The drowned is the underwater version of the zombie, and the only mob in Minecraft that can drop a trident. If you have ever been pulled into a fight while swimming through an ocean at night, the drowned is usually what found you.
It spawns in rivers and oceans, lurks on the seafloor, and climbs onto land after dark to chase players. A few of them carry tridents and throw them from range, which makes the drowned one of the more dangerous early-game mobs to meet in open water.
This guide covers where the drowned spawns, how ordinary zombies turn into them, what they drop, and how to set up a farm for tridents, nautilus shells, and copper.
What is the drowned?
The drowned is a hostile underwater mob and a variant of the zombie. It has the same 20 health (10 hearts) as a regular zombie and attacks with a melee hit. The ones that spawn holding a trident can also throw it, dealing heavy ranged damage.
Like zombies, the drowned burns in direct sunlight when it stands on land. Water blocks that damage, so a drowned sitting on the seafloor or in a shaded river is safe during the day. At night it can leave the water to hunt, then return before sunrise.
Baby drowned exist too. They move faster, do not burn in daylight, and are harder to hit, which makes them more annoying than their size suggests.
Where the drowned spawns
There are two ways a drowned shows up in your world: it spawns naturally in water, or a zombie drowns and converts into one.
Natural spawning happens in most ocean biomes and in rivers. In Java Edition, drowned spawn in ocean biomes at light level 0 on the seafloor, and in rivers they spawn a little more readily. Warm ocean biomes do not spawn them. They also generate inside ocean ruins, where small groups guard the loot chests.
Ocean ruins are the most reliable place to find them in daylight. These half-buried stone structures spawn drowned around and inside them, and the loot chests can hold useful early-game items, so a ruin doubles as a fight and a reward.
The practical takeaway: if you want to find drowned on purpose, head to a normal ocean or a river at night and look near the bottom, or sweep an ocean ruin during the day. Bring a way to breathe and see underwater, because that is their home turf and they swim faster than you do.
How zombies turn into drowned
Any regular zombie that stays underwater long enough converts into a drowned. The zombie’s head has to be submerged, and after about 30 seconds it starts shaking, the same animation you see when a zombie turns into a villager-zombie cure or a husk converts in water.
Husks take an extra step. A husk dropped into water first turns into a normal zombie, and that zombie then drowns into a drowned if it stays under. So a husk needs two conversions to become a drowned.
This conversion is the backbone of most drowned farms, but it comes with a catch that trips up a lot of players, and it is the single most important rule to understand before you build anything.
Tridents, nautilus shells, and copper
The drowned is worth farming because of what it can drop. The headline item is the trident, a throwable and melee weapon that no other mob or recipe can give you.
Here is the rule that matters most: in Java Edition, only drowned that spawn naturally holding a trident can drop one. A drowned that came from a converted zombie never holds a trident in Java, so it can never drop one. Roughly 6.25% of naturally spawned drowned in Java carry a trident, and those have about an 8.5% chance to drop it, improved by the Looting enchantment.
Bedrock Edition is more generous. There, converted drowned can also spawn holding a trident, so a zombie-conversion farm can produce tridents on Bedrock. The holding rate is higher too, around 15%.
Nautilus shells are the other prize. A drowned has about a 3% chance to drop a nautilus shell, and on Bedrock it can hold one in its off hand. You need eight nautilus shells plus a Heart of the Sea to craft a conduit, so a drowned farm is the steady way to collect them.
Newer versions added copper to the list. The drowned now drops copper ingots, which makes an ocean farm a renewable copper source on top of everything else. Rotten flesh is the common drop you will see most often, useful for trading with cleric villagers or feeding tamed wolves.
How the drowned behaves in combat
In water, the drowned has the advantage. It swims faster than an unenchanted player, so trying to outrun one by swimming usually fails. Depth Strider boots or a way to fight back beats trying to flee.
The trident-throwers are the real threat. A thrown trident hits hard and ignores the gap you think you have, so closing the distance fast or breaking line of sight is safer than trading hits at range. Drowned without tridents only melee, so they are no worse than a land zombie once you are next to them.
If you fight drowned often, the Impaling enchantment is worth chasing. Impaling adds bonus damage against aquatic mobs, which includes the drowned, so an Impaling trident or sword clears them much faster than a plain weapon. Pair that with a turtle shell helmet for slower air loss and you can fight in their element without racing back to the surface every few seconds.
One detail catches new players off guard: drowned hunt baby turtles and turtle eggs. If you are protecting a turtle beach, a drowned will path toward unhatched eggs and stomp them, so light the area and wall it off. They also pick up some items they walk over, so loot dropped mid-fight is not always safe to leave on the seafloor.
Building a drowned farm
The farm you build depends on what you want and which edition you play.
If you want tridents on Java, you need natural spawns. That means building large dark spawning platforms in a river or ocean below sea level and letting drowned appear on their own, then funneling them to a kill spot. It is slower and the trident rate is low, so expect to grind.
If you want nautilus shells, copper, and rotten flesh, a zombie-conversion setup works on both editions. You collect zombies from a spawner or a dark spawning area, drop them into a water column, and wait for them to drown. The converted drowned give you shells, copper, and flesh, just no tridents on Java.
On Bedrock, a single zombie-conversion farm can do everything, tridents included, which is why Bedrock trident farms are far more common and far less painful to build.
Java vs. Bedrock differences
The split comes down to tridents. On Java, converted drowned never hold or drop tridents, so trident farming requires natural spawns. On Bedrock, converted drowned can hold tridents, so zombie-conversion farms produce them.
Spawn rates and holding percentages also differ slightly between editions, with Bedrock generally letting more drowned carry gear. If you follow a farm tutorial, check whether it was built for your edition before you dig in, because a Java trident design will quietly fail on the wrong setup.
Frequently asked questions
Can drowned come onto land?
Yes. At night a drowned can leave the water to chase a player, then it tries to return to water before sunrise. In direct daylight on land it burns, the same as a zombie.
Do all drowned drop tridents?
No. Only drowned that spawn holding a trident can drop one, and even then the drop is a low chance. On Java, converted zombies never hold tridents, so they can never drop them.
How long does a zombie take to become a drowned?
About 30 seconds with its head underwater. Husks take longer because they convert to a normal zombie first, then drown.
What do I need nautilus shells for?
Eight nautilus shells and a Heart of the Sea make a conduit, the block that gives you underwater breathing and faster mining near water. Drowned are the renewable source.
Do drowned attack turtles?
Yes. Drowned target baby turtles and trample turtle eggs, so protect any beach where you are hatching turtles.
Can I get a trident without fighting drowned?
No. The drowned is the only source of tridents in the game. There is no crafting recipe, so farming or fighting them is the only way.
Does the drowned drop copper?
In current versions, yes. The drowned drops copper ingots, which turns an ocean farm into a renewable copper supply alongside the rotten flesh and nautilus shells. On older versions it does not, so the copper drop depends on how up to date your game is.
If you only want one trident, it is often faster to hunt drowned in an ocean at night with a Looting sword than to build a full farm. Build the farm when you want a stack of nautilus shells for conduits or a steady copper supply, and match the design to your edition so the trident math actually works out.