Minecraft has no shortage of interesting creatures known as mobs. With nearly every Minecraft update, brand new passive, neutral, and hostile mobs are introduced. One of the classic, original hostile overworld mobs are skeletons.
Back in 2016 with the Minecraft 1.10 update, a new skeleton variant called strays was introduced. Strays are some of the most underrated and lesser known Minecraft mobs.
These mobs are similar to skeletons, but they have some distinctive properties about them that separate the mobs from their original variants. This article provides Minecraft players with essential information about stray mobs.
Also read: Skeleton vs Stray in Minecraft: What’s the difference?
Everything to know about Strays in Minecraft
Basics
Stays are their own kind of skeletons that are unique to cold Minecraft biomes such as ice spikes, frozen oceans, or snowy tundras. Most skeletons that spawn in these biomes will be of the stray variety.
These hostile mobs have a unique look that players can use to identify them. Strays wear seemingly worn and torn icy gray armor.
A stay will shoot arrows at players just like skeletons do, except a stray’s arrows will inflict its target with the slowness effect. As the name suggests, this attack will cause the hit entity to move much slower than normal.
Slowness can be quite detrimental in a battle against strays, or any other nearby mob for that matter.
Specifics
Strays have a chance of dropping the same items as skeletons like bones and arrows when killed. However, there is a chance they will drop some of their unique arrows of slowness.
Interestingly, regular skeletons can be converted to stray skeletons through the use of the new powder snow. To do this, players will need to trap a skeleton within a powder snow block and wait.
After about 15 seconds, the skeleton will transform into a stray.
While this can be useful for a few different reasons, players beware: converting a skeleton into a stray will in turn cause the mob to regenerate all of its health. Strays themselves cannot take damage from being trapped in powder snow either.
Also read: Powder Snow in Minecraft: Everything players need to know
Wondering how strays match up against other Minecraft mobs? DSV Gamer on YouTube made a video that features battles between strays and every other mob. Check it out here:
Also read: 5 best Minecraft animal mods
