Combat profile
For Minecraft 26.3 / NeoForge, wave base values and supported behavior can be changed per registry entry: see health, damage and base armor and mob abilities. Tier, size and wave scaling still apply.
Behavior
Tier-3 variant: Drowned Brute has its own entity ID, spawn egg and configuration. See its article for combat differences, wave selection and drops.
It inherits IM Zombie melee and Nexus behavior and actively swims while underwater whenever Nexus-bound or pursuing a target in water. A Drowned holding a trident gains a ranged attack.
At a wave spawn point in water, a Drowned has a 10% chance to spawn as an IM Guardian instead. The active-Nexus vanilla Drowned replacement path also has a 10% Guardian chance while the source is in water. This does not transform an already spawned IM Drowned over time.
Ranged weapons and projectiles
The main-hand weapon selects ranged combat. Bows and crossbows can come from wave equipment, retained Zombie-conversion gear or allowed pickups; neither is guaranteed by the natural equipment roll below. A fishing rod alone is not this ranged attack. This also applies to Drowned Brutes, which share the Drowned entity behavior.
| Main hand | Against a living target | Against a stationary Nexus Core |
|---|---|---|
| Bow or crossbow | 1.20.1 / 1.21.1: arrows. Current 26.3 / NeoForge native Drowned attack: an IM trident instead; see the version note below. | IM Nexus-damaging arrow. |
| Trident | IM thrown trident. Native trident goal: up to 10 blocks, 40-tick interval (2 seconds at 20 TPS), subject to its goal and visibility conditions. | IM thrown trident. |
| No recognized ranged weapon | Normal melee and movement goals; holding a fishing rod does not enable this firing path. | Approaches and uses ordinary Nexus attacks rather than these ranged shots. |
Inherited weapon combat can shoot a living target at less than 16 blocks with line of sight and a 65-tick attack cooldown (about 3.25 seconds). The dedicated higher-priority trident goal uses the 10-block/40-tick settings above. The native Core-shooting goal needs no living target, an active stationary Nexus, a clear ray to its Core and a distance of more than 4 and at most 16 blocks; it fires on a 65-tick interval. Acquisition and other movement goals can affect whether these attacks run.
Bow
Crossbow
Core arrowIM tridentA direct hit by either IM projectile on a Nexus Core requests 2 Nexus damage before Nexus damage scaling and removes that projectile. Missing or striking cover does not damage the Core. Damage to creatures uses the projectile's own combat rules; 2 is not a fixed player-damage value. A moving Player Nexus is a living target rather than a stationary Core.
Optional sniper behavior and counterplay
Enabling sniping uses a separate shared firing goal: tridents produce tridents, other recognized ranged weapons produce arrows, including against living targets in 26.3. It supports up to 32 blocks, a clear shot and a 65-tick cooldown. Drowned and Drowned Brute have sniping disabled in the shipped defaults. Save the server's Entity settings and test a freshly equipped mob; sniping equipment selection can replace an existing weapon.
Use solid cover between the shooter and the Core, watch the held weapon and intercept aquatic approaches. A retained combat target does not let a projectile pass through a wall. If an expected shot is absent, check the weapon, target type, range, visibility, competing goals and server-side sniping setting.
Natural equipment
When spawned with empty hands, roughly 10% receive either a trident or fishing rod; the selection favors tridents 10 out of 16 times. There is also a 3% offhand Nautilus Shell chance, and that shell is guaranteed to drop.
Trident variant
Nautilus Shell • 3%, guaranteed dropConversion from IM Zombies
A normal IM Zombie or Speedy Zombie can become an IM Drowned after about 30 seconds with its eyes in water plus a 15-second countdown. Surfacing cancels only the initial exposure; the countdown continues once started. This is a timed IM-Zombie conversion, not the active-Nexus replacement of a vanilla Drowned.
The converted mob keeps tier/flavour (including the matching Drowned Brute form), baby state, equipment and equipment drop chances, name, target, Nexus assignment and wave mob-cap flag. It starts at full maximum health and uses Drowned movement. Conversion copies the existing equipment rather than rolling the natural equipment probabilities above; it does not guarantee a trident.
Drops
Base death loot follows the vanilla Drowned loot table. IM living-mob logic additionally gives a 25% Small Remnants chance.
Vanilla Drowned loot
Copper Ingot • vanilla conditions
Small Remnants • 25%Vanilla replacement
An active Nexus converts vanilla Drowned at 30% maximum health while preserving their equipment. Their baby state is also retained.
Related variants: the Fat Zombie eats other IM mobs to grow stronger; the Jumping Zombie combines configurable high jumps with fast swimming and cannot convert to Drowned.