Zombie Villager

Zombie villagers are variants of zombies that can be cured into normal villagers using golden apples while they are under the effect of Weakness.

Spawning
When a group in the normal spawn cycle spawns zombies, there is a 5% chance to instead spawn a group of zombie villagers, or a single zombie villager.

If any type of zombie kills a villager, there is a chance for the villager to transform into a zombie villager. If the villager has previously been traded with, this zombie villager does not despawn when the player moves far away from it.

A cleric zombie villager appears alongside a cleric villager in every igloo basement (a normal zombie villager in Bedrock Edition only and a cleric zombie villager in Java Edition only). One of them transforms into leatherworker, due to the workstation (a cauldron). They also generate as part of abandoned villages. Zombie villagers generated in both of these structures do not despawn naturally.

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

Baby Zombies
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
 * Adult zombified piglins
 * 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 does not 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 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 pick up and hold any item that they come across (except jack o'lanterns, mob heads and pumpkins, as these 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 - 8% damage reduction from most sources.

Some zombie villagers that are 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
In Java Edition, 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. $$, zombie villagers do not display their professions, but they still have the same profession after curing as before zombification. They use the texture of an unemployed villager from their corresponding biome.

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:
 * $$ (about 0.83%)
 * $1/3$ (about 1.17%) with Looting I
 * $2/3$ (1.50%) with Looting II
 * $$ (about 1.83%) with Looting III

Any picked-up equipment has a 100% chance of dropping on death or when cured 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 and an additional  per naturally-spawned equipment. Baby zombie villagers drop 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, except that they do not convert to drowned when submerged.

In Java Edition, zombie villagers that were converted from villagers retain their professions and clothes, which gain a tattered appearance. In Bedrock Edition, all zombie villagers have the same appearance, which looks like a unemployed zombie villager. 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 and may gain a new profession if a job site block is nearby. Zombie villagers can also spawn with the unemployed or Nitwit outfits. Baby zombie villagers are always unemployed.

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 splash potion of Weakness thrown by the player, a dispenser, or a witch.
 * An area effect cloud of Weakness from a lingering potion.
 * An area effect cloud of Weakness from a creeper explosion.
 * A tipped arrow.
 * A command

If successful, a loud sizzling sound is heard and the zombie villager begins to shudder. The curing process takes 3–5 minutes, during which time the zombie villager behaves like a normal zombie. The zombie villager gains Strength I in Easy difficulty, II in Normal, or III in Hard while converting.

Conversion time is initially determined by picking a random integer between 3600 and 6000, representing the number of ticks. On every tick, the conversion time decreases by 1, and there is a 1% chance for the game to look for up to 14 iron bars and beds within a 9×9×9 cube centered on the villager; each one found has a 30% chance to decrease the conversion time by 1 more for that tick. The top and bottom halves of a bed are counted separately. Therefore, having at least 14 half-beds and/or iron bars within range of a zombie villager speeds up conversion by an average of 4.2%.

When the conversion time reaches 0, the zombie villager transforms into a villager. $1/120$, if the villager is not locked to a profession (i.e by trading with it once), the villager is unemployed unless it was a nitwit, in which case it remains a nitwit; if it was locked to a profession, it keeps both that profession and trades. However, $7/600$, the villager keeps whatever profession it had while it was a zombie but its profession can be changed after curing if it wasn't locked.

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 are dropped.

The newly-cured villager, if it had a profession prior to being zombified, offers a large discount on trades to the player who administered the cure. The discount from curing a zombie villager persists permanently. If a villager is cured more than once, its discounts increase until the price reaches the minimum of one emerald. Villagers around the cured villager are also affected. $9/600$, villagers in a range of 16 blocks in a cube surrounding the cured villager also offer a small discount proportional to the number of cured villagers (up to 10). $11/600$, curing a villager spreads gossip through the villager gossip system. It is also possible for cured villagers to become nitwits, meaning that they cannot offer discounted trades.

Zombie villagers that are in the process of converting do not despawn if the player moves far away from them.

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

ID




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

Trivia

 * Zombie villagers never spawn with equipment $$ due to having rendering issues with armor on them.
 * Zombie villagers have a glitched design when using the programmer art Resource Pack
 * In Bedrock Edition, when a zombie villager holds a trident, then the hand that holds the trident lowers.
 * Zombie villagers from killed villagers can spawn with equipment.
 * The achievement Zombie Doctor uses the old zombie villager texture.