Zombie

Hostile Mob

Health Points: 20

Attack Strength: Easy: 2.5

                              Normal: 3

                              Hard: 4.5

Zombies are common undead hostile mobs that spawn in the Overworld. They also spawn from monster spawners in 50% of dungeons, and can spawn from trial spawners in certain trial chambers. In Java Edition on Halloween, zombies have a chance of spawning wearing either a carved pumpkin (22.5%) or a jack-o-lantern (2.5%), which won't be dropped if they are killed.

When a zombie is killed, it will drop 0-2 rotten flesh and occasional rare drops of carrots, iron ingots, or potatoes (the potato will be a cooked potato if the zombie is killed while on fire). Baby zombies will not have these rare drops. Adult zombies will drop 5 experience if they were killed by a player or a tamed wolf, plus an additional 1-3 experience for each piece of equipment they spawned with (for example, armor or tools). Baby zombies drop 12 experience, plus an additional 1-3 experience for each piece of equipment they spawned with. A zombie will also drop a zombie head if it it is killed by a charged creeper.

Zombies will target villagers and wandering traders as well as the player, and will attack baby turtles, iron golems, and snow golems within a certain radius. They will also seek out and destroy turtle eggs by jumping up and down on them until they break.

Zombies are classified as undead mobs. Undead mobs are damaged by Instant Health potions and healed by Instant Damage potions, take extra damage from the Smite enchantment, and are immune to drowning and the Regeneration and Poison status effects. In addition, if the zombie is not wearing a helmet, it will burn in sunlight.

On Hard difficulty, attacking a zombie may cause it to spawn additional zombies as reinforcements, and a zombie is sometimes capable of breaking down a wooden door.

Zombie Siege (Java Edition Only)

If if the player is in a village which has at least 20 valid beds at midnight, there is a 10% chance for a zombie siege to begin, in which up to 20 zombies will spawn in a random location around or inside the village. Zombie sieges can spawn in any light level.

Zombie Variants

There are a number of zombie variants. A common one is the baby zombie, which is a miniaturized version of the regular zombie and much faster. They will occasionally spawn riding a chicken as a chicken jockey. In Bedrock Edition, they are capable of riding a number of other mobs, including cows and other zombies.

Baby zombie chicken jockey

A zombie villager occasionally spawns naturally, with the same health and strength as regular zombies. If a zombie kills a villager, there is a chance that the villager will convert to a zombie villager, depending on what the game difficulty is set to:

Easy Difficulty: 0%

Normal Difficulty: 50%

Hard Difficulty: 100%

Zombie villagers can be cured and turned into regular villagers by giving then the Weakness status effect and then feeding them a golden apple. During the curing process, the zombie villager will be given the status effect Strength, making them much more dangerous. The curing time will take 1 minute and 40 seconds on Bedrock Edition, and 3-5 minutes on Java Edition. Surrounding the zombie villager with iron bars and beds will speed up the curing process. Once it has been cured into a villager, the villager will offer major discounts to the player who cured it. These discounts cannot stack from zombifying and curing the same villager more than once.

Zombie villager

The drowned are the underwater version of zombies. They will naturally spawn in dark bodies of water in oceans, rivers, and dripstone caves, and if a zombie is submerged in water, it will start shaking and convert into a drowned after 45 seconds. If the player is outside of water during the day or in a boat, drowned will not notice them, with the exception being a drowned with a trident. During the night drowned will notice the player even if they are not in water.

In addition to the regular zombie drops, they also have an 11% chance to drop a copper ingot if they were killed by a player. If they spawn holding a nautilus shell, they are guaranteed to drop it when they die. Drowned also have a 6.25% chance (Java Edition) or a 15% chance (Bedrock Edition) to spawn holding a trident. A drowned holding a trident has an 8.5% chance (Java Edition) or a 25% chance (Bedrock Edition) to drop its trident if it is killed by a player or a tamed wolf.

Drowned

The husk is the desert's version of zombies. It will only spawn on blocks in deserts completely open to the sky, with no blocks above them. It can also spawn from trial spawners in certain trial chambers. Unlike other zombies and zombie variants, husks will not burn in sunlight. Being hit by a husk will inflict the player with the "Hunger" status effect, which will cause the hunger bar to decrease faster than usual. If a husk is submerged in water, it will convert into a regular zombie after 45 seconds, and can then convert into a drowned.

Husk

All zombie variants have baby variants, and they all have the chance of spawning as a chicken jockey.