Zombie Villager

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

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

$$, version-2 zombie villagers spawn when villagers are killed by zombies, from a zombie spawner or from an igloo's basement. Unemployed plains zombie villager spawn naturally regardless of biomes.

If any type of zombie kills a villager, there is a chance for the villager to transform into a zombie villager. Zombie villagers spawned this way can despawn only by chunk unloading.

A cleric zombie villager appears alongside a cleric 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 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
 * Horses
 * Donkeys
 * Mules
 * Zombie horses (unused jockey variant)
 * Skeleton Horses
 * Adult zombies
 * Adult zombie villagers
 * Pandas
 * Adult husks
 * Stray cats
 * Spiders
 * Cave spiders
 * It moves at the baby zombie villager's speed, instead of the mob's speed.
 * If riding a neutral mob, it becomes 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 becomes non-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 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 most other baby mobs in the game, they 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 automatically hold any item they come across (except that jack o'lanterns, mob heads and pumpkins are worn on their heads), and use any armor, weapons, or tools picked up. If they encounter another similar item, they 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. Farmer Zombie villagers are immune to sunlight due to having a hat.

Some zombie villagers capable of picking 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 is never mismatched (i.e. all pieces are 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) drop 1–3 extra experience per item.

Villager Variants
A zombie villager retains its biome and profession after conversion from a villager. They also retain their trades. Below is a table of the variant and what workstation it required before zombification. $1/3$ zombie villagers do not display their professions, but they still have the same profession after curing as before zombification. They appear to match the unemployed plains villager from Java Edition.

Below is a table listing the various professions, along with the specific job site block that each profession requires:

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

They can also drop an iron ingot, carrot, or potato 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:
 * $2/3$ (about 0.83%)
 * $$ (about 1.17%) with Looting I
 * $1/120$ (1.50%) with Looting II
 * $7/600$ (about 1.83%) with Looting III

Any picked-up equipment has a 100% chance of dropping and drops 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 drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance 1 percentage point (11.5 % with Looting III).
 * Zombie villagers 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).
 * Zombie villagers 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).
 * Zombie villagers 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).
 * Zombie villagers 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).
 * Zombie villagers 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 zombie villagers drop 5 experience and an additional 1–3 experience per naturally-spawned equipment. Baby zombie villagers 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 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.

Behavior
Zombie villagers 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) have a random profession that is not retained upon being cured; instead, they 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 are always unemployed.

Unlike regular zombies, zombie villagers do not drown, and remain unchanged from being submerged.

Like zombies, they trample turtle 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 is heard if successful, particles appear around the zombie villager, and it begins to shudder. The curing process takes 2–5 minutes, during which time the zombie villager behaves as a normal zombie. Conversion can be sped up approximately 4% by surrounding the zombie villager with iron bars and/or bed blocks within a 9×9×9 cube centered on the zombie villager. Conversion time is determined by picking a random integer between 3600 and 6000, decreasing by 1 on each game tick. On every tick there's a 1% chance for the game to look for iron bars and/or beds, within a 9x9x9 cube centered on the villager, and each one found has a 30% chance to decrease the conversion time by 1 more for that tick. When the conversion time reaches 0, the zombie villager transforms into a villager; $9/600$, the villager will be unemployed unless it was a nitwit, in which case it will remain a nitwit; while $11/600$, the villager keeps whatever profession it had while it was a zombie and cannot be reassigned.
 * 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 disappear when the villager is cured and are not dropped on the ground. However any items they picked up will drop.

The newly-cured villager offers a large discount on their trades to the player who cured them, along with any other villagers in the area. The discounts from curing a zombie villager persist permanently $$, or depending on whether the player trades with the cured villager $$, 4 in-game days or longer. It is also possible for cured villagers to become nitwits, meaning that they cannot offer discounted trades. $$, this spreads gossip part of the villager gossip system.

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

ID
Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

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

Trivia

 * Zombie villagers never spawn with equipment on $$ due to having rendering issues with armor on them.