Zombie

{
 "title": "Zombie",
 "rows": [
 {
 "field": "20<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1 heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=❤️)</span> × 10</span> <br> 40<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1 heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=❤️)</span> × 20</span> to 100<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1 heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=❤️)</span> × 50</span> (leaders)‌<sup class=\" nowrap Inline-Template \" title=\"\">[<i><span title=\"This statement only applies to Java Edition\">(link to Java Edition article, displayed as JE) only</span></i>]</sup>",
 "label": "(link to Health article, displayed as Health points)"
 },
 {
 "field": "2 (<span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"2 armor point\">(link to File:Armor (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=🛡)</span>)",
 "label": "(link to Armor#Natural armor article, displayed as Armor points)"
 },
 {
 "field": "Hostile",
 "label": "Behavior"
 },
 {
 "field": "<span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:EntitySprite undead.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Undead|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Undead article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Undead</span>)</span><br><span class=\"nowrap\"><span class=\"sprite-file\" style=\"\">(link to File:EntitySprite monster.png article, displayed as 16x16px|link=Monster|alt=|class=pixel-image|)</span>(link to Monster article, displayed as <span class=\"sprite-text\">Monster</span>)</span>",
 "label": "(link to Mob type article, displayed as Mob type)"
 },
 {
 "field": "Easy: 2.5<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1 heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=❤️)</span> × 1.25</span><br />Normal: 3<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1.5 hearts\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=❤️)(link to File:Half Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=💔)</span></span><br />Hard: 4.5<span class=\"hidden-alt-text\">HP</span><span class=\"nowrap mc-hearts\"><span class=\"iconbar pixel-image nowrap\" style=\"--icon-offset:-1px;\" title=\"1 heart\">(link to File:Heart (icon).png article, displayed as 9px|link=|alt=❤️)</span> × 2.25</span> <br>",
 "label": "Attack<br/>strength"
 },
 {
 "field": "'''Adult In (link to Java Edition article, displayed as ''Java Edition''):'''<br>Height: 1.95 blocks<br>Width: 0.6 blocks<br>\n'''Adult In (link to Bedrock Edition article, displayed as ''Bedrock Edition''):'''<br>Height: 1.9 blocks<br>Width: 0.6 blocks<br>\n'''Baby:'''<br>Height: 0.98 blocks<br>Width: 0.49 blocks",
 "label": "(link to Hitbox article, displayed as Hitbox size)"
 },
 {
 "field": "0.23<br>0.35 (baby)",
 "label": "(link to Attribute#Movement_speed article, displayed as Speed)"
 },
 {
 "field": "0%–5%",
 "label": "(link to Attribute#knockback_resistance article, displayed as Knockback<br/>resistance)"
 },
 {
 "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
 "label": "(link to Mob spawning article, displayed as Spawn)"
 },
 {
 "field": "(values exceeds 1000 characters...)",
 "label": "(link to Drops#Equipped items article, displayed as Natural<br/>equipment)"
 }
 ],
 "invimages": [
 "Zombie Spawn Egg"
 ],
 "images": [
 "Zombie.png",
 "Baby Zombie.png"
 ]
}

A zombie is a common undead hostile mob that deals melee damage and is a source of rotten flesh, which it drops upon death.

Zombies may spawn in the Overworld in groups of four in Java Edition or in groups of 2-4 in Bedrock Edition above solid blocks in a light level of 0, except in mushroom fields and deep dark biomes. In Bedrock Edition, zombies also do not spawn in rivers, frozen rivers, and snowy plains. All zombie variants (including babies) require a 2-block tall space to spawn.

Zombies spawned in desert biomes exposed to the sky have a likelihood of 80%‌^{[JE only]}/70%‌^{[BE only]} to be replaced by husks. Zombies that are not husks or drowned have a 5% chance to spawn as zombie villagers. Zombies have a 5% chance to spawn as babies. Baby zombies then have a 4.75% chance of spawning as chicken jockeys,‌^{[JE only]} or a 15% chance to be able to ride certain mobs‌^{[BE only]}.

Zombies and their variants spawn with random values of knockback resistance between 0% and 5%.

If a player is near a village at midnight, up to 20 zombies may be spawned in the village in accordance with mob spawning rules. The spawning can even happen in mushroom fields biome if the triggering player is in an adjacent biome. Zombies spawned as a part of a siege are always regular zombies; zombie villagers, husks and drowned never spawn as a part of a siege, even in their respective biomes.

