How to Get Player Heads in Minecraft Bedrock Edition

A head is a decorative block. There are six types of heads: player, zombie, skeleton, wither skeleton, creeper, and dragon.

Contents

• 1 Obtaining
  • 1.1 Breaking
  • 1.2 Natural generation
  • 1.3 Mob loot
• 2 Usage
  • 2.1 Decoration
  • 2.2 Wearing
    • 2.2.1 Disguise
  • 2.3 Withers
  • 2.4 Dispensers
  • 2.5 Crafting ingredient
  • 2.6 Enchantments
• 3 Player skins
  • 3.1 Marc's Head Format
• 4 Sounds
• 5 Data values
  • 5.1 ID
  • 5.2 Metadata
  • 5.3 Item data
  • 5.4 Block states
  • 5.5 Block data
• 6 Achievements
• 7 Advancements
• 8 History
  • 8.1 Skull "item"
    • 8.1.1 Appearances
    • 8.1.2 Names
• 9 Issues
• 10 Trivia
• 11 Gallery
• 12 References

Obtaining [ ]

Breaking [ ]

A mob head can be broken using anything and drops itself when broken.

Block	Mob Head
Hardness	1
Breaking time
Default	1.5

If a head is pushed by a piston or comes in contact with water or lava, it breaks off as an item.

When destroyed by an explosion, the block always drops as an item.

Natural generation [ ]

Dragon heads generate on end ships found in end cities.

Mob loot [ ]

A wither skeleton has a 2.5% chance of dropping a wither skeleton skull when killed by a player or tamed wolf. The chance is increased by 1% per level of Looting, for a maximum of 5.5% with Looting III.

In Bedrock Edition, the chance is increased by 2% per level of Looting, for a maximum of 8.5% with Looting III.

Skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, and creeper heads are also always dropped by the respective mob if it dies due to a charged creeper's explosion. If an ender dragon or the player is killed by a charged creeper, it does not drop its head.

Usage [ ]

Decoration [ ]

Mob heads can be oriented in 16 different directions on top of a block, and 4 directions on the sides of blocks, similar to signs. They cannot be placed on top of each other, but they don't require a supporting block.

The dragon head opens and closes its mouth repeatedly like the ender dragon when placed and powered by redstone. The same animation occurs when worn by a (horizontally) moving player, zombie, skeleton, or armor stand (note: the animation does not play if the NoGravity tag is set to 1)

Wearing [ ]

The player can wear heads, similarly to pumpkins or helmets. This overlays the second layer of the player's skin.

Disguise [ ]

Wearing the corresponding mob head reduces the detection range for skeletons (but not wither skeletons), creepers, and zombies to 50% of the normal range. This is similar to (and stacks with) the reductions in detection range from sneaking and from the Invisibility status effect.

In Bedrock Edition, wearing any mob head or carved pumpkin makes the player invisible to other players on a locator map.

Withers [ ]

Wither build configuration

Withers can be created by placing soul sand or soul soil in a T shape, and putting 3 wither skeleton skulls on top of the three upper blocks. The last block placed must be one of the three wither skeleton skulls. A dispenser can also create a wither, by placing the final skull onto soul sand directly in front of and below it.

Dispensers [ ]

A dispenser can equip a mob head on a player, mob, or armor stand with an empty helmet slot, within the block the dispenser is facing.

Dispenser can also complete the construction of a wither.

Crafting ingredient [ ]

Name	Ingredients	Crafting recipe	Description
Banner Pattern Creeper	Paper + Creeper Head		Creeper face
Banner Pattern Skull	Paper + Wither Skeleton Skull		Skeleton skull and crossbones
Firework Star	Any Mob head + Gunpowder + Any Dye		Forms Creeper shape

Enchantments [ ]

Mob heads can receive the following enchantments, but only through an anvil.

Name	Max Level	Method
Curse of Binding	I
Curse of Vanishing	I

Player skins [ ]

Human heads have an extra usage for map makers, they can be given NBT data so that they appear with the skin of any Minecraft account. This means if a player knows that a specific account has a head that is desired to display, the NBT data can be edited to make it appear.

The command to give the player a head skinned as another player is /give @s minecraft:player_head{SkullOwner:"<PlayerName>"}. Commonly, this kind of head is called player head.

