Drowned

Drowned are common underwater zombie variants that spawn in water or when a zombie drowns. They are also the only source of tridents.

Naturally
Drowned spawn naturally at light level of 7 or less in all ocean biomes (except for warm ocean), and river biomes. They spawn at higher rates in rivers than in other biomes.

$$ drowned spawn in groups of 1 inside flowing water or source water that is 2 blocks or taller. In ocean biomes, drowned spawn at Y < 58, or at least 6 blocks below sea level; this restriction does not apply to rivers.

$$ drowned spawn in groups of 2–4 inside flowing water or source water of any depth, but they spawn at higher rates in water that is 2 blocks or taller. They spawn only on the surface, that is, on the highest spawnable block at any given X, Z coordinate; other than that they do not have any specific Y-level spawn limitations. They count toward the monster population control cap and also have their own density caps of 5 in oceans and 2 in rivers.

Drowned have a greater chance of appearing in ruins and cities.

Drowned have a chance to spawn with either a trident or a fishing rod, and occasionally with a nautilus shell. $$ they also have a small chance of spawning while riding a chicken, even after drowning as a zombie, creating a drowned chicken jockey. They are the only zombie variant within the game that cannot spawn naturally with any armor.

Ocean ruins
Drowned spawn during the generation of certain ocean ruin structures. These drowned do not naturally despawn unless the world is set to Peaceful difficulty.

Conversion
If a zombie's head is submerged in water continuously for 30 seconds, it begins the process of converting to a drowned. It starts shaking, similar to the effect seen while a zombie villager is being cured. At this point, the process cannot be stopped, and 15 seconds later the zombie becomes drowned. The drowned appears with full health even if the previous zombie did not.

If a zombie is holding or wearing a picked-up item when it becomes drowned, it drops the item it is holding or wearing. Items spawned with the zombie drop with the normal 8.5% +1% per Looting level. $$ only, an item being held or worn by a zombie when it becomes drowned, whether it was picked up or naturally spawned, has a 100% drop rate, which includes any naturally spawned equipment dropping with full durability.

Zombie villagers do not transform, and husks do not transform instantly; instead, they first transform into a regular zombie, and subsequently convert to a drowned in the usual fashion.

Drops
Drowned drop when they die:
 * and an additional per naturally-spawned equipment. ( during its time as a baby) if killed by the player or a tamed wolf.
 * 0–2 (additional 1 maximum drop for every Looting level, up to 0–5 rotten flesh for Looting III).
 * 1 or 1  if killed by the player.
 * Java Edition: 5% (increased by 1% per Looting level)
 * Bedrock Edition: 11% (increased by 2% per Looting level)
 * 1 if killed by the player.
 * Java Edition: 8.5% chance (up to 11.5% chance with Looting III), only for drowned that spawn with a trident. This means that the player has a 0.53% chance to receive a trident without Looting, and a 0.71% chance to receive a trident with Looting III. The trident has random durability.
 * Bedrock Edition: 25% chance (up to 37% chance with Looting III), only for drowned that spawn with a trident. This means that the player has a 3.75% chance to receive a trident without Looting, and a 5.55% chance to receive a trident with Looting III. The trident has random durability.
 * 1 if held in the off-hand.
 * Any picked-up equipment has 100% chance of dropping, and drops with the same damage level it had when picked up.

Naturally-spawned equipment
For naturally-spawned drowned only: $$, converted drowned are never equipped with tridents or nautilus shells.
 * Java Edition
 * 6.25% of drowned spawn with a.
 * 3.75% of drowned spawn with a.
 * 3% of drowned spawn with a in their offhand.

$$, 0.53125% (about 1 out of 188) naturally-spawned drowned drop a trident when killed without Looting, as only 1 of 16 drowned spawn with tridents and from this 6.25%, 8.5% drop the trident.

For naturally-spawned drowned only:
 * Bedrock Edition
 * 15% of drowned spawn with a.
 * 0.85% of drowned spawn with a.

Both naturally-spawned and converted drowned have an 8% chance of spawning spawn with a in their offhand.

For converted drowned only:
 * 1% of drowned spawn with a.

The trident and fishing rod are mutually exclusive. A drowned can spawn with either a trident or fishing rod in the main hand and a nautilus shell in the offhand.

$$, 3.75% (3 out of 80) naturally-spawned drowned drop a trident when killed without Looting, as 3 of 20 drowned spawn with tridents and from this 15%, 25% drop the trident.

Farming
Farms that convert zombies into drowned produce rotten flesh, gold ingots, fishing rods, (copper ingots only in 1.17 and higher), and nautilus shells. A drowned farm must be designed to harvest naturally-spawned drowned to produce tridents and nautilus shells.

Behavior
Drowned have a melee attack, and if they spawn with a trident, they use it as a ranged weapon. A trident is thrown every 1.5 seconds at up to 20 blocks away. $$, drowned with tridents use a melee attack if the target is 3 blocks away or less. They stomp on turtle eggs, attack baby turtles, and like zombies, they chase and attack villagers, wandering traders, snow golems and iron golems within 16 blocks. If on land, drowned seek out nearby water. They sometimes step onto land but quickly return to the water.

If a drowned is in any way removed by force from the water, and all nearby water sources have been blocked from it, it becomes passive in the daytime, but becomes hostile again at night. However, it heads to the nearest water source when provided access once again and becomes hostile upon making contact.

During the day, drowned swim only to attack players that are swimming in the water with them; otherwise, they stay on the floor of the water body they are in, ignoring players on land or in a boat. However, at night, drowned swim to the surface and chase players as well as baby turtles, even outside the water, like regular zombies. The speed of their swimming is equal to that of the player.

If a drowned kills a villager, the villager has a chance of turning into a zombie villager (with a 0% chance on Easy, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard).

Unlike zombies, drowned do not break down doors in hard mode.

They are immune to guardians or elder guardians attacks. They also have a small chance to be immune to knockback when damaged.

Drowned can pick up other tridents that have not spawned with them. They also can pick it up the wrong way.

Swimming
Drowned use a swimming animation similar to the player. They use this animation whenever they try to pathfind to a player that is either below or above them; if the player is on the same ground level, the drowned simply walk toward them. Drowned also use this animation if they are tracking a player while they are not standing on a solid block. Their hitbox does not change when using this animation. Also, if they hold a nautilus shell or anything else in their offhand, their arms are in the same posture as a player's. When attacking, they use the player's attacking animation. Still, they use the same swimming animation when tracking a player underwater.

ID




Entity data
Drowned have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Trivia

 * Drowned with tridents have sufficient range, accuracy, and rate of fire to hit players in boats, even if the boat travels at full speed. If the trident connects with the boat instead of the player, the boat is destroyed, reverting it to an item and dumping the player out. This can happen with little or no warning.
 * Drowned are not considered as aquatic mobs, instead, they are considered as undead, unaffected by impaling enchantment.
 * A drowned chicken jockey floats to the surface because the chicken it is riding floats, causing the drowned riding it to burn in sunlight during the day, resulting in a chicken in the middle of the ocean or river where the drowned jockey spawned in.
 * $$, drowned have a 3D outer layer. This causes their heads and arms to look larger than $$.
 * Like spiders and endermen, drowned have eyes that appear to glow, although they do not produce light.
 * When putting armor on a drowned using a dispenser, the helmet does not appear but still protects from sunlight.