An average of 1/3 to 1/5 Zombified Piglin prior to the Copper Age would pick up any unenchanted sword other than gold.
As of October 2nd, 2025, I learned that they may have a preferred/corrupted tier preference, due to stone & copper dealing the same base damage.
Steps to Reproduce:
Dig/Build a makeshift Gold Farm in the Nether, using the player as bait. It’s a trapdoor pit with a half block gap for the kill chamber, the lower slab should be 1 block higher than the player’s y-level to be away from the Zombie Piglins' strike radius.
Dig/Build a room to access the kill chamber.
After securing all entries to the player (blocking, iron doors, etc.), anger a Zombie Piglin (Fishing Rod, attack, Snow Ball, etc.) from a safe distance, window, opening, etc.
Hide in the kill chamber access room & block off entry point, if needed.
Aiming a high angle up (trial & error, approx. 70° - 85° from the x,z axis), drop swords that are higher tier than Gold (it worked for Wood & Stone before this bug).
Expected Results: A large percentage of the trapped Zombified Piglin will swap out their golden sword for the player dropped sword per anger/retaliation cycle. Before the Copper Age, they would swap out their Golden swords for near-broken Wood & Stone swords.
Observed Results: Some Zombified Piglin are willing to swap out their sword for, notably, Iron or a higher tier, but no longer pick up Wood, Stone, & possibly Copper.
Comments 3
I learned that there’s a change in the zombie piglins' sword tier preference.
They no longer value wood & stone as much as gold, or that since copper & stone deals the same damage, there might be a tier corruption between the 2 sword types.
They still pick up iron & diamond swords, as normally expected.
Will change the bug report summary.
Of course, do this in Hard/Hardcore.