Zombie

Zombies are common undead hostile mobs.

Naturally
In the Overworld, zombies spawn in groups of 4 at a light level of 7 or less and constitute about 13% of mobs. In desert biomes, all zombies exposed to the sky have an 80% chance to be replaced by husks, a zombie variant. Zombies that are not husks have a 5% chance to spawn as a zombie villager while all zombie variants also have a 5% chance to spawn as a baby zombie type. Baby zombies have an additional 5% chance of spawning as a chicken jockey.

A zombie will also spawn from a husk that drowns in water, but will convert to a drowned if its head remains submerged.

Sieges
If a player is in a village with at least 10 doors and 20 villagers at midnight, up to 20 zombies may be spawned near the edge of the village regardless of light level or transparent blocks. It can happen in any biome, even if it is Mushroom Island. Zombies spawned as a part of a siege are always normal zombies; zombie villagers or husks never spawn as a part of a siege.

Monster spawners
Zombies can spawn from monster spawners inside dungeons.

Baby zombies


Baby zombies make up 5% of zombie spawns. They behave similar to regular zombies, with the following oddities:
 * They are 30% faster than the normal zombies, yet they have the same HP as normal zombies. This makes baby zombies more dangerous than their full-sized counterparts.
 * The noises they make are higher-pitched than normal zombie sound effects.
 * If a baby zombie is riding a mob that is also rideable by a player, that mob becomes un-rideable by any player.
 * A baby zombie has a 15% chance to become a jockey when it tries attacking a villager, player, or golem.
 * Baby zombie villagers 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 give 12 experience points when killed by the player or a tamed wolf instead of 5.
 * Unlike most other baby mobs in the game, they remain babies indefinitely, and never become fully-grown zombies.
 * They have a decreased hitbox size.

A baby zombie riding a chicken is known as a chicken jockey. $$, a baby zombie can ride:

• Cows

• Ocelots and Cats

• Wolves

• Mooshrooms

• Adult chickens

• Pigs

• Pandas

• Sheep

• Horses

• Donkeys

• Mules

• Zombie horses (unused jockey variant)

• Skeleton horses

• Adult zombies

• Adult zombie villagers

• Adult zombie pigmen

• Adult husk

• Spiders

• Ravagers

• Skeletons

• Creepers

• Pillagers

• Bees

• Enderman

• Witches

• Vindicators

• Evokers

• Illusioners

• Villagers

• Bats

• Vexes

• Adult drowned

• Cave spiders (at the baby zombie speed)

Zombie villagers
Zombie villagers have a 5% chance of spawning in place of zombies, and may also spawn from a villager killed by a zombie. They can be cured back into villagers using golden apples and weakness potions.

Husks
Husks sometimes spawn in desert biomes in place of zombies. They attack like regular zombies, but inflict hunger for several seconds and do not burn under sunlight.

Drowned
Drowned spawn in ocean, river, and swamp biomes, or when a normal zombie drowns. They are able to swim and breathe underwater as well as walk on land. Most drowned use melee attacks, but some spawn with tridents and throw them when attacking instead.

Armed zombies


Some zombies spawn wearing armor and holding tools, which may be enchanted. The chances of that event are listed below. Zombie villagers can also spawn naturally with armor, weapons or tools. If a zombie spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor is never mismatched (i.e. all pieces are 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:

Armor worn by zombies is not damaged from most damage sources, which means it cannot "wear out" the way player armor does. Helmets (not blocks like pumpkins) on zombies can eventually wear away and break if the zombie is exposed to daylight or has an anvil or other falling block dropped on its head. Zombies also have a natural armor rating of, which gives 1.6 - 4%/8% damage reduction from most sources.

Any zombie that spawns with equipment gives 1–3 extra experience points per item when killed.

Drops
When they die, zombies drop 0–2. The maximum drop is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-5 with Looting III.

They also drop one of the following when killed by a player or tamed wolf: This drop has a 2.5% chance of occurring, increasing by 1% per level of looting. Individual items have the following chances of dropping:
 * $1/3$ (about 0.83%)
 * $2/3$ (about 1.83%) with Looting I
 * $1/120$ (about 2.83%) with Looting II
 * $11/600$ (about 3.83%) with Looting III

A zombie also drops a when killed by a charged creeper.

Any picked-up equipment has 100% chance of dropping, and drops without changing the damage that has accumulated on it.

Naturally-spawned equipment
A zombie has a 0.04% chance to spawn with diamond armor and a 0.02% chance to spawn as a diamond armored baby zombie chicken jockey.
 * Zombies have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombies have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombies have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombies have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombies have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombies have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment, and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).

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

Halloween
If a zombie wearing a pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a weapon enchanted with Looting, there is 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.

Attacking the player


Zombies spawn in groups of 4. They pursue the player on sight from 40 blocks away, as opposed to 16 blocks for other hostile mobs. The detection range of zombies is reduced to half of their normal range (20 blocks) when the player is wearing a zombie mob head. Zombies periodically make groaning sounds, which can be heard up to 16 blocks away. Zombies attempt to avoid obstacles, including sheer cliffs and lava, and try to find the shortest path toward the player. Unlike skeletons, zombies do not try to avoid being hit, and continue to pursue the player even when being attacked. Zombies can sometimes deal damage through a closed door, as shown in the picture to the right. Zombies sink in water, which facilitates their transformation into drowned.