Inside monster rooms, zombies may have a chance to spawn from a monster spawner. Zombie monster spawners are found in 50% of monster rooms. Zombies spawned from a monster spawner never spawn as zombie villagers.

Adult zombies have a ¹⁄₃ chance to be selected as the "melee" mob for trial spawners in trial chambers.

Baby zombies have a ¹⁄₄ chance to be selected as the "small melee" mob for trial spawners.

When a husk's head is submerged in water for over 30 seconds, the husk starts transforming into a zombie, with a new entity UUID. The husk's equipment remains on the zombie after conversion.‌^{[JE only]} The zombie transforms into a drowned if its head remains submerged.

When a zombie horse spawns naturally, it will always spawn with a zombie rider holding an iron spear.

Baby zombies make up 5% of zombie spawns. They behave similarly to regular zombies, with the following differences:

• They are much faster than normal zombies, yet they have the same health.
• The noises they make are higher-pitched than adult zombie sound effects.
• 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, they remain babies indefinitely and never become adult zombies, therefore golden dandelions do not work.
• They have a decreased hitbox size.

In Java Edition, every baby zombie has a chance to spawn as a chicken jockey. In a chicken-free environment, each baby has a 4.75% chance of spawning as a chicken jockey, for a total 0.2375% chance for each spawned zombie of spawning as a chicken jockey; if chickens are present, the chance increases to 0.4875%.

In Bedrock Edition, 15% of naturally spawned baby zombies can start riding a mob and become a jockey after it spawns. A jockey mob ridden by a baby zombie will adapt to the speed of its rider. A baby zombie can ride:

Some zombies spawn wearing armor or holding weapons, both of which may be enchanted. In addition, zombies may also spawn with the ability to pick up loot that is on the ground. The chances of each of these events occurring are listed below. If a zombie spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor is never mismatched (i.e. all pieces are made of the same material). Zombies cannot naturally spawn with netherite armor.

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:

In Java Edition, the armor is not damaged by any damage source; it cannot "wear out" the way player armor does. Helmets (not blocks like carved pumpkins) on zombies can break if the zombie is exposed to daylight. In Bedrock Edition, any armor piece is damaged as if the player is wearing it.^[verify]

Zombies also have a natural armor rating of 2 (👁 🛡
), giving 1.6 to 8% damage reduction from most sources. Zombies can also wear mob heads, although they need to be dropped by the player before the zombie can pick one up and put it on.

On Halloween, zombies in Java Edition may spawn wearing a carved pumpkin or jack o'lantern. They are never dropped, even when the zombies are killed with Looting.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

When a zombie dies, all of its picked-up equipment drops without changing the damage that has accumulated on it in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition, the armor's durability is still vulnerable to attacks, as if a player is wearing it.

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 by 1 percentage point (11.5% with Looting III). They cannot drop the diamond swords that they occasionally wield during ominous trials. These items include:

• 👁 Image
  Iron Shovel (sometimes enchanted)
• 👁 Image
  Iron Sword (sometimes enchanted)
• 👁 Image
  Iron Spear (sometimes enchanted)
• 👁 Image
  Diamond Sword (in ominous trials)
• 👁 Image
  Random Armor (sometimes enchanted, made from leather, copper, gold, chainmail, iron or diamond)

Additionally, in Bedrock Edition, all naturally spawned equipment always drops at full durability when the zombie converts to a drowned.

Adult zombies drop 5XP and baby zombies drop 12XP when they are killed by a player or a tamed wolf. Any zombie that spawns with equipment drops another 1–3XP per item when killed.

Zombies pursue the player on sight from 35 blocks away, raising their arms up higher in Java Edition. The detection range of zombies is reduced to half of their normal range (17.5 blocks) while the player wears a zombie head. In Java Edition, if a zombie sees a player and a villager together, the zombie prefers to attack the player, and continues chasing the player while ignoring other villagers. In Bedrock Edition, zombies prioritize the nearest player, villager, or golem.

Zombies periodically make groaning sounds, which can be heard up to 16 blocks away. Zombies attempt to avoid obstacles, including fall damage, fire, lava, magma blocks, and cactus and try to find the shortest path toward the player.^[1] Unlike skeletons, zombies do not try to avoid being hit and continue to pursue the player even when being attacked.

