[MCPE-194575] Skeletons do not pick up enchanted bows

BUG SUMMARY:

Skeletons are supposed to pick up/prefer other bows if the bow is more powerful than the one they are currently holding, however they ignore any bow they are given that is superior.

HOW TO RECREATE THIS ISSUE:

Enable the Mob Griefing gamerule.
Turn the difficulty to Hard (To increase the likelihood of a Skeleton picking up the bow).
Enchant a Bow with any enchantment, such as Power V, etc.
Spawn a bunch of Skeletons.
Throw the bow into the crowd of Skeletons.
Observe that none of the Skeletons pick up the Bow.
Try throwing in a Sword to see that they will are capable of picking up a Sword, but will just not pick up a Bow.

REASON TO FIX THIS BUG ASAP:

This is a niche issue, however any players who would like to use this feature in custom map creations, such as mini-games or adventure maps, cannot have powerful/deadly Skeletons, limiting player creativity.

Comments 2

WRXTEY 2025-10-20T02:19:46Z

Still present in recent updates.

Andrwe Brown 2025-12-06T04:04:54Z

This is still an issue on 1.21.124.

If minecraft.wiki is accurate, then we have the following

For weapons, the priority is as follows:
Swords are preferred over bows, over axes, over pickaxes, over shovels, over hoes, over tridents, maces, and crossbows.
Only mobs that can use bows or crossbows can pick them up, and only drowned are capable of using tridents as ranged weapons.
If both weapons are of the same type, prefer the one of a higher tier.

So no mobs at all will pick up bows because

only skeletons can use bows
skeletons don’t recognize enchantments as more valuable
bows don’t have tiers to distinguish them

This will probably be fixed if we add parity to how Java pick up rules work. From the same minecraft.wiki article:

For weapons, the priority is as follows:
If one weapon is preferred but the other is not, pick that weapon.
For drowned, tridents are preferred.
For pillagers and piglins, crossbows are preferred.
Only piglins already holding a crossbow can pick one up.
For skeletons, strays, and bogged, bows are preferred.
If both or neither are preferred, pick the weapon with the higher base damage value.
If both weapons have the same base damage value, pick the weapon with a higher quantity of enchantments.
If both weapons have the same number of enchantments, pick the weapon that is less damaged.
If both weapons have the same durability, pick the weapon with a custom name.
If both or neither weapon has a custom name, keep the old weapon.

I want to create skeleton sentries (vs other players) on my castle so I hope this can be fixed.