The Withered Scythe is the Legendary Monsters weapon from the Nether, crafted from horns the Withered Abomination loses mid-fight and bones it drops when it dies. That fight happens inside Soul Fortress Remains, and you can’t get either part any other way.
It swings slower than a sword and hits for more, and holding right-click sends you charging forward through whatever is in the way. Both boss parts on the recipe come from that one fight, so the Nether trip comes before you can hold one.
Obtaining
The whole chain runs through the Withered Abomination, which sits in Soul Fortress Remains in the Nether. You need 2 
Withered Horns and 2 
Withered Bones from it, plus a 
Block of Gold of your own, and a single kill gives you exactly that much. The horns are the awkward part, as they don’t come from the death drop at all.
Craft an Eye Of Soul
4 Soul Sand and 1 Ender Pearl
Soul Sand goes in the four edge slots with an 
Ender Pearl in the middle, the same shape as an 
Eye of Ender. It’s thrown the same way too, flying off toward the nearest Soul Fortress Remains, and like an Eye of Ender it can shatter, so bring a spare.
The search only reaches about 100 chunks, so you might need to travel a bit and throw another. It also has to be thrown in the Nether, as that’s the only place the ruins generate.
Find Soul Fortress Remains
Soul Sand Valley or Nether Wastes
The structure only generates in Soul Sand Valley and Nether Wastes, with Withered Abyss and Visceral Heap added if you’re running Biomes O’ Plenty. The ruins sit about 27 chunks apart, so there’s usually one within a few minutes of flying. With cheats on, the locate command below skips the Eye altogether.
Once you’re there, the ruins are low and open, so the Withered Abomination sleeping in the middle is usually the first thing you’ll see. It stays asleep until you’re close, which gives you time to look around the edges first.
Break the Abomination's horns
at 50% and 25% health
The Withered Abomination has 190 health and drops a Withered Horn the moment it crosses 50%, then a second one at 25%. Both land on the floor where it’s standing rather than waiting for the kill, and they come out glowing so you can spot them. The 2 Withered Bones show up normally when it dies.
Both Withered Horn drops land on the ground mid-fight. They’re fireproof, so Lava won’t destroy them, but they run on the ordinary item timer rather than the longer one the death drops get. Grab each one as it appears rather than waiting for the boss to die, because losing either horn means another Abomination and another Eye Of Soul.
It sleeps until someone gets within about 15 blocks and takes no damage before that, so you can’t shoot it awake from range. Fire, Lava, falling, Wither and thrown Potions all do nothing to it, and its sweeps and shockwaves hit hard, so read the Withered Abomination page before you go in.
Craft the Scythe
2 Horns, 2 Bones, 1 Block of Gold
The horns sit along the top right of the grid with the Block of Gold on the left, and the two bones run down the middle to form the handle. The 
Withered Ribcage takes the same 2 horns and 2 bones, so one Abomination pays for the Scythe or the chestplate, not both.
With both horns picked up and the bones from the death, everything for the Scythe is in your inventory except the Block of Gold. Bring one along and craft it on the spot, as the walk home through the Nether is a lot easier with the charge.
Usage
Swinging it works like any other melee weapon, it just trades speed for a bigger hit. You get 10 attack damage at 1.2 attack speed, which lands somewhere between a 
Diamond Sword and a 
Netherite Sword once you multiply the two out. Durability is 700 and every swing costs 1, so it won’t last anything like a Netherite Sword will.
Withered Scythe
Diamond Sword
Netherite Sword
Reach is normal unless you have Better Combat installed, which gives it a 3.6 block attack range as a scythe. It counts as a sword and a hoe for tool actions but has no mining tier, so it breaks blocks at bare hand speed for 2 durability each. It’s fireproof as well, so dropping it in Lava won’t destroy it.
The Charge
Holding right-click sends you sliding forward for about a second, hitting everything you pass through for 10 and knocking it away. Your view locks to where you were pointing when you started, so line the charge up first, as you can’t steer once it’s going. The hitbox extends about a block either side of you, which is enough to catch a group standing shoulder to shoulder.