Another command to give the player a head with another player's skin is /give @s minecraft:player_head{SkullOwner:{Id:"<PlayerUUID>",Properties:{textures:[{Value:"<SkinURL>"}]} } }. SkinURL is a string encoded in Base64 containing the URL of the player's skin.^[1] A player head saves the skin of the player from the time it was created, meaning if the player changes their skin, the head still displays the original texture.^[2] This kind of head is generally called a custom head.

Marc's Head Format [ ]

Most of the MHF mob heads provided by Mojang.

Marc Watson created a number of accounts with specific skins so map makers could use common heads without the risk of someone changing their skins.^[3] Nowadays, since heads do not update the skin if a player changes their skin, this is not something map-makers need to worry about, though these skins are still useful. These accounts have names in the format MHF_<Name>, for example MHF_PigZombie is the name of a Minecraft user with a Zombified Piglin head. MHF stands for "Marc's Head Format".^[4] There are also a few blocks and "bonus" heads, for more variety. These player heads have not been updated in compliance with the Texture Update, and are outdated.

Because these are names of player accounts, these heads are obtained or placed using the SkullOwner tag, for instance: /give @s minecraft:player_head{SkullOwner:"MHF_<Name>"}.

The following names/heads have been made available:^[5]

Mobs

• MHF_Alex
• MHF_Blaze
• MHF_CaveSpider
• MHF_Chicken
• MHF_Cow
• MHF_Creeper
• MHF_Enderman

MHF_Ghast

• MHF_Golem
• MHF_Herobrine
• MHF_LavaSlime
• MHF_MushroomCow
• MHF_Ocelot
• MHF_Pig
• MHF_PigZombie
• MHF_Sheep
• MHF_Skeleton

MHF_Slime

• MHF_Spider
• MHF_Squid
• MHF_Steve
• MHF_Villager

MHF_WSkeleton

• MHF_Zombie

Blocks

• MHF_Cactus
• MHF_Cake
• MHF_Chest
• MHF_CoconutB

MHF_CoconutG

MHF_Melon

• MHF_OakLog
• MHF_Present1

MHF_Present2

MHF_Pumpkin

• MHF_TNT
• MHF_TNT2

Bonus

• MHF_ArrowUp
• MHF_ArrowDown
• MHF_ArrowLeft
• MHF_ArrowRight
• MHF_Exclamation
• MHF_Question

Sounds [ ]

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitles	Source	Description	Resource location	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	None [sound 1]	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	None [sound 1]	0.5	0.75	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

1. ↑ ^{a b} MC-177082

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Resource location	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	1.0	0.8
	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.37	0.5
?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0
	Blocks	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	use.stone	1.0	0.8

Data values [ ]

ID [ ]

Java Edition:

Name	Resource location	Form	Translation key
Skeleton Skull	skeleton_skull	Block & Item	block.minecraft.skeleton_skull
Wither Skeleton Skull	wither_skeleton_skull	Block & Item	block.minecraft.wither_skeleton_skull
Zombie Head	zombie_head	Block & Item	block.minecraft.zombie_head
Player Head	player_head	Block & Item	block.minecraft.player_head
Creeper Head	creeper_head	Block & Item	block.minecraft.creeper_head
Dragon Head	dragon_head	Block & Item	block.minecraft.dragon_head
Skeleton Wall Skull	skeleton_wall_skull	Block	block.minecraft.skeleton_wall_skull
Wither Skeleton Wall Skull	wither_skeleton_wall_skull	Block	block.minecraft.wither_skeleton_wall_skull
Zombie Wall Head	zombie_wall_head	Block	block.minecraft.zombie_wall_head
Player Wall Head	player_wall_head	Block	block.minecraft.player_wall_head
Creeper Wall Head	creeper_wall_head	Block	block.minecraft.creeper_wall_head
Dragon Wall Head	dragon_wall_head	Block	block.minecraft.dragon_wall_head

Name	Resource location
Block entity	skull

Bedrock Edition:

Head	Resource location	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Block	skull	144	Block	tile.skull.name
Item	skull	397	Item	item.skull.skeleton.name item.skull.wither.name item.skull.zombie.name item.skull.char.name item.skull.creeper.name item.skull.dragon.name

Name	Savegame ID
Block entity	Skull

Metadata [ ]

In Bedrock Edition, mob heads use the following data values: For the block, data values determine the block placement:

	DV	Description
	0	(unused)
	1	On the floor (rotation is stored in the tile entity)
	2	On a wall, facing north
	3	On a wall, facing south
	4	On a wall, facing east
	5	On a wall, facing west

For the item and for the tile entity, data values determine the skull type:

	DV	Description
	0	Skeleton Skull
	1	Wither Skeleton Skull
	2	Zombie Head
	3	Head
	4	Creeper Head
	5	Dragon Head

Item data [ ]

Java Edition:

Player heads use item NBT to save the owner.

