IM Wither Skeleton — Invasion Mod

Combat profile

For Minecraft 26.3 / NeoForge, wave base values and supported behavior can be changed per registry entry: see health, damage and base armor and mob abilities. Tier, size and wave scaling still apply.

Health20 HP (10 hearts)

Status effectWither • 10 seconds

TerrainCan mine blocks

Behavior

The Wither Skeleton Builder is a separate fire-immune engineer with Nether-brick towers, red gravestones, bow defense and a four-block Wither aura.

Separate variant: Wither Skeleton Tier 2 documents its entity ID, default cost, configuration and drops. It has no dedicated spawn egg.

It inherits IM Skeleton equipment and attributes. A ranged weapon enables arrow combat and Nexus archery; otherwise it uses melee. Both attacks apply Wither. Groups coordinate around a leader. A baby carrying one skull can trade it for a Wither Rose, then dances.

For configured snipers and this family's separately configured tier-2 variant, see Sniping and shooter towers: the ability allows ranged attacks up to 32 blocks and can combine with towering for a four-block firing position. Equipment, sight lines, and construction conditions still apply.

With Tiny Skeletons installed, see the baby-variant guide for spawning, retained equipment, thrown projectiles, weapon switching and the Wither Rose interaction.

Groups and merging into a Wither

Current Minecraft 26.3 / NeoForge rules: living, loaded IM Wither Skeletons bound to the same active Nexus coordinate under one leader. Different Nexuses never share a group. The separate Wither Skeleton Builder is an Engineer, not a member of this merging family; Tier 2 uses the base family’s group behavior.

Nexus wave	Recruitment radius from the leader
Before 25	10 blocks, inclusive; farther skeletons form separate groups.
25 and later	No distance limit among loaded, active same-Nexus Wither Skeletons in that dimension.

Grouping movement runs while a skeleton has no living attack target. Followers approach their moving leader. With only two or three available members, the leader continues toward its attack Nexus rather than waiting indefinitely for a fourth. A complete group’s leader stops and waits for members to approach.

Once four selected members, including the leader, are each within 3.5 blocks of the leader, they merge into one IM Wither at their average position. The Wither keeps the same Nexus association and starts with maximum and current health equal to twice the sum of the four skeletons’ remaining HP (at least 1 HP), rather than simply taking the usual spawned-Wither health. The four skeletons are removed; the new Wither takes one remaining-combatant slot so the invasion can still finish.

Break the gathering before four arrive. Killing or damaging members reduces the available group and its possible merged health. Combat can interrupt group movement. From wave 25, a ten-block separation no longer prevents group recruitment, although the members must still physically gather within the merge distance.

This range change follows the Nexus’s current wave, not a separate Wither-Skeleton unlock. Unloaded entities cannot be recruited merely because the later range is unlimited. See wave planning and loaded arenas.

Drops

Uses the vanilla Wither Skeleton loot table. A carried baby skull is guaranteed to drop.

Vanilla replacement

With an active Nexus, a vanilla Wither Skeleton may be replaced by this IM version at 30% health.

See wave weapons and repeated armor rolls, active shield defense and persistent harmful arrow effects for changes to newly spawned attackers.