Anything caught also takes Wither II for 5 seconds, which ticks away while you line up the next swing. The push only works with your feet on the ground, so it won’t carry you across a gap or launch you off a ledge. Tameable mobs are skipped completely, so your Wolves and Cats are safe in the path, though other players aren’t.
Letting the charge run to the end puts it on cooldown for just under 4 seconds. Releasing the button early instead cancels it and costs you 6 seconds, so there’s no reason to tap it, either commit to the full charge or don’t start one. The charge damage doesn’t cost any durability, which makes it the cheaper option when you’re low.
Wither and Gold
Hit an Undead mob with the Scythe, swing or charge, and there’s a 40% chance of stacking Wither III on it for a moment. Soul Fortress Remains has 
Wither Skeleton spawners in it, so there’s plenty to land it on. It’s a little extra damage per hit rather than something to plan around, and the Abomination itself takes no damage from Wither at all.
Anything you kill while holding the Scythe in your main hand will also drop a bit of gold on top of its normal loot. This works on every mob, not just Undead, so it’s worth keeping the Scythe out while you clear anything you were going to kill anyway.
Bonus Gold On Kill
Gold Nugget 
Gold Ingot It isn’t much gold per kill, but it adds up over a long session. It’s also the only weapon in the mod that gives you anything on top of the normal drops.
Enchantments
An 
Enchanting Table will offer weapon enchantments, Mending and, oddly, digging enchantments like Efficiency and Fortune, which have nothing to work with on a weapon that has no mining tier. Enchantability is only 1, so the rolls come out on the weak side for the levels you spend. Books on an 
Anvil are the safer route, and that’s also the only way to get Unbreaking onto it.
Mending matters more here than it does on most weapons, because the Scythe has no repair material at all. An Anvil won’t take Withered Bone or Gold, so once those 700 durability are gone your only options are Mending or combining it with a second Scythe, which costs you another Abomination.
So put Mending on first, Unbreaking second, and treat anything else as a bonus. With enchantability this low, Books on an Anvil are a much better route than the Enchanting Table, where you’ll mostly pay levels for weak rolls.
Tips
Use the charge as an opener, not an escape. It always goes the way you were already looking and it won’t move you while you’re airborne, so it’s poor at getting you out of a corner but very good at closing the last few blocks on something that’s about to be surrounded.
Don’t chase what you knock away. The Wither II from a charge keeps ticking after you’ve stopped, so there’s no need to run down whatever you knocked away. Backing off and letting it run out is usually better than trading hits at 1.2 attack speed, particularly against a group where you’d rather charge again in 4 seconds.
Carry the Scythe in your main hand on ordinary trips too, even when you’re not fighting anything serious. The gold drop triggers on any mob you kill with it out, and 700 durability goes further than you’d think when the charge itself costs nothing.
FAQ
One kill covers it, as the boss drops a Withered Horn at 50% health and another at 25%, then 2 Withered Bone when it dies. That’s every boss part on the recipe with nothing spare, and you bring the Gold Block yourself. The Withered Ribcage takes the same 2 horns and 2 bones though, so if you want both you’ll need a second Abomination.
There’s no repair material registered for it, so an Anvil won’t accept Withered Bone, Withered Horn or Gold Ingot the way it would accept Diamond for a sword. Mending is the practical answer, otherwise you’re combining two Scythes on an Anvil, and that means another boss in the Nether.
Tameable mobs are skipped by the charge entirely, so Wolves, Cats and 
Parrots take nothing from it whether they’re yours or wild. Other players get no such exemption, they’ll take the 10 damage, the knockback and the Wither II like anything else, which is worth remembering on a server.
The Scythe hits for 10 against 8 but swings at 1.2 against 1.6, which works out at 12 damage per second versus 12.8. Durability is where they split, 700 against 2031, and the Scythe can’t be repaired with materials. What the sword doesn’t have is the charge, a free 10 damage and Wither II across a whole group every 4 seconds.
