Tutorial:Curing a zombie villagerShare article feedback

This article covers curing zombie villagers.

About zombie villagers

In most biomes, zombie villagers have a 5% chance to spawn in place of a regular zombie and can also spawn if a zombie kills a regular villager, depending on the difficulty level. (0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard)

You can also spawn zombie villagers via commands or using a spawn egg.

A villager and a zombie villager always spawn inside an igloo basement. Zombie villagers also naturally generate in zombie villages. Zombies have a slightly elevated spawn rate in Old Growth Pine Taigas, and zombie villagers have a 20% chance to spawn in place of regular zombies.

Zombie villagers have a similar appearance to normal villagers but have zombie-colored flesh and attempt to attack the player like other zombies.

In Bedrock Edition, zombie villagers also have a 5% chance to emerge from zombie spawners, and you can contrive to separate the zombie villagers from the zombies to collect them and heal them.

in Java Edition zombie villagers do not spawn from zombie monster spawners, so don't expect to get a zombie villager by waiting next to a monster spawner.

Equipment, items, and mobs needed to cure a zombie villager

Required

• 1 Zombie Villager
• Any method to inflict Weakness on the Zombie Villager, such as a Splash Potion of Weakness, Lingering Potion of Weakness, an Arrow of Weakness, or a Witch to throw a Splash Potion of Weakness.
• 1 Golden Apple

Optional

• Any type of expendable block (e.g. dirt or cobblestone)
• A full set of armor, preferably iron or better
• Any type of mining tool, such as a pickaxe for stone or shovel for dirt
• A boat or minecart to restrict movement and ease transportation
• Iron bars and a bed to speed up the curing process

Finding and crafting the equipment

Splash Potion of Weakness

To create a Splash Potion of Weakness, it must be brewed using a brewing stand, which can either be crafted using blaze rods and cobblestone or found in an igloo basement, end ship or a cleric house in a village.

• To brew a Splash Potion of Weakness, you need:
  • 1 fermented spider eye, which can be crafted with spider eyes, brown mushroom and sugar
  • 1 to 3 water bottles, which can be obtained by right-clicking a water source with glass bottles
  • 1 gunpowder, which can be obtained from creepers and ghasts or found in naturally-generated chests
  • 1 blaze powder to fuel the brewing stand

Place the water bottle(s) and the fermented spider eye in the brewing stand, then insert the blaze powder in the fuel slot to initiate the brewing process. Once your potions of weakness have brewed, place in the gunpowder to convert them into splash potions of weakness.

A splash potion of weakness can also be found placed in igloo brewing stands.

Lingering Potion of Weakness

To create a Lingering Potion of Weakness, it must be brewed using a brewing stand.

• To brew a Lingering Potion of Weakness, you need:
  • 1 fermented spider eye, which can be crafted with a spider eye, brown mushroom, and sugar
  • 1 to 3 water bottles, which can be obtained by right-clicking a water source with glass bottles
  • 1 gunpowder, which can be obtained from creepers and ghasts or found in naturally-generated chests
  • 1 dragon's breath, which can be obtained by scooping up the ender dragon's breath attack or dragon fireball clouds in an empty bottle
  • 1 blaze powder to fuel the brewing stand

Place the three water bottles and the fermented spider eye in the brewing stand, then insert the blaze powder to initiate the brewing process. Once your potions of weakness have brewed, place in the gunpowder to convert them into splash potions of weakness. Once your splash potions of weakness have brewed, place in the dragon's breath to convert them into lingering potions.

Arrow of Weakness

An Arrow of Weakness can provide an alternative to splash potions of weakness and eliminate the risk of splashing yourself with the weakness potion; however, they are harder to obtain than splash potions.

To craft arrows of weakness, you must brew a lingering potion of weakness, which can be done by brewing a Splash Potions of Weakness with dragon's breath.

• Dragon's breath can be obtained by right-clicking (or long-pressing if in Bedrock Edition) the ender dragon dragon breath or dragon fireball clouds with an empty glass bottle in hand.
• Combine eight arrows and a Lingering Potion of Weakness in a crafting table, and craft eight Arrows of Weakness.

Alternatively, there are multiple methods to obtain arrows of weakness without having to fight the ender dragon:

• Arrows of weakness can be obtained by filing a cauldron with a Potion of Weakness and then using arrows on it. A full cauldron can treat the tips of a stack of arrows.‌
• Arrows of weakness can be obtained through trades with master level fletcher villager.
• If the player has the Hero of the Village effect, fletcher villagers can throw arrows of weakness as gifts to the player. {Java Edition only}

Witch

Witches have a 25% chance of throwing a splash potion of weakness if the player is within 3 blocks of a witch and does not already have the Weakness status effect. While this method is more dangerous to attempt than others, this method can be used as an alternative if a player is not able to obtain a potion or arrow of weakness at the time.

