While exploring the world of Minecraft, you’re probably very used to the hostile mobs you see spawning at night. The zombies are a common sight.
Though, have you ever noticed that every now and then a zombie will look very different? Rather than looking normal, its face looks very similar to a villager’s face, including the clothes.
These are zombie villagers and they can actually be cured and turned back into normal villagers, with the help of enchanted food.
How to Find Zombie Villagers
Zombie villagers are usually much more rare than regular zombies. Usually, there’s only a 5% chance that a zombified villager will spawn in a group of regular zombies.
In Bedrock Edition there exists a chance that they spawn as a whole group rather than a single one.
The other way you can find them spawning naturally are abandoned villages.
These villages are also known as zombie villages, because all villagers are replaced with their zombified version.
The only other way you are likely going to run into a zombie villager is in a village. All hostile mobs will attack villagers during the night, just like they’d be attacking a player.
Depending on the difficulty you’re playing on, a villager can be turned into a zombie villager on when a zombie kills him. The chances are higher the harder the difficulty.
On hard difficulty a villager will turn into a zombie villager 100% of the time.
This can become a very big problem if you were planning or actively trading with the villagers of that particular village. Luckily, curing them can bring back all the trades they were offering and you won’t lose levels.
If you have traded with the villager at least once, it won’t despawn as a zombie.
Curing Zombie Villager
You will want to cure zombie villagers, especially if they had been traded with before they turned. You will want those trades back.
There are a few steps you should take in curing a zombified villager:
- Imprison the affected villager/s
- Apply the weakness status effect to them
- Feed them a golden apple
You will want to imprison the zombie villager for a few reason. The first one is to obviously keep yourself safe and keep it from wandering away and accidentally dying.
The other reason is the fact that curing a zombie can take up to 5 full minutes.
Having beds and iron bars near the villager can make this process go by quicker.
Now, once your villager is imprisoned, throw a splash potion of weakness on it. This is the safest way to apply the effect on it without dealing damage.
Then feed it the golden apple.
The curing process will start immediately and it can last anywhere from 1 or 3 minutes, up to 5. During this time the zombie villager can be seen shaking for a moment, before its strength increases greatly from the apple.
For the entirety of the curing process the zombie will be stronger than usual.
When the zombie is finally cured it will go right back to the same profession it was previously. It will also return any levels or trades it had before being turned.
All trades from that villager will then have a discount, just like they would after a raid.
If it was holding any items as a zombie it will also drop them.
How to Get a Golden Apple
Golden apples, just like golden carrots, are an enhanced version of a usually weak food item.
To make one, you’ll first need an apple. They have a small chance of dropping from oak or dark oak leaves, or simply be found as loot in chests.
You can find golden apples in chests themselves, but they can be a bit rarer.
So, if you’re turning a regular apple into a golden one, all you’ll need are 8 golden ingots and arrange them like the following:
Remember that a golden apple is also very useful to you in survival in combat, so don’t worry on using up your gold and apples to make many of them.
What to do Next
Accidents can still happen. If you lose your zombie villagers or they die by any means, that means you are also losing the villagers that once populated your village. This can be a problem if you’re looking to trade.
It’s also a problem, since empty villages don’t look so nice.
When this happens, you may need to repopulate your village. You can either breed whatever villagers you have left or simply spawn more villagers.
