they are black in colour. They are having a stone sword in their hands. 

Where do the Wither Skeletons spawn? 

Wither Skeletons always spawn in Nether. They spawn in a group of 4 in Nether Fortresses. For their spawn, light level of 7 or less is required. 

What do the wither skeletons drop when killed? 

When Wither Skeletons are killed, they drop: 0-2 bones, 0-2 coal (1/3 chance for a single coal),  and their stone sword (8.5% chance). However, the chances can be increased with each level of Looting enchantment. 

Except bones, coal, and sword, Wither Skeletons also drop Wither Skeleton Skull;  which is used for summoning the Wither Boss. There happens to be 2.5% chance for a Wither Skeleton to drop it's skull. Nevertheless, you can maximize the chance with Looting III enchantment (11.5%), as each level increases 1%.  Another way to obtain Wither Skeleton Skull, is to blast a Wither Skeleton by a charged creeper; and,  it will give you the skull with 100% chances. 

What do Wither Skeletons fear? 

Wither Skeletons like normal skeletons, fear wolves and run away from them. 

The Wither Effect

When any mob or player is hit by a Wither Skeleton or the Wither Boss, they get Wither effect for 10 seconds in every difficulty mode. It turns the health bar to turn black, and slowly deals a damage to the target. The Wither effect deals 1 heart damage every 2 seconds, similar to poison effect. 

Wither Skeletons can steal your armor or weapons

If you are fighting a bunch of Wither Skeletons, and out of sudden your health bar decreases to 0 and you die dropping your loot. There are 55% chances that the Wither Skeletons might equip your Iron, Gold, or Netherite armor, tools, or weapons. However, Wither Skeletons, do not take any bows. 

If,  by using command,  a Wither Skeleton is spawned with a bow, he'll shoot flaming arrows even the bow is not enchanted. The following command is used to do so /summon wither_skeleton ~ ~ ~ {HandItems:[{id:bow,Count:1b}]}) 

Immunity of Wither Skeletons

Wither Skeletons are immune to the Wither effect and fire. 

They are harmed by Instant Health,  and healed by Instant Damage effects. They are also immune to poison and regeneration effects. 

The Wither Boss do not attack Wither Skeletons. 

In Minecraft Bedrock Editing, Wither Sketons, despite of immunity to fire, can be burnt when a Trident with Channeling enchantment is thrown at them, during Thunderstorm. 

Wither Sketons are hostile, black colored mobs, found in the Nether Fortresses.