Curing a Zombie Villager in Minecraft carries extra benefits behind the satisfaction of performing a good deed. Putting life back into the lifeless can give a player several advantages on the trading block, cutting down the price on some valuable items. It can be a difficult process to return a Villager to the mortal coil, but it's well worth the effort.
Where to Find a Zombie Villager
The first step to conversion is to track down a Zombie Villager, which can be tricky. Zombie Villagers are easy to identify- for lack of a better descriptor, they look like a zombified Minecraft Villager, complete with the elongated nose. The main differences are that the skin is now green and a Zombie Villager's arms are outstretched, rather than folded, both characteristics of the standard Zombie mob. There are variants based around each biome and profession, similar to the normal Villagers.
While Zombie Villagers can be found roaming the wilds, with a 5% chance to appear in each cluster of the undead, the easiest way to attain one happens to be the most graphic. When killed by a Zombie, a Villager has a chance to reanimate. That chance scales with whatever difficulty a specific world is on:
- Easy: No chance for reanimation
- Normal: 50% chance
- Hard: 100% chance
So the most efficient way to "farm" Zombie Villagers is to set the difficulty on Hard, locate a village, wait for night, and allow the slaughter to commence. It could be helpful to kill any Iron Golems guarding the village to ensure maximum carnage. Zombie Villagers also haunt the basements in Igloos, found in the Snow biome, and Abandoned Villages if the moral implications of slaughter are too much to overcome.
How to Cure a Zombie Villager
After acquiring a Zombie Villager(s), the next step is conversion. They can only be cured if they have the Weakness debuff, which can be applied via splash potion of Weakness or a tipped arrow. After that, a player must procure a Golden Apple, approach the Zombie Villager, and engage with it via the "use" button.
If done correctly, the Zombie Villager will emit a sizzling sound, and begin to shake. It would be wise to build a containment unit for a number of reasons.
- The Zombie Villager gains Strength I in Easy, Strength II in Normal, and Strength III in Hard.
- Iron Bars and beds can be used to reduce the conversion time.
The whole process can take anywhere around 3-5 minutes. Any armor or weapons adorning the Zombie will disappear after the curing process is complete. If a Villager had a profession before zombification, it will return to that profession in its new life.
Why Cure a Zombie Villager?
It may not seem worth it for such a complex process, but curing a Zombie Villager will unlock significant discounts on traded items. The same Villager can be cured multiple times until the buying price on each of its items is one Emerald.
Additionally, if a Villager is cured near a village, then all the trade prices in the area will drop, though it won't be as significant as the cured Villager's discounts. This effect can also stack, though prices stop decreasing after 10 Zombie Villagers have been cured.
Minecraft is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.