How to Cure a Zombie Villager in Minecraft

To cure a zombie villager, hit it with a Splash Potion of Weakness and use a regular Golden Apple on it before the effect wears off. The zombie villager will shake while it recovers. Trap it under a roof before using either item so you can protect it from daylight and keep other zombies away from the recovered villager.

1. Craft the apple and brew the potion

Set aside an apple and eight gold ingots. Put the apple in the center of a crafting table and the ingots in the eight surrounding slots. A regular Golden Apple from a loot chest works too. Keep the apple in your hotbar so you can switch to it right after throwing the potion.

Fuel a brewing stand with blaze powder and put water bottles in the bottle slots. Make a fermented spider eye from a spider eye, sugar, and a brown mushroom, then brew it into the water bottles. You should get Potions of Weakness without using nether wart. Add gunpowder in the brewing stand to make them splash potions. Check the name on the bottle before leaving. A regular potion is for drinking and will not help you throw Weakness onto the mob.

If you have enough bottles, brew more than one in the same batch. A spare lets you retry if a throw clips a wall or you spend too long lining up the apple interaction. Bring some cheap building blocks as well. You can use them to close the entrance and make a protected spot to wait.

2. Build a shaded enclosure and trap your target

Pick a spot away from iron golems and other hostile mobs. Build a small cell with a roof and enough room for the zombie villager to move inside without reaching you from outside. Leave a spot where you can target it through a gap. Keep a solid block ready to close that gap after the cure starts.

Look for the villager face and clothing to distinguish a zombie villager from a regular zombie. Lure it into the covered cell, move outside its reach, and block the entrance. If several mobs followed you, separate them before using the potion. The recovered villager will need protection from any zombies that are still nearby.

If you want to cure a particular villager you already trade with, check the difficulty before trying to infect it. A villager killed by a zombie is guaranteed to convert on Hard, only has a chance to convert on Normal, and dies without converting on Easy. Finding an already infected zombie villager lets you avoid risking your trader.

3. Start the cure

1. Put the splash potion and apple in adjacent hotbar slots.
2. Throw the potion so it breaks close enough to apply Weakness to the zombie villager.
3. Switch to the Golden Apple, aim at the mob, and press use or interact.
4. Look for shaking and red particles. Close the opening once you see them.

If you start eating the apple, release the button and aim directly at the mob from within interaction range. If you wait too long between the potion and the apple, you may need to apply Weakness again. Keep your backup potion handy until you see the cure start.

4. Wait for the transformation

Allow about five minutes and stay close enough to keep the area loaded. Treat the zombie villager as hostile throughout the wait. You can prepare a well-lit exit or put a door between the enclosure and the trading area while it recovers.

Before opening the cell, confirm that the villager has changed back and check for hostile mobs outside. If you are curing several zombie villagers, use separate cells. Each one can finish at a different time, and an uncured zombie villager can attack a recovered neighbor if you leave them together.

5. Check the result before moving the villager

If you are keeping the villager for trades, inspect its offers once it has recovered. In current Java Edition, the big cure discount applies on the first cure. Repeatedly infecting and curing the same villager will not keep increasing that discount.

If the transformation never started, check the three inputs again. The mob must be a zombie villager, Weakness must still be active, and the apple must be the regular golden version. If the transformation started but seems stalled, return to the cell and give it time in the loaded area. Finish the protected route before removing the last barrier so your newly recovered villager stays safe on the way out.