Farming Wither Skeletons is a tedious business which often produces a lot of unneeded stone swords. In my survival world I sometimes try to trade these with Zombie Pigmen's golden swords in the hopes that I might get one with a decent enchantment. It worked in 1.5, when I gave a Pigman a sword and it dropped its own Fire Aspect 1 sword, which I used to de-aggro Endermen. But I tried the same thing with two naturally spawned Pigmen recently and both took the sword without dropping theirs. The first time it happened I thought it had fallen into some nearby fire, but the second time there was no fire anywhere around us.
So please fix this! And if anyone can recreate this bug in a world they play often, keep an eye out for the Pigman you gave the sword to whenever you go into the Nether, because I think there might also be a bug where these Pigmen despawn with the sword they were given.
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Comments 7
@Sonic
The bug is, in the past, they would pick up the new item but drop their old item, but they don't appear to drop their current item properly any more.
Do they still drop their sword if you give them a sword, and than a better one? Zombie pigmen don't always drop their sword; the rate of them dropping a naturally generated sword is the same as getting said sword as a rare drop when killing them.
Confirmed for 1.8.6. It only happens with naturally spawned Pigmen- Pigmen spawned through eggs or /summon drop their swords as per normal.
Just tested in 15w51b; you were right that they don't always drop their naturally generated sword but will always drop swords handed to them. The wiki must have misinformed me. You can close this issue now.
Appears to be intended according to the Wiki:
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Zombie_Pigman#History