Skeleton Skull

Wearing and disguise

Wearing the skull reduces skeleton detection range; the supplied Java reference gives no percentage. The effect stacks with the reductions from sneaking and Invisibility. The skull occupies the head slot and overlays the second layer of the player’s skin. The reference also says mob heads hide the wearer from other players using the locator bar. Bedrock locator-map behavior is separate and is not included here.

Placement and utility

Place the skull on top of a block in one of 16 orientations or on a side in one of four directions. A skeleton skull above a note block makes it play a skeleton ambient sound when activated. A dispenser can equip it on a player, mob, or armor stand with an empty head slot in front of it. It can also be combined with gunpowder and any dye to make a creeper-shaped firework star.

Java drops and generation

A skeleton drops its skull when killed by a charged creeper’s explosion. In Java, a single charged creeper blast drops at most one mob head, selected at random from the mobs it kills. Skeleton skulls can also generate in ancient cities. The skull drops itself when broken, including by an explosion; a piston destroys it, and a sticky piston cannot pull it.

Enchantments

The skull can receive Curse of Binding or Curse of Vanishing through an anvil. These are the two enchantments listed for it.

Limitations and tradeoffs

• Its detection reduction applies to skeletons; the supplied Java reference does not quantify the reduction.
• Wearing it uses the head slot, and its locator-bar concealment is distinct from Bedrock locator-map behavior.