Minecraft wiki entry for Defeating_the_wither, associated text: Alternatively, charged creepers can be used to kill a wither skeleton and recover their skull 100% of the time. During a thunderstorm, with a trident enchanted with Channeling, charged creepers can be made by striking the creeper with the trident. Unless the creeper is charged in water it will become ignited and will almost always need to be extinguished with a bucket of water placed or they will die to the fire damage. During a thunderstorm, using nether portals, the player can lead a wither skeleton from a nether fortress into the Overworld or if in a cold biome, a stray to a creeper, charge a creeper, and have the charged creepers detonation kill the wither skeleton. Regardless of the number of skeletons gathered in the detonation only one skull ever drops. A charged creeper's detonation creates quite a hole in the ground so this farming strategy should be done away from frequently traveled land. The damage done to the ground can be nullified if the charged creeper is floating in water upon detonation. A well armored player (blast protection juggernaut style) can walk up to the creeper and dump a bucket of water at its feet. If the creeper detonates floating in the water it will do no damage to the ground but will still do damage to the player and local mobs in Java Edition. A creeper's detonation can be forced with flint & steel. The average storm lasts 0.5 – 1 Minecraft day (5-10 min), and there is a 0.5 to 7.5 Minecraft day delay between thunderstorms (5 min - 2.5hrs). A thunderstorm can be forced with console syntax: 'weather thunder <duration of storm in seconds>'. After the storm duration the normal weather cycle resumes.