Piglin in Minecraft: Gold, Bartering and What Angers Them
Wear one piece of gold armor and piglins leave you alone; toss them gold ingots to barter. What angers piglins, what bartering gives, and why they zombify.
Piglins are the gold-obsessed pig people of the Nether. If you wear at least one piece of gold armor they leave you alone, and if you toss them a gold ingot they hand back a random item. Without gold, or if you touch their chests, they attack with golden swords and crossbows.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Health | 16 HP (8 hearts) |
| Damage | Golden sword 8 HP on Normal (9 on Bedrock); crossbow 2-5 HP |
| Spawns | Nether wastes, crimson forests, bastion remnants |
| Drops | Their gear (small chance); piglin head from a charged creeper |
| XP | 5 |
Staying on their good side
One piece of gold armor is all it takes. Golden boots are the usual choice because they cost only four ingots and you can swap the rest of your armor for something stronger. Even with gold on, these things anger every piglin nearby:
- Opening or breaking a chest, barrel or other container near them.
- Mining gold blocks or gold ore.
- Hitting any piglin.
Angry piglins stay hostile for about 30 seconds. In a bastion remnant, where the loot chests sit in the middle of crowds, that’s usually enough time to get killed. Clear or block off the piglins before looting.
Bartering
Drop a gold ingot near a piglin (or use it on one). It holds the ingot up, studies it for six seconds on Java or eight on Bedrock, then throws out an item. The loot table includes obsidian, crying obsidian, ender pearls, string, Nether quartz, gravel, soul sand, leather, iron nuggets, fire resistance potions and, rarely, Soul Speed books or iron boots carrying Soul Speed.
Ender pearls are the reason most players barter. Hunting Endermen one at a time is slow, and a few stacks of gold traded to piglins is often the easiest way to get enough pearls for the End. Gold farms built on zombified piglins feed bartering stations nicely.
Babies take gold too, but they keep it and give nothing back.
What they fear and hunt
Piglins back away from soul fire, soul torches, soul lanterns and soul campfires, and they keep their distance from zombified piglins and zoglins. That makes soul lanterns a cheap way to keep them out of a doorway.
They also hunt. An adult piglin that sees a hoglin has a 10% chance to start a hunt, and others join in. Sometimes they do a little victory dance afterwards.
Leaving the Nether
A piglin taken through a portal into the Overworld or the End shakes for about 15 seconds and turns into a zombified piglin. There’s no way to stop it in survival, so build bartering setups in the Nether. Piglin brutes, the axe-wielding guards in bastions, zombify the same way and never accept gold at all.
Edition differences
- Bartering takes 6 seconds on Java and 8 on Bedrock.
- Equipment drop chance is 8.5% on Java and 25% on Bedrock (plus Looting).
- Babies are 20% of spawns on Java but 5% on Bedrock, and drop 1 XP instead of 5 on Bedrock.
- Java piglins’ crossbows can break; Bedrock ones never do.
The mobs hub lists every Nether mob.
Common questions
How do you make piglins not attack you?
Wear at least one piece of gold armor. Golden boots or a golden helmet is enough, as long as you don't open chests, break gold blocks or hit a piglin nearby.
What can you get from piglin bartering?
Random items from a fixed list, including ender pearls, obsidian, crying obsidian, string, Nether quartz, fire resistance potions, iron nuggets and Soul Speed enchanted books.
Why did my piglin turn into a zombified piglin?
Piglins zombify after about 15 seconds in the Overworld or the End. Keep them in the Nether, or build your barter station there.
Sources & verification
Facts on this page are checked against these references and in-game behavior for the stated edition(s). how we verify.
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