

If there are too many zombie pigmen or other mobs nearby, less wither skeletons will spawn.

Nether Fortresses have an invisible “bounding box” around them, and wither skeletons can spawn anywhere in this box on most types of blocks (including cobblestone and dirt).Do not place torches anywhere you want a wither skeleton to spawn! Also, any nearby lava or glowstone can emit light and prevent skeletons from spawning. Wither Skeletons only spawn in areas with little light, just like most other mobs.Regardless of whether you want to make a farm or not, it is important to understand the spawning rules for Wither Skeletons in Minecraft: A looting III sword is strongly recommended!! A sword with the Looting III enchant will increase this drop rate to 5.5% which is an over double increase. This means you would have to kill on average 40 wither skeletons for one skull. Important Tip: The normal drop rate for wither skeleton skulls is very low, 2.5%.

If you are only looking for one or two beacons, it is probably most time efficient to simply run around the fortress and kill every skeleton you see until you have the three skulls. Once you find a nether fortress, you have the option of building a wither skeleton farm or simply running around and killing them as they spawn. You will have to farm Wither Skeletons until you get three skulls to make the Wither boss. Wither skeleton skulls are a rare drop from wither skeletons, a mob which spawns only in Nether Fortresses found in the nether. The Wither is spawned in Minecraft when three wither skeleton skulls are placed on soul sand in a specific arrangement, as shown in the photo above. A beacon must be activated first by placing certain blocks (such as iron or diamond) underneath in a pyramid shape. These status effects are extremely useful and include things such as faster mining, quicker movement speed, and rapid health regeneration. Beacons are special blocks that create a beam of light to the sky and provide status effects to nearby players. Withers drop nether stars, which can be used to craft beacons. In order to make a Wither in Minecraft, you must place three wither skeleton skulls on top of four soul sand blocks in an exact arrangement (see photo below). Withers are not naturally found in Minecraft and do not spawn like other mobs. The boss fight is generally more difficult than killing the Ender Dragon, and can be done in the main Overworld. The wither is a boss added to Minecraft in 2012 as a part of the 1.4.2 “Pretty Scary Update”.
