Undead Player

*This article is about the undead player. For the regular zombie, see Zombie.*

**Undead players** are a type of zombie spawned by a player dying. They can pick up loot (usually picking up the dead player's loot) and have to be killed to get those items back.

Undead player's names are visible through solid blocks much like a player's name.

Undead players will always prioritize the strongest weapon or armor piece it finds.

## Spawning

Undead players spawn when a player dies. They are always a regular zombie (never a baby or villager zombie). They are persistent, meaning they will not naturally despawn.

## Variants

Player zombies take on the skin of their living player counterpart. However, this feature is only availible if you are using a client with the OptiFine mod installed with both the **Random Entities** option and **Custom Entity Models** options enabled (found in Options > Video Settings > Quality).

## Behavior

### Attacking the player

Undead players pursue the player on sight from 35 blocks away, as opposed to 16 blocks for other hostile mobs.

The detection range of zombies is reduced to half of their normal range (17.5 blocks) when the player is wearing a zombie mob head.

Undead players periodically make groaning sounds, which can be heard up to 16 block away. Undead players attempt to avoid obstacles, including fall damage, fire, lava, magma blocks, cactus and try to find the shortest path toward the player. Unlike skeletons, undead players 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 wooden or iron door.

If an undead player sees a player and a villager together, the undead player prefers to attack the player first. An undead player already chasing a villager interrupts its attack on the villager to attack the player instead, even if the player has not attacked it.

Undead players sink in water, facilitating their transformation into drowned.

### Burning under daylight

At dawn, generally the sun is 15 degrees or more above the ground (when the moon can no longer be seen), undead players burn once exposed to direct sunlight. Burning is surpressed when the undead player is:

* in a sufficiently shaded area: a sunlight level of 11 or less (a 1 block roof overhang provides sufficient protection even if it would have a sunlight level of 14);
* in water;
* wearing head armor (the helmet absorbs the damage from the light but may take several day cycles to wear out completely).
* under the status effect of Fire Resistance.
* standing in cobwebs.

Glass does not prevent them from burning.

Undead players attempt to seek out shade during the day or enter water sources to protect themselves from burning up, but they leave protective areas to chase an enemy.

If they attack an entity while burning, they may set it on fire, with a (30×regional difficulty)% chance, and with a 2×floor (regional difficulty) second duration. If wearing armor enchanted with Thorns while burning they may set players attacking them on fire with thorns damage alone.

### Undead

Undead players are undead mobs, harmed by the status effect Healing, healed by the status effect Instant Damage and are unaffected by Regeneration and Poison. The wither does not attack undead players. Undead players are affacted by the Smite enchantment.

### Picking up items

Undead players are capable of automatically picking up dropped items that they come across (generally those of the dead player it was spawned from). Undead players can use armor, weapons or tools. If an undead player encounters another similar item, it may drop the previous item in favor of the new one, if:

* the new item is armor or a sword and the old item was not (for example, undead players prefer swords to pickaxes and helmets to carved pumpkins or hats),
* both items are armor/swords and the new item is better damage-wise (reduces higher damage for armor, or inflicts more damage for swords),
* both items are armor/swords with the same damage reduction/infliction, the new item has NBT tags while the old does not or the new item is *more* damaged than the old item, or
* both items are bows and the new item has NBT tags while the old does not.

Items dropped by mobs in exchange for another cannot be picked up by players or mobs for 10 game ticks (0.5 seconds, barring lag), but can be picked up by hoppers.

### Attacking villagers

Undead players target villagers within 42 blocks, and they can always see villagers through walls. If an undead player is attacking villager and sees the player, it interrupts its attack on the villager to attack the player instead, even if the player has not attacked it.

Undead players can transform a villager into a zombie villager.

### Attacking wandering traders

Undead players target wandering traders within 35 blocks and can see wandering traders through walls. The undead player focuses solely on the wandering trader unless it's attacked, or if either it or the target is killed or moved out of range, or if the wandering trader is under the invisibility status effect.

### Breaking doors

Undead players (depending on regional difficulty) in pursuit of a target bang on closed wooden doors and can succeed in breaking them down.

The undead player also breaks down the door if it is blocking its way.

Undead players can break only the top half of a door, meaning they cannot break a door if the undead player is facing the bottom half of the door.

### Attacking utility mobs

Zombies pursue and attack utility mobs (iron golems and snow golems) within 42 blocks. Iron golems and snow golems attack undead players without provocation, although snow golems deal only knockback to undead players with their snowballs.

### Attacking turtles

Undead players attack baby turtles and actively seek out and destroy turtle eggs within 24 blocks horizontally and 3 blocks vertically, by jumping on them until they crack and break.

### Becoming drowned

If an undead players' head (the legs don't work) is submerged in water for 30 seconds, it begins converting into a drowned player. The undead player shakes, similar to a zombie villager being cured and, after 15 seconds, the undead player becomes a drowned player. Once this process starts, it cannot be stopped. This time is not affected by the Respiration enchantment.

A newly-converted drowned player always has full health even if converted from a damaged undead player.

## References

1. ↑ https://youtube.com/watch?v=3aDYJZLmtxQ
2. ↑ https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-62182