Zombies attack baby turtles and actively seek out and destroy turtle eggs within 24 blocks horizontally and 3 blocks vertically, by jumping on them until they crack and break.

Zombies pursue and attack only iron golems within 42 blocks; zombies ignore snow golems unless attacked. Iron golems and snow golems attack zombies without provocation, although snow golems deal only knockback to zombies with their snowballs.

Zombies target villagers within a 35- to 52.5-block radius (depending on regional difficulty in Java Edition) or just 35-block radius in Bedrock Edition, and they can always see villagers through walls. If a zombie is attacking a villager and sees the player, it interrupts its attack on the villager to attack the player instead, even if the player has not attacked it.‌^{[JE only]} Once a zombie has targeted a villager, the zombie ignores any other villagers and the player, until its target is dead, the zombie is attacked or the player moves too close to the zombie.‌^{[BE only]}

Any zombie variant can transform a villager into a zombie villager. The probability depends on the difficulty:

• 0% chance in Peaceful (no zombies spawn) and Easy
• 50% chance in Normal
• 100% chance in Hard

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

A zombie holding a weapon adds the weapon's damage to its normal melee damage. For example, a zombie holding an iron shovel on Normal difficulty deals 3HP👁 ❤️
👁 💔
from its punch + 3.5HP👁 ❤️
× 1.75 from the shovel for a total of 6.5HP👁 ❤️
× 3.25. (it should be noted that, in Java Edition, damage values shown when hovering over weapons in the inventory include the player's 1HP👁 💔
base melee damage, so an iron shovel shows up as 4.5HP👁 ❤️
× 2.25; subtracting 1 gives the actual weapon's damage.) The zombie's weapon damage is scaled by difficulty: if the zombie would deal X damage on Normal, it deals 1.5 * X on Hard and 0.5 * X + 1 on Easy. So for example a zombie with an iron shovel deals 1.5 * 6.5 = 9.75HP👁 ❤️
× 4.875 on Hard and 0.5 * 6.5 + 1 = 4.25HP👁 ❤️
× 2.125 on Easy. Enchantments add their damage as normal before difficulty scaling.

Zombies wielding spears have different attacking behavior. When attacking, they use the spear's charge attack while moving towards their target. They hold the charge through its full duration, using all 3 stages. Once the charge attack has ended or they get too close to their target, they walk away to increase the distance between them and their target before turning around to begin another charge.

Zombies burn when exposed to direct sunlight starting 27 seconds (540 ticks) before the beginning of a new day. Burning is suppressed when the zombie is:

• under an area with a sunlight level of 14 or less
• in water
• wearing head armor (the helmet has a 50% chance to lose 1 durability for every tick the zombie would normally be set on fire)
• under the status effect of Fire Resistance
• standing in cobwebs.^[2]

Transparent blocks, such as glass, do not prevent them from burning.

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^{[JE only]}.

Being an undead mob, they are:

• Damaged by the status effect Instant Health and healed by the status effect Instant Damage.
• Unaffected by the status effects Regeneration and Poison.
• Ignored by the wither.
• Affected by the Smite enchantment.
• A threat to armadillos, causing them to hide in their shell.

Some zombies are capable of automatically picking up dropped items that they come across, except for the glow ink sac. Mob heads and carved pumpkins are automatically worn on their heads. Zombies can equip armor, weapons or tools. They can also equip a shield in their off-hand. If a zombie encounters another similar item, it may drop the previous item in favor of the new one if:

• both items are armor/weapons and the new item is better damage-wise (reduces higher damage for armor, or inflicts more damage for swords) without considering enchantments,
• both items are armor/swords with the same damage reduction/infliction, the new item has NBT tags while the old does not‌^{[JE only]} or the new item is less damaged than the old item, or
• both items are bows and the new item has NBT tags while the old does not.

For example, a zombie can pick up a totem of undying, which cannot be retrieved by killing the zombie because that would activate the totem. However, the zombie would drop the totem in favor of a sword or armor.

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 does not despawn when left alone, similar to being name tagged.

Zombies have a higher chance of being able to pick up items in Hard difficulty.

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

Chicken jockeys cannot pick up any variant of an egg.

