Java Edition:Stray Skeleton Horseman

Stray Horse Jockey.png

Stray Skeleton Horseman
A stray riding a skeleton horse
Type	Entity
Versions Obtainable
Version range	16w20a - 1.10.2
Version range #2	21w05a - 24w38a (present)

From 16w20a (the first version with strays) to 1.10.2, a stray riding a skeleton horse could be obtained by waiting for it to spawn. By this method, this mob can only be obtained on some world seeds because it requires a cold biome at x=0, z=0. As of 21w05a, by using powder snow, it's obtainable again making it a recontinued feature. Additionally, before 1.21 Pre-Release 1, a bug prevented stacked mobs from traveling through portals, restricting this mob to the Overworld dimension until the issue was fixed. Later on, this feature is recontinued by using powder snow, and is also possible in the nether and end with 22w13oneBlockAtATime.

Obtaining

Spawning

The player's world must have a cold biome at the coordinates 0,0 in order to get this jockey. The biome can be Snowy Tundra, Snowy Mountains, or Ice Spikes. First, the player must remove every block in the column at 0,0. This is in order to give sky access to the skeleton. This will include breaking the bedrock at 0,0,0 and above. Once taken care of, the only step left is to get lightning to strike and create a skeleton trap. The biome where the skeleton trap is triggered doesn't matter as long as it is in the overworld. Only 80% of the skeleton horses will be stray because this is the spawning chances in cold biomes.

This method works due to a glitch in the code. The horseman's code is executed in the following order: entity created, skeleton initialized (stray determined at this step), and then position chosen. This order should normally be entity created, position chosen, and then skeleton initialized. Because the type of skeleton is chosen before the position is determined, the game will run the checks for the type of skeleton at the default coordinates 0,0,0. The stray only spawns in a cold biome when it has sky access. This is why a cold biome is required at this position. To get the sky access at this location all of the blocks in the 0,0 column need to be removed including the bedrock.

Powder snow conversion

From 21w05a to 24w38a (present) by putting skeleton in powder snow 22 seconds (pre 21w11a 45 seconds), it turns it into a stray. As this does not run a check on whether the mob is a jockey or not, this also applies to skeleton horseman. Powder snow needs to be placed 2 blocks above where skeleton horse stands otherwise if lower, the horse will take damage. (For pre 21w11a; Powder snow deals damage to strays too, so it needs to be removed right after the conversion process)

22w13oneBlockAtATime Mob Wrestling

Warning: April Fools' 

This feature requires April Fools' versions which may require file renaming or file deletion to load. See the Loading April Fools' Versions tutorial for more information.

Main page: Invalid Mob Stack

In the April Fools' version 22w13oneBlockAtATime, the player can pick up nearly any entity to create mob stacks in any combination. This powerful method also allows for stray skeleton horseman to be obtained.

Combos

• Can Pick Up Loot Mobs
• High Health Skeleton Horse
• Long Name Mob
• Oversized Mob in Boat
• Piglin Jockey
• Weaponless Mob

Gallery

• 

  The glitched texture that a stray with enchanted armor appears from 16w20a (1.10 snapshot) to 16w44a (1.11 snapshot) due to a visual bug

• 

  A stray with a pumpkin from Halloween

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  A stray with a jack o'lantern from Halloween

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  A weaponless stray

See also

• High Health Skeleton Horse
• Stray Spider Jockey
• Wither Skeleton Horseman