Zombie Villager

Zombie villagers are variants of zombies that can be cured into normal villagers using golden apples and weakness potions.

Spawning
Zombies which are not husks have a 5% chance of naturally spawning as zombie villagers.

Zombie villagers can also result from zombies killing villagers. If any type of zombie kills a villager, there is a chance that the villager will transform into a zombie villager.

A priest zombie villager will appear alongside a priest villager in every igloo basement. Zombie Villagers spawn also in zombie villages. Zombie villagers that spawn in zombie villages have the behavior to avoid direct sunlight and will never despawn.

Zombie villagers have their own spawn egg, which can be found inside the creative inventory. This spawn egg spawns a zombie villager when.

Baby zombie villagers
Baby zombie villagers make up 5% of zombie villager spawns. They behave similar to regular zombie villager, with the following oddities:
 * They are 30% faster than the normal zombies, yet they have the same health as normal zombies. This makes the baby zombie villagers more dangerous than their bigger counterparts.
 * The noises they make are higher-pitched than adult zombie villager sound effects.
 * They can sometimes ride chickens. They can also ride:
 * Cows
 * Ocelots
 * Wolves
 * Mooshroom
 * Adult chickens
 * Pigs
 * Sheep
 * Polar Bears
 * Horses
 * Donkeys
 * Mules
 * Zombie horses (unused jockey variant)
 * Skeleton Horses
 * Llamas
 * Adult zombies
 * Adult zombie villagers
 * Pandas
 * Adult husks
 * Stray cats
 * Spiders
 * Cave spiders
 * It will use the baby zombie villager's speed, instead of the mob's speed.
 * If riding a neutral mob, it will become hostile, but won't anger any mobs nearby that are the same mob as they are.
 * If a baby zombie is riding a mob that is also rideable by a player, that mob will no longer be rideable by a player.
 * A baby zombie has a 15% chance to become a jockey when try attacking villagers, players or golems.
 * Baby zombie villagers will turn into baby villagers, if cured.
 * Worn armor shrinks to fit their body size.
 * They are able to fit through 1×1 block gaps.
 * They drop 12 experience when killed by the player instead of 5.
 * Unlike all other baby mobs in the game, they will stay as babies indefinitely and never grow into "adult" zombie villagers.
 * They have a decreased hitbox size.

Baby zombie villagers are spawned when a zombie kills a baby villager, the chance of infection being the same as adult zombie villagers. Baby zombie villagers also spawn naturally, but the combined chance (5% villagers × 5% babies) is very low at 0.25% (or 1 in 400 chance) of all newly spawned zombies.

Armed zombie villagers
Along with skeletons and regular zombies, some zombie villagers are capable of picking up dropped items. These zombie villagers will automatically hold any item they come across (except that jack o'lanterns, mob heads and pumpkins will be worn on their heads), but if those items happen to be armor, weapons or tools, the zombie villager will use them. If they encounter another similar item, they will pick it up and drop their previous item:


 * if the new item is armor or a sword and the old item was not (for example, zombie villagers prefer swords to pickaxes and helmets to pumpkins),
 * if both items are armor/swords and the new item is better damage-wise (reduces more damage for armor, or inflicts more damage for swords),
 * if both items are armor/swords with the same damage reduction/infliction, the new item has NBT tags while the old does not or the new item is more damaged than the old item, or
 * if both items are bows and the new item has NBT tags while the old does not.

Items dropped by mobs in exchange for another cannot be picked up by players or mobs for 10 game ticks (0.5 seconds, barring lag), but can be picked up by hoppers.

Armor worn by zombie villagers is not damaged from most damage sources, which means it cannot "wear out" the way player armor does. Helmets (not blocks like pumpkins) on zombie villagers can wear away and break, if the zombie villager is exposed to daylight or has an anvil or other falling block dropped on its head. Zombie villagers also have a natural armor rating of, which gives 1.6 - 4% damage reduction from most sources.

Some zombie villagers, which can pick up items spawn already in possession of such items, and those items may also be enchanted. The chances of that event are listed below. If a zombie villager spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor will never be mismatched (i.e. all pieces will be made of the same material).

If a zombie does spawn with armor, the chances of specific armor are as follows:

The chances of it being of a particular material are:

Any zombie villager that spawns with equipment (picked-up items don't count) will drop 1–3 extra experience per item.

Drops
When they die, zombie villagers drop:
 * 0–2.
 * Iron ingots, carrots and potatoes (0.8% chance each, 1.2% chance with Looting I, 1.5% chance with Looting II and 1.8% chance with Looting III).
 * A if it is killed by a charged creeper.
 * Any picked-up equipment has 100% chance of dropping and will drop with the same damage level it had when picked up.

Naturally-spawned equipment

 * Zombie villagers have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and will drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting will increase the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombie villagers have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and will drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting will increase the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombie villagers have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and will drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting will increase the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombie villagers have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and will drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting will increase the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombie villagers have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and will drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting will increase the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombie villagers have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and will drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting will increase the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).

Experience
Adult zombie villagers will drop 5 experience and an additional 1–3 experience per naturally-spawned equipment. Baby zombie villagers will drop 12 experience.

Halloween
If a zombie villager wearing a carved pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a weapon that is enchanted with Looting, there will be a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.

Behavior
They behave as ordinary zombies, but their character model's head and face is reminiscent of that of a villager, shaded with a darker green hue. Zombie villagers retain their professions and clothes, which have a tattered appearance. Naturally spawned zombie villagers (or ones spawned with spawn eggs) will normally have a random profession outfit. They will not have this profession upon being cured, and they will instead become unemployed unless a job site block is nearby. Zombie villagers can also spawn with the unemployed outfit or the Nitwit outfit. Baby zombie villagers will always be unemployed.

Unlike regular zombies, zombie villagers cannot transform into drowned when they stay underwater for too long.

When they encounter turtle eggs they will jump on the eggs to destroy them.

Curing
Zombie villagers can be cured by a golden apple (regular) on them while they are under the effects of Weakness, which can be applied by: A loud sizzling sound will be heard if successful, and the zombie villager will have particles around it and begin to shudder. The curing process will take 2–5 minutes, during which time the zombie villager behaves as normal.
 * A splash potion of Weakness thrown by the player or a witch.
 * An area of effect of Weakness from lingering potion of Weakness or creeper explosions with the weakness effect.
 * A tipped arrow.

If the zombie villager is wearing any armor or wielding tools or weapons, those items will disappear when the villager is cured and are not dropped on the ground.

The newly-cured villager will offer a large discount on their trades. It is also possible for cured villagers to become nitwits, meaning that they cannot offer discounted trades.

Conversion can be sped up by around 4% by surrounding the zombie villager with iron bars and/or bed blocks within a 9×9×9 cube centered on the zombie villager.

A zombie villager cannot be cured by switching from Easy, Normal or Hard difficulty to Peaceful; they will simply despawn like all other monsters.

Entity data
Zombie villagers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Video
Note:this video is outdated as of village and pillage zombie villagers got a new texture.

Trivia

 * Zombie villager never spawn with equipment $1/3$ due having rendering issue with armor on them.