In the Overworld,
zombies spawn in groups of 4 at a light level of 7 or less. Zombies
have a 5% chance to spawn as a zombie villager and a 5% chance to spawn
as a baby zombie. Baby zombies have an additional 5% chance of spawning
as a chicken jockey.
Zombies can spawn from monster spawners inside dungeons.
Behavior
Zombies spawn in groups of 4 and will pursue the player on sight.
Zombies will attempt to avoid obstacles, including sheer cliffs and
lava, and will try to find the shortest path towards the player.[3]
Unlike skeletons, zombies do not try to avoid being hit, and continue
to pursue the player even when being attacked. Zombies can sometimes
deal damage through a closed door, as shown on the picture to the right.
Like most mobs, zombies will always float on water, even if their
target is below them.
At dawn, generally when the sun
is 15 degrees or more above the ground (that is, when the moon can no
longer be seen), most zombies will catch fire and burn once exposed to
direct sunlight. Zombies with head armor are immune to sunlight, but the
armor piece will take damage. They may make some attempt to seek out
shade during this time, or enter bodies of water to protect themselves
from burning up, but will exit protective areas to chase a nearby player
or villager. If they attack an entity while burning, they will set it
on fire.
As zombies are undead mobs, they are harmed by the status effect
Healing and healed by the status effect Harming. They are also immune to
regeneration and poison.
Attacking Villagers
A zombie trying to break the door down instead of taking an alternative path.
Zombies will attack villagers within 42 blocks. Once a zombie has
focused on a villager, the zombie will ignore any other villagers and
the player, until its target is dead or a mob or player attacks.
Zombies will bang on closed wooden doors, and on Hard (and Hardcore) difficulty, up to 14.5% of them (depending on regional difficulty) can succeed in breaking them down. Otherwise, the door will crack, but not break. Iron doors are always safe. In Pocket Edition, zombies cannot break down wooden doors at all.
Videos
Minecraft Mobs- Zombies
Zombie
Minecraft Mobs- Zombie Villager
Villager Zombie
Minecraft Mobs- Baby Zombie
Baby Zombie
Trivia
A zombie emerging from a dark cave.
Zombies can climb ladders, but will only do so if their path finding runs them into one.
Zombies can frighten villagers from behind walls of glass. Villagers
will even run into a fire to "escape" from zombies behind glass.
Zombies' attack range is a bit higher in the Console Editions than the PC version.
If a zombie spawns wearing multiple pieces of armor, the armor will
never be mismatched (i.e. all pieces will be made of the same material);
the same applies for skeletons.
The hat part of zombie texture can be used for zombie villagers, but it will be cubic instead of a parallelepiped.
Zombies will not catch fire if they are caught in cobwebs.
A Zombie holding an item given by a player will not despawn when left alone.
Killing a Baby Zombie will not give the player the "Monster Hunter" achievement.
Currently, zombies have the most subtypes of all the mobs:
This is because zombies can be zombie villagers, baby zombies, armed, armored, or any combination of the above.
Baby zombies can also rarely be chicken jockeys.
Zombie villagers will drop normal zombie heads when killed by a charged creeper.