•  tag: The item's tag tag.

• •  SkullOwner: The username of the player this is a skull of. This gets converted to the compound version on almost any action.
  •  SkullOwner: Different definition for the skull's owner.
    •  Id: UUID of owner, stored as four ints. Optional. Used to update the other tags when the chunk loads or the holder logs in, in case the owner's name has changed.
    •  Name: Username of owner. If missing or empty, the head appears as a Steve head. Otherwise, used to store or retrieve the downloaded skin in the cache. Need not be a valid player name, but must not be all spaces.
    •  Properties
      •  textures
        • : An individual texture.
          •  Value: A Base64-encoded JSON object.
            •  isPublic: Optional.
            •  profileId: Optional: The hexadecimal text form of the player's UUID, without hyphens.
            •  profileName: Optional: Player name.
            •  textures
              •  CAPE: Optional.
                •  url: URL of a player cape (64x32 PNG).
              •  SKIN
                •  url: URL of a player skin on textures.minecraft.net.
            •  timestamp: Optional: Unix time in milliseconds.
          •  Signature: Optional.

Bedrock Edition:

In Bedrock Edition, heads have no additional item tag.

See Bedrock Edition level format/Item format.

Block states [ ]

Java Edition:
Floor

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
rotation	0	0	The block is facing south.
		1	The block is facing south-southwest.
		2	The block is facing southwest.
		3	The block is facing west-southwest.
		4	The block is facing west.
		5	The block is facing west-northwest.
		6	The block is facing northwest.
		7	The block is facing north-northwest.
		8	The block is facing north.
		9	The block is facing north-northeast.
		10	The block is facing northeast.
		11	The block is facing east-northeast.
		12	The block is facing east.
		13	The block is facing east-southeast.
		14	The block is facing southeast.
		15	The block is facing south-southeast.

Wall

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing	north	east north south west	The direction the head is facing. Opposite from the direction a player is facing when placing it.

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Default value	Allowed values	Description
facing_direction	0	0 1 2 3	The skull is attached to this side of a block, and the skull's eyes look in this direction. The direction from the block the skull is attached to, to the skull.
		4	The skull sits on the floor.
		5	Not accessible by placing the mob head item. Appears as an east-facing skull, but with the hit-box of an up-facing skull.
nodrop_bit	0	0 1	If true, the skull does not drop as an item.

Block data [ ]

A mob head has a block entity associated with it that holds additional data about the block.

Java Edition:

• Block entity data
  •  ExtraType: Name of the player this is a skull of. This tag is converted to SkullOwner below upon loading the NBT. When loaded sets the name to the value and the UUID to null.
  •  SkullOwner: The definition of the skull's owner. When this is a player_head or player_wall_head, shows this player's skin; if missing, shows the head of the default Steve skin.
    •  Id: UUID of owner, stored as four ints. Optional. Used to update the other tags when the chunk loads or the holder logs in, in case the owner's name has changed.
    •  Name: Username of owner. If missing or empty, the head appears as a Steve head. Otherwise, used to store or retrieve the downloaded skin in the cache. Need not be a valid player name, but must not be all spaces.
    •  Properties
      •  textures
        • : An individual texture.
          •  Value: A Base64-encoded JSON object.
            •  isPublic: Optional.
            •  profileId: Optional: The hexadecimal text form of the player's UUID, without hyphens.
            •  profileName: Optional: Player name.
            •  textures
              •  CAPE: Optional.
                •  url: URL of a player cape (64x32 PNG).
              •  SKIN
                •  url: URL of a player skin on textures.minecraft.net.
            •  timestamp: Optional: Unix time in milliseconds.
          •  Signature: Optional.

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Block entity format.

