Hoglins are the big, aggressive boar-like mobs you run into in the crimson forests of the Nether. If you have ever stepped through a portal and been tossed into the air by a snorting brown beast, that was a hoglin. They are one of the few renewable food sources in the Nether, which makes them worth understanding instead of just running from.
A hoglin gives you raw porkchop and a chance at leather, and you can breed them, so a small pen near your Nether base turns into a steady supply of meat. They also have one strange habit: take a hoglin out of the Nether and it slowly rots into a zoglin, a far nastier mob that attacks almost everything.
This guide covers where hoglins spawn, how they fight, what they drop, how to breed them, and how to keep them off your back when you just want to walk through a crimson forest in one piece.
What is a hoglin?
A hoglin is a large hostile mob native to the Nether. It looks like a shaggy wild boar with two curved tusks, and it has 40 health (20 full hearts), so it takes real effort to bring one down. Adults are aggressive and will charge any player who gets close, while baby hoglins are harmless and just run around underfoot.
Hoglins are one of the only mobs that drop food in the Nether, which is the main reason players bother with them. The other reason is leather, which is otherwise hard to come by if you spend most of your time below the Overworld.
Unlike a lot of Nether mobs, hoglins are not immune to fire or lava. They burn and take damage like an Overworld animal, so a stray lava pool or a fire aspect sword affects them normally. Killing one with fire gives you cooked porkchop instead of raw, which is a handy shortcut.
Where to find hoglins
Hoglins spawn in the crimson forest, the red, fungal biome filled with crimson nylium, huge crimson fungi, and weeping vines. They appear on crimson nylium in small groups when the area first generates. You will usually see two to four of them clustered together near the giant red mushroom stalks.
One thing that trips players up: hoglins do not keep spawning forever in a given chunk. The population in an explored area tends to drop over time, and they do not flood back in the way zombies do at night. If you want a reliable supply, do not rely on wild spawns. Capture a couple and breed your own herd instead.
Hoglins only generate in the crimson forest, so you will not find them in warped forests, basalt deltas, soul sand valleys, or the nether wastes. If you spawn into a Nether with no crimson forest nearby, you may have to travel a fair distance before you see your first one.
How hoglins fight
An adult hoglin attacks by lowering its head and goring you with its tusks. The hit does solid damage on its own, but the worse part is the knockback. A hoglin launches you upward and backward, and in the Nether that often means flying off a ledge into a lava ocean or a deep ravine. The fall, or the lava, usually does more harm than the tusks.
Because of that, fighting hoglins on open terrain near cliffs is risky. Lead them onto flat ground before you commit. Better yet, fight from a one-block ledge or a small pillar where the knockback cannot send you anywhere dangerous.
Hoglins are afraid of a few things and will actively run from them. They flee from warped fungi, nether portals, and respawn anchors. If you place a warped fungus on the ground, nearby hoglins back away from it, which you can use to herd them or to clear a safe path through a crowded forest.
Baby hoglins never attack. They follow the adults, take 20 minutes of real time to grow up, and you can speed that growth slightly by feeding them crimson fungi.
What hoglins drop
When you kill an adult hoglin, it drops:
- 2 to 4 raw porkchop (cooked porkchop if the hoglin died in fire or lava)
- 0 to 1 leather, with the maximum increasing by one per level of Looting
- A small amount of experience
Baby hoglins drop nothing and give no experience, so there is no reason to kill them. The porkchop is the real prize. A handful of hoglins will keep you fed through a long Nether trip, and the leather covers books, armor, and item frames without a trip back to the Overworld for cows.
How to breed hoglins
You breed hoglins with crimson fungi, the red mushroom that grows in the crimson forest. Hold crimson fungi and feed one to each of two adult hoglins. They enter love mode, produce a baby, and then have a five minute cooldown before they can breed again.
To set up a small farm, fence in a flat area on solid blocks and lure two adults inside. Hoglins follow a player holding crimson fungi, so you can walk them into the pen the same way you lead cows with wheat. Once they are penned, breeding them is just a matter of keeping a stack of crimson fungi on hand.
Two warnings for any hoglin pen. First, keep it well away from any nether portal, because a portal scares hoglins and they will refuse to settle near it. Second, do not place warped fungi or warped nylium nearby for decoration, since those also frighten them. A plain crimson nylium or netherrack floor works best.
Hoglins and zoglins
This is the mechanic that surprises new players. A hoglin can only survive in the Nether. If you take one to the Overworld or the End, it starts shaking after a few seconds and converts into a zoglin after about 15 seconds. The same thing happens if you build a base in the Nether and somehow move a hoglin out of its home dimension.
A zoglin is the undead version of a hoglin, and it is bad news. It is hostile to almost every mob and every player, attacks on sight, and cannot be bred, fed, or calmed. Zoglins do not despawn, so an accidental conversion can leave a permanent angry mob wandering your base. Baby hoglins turn into baby zoglins, which deal less damage but are just as aggressive.
If your goal is a porkchop farm, keep the whole operation inside the Nether. The moment a hoglin leaves, you lose your food source and gain a problem. Zoglins drop rotten flesh instead of porkchop, so the conversion is a downgrade in every way.
How to keep hoglins away
If you just want to pass through a crimson forest safely, use their fear of warped fungi. Carry a few warped fungi and place them on the ground to push hoglins back, or plant them around a base to make a no-go zone. Nether portals and respawn anchors have the same effect, so a portal at your forest base doubles as a hoglin deterrent.
For travel, building a quick walled path or bridging above the nylium keeps you out of goring range entirely. Hoglins cannot reach you on a raised walkway, and that also protects you from the knockback that makes them dangerous in the first place.
Tips and common mistakes
Do not fight hoglins next to lava. The knockback is the real killer, and one bad hit can throw you into a lava lake before you can react. Clear a flat spot first.
Do not build your breeder near a portal. Players often place a farm right next to their Nether portal for convenience and then wonder why the hoglins keep fleeing to the far corner and refuse to breed.
Use Looting if you want leather. Porkchop drops stay the same, but each level of Looting raises the maximum leather drop, which adds up fast across a herd.
Kill hoglins with fire if you want cooked meat for free. A flint and steel, a lava bucket trap, or a Fire Aspect sword turns raw porkchop into cooked on the spot and saves you fuel.
Frequently asked questions
What do hoglins eat?
Crimson fungi. It is the only food a hoglin will accept, and you use it to breed adults and to speed up the growth of babies.
Why does my hoglin keep running away?
Something nearby is scaring it. Hoglins flee from warped fungi, nether portals, and respawn anchors. Remove or relocate whatever is causing it, and keep your pen clear of warped plants.
Do hoglins turn into zoglins?
Yes. A hoglin taken out of the Nether into the Overworld or the End converts into a zoglin after roughly 15 seconds. Keep hoglins in the Nether to avoid this.
Are hoglins immune to fire?
No. Unlike many Nether mobs, hoglins take damage from fire and lava. A hoglin killed by fire drops cooked porkchop instead of raw.
How much health does a hoglin have?
An adult hoglin has 40 health, which is 20 full hearts. It takes several solid hits to bring one down, so come prepared.
Can you tame a hoglin?
No. Hoglins cannot be tamed or ridden. You can breed them and lead them with crimson fungi, but they will never become friendly pets.
Worth keeping a herd
A few penned hoglins solve two Nether problems at once: a renewable porkchop supply and a source of leather without leaving the dimension. Keep the pen away from portals and warped plants, fight wild ones on flat ground, and never walk a hoglin into the Overworld unless you actually want a zoglin. Get those three things right and hoglins go from a hazard to one of the most useful mobs down there.