Zombie Pigman

Zombie Pigmen are neutral mobs that live in the Nether.

Spawning

Zombie pigmen spawn in groups of 4 in the Nether, twice as often as ghasts. Zombie Pigmen are also capable of spawning on the bottom row of obsidian in a Nether portal frame, the same way the player spawns when emerging from a portal. Zombie pigmen can also appear rarely in the Overworld when Lightning strikes within 3-4 blocks of a pig. If the player is riding the pig when lightning hits it, a zombie pigman will appear on top of the player. On Halloween (October 31), zombie pigmen have a chance of spawning with a pumpkin (22.5%) or jack o'lantern (2.5%) equipped as headgear.

Minecraft Mobs- Zombie Pigmen

Drops

Zombie pigmen drop 0-1 rotten flesh, 0-1 gold nugget, rarely 1 gold ingot and rarely their golden sword, which may be damaged and/or enchanted. In Pocket Edition, they also drop feathers, carrots and potatoes. Zombie pigmen drop 5 experience (12 experience if it was a baby) when killed by a player or tamed wolf.

Halloween

If a zombie pigman wearing a pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, there will be a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance of a drop.

Behavior

Like wild wolves, zombie pigmen are not initially hostile, but all zombie pigmen in the area will become aggressive and converge on the player if any individual is attacked. This only applies to the player; mobs that provoke zombie pigmen will only be attacked by that specific individual. When idle, zombie pigmen move relatively slowly, but if aggravated their speed will significantly increase. They will make an aggressive noise between 0 to 39 ticks after they are attacked. In addition, some zombie pigmen will have the ability to spawn reinforcements when attacked, similar to zombies. Due to a bug, the spawned reinforcement will sometimes be a regular zombie. Like zombies, zombie pigmen will sometimes bang on wooden doors, and in Hard difficulty, even break them. However, they cannot damage iron doors. Zombie pigmen have a chance of spawning as baby zombie pigmen. They can also ride chickens, much like regular baby zombies. Like players, zombie pigmen are capable of traveling through nether portals. Zombie pigmen can drown, but are immune to fire and lava damage. Like most mobs, they can ride in minecarts, so if you decide to create a rail in the Nether or by a portal to it, it is likely that you'll see one riding in it. In the Pocket Edition, they are always hostile, but have a shorter sight distance than other hostile mobs.

Appearance

Zombie pigmen wield a golden sword in their right hand, and wear a loincloth. Occasionally, the Sword will have an enchantment on it, visible as a shimmering purple sheen. This chance increases at higher difficulties, and the sword's enchantment will more commonly be of a higher level. In Pocket Edition, zombie pigmen are missing their face (hat layer) and appear to have merely a dry skull for a head. It is unknown whether it is a bug or if it's meant to happen. Baby zombie pigmen in the PC version also look like this, due to MC-33420.

Trivia

• If a baby pig gets struck by lightning, it will often become an adult zombie pigman.
• If a pig in the overworld is struck by multiple lightning bolts simultaneously, multiple zombie pigmen will spawn. However, this is extremely unlikely without using /summon to spawn multiple lighting bolts.
  • The zombie pigmen themselves however are immune to lightning due to their immunity to fire.
• If a zombie pigman is hit by a projectile, such as a skeleton's arrow, only the zombie pigman who was shot will attack it, but only when attacking a player. If hit in this state, the zombie pigman will either stand still or hit the skeleton once before standing completely still. This behavior is shared among many other mobs.
• You can hear their sound effects of them being angry far away and even all the way down to the bedrock layer, like thunder and ghast noises.
• Zombie pigmen will turn hostile towards the player even when hit by "non-harmful" projectiles such as eggs, ender pearls and snowballs.
• You are able to "trade" swords with zombie pigmen by throwing them a sword that is better than their golden sword. They have a 33% chance of dropping their golden sword and pick up the sword the player threw. This is a good tactic on getting swords with enchants due to zombie pigmen having a chance of spawning with an enchanted sword.
• After giving a zombie pigman a sword that's better than their own, you can "customize" the pigman by giving it armor, enchanted or not. In the event you do customize your zombie pigmen, it is advised that you switch into creative mode, or keep them in a pen. You can reclaim your armor and sword without ever making the pigmen hostile by using drowning or suffocation traps.
• If a zombie pigman wears a mob head, it will only show on the "skeleton" part of its face.
  • This is because the pig half is the hat layer of the zombie pigman's skin, and mob heads will not cover the hat layer.
• The zombie pigmen in the Pocket Edition and the baby pigmen that rarely spawn do not have a hat layer, therefore lack the pink skin.
• When riding a minecart, a hostile zombie pigman can slowly move the minecart by itself along the rail while trying to chase the player.
• Occasionally, zombie pigmen may swim up lava springs. Due to their fire resistance, though, this will not harm them directly, but they may take fall damage (and possibly even be killed) upon touching solid ground afterwards since lava does not prevent fall damage.
• In Pocket Edition
  • Zombie pigmen will burn in sunlight like regular zombies. However, they still have an immunity to fire, so they will not die.
  • Zombie pigmen that remained from the Nether reactor will despawn when the player leaves them.
  • Zombie pigmen do not hold out their hands like zombies, instead they have their hands to their sides similar to the player.
  • Their attack animation is also identical to that of the player.
  • In creative mode, if you get a bunch of pigmen angered, shooting one with a bow will make them forget about you and wander off.
  • Zombie pigmen are much slower than PC, making it easier to run away.

Credit

Minecraft Wiki