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Drowned are common underwater variants of the zombie hostile mob in Minecraft. While they are functionally similar, the existence of drowned and the mechanics behind them prevent zombies from taking damage from water suffocation. Drowned are capable of staying underwater indefinitely and will never drown from water damage. They are also the only way to obtain tridents in the game. This guide will outline the spawning of drowned, the behavior, and the drops you can expect from the drowned hostile mob in Minecraft.
Drowned can spawn in three different capacities in Minecraft. They can spawn naturally underwater at light levels 7 or less in ocean biomes excluding warm oceans. Drowned are more likely to naturally spawn in rivers than in other areas. Certain ocean ruins will have drowned patrolling nearby, they will never despawn unless the world is set to peaceful. Finally, a normal zombie can be converted into a drowned if the zombie’s head stays underwater for longer than 30 seconds.
Interestingly enough, a husk or zombie villager will not transform into a drowned if kept underwater immediately. After 30 seconds have passed they will first convert to a regular zombie, then if another 30 seconds pass, the zombie will convert into a drowned.
Zombies are capable of pathfinding at the bottom of oceans, but they make no attempt to stay floating on the surface of the water. Once they turn drowned they are capable of swimming upwards towards players. Drowned are only capable of entering the swimming animation in the Bedrock edition of Minecraft.
A drowned is a hostile mob and will chase players relentlessly through the water to deal contact damage. If the drowned spawns wielding a trident they will throw the trident at the player while attempting to close the distance. Tridents are thrown by drowned deal a large amount of damage reaching up to 6 full hearts in Bedrock edition, and 4 full hearts in Java edition. Since they can make quick work of your health bar, consider hunting for tridents after you have a decent set of armor to keep yourself safe on the hard difficulty.
Despite drowned being essentially stronger zombies, they are not capable of breaking down wooden doors, even in hard difficulty. They are also passive while out of water in the daylight. If you encounter a drowned on land they will become passive if it is not nighttime. Drowned follow similar hostile mob behavior of attempting to crush sea turtle eggs if they are nearby.
A drowned is a good source of experience as they tend to drop extra if they spawned with different equipment. You will never see a drowned with armor on, even if you convert a zombie with armor into a drowned, the resulting drowned will drop the armor that the zombie was initially wearing. Like all zombies, drowned will drop 0-2 rotten flesh on death. They also have a 5% chance to drop a gold ingot in the Java edition of Minecraft, and they have an 11% chance to drop a gold ingot in the Bedrock edition of Minecraft. If the drowned is holding a trident they have an 8.5% (Java) to drop it and a 25% chance to drop it in the Bedrock edition. If you see a drowned holding a nautilus shell you can obtain it at a 100% rate.
Drowned are essentially more difficult zombies to combat against. They are immune to drowning damage, and in the environment of the ocean, it can be difficult to run away from or close the distance to a drowned with a trident. The water will slow you down and the trident can be difficult to avoid. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the spawning, behavior, and drops of drowned to know when you ought to farm them and when you ought to ignore them.
Congratulations, you now know the spawning, behavior, and drops that you can expect from drowned enemies. Drowned are relatively difficult to handle in groups, but if you are looking for a trident you will need to hunt down some drowned as they are the only source of this desirable weapon. There is a lot you can obtain from drowned so keep an eye out for them or kite zombies towards water if you are interested in getting their drops.
There is no official reason why drowned are often found spinning in circles. The proposed answer is that the drowned is trying to close the distance to you, and since they avoid trying to surface coupled with the fact that they will enter swimming animations if they are above or below you with a block they can potentially stand on, results in a silly animation of the drowned spinning in circles as it attempts to attack you.
While drowned do not spawn with enchanted tridents, their tridents may as well have the loyalty enchantment as the drowned do not need to walk back to their tridents to have another ready to throw at you. There is no animation of the trident returning to the drowned, and an enchanted trident would make the drowned’s damage go from painful to downright unfair. Nevertheless, you cannot obtain an enchanted trident from drowned through vanilla play.
A husk can be converted into a regular zombie and a regular zombie can be converted into a drowned. As a husk is essentially a dried-out zombie, it makes sense that keeping it underwater rehydrates it, and if it stays underwater, there is no reason for it not to turn into a drowned. This may make for an interesting encounter if there is a deep basin of water in your desert biomes.
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