Witches spawn in numerous ways, including:

• In the Overworld at the light level of 0. It spawns in all Overworld biomes except mushroom fields and deep dark.
• In a swamp hut located in swamp biomes.
• When an adult or baby villager is within 4 blocks of a lightning strike.
• In raids starting from wave 4 in Bedrock Edition, or wave 3 or 4 in Java Edition depending on the world difficulty.

Golden Apple

Ingredients	[hide]Crafting recipe
Gold Ingot + Apple

Golden apples are crafted from eight gold ingots and an apple in a crafting table.

They can also naturally generate in:

• stronghold altars
• large underwater ruin chests
• dungeon chests
• desert pyramid chests
• mineshaft minecart chests
• woodland mansion chests
• igloo chests
• ruined portal chests
• ancient city center chest

Finding a zombie villager

Zombie villagers spawn in place of a normal zombie 5% of the time and can also be found in igloo basements and zombie villages. Manually scouting your base's perimeter during the night is a good way to find zombie villagers.

If you cannot find a zombie villager, you can summon them via commands or use a spawn egg if you have cheats on.

In Bedrock Edition zombie villagers have the same 5% chance to emerge from a zombie spawner as they have of spawning naturally on the Overworld surface. This makes it much easier to farm zombie villagers.

Curing a zombie villager

1. Prepare before the curing process by taking off your Thorns enchanted armor (if your armor isn't enchanted with Thorns don't worry about that) and put away anything that might hurt the zombie villager, such as splash healing potions. Try to keep your golden apples next to your splash/lingering weakness potions or your bow if you're using weakness arrows, since you might forget your golden apples and the zombie villager loses the weakness effect by the time you find the apple. Grab a shield with a durability above half so you can block the attacks more safely. If you're planning to use weakness arrows, use an unenchanted bow since enchanted bows mostly deal more damage to the zombie villager. Make your tamed wolves sit and move your iron golems away from the zombie villager. Make sure you don't heal the zombie villager in the middle of a raid because the raiding illagers might attack the newly-cured villager. Try to keep your health above half because the zombie villager might kill you if you have too little health. Now after the preparing is complete and you had turned off most of your defenses, go find a zombie villager in any of the places stated above.
2. When you find a zombie villager, lure the zombie villager and secure it in a safe area that no hostile mobs can break into (make it following you it is best, and try to use a door to secure it), in case a zombie kills or infects the newly-cured villager, making you lose your hard work and patience. Make sure to include a roof of opaque blocks so the zombie villager does not burn when the night ends. Also, it's best not to heal multiple zombie villagers at a time (unless you can feed all of them a golden apple around the same time, or if they're sealed in separate areas) because if one zombie villager is healed, other zombie villagers attack that villager and turn it back into a zombie villager.
3. Select the Splash Potion of Weakness, use your bow if you are using an Arrow of Weakness (don't enchant your bow with Power or Flame or else it might kill the zombie villager), or lure a witch close to the zombie villager or vice versa. Don't worry about the zombie villager attacking the witch after the witch threw the weakness potion because the witch's potions (except weakness and slowness) do nothing to the zombie villager (poison does nothing to the zombie villager because the zombie villager is immune to poison and harming heals the zombie villager since it's an undead mob).
4. Throw the splash/lingering potion or shoot the tipped arrow at the zombie villager from a distance. Or stand within 3 blocks of the witch and the zombie villager until the witch throws a splash potion of weakness. If done correctly, the zombie villager should have gray swirls emanating from it; this means that the zombie villager is currently inflicted with weakness, which, as it is an undead mob, gives it lives (giving "live energy" so to say, the first part of the cure).
5. Feed the zombie villager the golden apple, done by facing the zombie villager and pressing the use key. If done correctly, the zombie villager emits red particles and starts shaking. Note that iron bars and beds speed up the curing process. Keep the zombie villager safe at this point and don't attack it.
6. After 3 to 5 minutes have elapsed, the zombie villager converts into a normal villager. If you found your zombie villager in an igloo basement or a zombie village, you have to transport them, likely via boats, minecarts, upward bubble columns (soul sand and water), nether portals, or other ways of manual movement, as villagers cannot be leashed unlike other mobs. You can also push the villager onto the ladder to make it climb up. Make sure you bring the villager's job site blocks if you're in an igloo!

Curing a zombie villager grants you the Zombie Doctor achievement/advancement if it has not been obtained yet. If the cured villager has a profession, it permanently provides heavy discounts while trading to the player that cured them.‌ There is also a heavy discount on Bedrock Edition with 1.16, another thing to keep in mind is that in Bedrock Edition, the discount spreads through the "talking" of villagers 16 blocks in a cube from the cured Villager.

Gallery

• 

  A zombie farmer getting cured and losing their profession.

• 

  A non-professional zombie villager getting cured.

• 

  A zombie librarian getting cured and kept their profession after being cured because they traded before they were zombified.

See also

• Tutorials/Zombie villager farming