Burning under daylight
At dawn, generally when the sun is 15 degrees or more above the ground (that is, when the moon can no longer be seen), zombie variants except for husks and zombie pigmen burn once exposed to direct sunlight. Burning is suppressed when the zombie is: Zombies may make some attempt to seek out shade during the day, or enter bodies of water to protect themselves from burning up, but they leave protective areas to chase a nearby player or villager.
 * in a sufficiently shaded area: a sunlight level of 11 or less (a 1 block roof overhang provides sufficient protection even if it would have a sunlight level of 14);
 * in water;
 * wearing head armor (the helmet absorbs the damage from light but may take several day cycles to wear out completely).

If they attack an entity while burning, they may set it on fire, with a (30 × regional difficulty)% chance, and with a 2 × floor (regional difficulty) second duration. If wearing armor enchanted with Thorns while burning they may set players attacking them on fire with thorns damage alone.

Undead
Zombies are undead mobs, harmed by the status effect Healing, healed by the status effect Instant Damage and are unaffected by Regeneration and Poison. The Wither does not attack Zombies. Zombies are affected by the Smite Enchantment.

Picking up items
Similar to skeletons, some zombies are capable of automatically picking up dropped items that they come across. Jack o'lanterns, mob heads, and pumpkins are automatically worn on their heads. Zombies can use armor, weapons, or tools. If a zombie encounters another similar item, it may drop the previous item in favor of the new one, if:
 * the new item is armor or a sword and the old item was not (for example, zombies prefer swords to pickaxes, and helmets to pumpkins),
 * both items are armor/swords and the new item is better damage-wise (reduces more damage for armor, or inflicts more damage for swords),
 * 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
 * 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.

A zombie holding a picked-up item will not despawn when left alone.

Picked-up items do not cause the zombie to drop more experience when killed, unlike naturally-spawned gear.

Attacking villagers


Zombies target villagers within 42 blocks, and they can always see villagers through walls. Once a zombie has focused on a villager, the zombie ignores any other villagers and the player, until its target is dead or the zombie is attacked.

Attacking wandering traders
Zombies attack wandering traders within 35 blocks, and can see traders through walls. The zombie focuses solely on the trader unless it's attacked, or either it or the target is killed or moved out of range, or under invisibility effect.

Breaking doors
Up to 14.5% of zombies (depending on regional difficulty) in pursuit of a target can bang on closed wooden doors, and on Hard (and Hardcore) difficulty can succeed in breaking them down. Otherwise, the door cracks, but does not break. Iron doors are always safe.

Attacking iron golems
Zombies attack iron golems within 42 blocks. Iron golems and snow golems attack zombies without provocation.

Reinforcements
On all difficulty levels, damaged zombies also call all other zombies within a 67×67×21 to 111×111×21 area centered on the attacked zombie to target the attacking player, like zombie pigmen.

On Hard difficulty, zombies can spawn additional zombies to “help” when damaged. Each zombie has a "likeliness to call reinforcements" statistic ranging from 0–10%, and "leader" zombies (0–5% depending on regional difficulty) get a bonus of 50–75 percentage points to the stat. When the zombie is damaged by an entity or is damaged while targeting an entity, up to 50 attempts are made to randomly choose a spawn location (0 or ±7–40 blocks away in all three axes) that is above a block with a solid top surface, has light level 9 or lower, has no players within 7 blocks, and has no colliding entities or blocks at which to spawn the reinforcement. Both the damaged zombie and the new zombie has a 5 percentage point penalty to their "likeliness to call reinforcement" stat, preventing infinite zombies from spawning this way.

These effects can be negated by killing the zombie in as few hits as possible, by using environmental damage such as cactus or lava, or by avoiding them completely.

Attacking turtles
Zombies attack baby turtles and actively seek out and destroy turtle eggs, by jumping on them until they crack and break.

Becoming drowned
If a zombie is in water, and not in a boat, for 30 seconds it begins converting into a drowned. The zombie shakes, similar to a zombie villager being cured, and after 15 seconds the zombie becomes a drowned. Once this process starts, it cannot be stopped.

The converted drowned keeps any items worn or held when it was a zombie. In Bedrock Edition, an empty-handed zombie converted to drowned has a small chance of holding a nautilus shell or a trident after conversion.

Only normal zombies can become drowned; zombie villagers and husks cannot be converted. Husks, however, convert into zombies if they drown, and then this zombie converts into a drowned as a normal zombie does.

Data values
Zombies have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia
In Java edition, it is a baby zombie villager with full diamond armor and an enchanted sword riding a chicken.
 * The rarest mob $17/600$ is a baby husk riding a brown panda, which has a 2.88×10−13 chance (one in 3.47 2 trillion) of spawning.
 * Zombies, along with Skeletons and Creepers, are the oldest hostile mobs in the game that have not been removed. The oldest ever in the game is the Human, which has been removed from the game entirely.
 * Prior to Update Aquatic, baby zombies did not burn in daylight.