In Bedrock Edition, due to a bug, zombies, as well as husks, zombie villagers, and drowned can also wear horse armor, nautilus armor, and wolf armor.^[3][4]

Up to 10% of zombies (depending on regional difficulty in Java Edition) in pursuit of a target can pathfind through closed wooden and copper doors, and on Hard difficulty can succeed in breaking them down. Zombies can break only the top half of a door, meaning they cannot break a door if they are facing the bottom half.

It takes approximately 10 seconds for a zombie to break a door, regardless of the door's type. The process is not sped up if the zombie has Haste or holds an appropriate tool, and it is not slowed down if the zombie has Mining Fatigue.

On all difficulty levels, damaged zombie mobs (including zombie villagers, husks, drowned and zombified piglins) call all other zombie mobs of the same type within a 67×21×67 to 111×21×111 area^{[n 1]} centered on the attacked zombie to target the attacker.

In Hard difficulty, zombie mobs can spawn additional zombie mobs of the same type to "help" when damaged while targeting a player or other entity. Each mob has a "likeliness to call reinforcements" statistic ranging from 0–10%, and "leader" zombie mobs (0–5% depending on clamped regional difficulty) get a bonus of 50–75 percentage points to the stat. Unlike other zombie variants, only leader zombified piglins can spawn reinforcements.^[5]

When the mob 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 0, has no players within 7 blocks, and has no colliding entities or blocks at which to spawn the reinforcement. They spawn on the north-west corner of the designated block, instead of the center of the block like natural mob spawning does.^[6] Meaning that they can spawn inside blocks which the natural spawning rules would not allow, but their hitbox may not be intersecting the block's hitbox. This allows them to spawn inside chain or bars. Additionally the designated block cannot be a non-solid block that would prevent usual mob spawning like redstone dust or pressure plates. Reinforcements can spawn even in biomes where the mob cannot spawn naturally, like mushroom fields, the End, and the Nether^[7].

When a zombie generates reinforcements, the chance of it generating another reinforcement decreases by 5%. Therefore, a normal zombie can only generates directly 1 or 2 reinforcements, and a leader between 11 and 17 reinforcements. A zombie spawned by a reinforcement has a −5% bonus to generating reinforcements, therefore the initial chance of a zombie generating reinforcements is 0–5% for a normal zombie and 45‐80% for a leader zombie. The "reinforcement callee charge" bonus is not cumulative; that is, a zombie spawned by reinforcement from a zombie spawned by reinforcement receives a −5% bonus, not a −10% bonus.

Additionally, reinforcements do not spawn at all, even on Hard difficulty, if the game rule spawn_mobs is set to false. Reinforcements spawn regardless of the hostile mob cap. Mobs spawned as reinforcements will be of the same type of zombie^[8] (i.e. zombie villagers only call upon other zombie villagers) but they can be babies, including chicken jockeys. They also respect spawning requirements for the specific zombie type, meaning husk reinforcements can only spawn under the sky, drowned reinforcements may only spawn in water, and zombified piglin reinforcements cannot spawn on Nether wart blocks.

Mobs spawned by reinforcements can spawn armor and equipment, as well as chicken jockey, but not as zombie nautilus jockey or camel husk jockey.

This behavior is controlled by the attribute spawn_reinforcements.

Leader zombies are a special type of zombie that spawns with between 20HP👁 ❤️
× 10 to 80HP👁 ❤️
× 40 extra health, and an extra 50–75% chance to spawn reinforcements. The chance of a leader spawning increases with clamped regional difficulty. On Easy, they will not spawn. On Normal and Hard mode, they have up to a 5% chance of spawning.

If a zombie's head is submerged in water 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 drowned. Once this process starts, it cannot be stopped even if the zombie leaves water. This time is not affected by the Respiration enchantment or the Water Breathing status effect.

A newly-converted drowned always has full health even if converted from a damaged zombie.

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.‌^{[BE only]}

Only normal zombies can become drowned; zombie villagers and zombified piglins cannot be converted.^[9] Husks, however, convert into zombies if they drown, and then they convert into a drowned as does a normal zombie. Any husks that convert into zombies also have full health, even if the drowned husk is damaged.

15% of nearby baby zombies, husks, or drowned may ride an adult zombie to form a jockey.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

Zombies have entity data associated with them that contain various properties.

Java Edition:

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements that apply to all mobs:

Advancements that apply to all mobs: