Zombie villagers are a unique type of hostile mob you might encounter in your Minecraft adventures. While they are uncommon in natural spawns, they can appear when regular villagers are attacked by zombies, especially depending on your game’s difficulty setting. While you can defeat them, curing a zombie villager offers significant advantages, including unlocking the “Zombie Doctor” achievement. More importantly, cured villagers retain their professions and trading abilities, making it incredibly beneficial to revert zombified villagers back to their normal state.
This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough on how to cure a zombie villager in Minecraft, ensuring you can save these valuable NPCs and enhance your village economies. We’ll cover everything from finding and trapping a zombie villager to preparing the necessary materials and performing the cure.
Finding and Trapping a Zombie Villager: Your First Steps
Before you can begin the curing process, you’ll need to locate and safely contain a zombie villager. These mobs, while not as common as regular zombies, can be found through several methods. Effectively trapping them is crucial to prevent despawning and ensure a safe curing environment.
Methods to Find a Zombie Villager
Zombie villagers can appear in a few different ways throughout your Minecraft world:
- Natural Zombie Spawns: During nighttime zombie spawns, there’s a small chance (5%) that a zombie villager will appear instead of a standard zombie. While not the most reliable method, consistent nighttime exploration can eventually lead to an encounter.
- Villager Conversion: If a standard zombie attacks and defeats a villager, there’s a probability that the villager will transform into a zombie villager. This chance is higher on harder difficulty settings. Setting up a controlled scenario near a village, while risky, can be a method to intentionally create zombie villagers.
- Igloo Basements: Every igloo that generates in snowy biomes has a basement. Within these basements, you will consistently find both a zombie villager and a cleric villager. These are guaranteed spawns and, importantly, they do not despawn, making igloos a reliable source.
- Abandoned Villages: In some cases, villages can generate as “abandoned villages.” A small percentage (around 2%) of villages will be abandoned, and these often contain zombie villagers. Like igloo zombie villagers, those in abandoned villages will not despawn.
Trapping Your Zombie Villager
Once you’ve located a zombie villager, the next critical step is to trap it securely. This is important for preventing the zombie villager from wandering off, being harmed by sunlight, or despawning. Here’s what you’ll need for a basic trap:
- Building Blocks: Any solid blocks will work – cobblestone, wood, dirt, etc. You’ll need enough to create a small, enclosed space.
- Door or Gate: To seal the enclosure and provide you with controlled access.
Here’s a simple method to trap a zombie villager:
- Construct a Basic Enclosure: Quickly build a small, roofed structure. The roof is essential as zombie villagers, like regular zombies, are vulnerable to sunlight and will burn during the day.
- Lure the Zombie Villager: Carefully position yourself so the zombie villager will follow you towards the entrance of your enclosure. Zombie villagers are attracted to players, so this should be relatively straightforward.
- Secure the Entrance: Once the zombie villager is inside the enclosure, quickly move away and place the door or gate to block the exit. Ensure the enclosure is fully sealed to prevent escape.
Important Note: Mobs in Minecraft can despawn if no players are within a 128-block radius. To prevent your trapped zombie villager from disappearing, ensure you or another player remains in the vicinity.
Gathering the Necessary Materials for Curing
Curing a zombie villager in Minecraft requires specific materials. Gathering these beforehand will streamline the curing process once you have your zombie villager trapped. You will need to craft both a Splash Potion of Weakness and a Golden Apple.
Materials Checklist for Curing:
- Brewing Stand: Essential for potion creation.
- How to Obtain: Craft using 1 Blaze Rod (from Blazes in the Nether) and 3 Cobblestone blocks. Brewing Stands can also be found in villages and churches.
- Fermented Spider Eye: A key ingredient for the Potion of Weakness.
- How to Obtain: Craft using 1 Spider Eye (dropped by Spiders and Cave Spiders), 1 Brown Mushroom, and 1 Sugar.
- Golden Apple: The final component to trigger the curing process after applying the Weakness potion.
- How to Obtain: Craft by surrounding an Apple with 8 Gold Ingots. Alternatively, Golden Apples can be found as loot in chests in structures like mineshafts, dungeons, ruined portals, and Woodland Mansions.
- Water Bottles (x3): The base for brewing potions.
- How to Obtain: Craft Glass Bottles from Glass blocks, then fill the bottles with water from any water source.
- Gunpowder: Needed to turn a regular Potion of Weakness into a Splash Potion.
- How to Obtain: Dropped by Creepers, Ghasts, and Witches. Creepers are generally the easiest to farm for gunpowder. Can also be purchased from Wandering Traders or found in chests.
- Blaze Powder: Fuel for the Brewing Stand and also required for potion ingredients.
- How to Obtain: Craft by placing a Blaze Rod in the crafting grid. One Blaze Rod yields two Blaze Powder.
Brewing a Splash Potion of Weakness: Step-by-Step
The next crucial step is creating a Splash Potion of Weakness. This potion, when thrown at the zombie villager, will make it susceptible to the curing effects of the Golden Apple.
Here’s how to brew a Splash Potion of Weakness:
- Prepare the Brewing Stand: Place your Brewing Stand. Add Blaze Powder to the fuel slot to activate it.
- Brew Potions of Weakness: Place three Water Bottles in the bottom slots of the Brewing Stand. Add Fermented Spider Eye to the top ingredient slot. Wait for the brewing process to complete. The Water Bottles will transform into Potions of Weakness.
- Create Splash Potions: Once you have Potions of Weakness, remove the Fermented Spider Eye from the top slot and replace it with Gunpowder. Place the Potions of Weakness back into the bottom slots. Wait for the second brewing process to finish. The regular Potions of Weakness will now become Splash Potions of Weakness.
You now have the Splash Potions of Weakness ready to be used on the zombie villager.
Curing the Zombie Villager: The Final Stage
With the Splash Potion of Weakness and Golden Apple prepared, you’re ready to cure the zombie villager and return it to its normal villager form.
Follow these steps to cure the zombie villager:
- Apply Splash Potion of Weakness: Select the Splash Potion of Weakness in your inventory. Throw the potion at the trapped zombie villager. You should see the potion effect particles surround the zombie villager.
- Feed the Golden Apple: Equip the Golden Apple and interact with the zombie villager by using the ‘use’ button (right-click by default). This will feed the Golden Apple to the weakened zombie villager.
- Observe the Transformation: After feeding the Golden Apple, you will notice visual cues indicating the curing process has begun. The grey potion particles will change to red swirls, and the zombie villager will start to shake and tremble.
- Wait for Curing: The curing process takes several minutes (around 3-5 minutes in normal difficulty). Be patient and remain near the zombie villager to ensure it doesn’t despawn.
- Villager Reversion: Once the curing process is complete, the zombie villager will transform back into a regular villager.
Benefits of Curing Zombie Villagers
Curing zombie villagers is not just about achieving the “Zombie Doctor” advancement; it offers tangible benefits for your Minecraft gameplay:
- Discounted Trades: Cured villagers offer significantly reduced trading prices as a sign of gratitude. This discount is permanent and makes trading with cured villagers highly advantageous.
- Village Expansion: Curing zombie villagers is a practical way to populate or expand your villages, especially if natural villages are scarce in your vicinity. Instead of the often tedious task of transporting villagers over long distances, curing zombie villagers provides an alternative method for village growth.
- Profession Retention: Crucially, when you cure a zombie villager, it retains its original profession and trades. This is especially valuable if a villager with desirable trades has been zombified. Curing them restores their beneficial trading options.
By mastering how to cure a zombie villager, you unlock a powerful mechanic in Minecraft, enhancing your trading capabilities and village development. Take the time to locate, trap, and cure these unique mobs to reap the rewards of their gratitude and contribute to a thriving Minecraft world.
