Drowned Copper Farm (Conversion Design)
Intermediate Different design per edition
Produces: Copper ingots (11% per drowned, up to 17% with Looting III), XP, rotten flesh and the occasional trident
Quick answer: Drowned drop copper ingots only when a player or pet kills them: 11% base, +2% per Looting level. The reliable design converts zombies from a spawner: trap them in a water column with their head submerged for 30 seconds, they shake and turn into drowned, then you soften them with a fall and finish them with a Looting sword.
How it works
- Copper only drops on player or pet kills: 11% base chance, +2% per Looting level (17% at Looting III). Automatic grinders give zero copper.
- A normal zombie starts converting after its head stays submerged for 30 seconds straight, shakes, and becomes a drowned 15 seconds later. Husks convert to zombies first; zombie villagers and zombified piglins never convert.
- In Java the drowned keeps the equipment; in Bedrock anything the zombie held or wore when converting drops at 100%.
- Natural spawning is the alternative: drowned spawn at light 0 in ocean, river and dripstone cave water. Java needs water 2+ blocks deep; Bedrock spawns them in groups of 2-4.
- Drowned have 20 HP, like zombies.
Materials
- A zombie spawner (for the conversion design) or a big dark platform over a river (for the natural-spawn design)
- Water buckets, signs for the conversion column
- Building blocks, hoppers and chests
- Looting III sword for the kills
- Depth Strider boots if you work underwater
Build steps
- Locate a zombie spawner and build the classic collection channel pushing zombies toward one corner.
- Build the conversion column: a sealed water column where arriving zombies tread water with their head submerged. Give them 30+ seconds - they start shaking, then convert into drowned.
- Flush the freshly converted drowned out of the column into a drop tube to weaken them.
- Kill them yourself or with a pet using a Looting III sword: each kill has a 17% chance to drop a copper ingot, plus XP and rare items.
- Collect with hoppers into chests. An item filter for copper and flesh keeps the storage clean.
- No spawner? Use the river design: build a large dark spawning floor submerged in river water at light 0, water-flush the spawns to a central drop, and kill by hand the same way. Slower, but works anywhere.
Rates
Output depends on the design, the version and how much of it you build, so we do not quote an hourly figure. Build the layout below, time it for a few minutes in your own world and scale from there.
Tips
- Never automate the final blow if you want copper: the roll only happens on player or pet kills.
- In Bedrock, a zombie's gear drops at 100% when it converts.
- Source: minecraft.wiki Drowned.