Achievements [ ]

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS4)
PS4	Other platforms
		The Beginning?	Spawn the Wither	Be within a 100.9×100.9×103.5 cuboid centered on the Wither when it is spawned.	20G	Bronze
		Camouflage	Kill a mob while wearing the same type of mob head.	—	30G	Bronze

Advancements [ ]

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Parent	Actual requirements (if different)	Resource location
	Spooky Scary Skeleton	Obtain a Wither Skeleton's skull	A Terrible Fortress	Have a wither skeleton skull in your inventory.	nether/get_wither_skull
	Withering Heights	Summon the Wither	Spooky Scary Skeleton	—	nether/summon_wither

History [ ]

This section would benefit from the addition of more images.

Please remove this notice once you've added suitable images to the article.
The specific instructions are: Add all block revisions of every head

Java Edition
August 28, 2012					Jeb released images of the skeleton head, hinting of more types to come.
PAX 2012					At PAX, Dinnerbone revealed that there would be rare drops of these mobs.[6]
1.4.2		12w36a			Added skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads.
					Wither skeleton skulls are rarely dropped by the wither skeleton upon death (2.5% chance), while the other four are obtainable only from the creative inventory.
		12w37a			Added as a hidden and disabled feature, human heads can now have the skin of a specific player. A line in the language file implies that there either used to be, or in a future update, the possibility of obtaining a specific player's head.[7]
					Player heads do not drop in vanilla, but mapmakers/modders/etc. can make them by adding an NBT string tag {"SkullOwner":"player_name"} on the skull items.[8]
November 7, 2012					Jeb states that the official opinion is that "[dropping] player heads [on player kills] are a bit too gory for Minecraft, so it's better suited for a plugin or mod."
1.4.6		12w49a			Any kind of mob head can now be used to craft a firework star with creeper-face effect.
1.7.2		13w36a			Custom heads can now be obtained without third party programs via /give.
1.8		14w03a			Player heads now show the skin's hat layer (this also works when a mob/player wears the head).
		14w29a			Heads now display a cracking animation.
		14w30a			Player and mob heads in inventories and held by mobs/players now display as blocks.
					Skulls worn by mobs and players are now displayed on the armor layer. Previously, the skull replaced the mob/player's head texture; the hat layer appeared over the skull.
					Skeleton, zombie, and creeper heads are now available in survival. The player can obtain them by killing the appropriate mob with a charged creeper.
					Creeper heads and wither skeleton skulls are now used in crafting specific banner patterns.
		14w30b			A single charged creeper explosion no longer yields more than one mob head. The mob head that drops is chosen randomly.
1.8.4		release			For security reasons, custom heads can now have textures only from mojang.com and minecraft.net.
1.9		15w31a			Added dragon heads.
					Dragon heads are currently available only in creative mode.
					Mob heads now appear larger in the inventory.
		15w32a			Creeper, zombie, and skeleton heads can now be worn to reduce detection by the corresponding mobs by 50%.
		15w32c			Dragon heads now generate on end ships, meaning they are now obtainable in survival.
		15w33c			The disguise that is given by mob heads now reduces detection range to 37.5% of normal.
		15w36a			The disguise that is given by mob heads now reduces detection range to 50% of normal again.
		15w39a			Dispensers can now equip mob heads onto players, mobs and armor stands.
1.13		17w47a			The ID of heads have been split into 12; one of each available standard head, as well as a wall counterpart of each.
					skeleton_skull, wither_skeleton_skull, player_head, zombie_head, creeper_head and dragon_head are now available as items and placed blocks with a rotation block state of 0-15.
					skeleton_wall_skull, wither_skeleton_wall_skull, player_wall_head, zombie_wall_head, creeper_wall_head and dragon_wall_head are available only as placed blocks with a facing block state of north, south, east or west.
					Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 144, and the item's 397.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.12.1		build 1			Added skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads.
					The skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human and creeper heads use the Java textures prior to 14w30a.
v0.14.0		build 1			Mob heads can now be worn as armor.
v0.16.0		build 4			Wither skeleton skulls can now be used to spawn the wither.
Pocket Edition
1.0.0		alpha 0.17.0.1			Added dragon heads.
					Dragon heads use a two-dimensional sprite, unlike Java does.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Mob heads can now be used to craft firework stars.
					Creeper heads and wither skeleton skulls are now used to craft specific patterns on banners.
		beta 1.2.0.11			Player and mob heads in inventories and when held by mobs/players now display as blocks.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			Wither skeleton skulls and creeper heads can now be used to craft banner patterns.
Legacy Console Edition
TU12	CU1	1.0	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads to the creative inventory.
					Wither skeleton skulls currently do not have a use.
TU19	CU7	1.12			Wither skeleton skulls can now be obtained by killing wither skeletons.
					Wither skeleton skulls can now be used to build the wither.
TU31	CU19	1.22	Patch 3		Skeleton, zombie, and creeper heads are now available in survival. The player can obtain them by killing the appropriate mob with a charged creeper.
TU46	CU36	1.38	Patch 15		Added dragon heads.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added skeleton, wither skeleton, zombie, human, and creeper heads.
1.7.10					Added dragon heads.

