Anyways i been playing a whitelist vanilla server so i wanted to get a beacon so i got a sharp 3 looting 3 sword, stg potions and fire res. potions so i went to the fort to kill some since i got stg i get to 1 hit kill them so i been killing them for DAYS and have not got a single skull so then i thought to myself "what am i doing wrong? i killed over 300 of these guys!!!" then it hit me you can't 1 hit wither skeletons to get there skull. So to prove this i gone to a creative file and put down a few wither skeleton spawners then got 2 swords one was smite 4 the other was smite 5. so i killed like 100 skeletons with smite 5 and none droped a skull but when i did it with smite 4 i got 2 skulls. Now i know so one is gonna say "Omg thats fake" but try it if you don't belive me i tested it and it turns out to be true
Also if i spelt anything wrong don't blame me i got a C in engish
[Smart] Server owners will run plugins to allow heads to drop at a specific percentage chance. I know my server does. (I run PlayerHeads on the Greystone server which is not open to the general public.) So it's likely a matter of server plugins more than it's a matter of drop rarity itself or using the right enchantments on weapons.
If you one hit Zombie Pigman the whole pack won't go after you. One hitting Wither Skeletons might be the same thing, except they don't drop their skulls.
100? That's far too small a sample size to make any reliable conclusions regarding something as rare as wither skull drops are to begin with. Come back when you've killed a hundred thousand of 'em, and then tell us what you find.
100? That's far too small a sample size to make any reliable conclusions regarding something as rare as wither skull drops are to begin with. Come back when you've killed a hundred thousand of 'em, and then tell us what you find.
While the sample size is too small to come to any conclusions regarding drop rates, the fact that he got any skulls at all tells us that it is possible to get skulls from one-hit-kills.
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Every time you post a question without first consulting the wiki, I die a little inside.
I use a mega op smite 5 sword with every enchantment you can get on it in vanilla survival (repairable due to new 1.8 anvils). I use it to farm wither skulls at my fortress that is slowly being expanded for more spawning spaces. I have a total of 7 beacons in my world with a 8th one coming after I use the three I got last weekend. I one hit every wither skeleton I find and I get a skull consistently close to the average (one every 40 skeletons with looting 3).
While the sample size is too small to come to any conclusions regarding drop rates, the fact that he got any skulls at all tells us that it is possible to get skulls from one-hit-kills.
Indeed. I was actually referring to the OP's claim that he got no skulls in 100 kills, which is far too small a sample to say that that means it can never happen. Especially since, clearly, it can, as evidenced by Moranic's and forged_in_flames' experiences.
The drop can be pretty random. I hunt with a Loot3,Smite4,UB3,KB2 diamond sword and when I first started I must have killed over 100 before I got my first skull. Then it took only about another 20 or so, and then 40 or so. After getting a dozen skulls I quit hunting for a long time and after going back to hunt it seemed again like the first drop took forever and I had stacks of bones and coal before getting the first skull.
I generally never go in the nether unless I need something specific. Since we started a fresh map on our server, I teleported to my buddy, killed a single wither skeleton, and it dropped a skull. I grabbed it and left, and haven't been back since.
I hate mining and going to the nether. I generally trade for nether items and put off mining as long as possible. I'm more of a lumberjack/carpenter in Minecraft.
Really F-ing lucky find though. I think the percentage chance of a skull drop is 0.002%(?). Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
100? That's far too small a sample size to make any reliable conclusions regarding something as rare as wither skull drops are to begin with. Come back when you've killed a hundred thousand of 'em, and then tell us what you find.
We're not scientists or something who want 9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 trials to make sure our experiment is valid.
We're not scientists or something who want 9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 trials to make sure our experiment is valid.
You're right. We usually don't need ten million, million, million, million, million, million trials to be reasonably sure of something. But we do often need more than a hundred. As evidenced by the fact that, the "discovery" this guy made with his hundred trials, turned out to be total bupkis in the end, anyway! Had he done further trials, he could have known that himself before he posted his false claims. And yes, most of us do want to make sure an experiment is valid, before we go and base our decisions on its results. Maybe a hundred thousand is pushing it, still, but with something as rare as wither skull drops are in the first place, you should know better than to place much faith in the results of something as few as a hundred. Especially when these results are "it can't happen."
Imagine if I said I have a special way to flip a coin, so that it will always come up heads. So I flip a coin ten times in a row and it comes up heads every time. Pretty convincing, right? But what if it turns out that this was a special coin, which had a 99% chance of coming up heads anyway? Suddenly, my "special way of flipping" doesn't seem so impressive anymore, right? I mean, it probably would have come up heads all those times anyway. When it's so unlikely for it to come up tails in the first place, you put a lot less faith in my "special flip," and it would take a lot more than a few tries to convince you that it actually does anything. If it's weighted to come up heads 99% of the time, you would expect to see, on a large scale, an average of about one tails per 100 flips. But, of course, this is just an average. Doing only a single hundred of flips, and not seeing a tails, says nothing still about my special technique. You'd need a lot more trials, so that you'd expect a fair number of tails in the first place, before you could say anything assertively about the lack of them so far.
(And spamming digits like that only belies your ignorance. If you're going to use a specific number, you should mean it. I challenge you to give me an example of that many anythings. Even if those were mere tenths of a second, that would still be two million, million, million times longer than the age of the universe. A number like that is worse than meaningless. I realize you were just trying to make a ballpark statement, but good god, man, your ballpark isn't even on the right planet!)
