[MC-132147] Skeletons, strays, wither skeletons, pillagers, illusioners and piglins use bows underwater

Skeletons are unable to swim, but they can breath and sink underwater; however, they will use melee attack to attack player, instead of ranged attacking with their bow.^{[upcoming 1.13]}

^- ^{The Minecraft Wiki, Skeleton#Attacking_the_player}

This statement from the Minecraft Wiki is not true, which you will find if you place a skeleton in deep water and go into survival mode. They will shoot you. This may not sound like an issue at first, but really it is, due to the differences in how arrows travel in water. At a long enough distance, the arrows will never hit the player, instead just sinking to the bottom and potentially hit the skeleton itself (MC-217954). Another issue is that when you swim above them they will try to shoot upwards and the arrows will fall right down into them, killing them. This issue has been around since skeletons gained the ability to walk underwater in 18w19a.

I am unsure if this is intended or not, but I do not believe that it is. While I cannot confirm if it is true, in Bedrock edition 1.5 skeletons will switch to melee attacks in the water, and it would make sense for it to be the same on both versions of the game.

I think this video shows the issue fairly well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFERcR5363k

[media]

Linked issues

is duplicated by 1

MC-201620 Ranged mobs (except drowned) uses there range weapon underwater Resolved

relates to 2

MCPE-38762 Skeletons only use melee attacks underwater Resolved

MC-217954 Skeletons shoot themselves when in deep water Open

Attachments

Comments 17

BLack_Tea_RGO 2018-06-27T08:18:46Z

It's normal, a update of a snopshot has made all the undead would sink into the water and undead needn't breathe underwater, but phantoms and withers can still fly(or swim) underwater instead of sink into the water

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-07-11T00:51:52Z

Confirmed for 1.13-pre7

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-07-13T18:04:13Z

Confirmed for 1.13-pre8

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-07-18T19:00:08Z

Confirmed for 1.13

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-07-26T18:55:50Z

Confirmed for 18w30b

7 more comments

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-08-01T18:53:17Z

Confirmed for 18w31a

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-08-08T15:24:05Z

Confirmed for 18w32a

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-08-15T16:44:04Z

Confirmed for 18w33a

[Mod] Asteraoth 2018-08-17T00:12:24Z

Confirmed for 1.13.1-pre1

Thomas Dorland 2019-04-07T12:32:28Z

Was able to re-create this in Minecraft 19w14b.

[Mod] violine1101 2019-04-07T12:57:41Z

@unknown, 19w14b is already marked as affected.

Raphael Bertoche 2020-01-24T13:39:04Z

I was about to create an issue but then I found this report that is quite similar to one I'd write. Since the issue looks quite dead I'll add here a few lines here, further describing the issue and why I think it's a bug on the skel's behavior, or at least it behaves as one:

It incapacitates the skeleton making it harmless: Before the advent of the shield, skeletons were one of the most dangerous mobs from overworld. This a remarkable exception where the skeleton is rendered disabled and mostly suicide;
It is somewhat clear that the way the skeleton behaves underwater was not meant for the current way things work underwater, that is, to undead mob tendency to sink and to the ineffectiveness of arrows due to water drag; and that it became this way due to change in the environment that had no effect to the way it behaves.
It gives the impression the skeleton is completely unaware of the context he's in, removing some of the immersion and making the mob seem dumb.
It's a reoccurring behavior: swimming or sailing next to a skeleton on the ground tends to lure the skeleton into the water. If it's deep enough, usually the mobs sinks down, even though it can, it rarely does swim up to get you in range, and it keeps shooting until it kills itself;
Lastly, a lot of people find this strange behavior, as you can see by the number of issues related to skeletons new tendency to sink: MC-131067, MC-131067... where are the others? =P there are more, I opened so many issues I can't find them

Currently they are able to swim, though people say otherwise; When they swim they keep up their height somewhat; But they stop doing so when the player is not close enough or when he is right above them.

Instead of shooting arrows that will never reach the target, they could swim next to the player and then shoot. But even when standing still, preferably they should only shoot when the player comes into actual range, that is, underwater range.

I've sent a bunch of screenshots to enable people to see what's being described a bit better without need to trying to reproduce. But if you try, you will not fail to get it. Though the youtube video linked by the OP shows it in quite detail

Also, it is not clear to me if it's intended behavior that the skeletons shoots arrows underwater, as I've seen references saying it is supposed to use melee attacks. One of them is here MCPE-39888. Can someone clarify that too?

poweredbow 2020-10-16T10:06:01Z

They should uses melee attack when they are underwater.

Avoma 2021-01-16T11:31:40Z

Can confirm in 20w51a.

Avoma 2021-02-16T17:22:11Z

Can confirm in 21w06a.

Avoma 2021-03-07T18:08:05Z

Can confirm in 1.16.5 and 21w08b.

user-c84db 2021-04-28T14:08:22Z

Parity issues are only valid for 1.15+ and I believe Bedrock Edition already had this behavior in older versions.