Geared mobs

Some mobs can spawn wearing armor or holding weapons, both of which may be enchanted. In addition, some of them may also spawn with the ability to pick up armor and items that are on the ground.

Spawning

Natural spawning

Zombies, zombie villagers, and husks can sometimes spawn wearing armor of any tier up to diamond and/or holding an iron sword or iron shovel.

Drowned can sometimes spawn holding a trident.

Skeletons, strays, and bogged always spawn holding a bow and can sometimes spawn wearing armor of any tier up to diamond.

Adult piglins always spawn holding either a golden sword or crossbow, and can sometimes spawn wearing golden armor.

Several mobs are guaranteed to spawn holding a weapon and cannot spawn with armor:

• Zombified piglins always spawn holding a golden sword.
• Wither skeletons always spawn holding a stone sword.
• Vindicators always spawn holding an iron axe.
• Vexes always spawn holding an iron sword.
• Pillagers always spawn holding a crossbow.
• Piglin brutes always spawn holding a golden axe.
• Illusioners‌ always spawn holding a bow.

The following tables show chances of mobs spawning with armor and weapons, per difficulty:

If a mob (except piglins^{[note 1]}) does spawn with armor, the chances of specific armor are as follows:

The chances of it being of a particular material are:

Zombification

When a piglin turns into a zombified piglin, its armor and weapons are retained after zombification. Zombified piglins are not capable of using crossbows as ranged weapons, however, and will still attack with melee even if equipped with one.

Converting

When a husk converts into a zombie, or a skeleton converts into a stray, or a zombie converts into a drowned their armor and weapons are retained after conversion.‌
The equipment is dropped when a husk converts into a zombie, and when a zombie converts into a drowned.‌

Curing

When a zombie villager is cured, the resulting villager drops any equipped items that the zombie villager had, and cannot pick them up again.

Picking up gear

The following mobs can spawn with a chance of picking up armor and/or weapons on Normal or higher difficulty:

• Bogged
• Drowned
• Husks
• Skeletons
• Strays
• Wither skeletons
• Zombies
• Zombie villagers
• Zombified piglins

Adult piglins can always pick up armor and golden weapons. They will not replace their crossbow with a golden weapon if they have one, but will replace their golden sword if they find one with better enchantments.

Spawning chances

Preferences

The systems in place for which weapons are preferred are different between Java Edition and Bedrock Edition.

In both editions, piglins prefer golden armor and weapons over other tiers.

Java Edition
For weapons, the priority is as follows:

• If one weapon is preferred but the other is not, pick that weapon.
  • For drowned, tridents are preferred.
  • For pillagers and piglins, crossbows are preferred.
    • Only piglins already holding a crossbow can pick one up.
  • For skeletons, strays, and bogged, bows are preferred.
• If both or neither are preferred, pick the weapon with the higher base damage value.
• If both weapons have the same base damage value, pick the weapon with a higher quantity of enchantments.
• If both weapons have the same number of enchantments, pick the weapon that is less damaged.
• If both weapons have the same durability, pick the weapon with a custom name.
• If both or neither weapon has a custom name, keep the old weapon.

For armor, the priority is as follows:

• If one armor piece has a higher armor value, pick that armor piece.
• If both armor pieces have the same base armor value, pick the armor piece with the higher base armor toughness value.
• If both armor pieces have the same base armor toughness value, pick the armor piece with a higher quantity of enchantments.
• If both armor pieces have the same quantity of enchantments, pick the armor piece that is less damaged.
• If both armor pieces have the same durability, pick the armor piece with a custom name.
• If both or neither armor piece has a custom name, keep the old armor piece.

Bedrock Edition
For weapons, the priority is as follows:

• Swords are preferred over bows, over axes, over pickaxes, over shovels, over hoes, over tridents, maces, and crossbows.
  • Only mobs that can use bows or crossbows can pick them up, and only drowned are capable of using tridents as ranged weapons.
• If both weapons are of the same type, prefer the one of a higher tier.
• If both weapons are of the same type and tier, the mob will endlessly swap between them.

For armor, only the tier matters. Higher tier armor is preferred.

Mob don't pickup armor and weapons if the gamerule MobGriefing is off.

Using gear

Weapon damage

A mob holding a weapon adds the weapon's damage to its normal melee damage. For example, a zombie holding an iron shovel on Normal difficulty deals 3HP from its punch + 3.5HP × 1.75 from the shovel for a total of 6.5HP × 3.25. (it should be noted that, in Java Edition, damage values shown when hovering over weapons in the inventory include the player's 1HP base melee damage, so an iron shovel shows up as 4.5HP × 2.25; subtracting 1 gives the actual weapon's damage.) The mob's weapon damage is scaled by difficulty: if a zombie would deal X damage on Normal, it deals 1.5 * X on Hard and 0.5 * X + 1 on Easy. So for example a zombie with an iron shovel deals 1.5 * 6.5 = 9.75HP × 4.875 on Hard and 0.5 * 6.5 + 1 = 4.25HP × 2.125 on Easy. Enchantments add their damage as normal before difficulty scaling.

Armor protection

A mob wearing armor adds the armor's protection value to its natural armor value, if any. For example, a zombie wearing a full set of iron armor will have a total armor value of 17 ( × 8.5) (15 ( × 7.5) from the iron armor + 2 () natural zombie armor). Armor toughness also applies if the mob is wearing diamond or netherite armor.

Dropping gear

Taken equipment

When a mob dies, all picked-up equipment drop, without changing the damage that has accumulated on it in Java Edition. In Bedrock Edition, the armor's durability is still vulnerable to attacks, as if a player is wearing it.

Naturally-spawned equipment

Java Edition
All mobs have an 8.5% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance by 1 percentage point (11.5% with Looting III).
Bedrock Edition
All mobs have a 25% chance of dropping their naturally-spawned equipment and drop it with a random durability. Each level of Looting increases the chance by 1 percentage point (28% with Looting III).
Additionally, in Bedrock Edition, all naturally spawned equipment always drops (100% chance) when the zombie converts to drowned, or a husk converts into a zombie, with full durability.

Experience

Any mob that spawns with equipment gives 1–3XP extra experience points per item when killed by the player or a tamed wolf.

References

History

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See Also

• Mob
• Armor
• Weapon
• Equipment
• Difficulty

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