[MC-101136] Wither skeleton afraid to leave the shadows

Seems to be related to MC-8671 and MC-50468 (the former describes wither skeletons and was resolved as intended by Dinnerbone 3 years ago, while the latter talks about skeletons wearing helmets and was fixed by ProfMobius last December).

[Mod]Les3awe 2016-04-22T12:34:11Z

When you give Wither Skeleton a shelter, it would to stalk there.
But if you push it to sunlight under, it will resume normal.

Paint 2017-05-01T21:20:27Z

It seems as though Wither Skeletons don't know they're immune to fire.

Relates to MC-13497.

16 more comments

Gatinh0 2017-11-09T19:10:49Z

As of 1.12.2, this issue affects the wither_skeleton even in the END, where there is no sun. The wither_skeleton, once he travels under cover of any kind, refuses to leave from under the cover, essentially trapping him there forvever until the overhead blocks are destoyed.

[Mod]Les3awe 2017-11-10T03:59:31Z

In fact the END is very bright.
If you place a torch in the END, the zombie will burn.

kiddailey 2018-05-22T00:41:30Z

Confirming Scott Miller's finding and also adding that it exists in the latest snapshot for 1.13 (18w20c)

I actually came to the bug tracker to report the same issue and stumbled upon this. Recently, I was attempting to move a Wither Skeleton into The End in 1.12.2 (and to an End City in pursuit of the "How Did We Get Here Advancement") and wondered why it would not move and instead simply flailed its arms around. The initial spawn point in The End happened to be underground. I moved the skeleton manually out into the open but the behavior was the same and I eventually had to use mine carts or boats to move it.

For 1.13, I didn't manually move a wither skeleton into The End, but I did reproduce the bug easily in creative mode with similar instructions to the original report:

1. Build a 3x3 shade platform 4 blocks above the ground
2. Spawn a wither skeleton under the shade platform
3. While near the skeleton but out of reach, switch to Adventure mode

At this point the skeleton should "do the dance" and not move out into the open

Notes:

If you spawn the skeleton in the open area, he will behave normally
If you spawn the skeleton in the open area, but then cover him in shade, he will still pathfind normally and leave the shade
If you spawn the skeleton under shade, he will not leave the shade
If you spawn the skeleton under shade and remove the shade, he will pathfind normally in 1.13. However, as I mentioned, this was not my experience in 1.12.2 so I'm not sure if it's been partially fixed in the 1.13 snapshots or there's another issue at play.

JUE13 2019-09-29T08:15:17Z

Can confirm for 19w39a.

Iosiv Visokogorskiy 2020-06-12T11:44:07Z

Affects 1.16 pre release 4

RTZ512 2020-08-17T19:30:05Z

I found this bug in MC 1.16.2 and created a bug report (MC-198279), but was referred to this report as the parent issue. This issue seems to have persisted from 1.9.2 to 1.16.2.

Avoma 2021-01-24T16:24:39Z

Can confirm in 21w03a.

Avoma 2021-02-04T15:11:42Z

Can confirm in 21w05a.

Avoma 2021-02-04T19:22:07Z

Can confirm in 21w05b.

Avoma 2021-02-11T17:21:28Z

Can confirm in 21w06a.

Avoma 2021-02-16T12:59:44Z

Video attached.

Avoma 2021-02-18T17:31:47Z

Can confirm in 21w07a.

Avoma 2021-03-22T13:48:47Z

Can confirm in 21w11a.

Avoma 2021-04-06T10:55:44Z

Can confirm in 21w13a.

Avoma 2021-04-12T10:08:27Z

Can confirm in 21w14a.

Henrik 2021-04-12T13:33:17Z

Wither Skeletons have the same ID as skeletons, and thus seek shade.

This is " Working as Intended "

Duplicate of MC-8671

anthony cicinelli 2021-04-12T13:38:18Z

@unknown First thing @unknown isn't spamming he is just keeping a ticket uodated with current versions. Second thing is that this isn't a dupe or WAI see the priority, Mojang plans to fix this. Please be more cognizant of these things when commenting in the future.

Avoma 2021-04-17T14:17:08Z

Can confirm in 21w15a.

Avoma 2021-12-22T15:51:00Z

Can confirm in 1.18.1.

Avoma 2022-04-24T11:26:20Z

Can confirm in 1.18.2 and 22w16b.

ampolive 2022-10-26T18:15:45Z

Code analysis (Mojang mappings, 1.19.2): Wither skeletons inherit RestrictSunGoal and FleeSunGoal from AbstractSkeleton on the registerGoals() method.

It could be fixed by removing the super.registerGoals() line from the method and adding the other required methods present in AbstractSkeleton#registerGoals; this might not be desirable from a design standpoint, though, because it means that wither skeletons will no longer inherit the goals from AbstractSkeleton. Another fix could be moving RestrictSunGoal and FleeSunGoal from AbstractSkeleton to the stray and skeleton's code.