Stray in Minecraft: The Snowy Skeleton With Slowness Arrows
A stray is a snowy skeleton whose arrows add 30 seconds of Slowness. Where strays spawn, how skeletons freeze into strays, drops, and husks and bogged.
A stray is a skeleton variant from snowy biomes. It has the same 20 health and bow, but its arrows apply 30 seconds of Slowness, and its kills can drop Arrows of Slowness. Out in the open snow at night, they’re the reason you can’t outrun anything.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 20 HP (10 hearts) |
| Arrow damage | Same as a skeleton (3-5 HP on Normal) + Slowness 30s |
| Spawns | Snowy plains, ice spikes (more cold biomes on Bedrock), open sky |
| Drops | 0-2 bones, 0-2 arrows, 0-1 Arrow of Slowness |
| XP | 5 |
Where strays spawn
Strays replace most skeletons that spawn on the surface of snowy plains and ice spikes: about 80% on Java and 70% on Bedrock. Bedrock also spawns them in frozen oceans, frozen rivers, snowy slopes and the frozen and jagged peaks. They need full sky light, so a cave under a snowy biome still spawns ordinary skeletons.
Snowy taigas aren’t on the Java list, which surprises players who expect strays anywhere with snow. In a snowy taiga you’ll mostly meet regular skeletons.
Skeletons that freeze
Any skeleton that falls into powder snow starts shaking after about 7 seconds and becomes a stray about 15 seconds after that. Strays are immune to freezing themselves. Powder snow traps are a simple way to turn a skeleton spawner into a stray farm if you want slowness arrows.
Why the Slowness matters
Slowness from a stray lasts 30 seconds and stacks with the snow already slowing you down. Get hit twice and every zombie in the area catches you. Two ways to deal with it:
- Block with a shield. A blocked arrow doesn’t apply the effect.
- Drink milk once the fight is over, if you have a bucket.
Fight them the same way you’d fight skeletons: break line of sight, close in with the shield up, or out-shoot them. They’re undead, so Smite works and healing potions hurt them. Like all skeletons they burn in daylight and run from wolves.
On Bedrock, strays underwater switch to a melee attack that also applies Slowness for 9 seconds.
Drops
Bones and arrows match the skeleton, and the bow drops 8.5% of the time. The extra is the Arrow of Slowness: 50% chance for one, only when a player (or on Java, a tamed wolf) gets the kill. They’re handy in PvP or against a fleeing mob.
Stray vs husk vs bogged
All three are biome variants of a basic mob. Strays are the snowy skeletons, bogged are the swamp skeletons with poison arrows, and the husk is the desert zombie. Each swaps in for its parent mob only on the open surface of its biome.
Edition notes
- Bedrock spawns strays in more cold biomes than Java does.
- Java strays pick up items they walk past and prefer bows; Bedrock ones go looking for items.
- A Java spider jockey can’t spawn with a stray rider naturally; on Bedrock it often does in snowy biomes.
Every undead variant is listed on the mobs hub.
Common questions
What's the difference between a stray and a skeleton?
Strays spawn in snowy biomes, wear ragged gray clothing and shoot arrows that inflict Slowness. Health, bow damage and most behavior are the same as a skeleton.
How do you turn a skeleton into a stray?
Trap the skeleton in powder snow. After about 7 seconds it starts shaking, and roughly 15 seconds later it converts into a stray at full health.
Do strays drop tipped arrows?
Yes. A stray has a 50% chance to drop one Arrow of Slowness when a player kills it, on top of normal arrows and bones.
Sources & verification
Facts on this page are checked against these references and in-game behavior for the stated edition(s). how we verify.
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