You're right. We usually don't need ten million, million, million, million, million, million trials to be reasonably sure of something. But we do often need more than a hundred. As evidenced by the fact that, the "discovery" this guy made with his hundred trials, turned out to be total bupkis in the end, anyway! Had he done further trials, he could have known that himself before he posted his false claims. And yes, most of us do want to make sure an experiment is valid, before we go and base our decisions on its results. Maybe a hundred thousand is pushing it, still, but with something as rare as wither skull drops are in the first place, you should know better than to place much faith in the results of something as few as a hundred. Especially when these results are "it can't happen."
Imagine if I said I have a special way to flip a coin, so that it will always come up heads. So I flip a coin ten times in a row and it comes up heads every time. Pretty convincing, right? But what if it turns out that this was a special coin, which had a 99% chance of coming up heads anyway? Suddenly, my "special way of flipping" doesn't seem so impressive anymore, right? I mean, it probably would have come up heads all those times anyway. When it's so unlikely for it to come up tails in the first place, you put a lot less faith in my "special flip," and it would take a lot more than a few tries to convince you that it actually does anything. If it's weighted to come up heads 99% of the time, you would expect to see, on a large scale, an average of about one tails per 100 flips. But, of course, this is just an average. Doing only a single hundred of flips, and not seeing a tails, says nothing still about my special technique. You'd need a lot more trials, so that you'd expect a fair number of tails in the first place, before you could say anything assertively about the lack of them so far.
(And spamming digits like that only belies your ignorance. If you're going to use a specific number, you should mean it. I challenge you to give me an example of that many anythings. Even if those were mere tenths of a second, that would still be two million, million, million times longer than the age of the universe. A number like that is worse than meaningless. I realize you were just trying to make a ballpark statement, but good god, man, your ballpark isn't even on the right planet!)
I have 10 skulls, and a beacon already, and all those skulls were acquired with a Smite 5, one-hit-kill sword (with Looting 3 as well, of course). I find it hard to believe you killed over 300 Wither Skeletons and didn't get a single skull. Exaggerate much?
Also if i spelt anything wrong don't blame me i got a C in engish
Official PermissionsEx Troubleshooter
Been playing Minecraft for too long.
Village Mechanics: A not-so-brief guide - Update 2017! Now with 1.8 breeding mechanics! Long-overdue trading info, coming soon!
You think magic isn't real? Consider this: for every person, there is a sentence -- a series of words -- which has the power to destroy them.
While the sample size is too small to come to any conclusions regarding drop rates, the fact that he got any skulls at all tells us that it is possible to get skulls from one-hit-kills.
/end thread
Indeed. I was actually referring to the OP's claim that he got no skulls in 100 kills, which is far too small a sample to say that that means it can never happen. Especially since, clearly, it can, as evidenced by Moranic's and forged_in_flames' experiences.
Village Mechanics: A not-so-brief guide - Update 2017! Now with 1.8 breeding mechanics! Long-overdue trading info, coming soon!
You think magic isn't real? Consider this: for every person, there is a sentence -- a series of words -- which has the power to destroy them.
I hate mining and going to the nether. I generally trade for nether items and put off mining as long as possible. I'm more of a lumberjack/carpenter in Minecraft.
Really F-ing lucky find though. I think the percentage chance of a skull drop is 0.002%(?). Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
We're not scientists or something who want 9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 trials to make sure our experiment is valid.
You're right. We usually don't need ten million, million, million, million, million, million trials to be reasonably sure of something. But we do often need more than a hundred. As evidenced by the fact that, the "discovery" this guy made with his hundred trials, turned out to be total bupkis in the end, anyway! Had he done further trials, he could have known that himself before he posted his false claims. And yes, most of us do want to make sure an experiment is valid, before we go and base our decisions on its results. Maybe a hundred thousand is pushing it, still, but with something as rare as wither skull drops are in the first place, you should know better than to place much faith in the results of something as few as a hundred. Especially when these results are "it can't happen."
Imagine if I said I have a special way to flip a coin, so that it will always come up heads. So I flip a coin ten times in a row and it comes up heads every time. Pretty convincing, right? But what if it turns out that this was a special coin, which had a 99% chance of coming up heads anyway? Suddenly, my "special way of flipping" doesn't seem so impressive anymore, right? I mean, it probably would have come up heads all those times anyway. When it's so unlikely for it to come up tails in the first place, you put a lot less faith in my "special flip," and it would take a lot more than a few tries to convince you that it actually does anything. If it's weighted to come up heads 99% of the time, you would expect to see, on a large scale, an average of about one tails per 100 flips. But, of course, this is just an average. Doing only a single hundred of flips, and not seeing a tails, says nothing still about my special technique. You'd need a lot more trials, so that you'd expect a fair number of tails in the first place, before you could say anything assertively about the lack of them so far.
(And spamming digits like that only belies your ignorance. If you're going to use a specific number, you should mean it. I challenge you to give me an example of that many anythings. Even if those were mere tenths of a second, that would still be two million, million, million times longer than the age of the universe. A number like that is worse than meaningless. I realize you were just trying to make a ballpark statement, but good god, man, your ballpark isn't even on the right planet!)
Village Mechanics: A not-so-brief guide - Update 2017! Now with 1.8 breeding mechanics! Long-overdue trading info, coming soon!
You think magic isn't real? Consider this: for every person, there is a sentence -- a series of words -- which has the power to destroy them.
Bahahahahahaha. :'D this killed me.