Skull "item" [ ]

The following content is transcluded from Technical blocks/Skull.

Java Edition
1.4.2		12w36a			Heads have an extra, unobtainable item form corresponding to its block ID. It can be obtained via the /give command or inventory editors with numeric item ID 144.
					Unlike the proper head items at the time, it had a placement sound, and was capable of directly replacing replaceable blocks. (The proper head items could only replace them indirectly, i.e. they could be placed against the side of a block which would result in it replacing snow, however could not replace snow if the snow itself was targeted.)
					The head item, if placed by a player facing north, east, south or west would result in the placement of a skull block with metadata 0, 1, 2 and 3, which were, in order, an east-facing skull visually wall attached but with a floor hitbox, a north-facing floor skull, a north-facing wall skull and a south-facing wall skull.
1.7.2		13w37a			The direct item form of heads has been removed from the game. It can no longer exist as an item in any way, only as a placed block.
Pocket Edition Alpha
?					Skulls exist as an item.

Appearances [ ]

Java Edition Alpha
Java Edition
1.4.2		12w36a			The skull item uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.
1.5		13w02a			The skull item is now completely invisible in inventories.
					The skull item causes a game crash when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.
					This is due to major texture storage changes in this version.
		13w02b			The skull item now uses this texture in inventories, when held in first or third person view, as a dropped item or when in an item frame.

Names [ ]

Java Edition

• 12w36a - 13w25b: [Has no defined name, rendering a minimum-length text box if highlighted]
• 13w25c - 14w21b: tile.skull.name

When given using the /give command, it is announced as tile.skull.name.

Issues [ ]

Issues relating to "Head" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia [ ]

• Heads do not have their own textures and take their textures from other objects.
• When breaking any head, the particle effect of breaking it is the same as soul sand.
• Despite there being a default Steve head, an Alex head cannot be obtained without using custom names.

Gallery [ ]

• 

  First screenshot released of heads.

• 

  All of the heads.

• 

  Heads oriented in different directions.

• 

  Head posts.

• 

  A picture of player heads, including some Mojang characters.

• 

  An image of some of the heads on accounts that Marc Watson made.

• 

  A dragon head found at the bow of and end ship.

• 

  An animation of the dragon head when redstone power is supplied.

References [ ]

1. ↑ Example: {"textures":{"SKIN":{"url":"http://textures.minecraft.net/texture/292009a4925b58f02c77dadc3ecef07ea4c7472f64e0fdc32ce5522489362680"}}}
2. ↑ "Skulls are a snapshot of the skin as it was made; just change your skin, make a skull, and change your skin back. That's intended behaviour." – @Dinnerbone on Twitter, May 8, 2014
3. ↑ "I'm here to make it so that people don't have to worry about having a consistent account whose skin might change." – u/Marc_IRL on Reddit, September 9, 2013
4. ↑ "head format. I needed to pick a prefix that was short and not already taken by other usernames." – @Marc_IRL on Twitter, September 10, 2013
5. ↑ "For those following the MHF list, I have presents for you. Full list of accounts I've made: http://pastebin.com/5mug6EBu" – @Marc_IRL on Twitter, December 9, 2014
6. ↑ http://www.twitch.tv/pax2/b/330745811 (at 3:59:00)
7. ↑ Snapshot 12w37a lang/en_US.lang: item.skull.player.name=%s's Head
8. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/zxn7u/its_apparently_my_cakeday_so_lets_cash_in_this/

How to Get Player Heads in Minecraft Bedrock Edition

Source: https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Head

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