Nathan Hall

Picture 1 is user side. Skin is visible.

Picture 2 is a third-person screenshot. Skin is not visible.

I think we, and others, have done a fair job of eliminating the variables. It does seem like sometimes a villager just disappears; I just can't account for the ones I'm losing occasionally at my spawner thing. I'm totally out of ideas except that idea of sticking quite a lot of them in the ground (array of 1x2 or 1x3 holes) with trapdoors on top. And perhaps having an upside-down half-slab for the floor beneath them so there is nowhere at all for hostile or other mobs to spawn. If we do that test and one disappears, then we will know for sure it's not our fault, yes?! I guess I'll have to try it. If I get results you'll be the first to hear about it 😛

Nah, Andrew has the apple/potion thing going all right. How about inside the homes, are they lit up too? Zombies can be pretty sneaky - lighting the place up only reduces the chance of spawing; it doesn't rule it out. I hear in certain circumstances they can wander off and get lost (hence the fencing in) but you have a fence and so do I. Is there any environmental hazard a villager might fall prey to, like lava or drowning? How about cacti? One of my Iron Golems died by trying to get through a cactus and I actually observed that. They're none too bright. My village seems not to be losing any (probably because I spend so little time there as would attract mobs) but with my Zombie Villager Rehabilitation Facility (if you want to see it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thPB8Ny-MGI) I'm not so sure. I have made absolutely certain (?!) zombies can't spawn where the cured villagers are housed; I have a glass ceiling that comes down leaving only one block space between it and the floor (the villagers don't suffocate) which has torches on every free block, so that in theory no Zombies should be able to spawn inside according to the basic spawning rules as per Minecraft Wiki. I've also tested to see that other mobs (little slimes or spiders) that might spawn elsewhere and then slip in aren't interested in attacking them. But since you wrote I've been watching carefully and I too am finding that once in a while there is an empty minecart where a villager should be. Makes me think that the occasional villager will just disappear because of a bug of some kind. Last idea I have: maybe if there aren't enough villagers (more than just two) they might tend to despawn. The ultimate test would be to chuck them down a 1x2 hole with a trapdoor and see what happens to them then.

I had something similar. I happened to be building a sort of way station in a village to connect up some railroad. I wasn't paying attention. Because I was there, mobs were spawning. I looked up one day and there were no villagers left, all dead, killed by zombies while I was stuffing about. My presence had brought ill fortune to that village and now my village was deserted. I am fairly sure what happened was that because you were there a zombie spawned while you weren't watching and killed that first villager. Light the thing up like a fairground, was my solution - in addition to fencing of course. After almost two full days spent transporting in new villagers from elsewhere. Don't forget any rooftops and such. Also, I put about five Iron Golems there. Since then, all present and correct.

Hi Adam,
I feel pretty confident in confirming both parts; it looks like that's all been ironed out. I spent many months building a zombie villager thing and in all that time I didn't once have zombie villagers de-spawning either before or during curing even when sometimes I forgot what I was doing and left the scene; they were still there when I returned. After curing I am losing the occasional villager but that's really rare and I think it's because my 100% mobproof villager corral design is not 100% mobproof. I package them up and transport them in Minecarts in which they stay permanently; I suppose that could be a variable?!

Up there I've posted a screenshot of the finished Zombie Rehabilitation Centre! - and here is the link to the YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thPB8Ny-MGI

Screenshots: first the hotel, and then the spawner set-up. This is the first working version, plan is to railroad them straight from the curing pen all the way to the hotel - I wonder if they will despawn in transit?!

Hello Claire,
I think it can't be the eggs; a Zombie Villager is a Zombie Villager and you'd expect the game to treat them all the same regardless of how they came into being - if not then that's a bug in my view. I've attached some screenshots (or tried to anyway rrr). First the 'hotel' where I seem to be having no problems keeping my flock - but then I'm not sure as I was sure I had five and then I got another and still had five; but that's not much help. I built the hotel from this YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZo5dBHnI0w&feature=related - do you think if I put the extra storeys on it my Villagers will start mating? That was the plan or the hope anyway. With the hotel I've stopped them going to the upper levels as I'm fairly sure I lost the first ones by suicide - jumpers. They just kept going up - like they should - and stepping off - like they should - except they don't mate so they do it again and again until they've lost all their hearts (is my theory, I was upstairs at the time). I've got a double high fence around it so if a Zombie does spawn in my imperfectly lit lair they won't be able to reach the Villagers over the fence. I put quite a few Iron Golems in there as they are not reliable.

Zombie Villagers are definitely aggressive during the healing process, as I discovered by standing at the fence taunting them. That's how I got the idea to bop them once in a while to 'reset' them (not to provoke them) and let them have a go at me too. I don't know if it works. I tend to think that if I'm losing them from the hotel they're not despawning and I'm just not seeing some hazard or it has to be a bug. If you have a Villager properly penned and protected, regardless of where he came from he should be permanent and if not then that's a bug in my view - or a change needed to the way this mob behaves.

Other shot is the new spawner with Extractomatic technology. Plan is to railroad the cured Zombie Villagers straight from the curing pen to the hotel and dump them automatically, as now I'm getting about as much as I can handle. I've not had any despawning problems from this and I'd expect less than with the hotel as the process is as fast as I could make it whereas before I had to lead the prospective Villager quite a merry dance from the spawning area to the hotel, after dealing with any mobs that spawned with him. Best I have to offer is making the process quick, to minimise what must be a randomly determined possibility of despawning. Could be that some mobs are destined to despawn early and there are no special rules for Zombie Villagers.
Nathan 🙂

Hello Claire,
I now have a zombie spawner which I am working on both in Creative and Survival (using same seed). Am PC player. In Creative, when I extract the Zombie Villager, I do the potion and golden apple thing and he turns into a Villager and stays that way, just as in Survival. I have noticed that not all the potions work, for example the harming potion doesn't seem to work in Creative. In both Survival and Creative, Zombie Villager are mobs until they are cured before which there is a chance they will despawn. As soon as I have a Zombie Villager in the holding pen I drop everything and get him potioned and appled as fast as possible. Then - and I don't know if this helps or not - I 'interact' with him. I stand near the fence so he can wop me one occasionally, and I sometimes strike him about the legs with a fish or a torch, something that won't hurt him much. I don't think I've seen a mob despawn while you are actually engaged in combat with it. I'm not having any trouble with mobs despawning in the healing process unless I leave them, lose sight of them, or do not act fast enough, either in Creative or Survival. I suspect the monster egg. But but - do you mean spawn eggs such as you get in Creative mode? Because if you are in Creative, aren't golden apples and splash potions limitless? Signed, confused. Maybe it has to be a naturally spawned Zombie Villager, either from a spawner or thin air. My advice is to work fast with the rehabilitation and keep them angry by prodding them until the change. Make sure mobs can't spawn in the Villagers' pen, as if a Zombie spawns that can mean reinfection and despawning, or death. I put Iron Golems in there to keep them safe. With this spawner system of mine - bit of a bonus - if what he's selling is no use to me I can just shunt him back in the hole and he gets re-infected by the next Zombie, until I'm happy with the number of pieces of paper he wants for an emerald 🙂