Piglin

The Piglin is the Nether’s resident capitalist — a gold-obsessed, crossbow-wielding mob that will either trade with you or stab you, depending entirely on your outfit. Walk into a bastion remnant wearing full gold armor and they will happily barter enchanted books and potions for a handful of gold ingots. Walk in wearing anything else and you will learn very quickly that Piglins do not believe in second impressions.

Piglins are neutral mobs, which in Minecraft terms means “hostile until you meet their very specific dress code.” They roam the Nether Wastes and Crimson Forests in groups, carrying either golden swords or crossbows, and they have one of the most complex AI systems of any mob in the game. They hunt Hoglins, dance after successful hunts, admire gold items you throw at them, and turn into Zombified Piglins the moment they set foot in the Overworld. They are equal parts trading partner, combat threat, and tragic cautionary tale about what happens when you leave the Nether.

Whether you are farming them for Ender Pearls, navigating a bastion without getting swarmed, or just trying to understand why they keep picking up your gold boots off the ground, this guide covers everything about Piglins from spawn mechanics to bartering loot tables to the exact NBT tags that make them tick.

Overview / Quick Stats

Appearance

Piglins look like the Nether decided to combine a pig with a mob boss. They stand upright on two legs, roughly the height of a player, with pink-ish skin, a distinctly porcine snout, and floppy ears. Their eyes have a dull, golden tint — fitting, given their obsession with anything shiny and yellow.

Adult Piglins always spawn holding either a golden sword or a crossbow, which determines their combat style for life. About half of naturally spawning adults also wear random pieces of gold armor — gold boots, gold chestplates, the works. The armor is functional and provides real damage reduction, which is something to keep in mind when you are swinging at one and wondering why it is not dying as fast as you expected.

Baby Piglins are the smaller, more chaotic version. They are roughly half the size of adults, do not carry weapons, and cannot barter. What they can do is pick up items off the ground and run around with them like tiny Nether gremlins who just discovered the concept of theft. They will grab gold ingots, pork chops, and basically anything else not nailed down.

When a Piglin is admiring a gold ingot during bartering, they hold it up and stare at it with a visible inspection animation — turning it over in their hands for about 6 seconds before tossing you something in return. It is weirdly endearing for a mob that was trying to kill you thirty seconds ago.

Behavior & AI

Piglins have one of the most layered behavior systems in the entire game. They are not just “see player, attack player” mobs — they run a full internal priority list that determines what they do at any given moment, and understanding that list is the difference between smooth Nether navigation and getting swarmed by an angry mob of gold-hoarding pig people.

• Gold Armor Check: Piglins evaluate what the player is wearing. If you have at least one piece of gold armor equipped (helmet, chestplate, leggings, or boots), adult Piglins treat you as neutral. Remove that gold armor and every Piglin within 16 blocks instantly becomes hostile. They check this continuously, so swapping armor mid-encounter is a viable strategy — or a terrible mistake, depending on your timing.
• Aggro Triggers: Even with gold armor on, Piglins become hostile if you open or break any chest, barrel, shulker box, ender chest, or trapped chest near them. They also aggro if you mine gold ore, gilded blackstone, raw gold blocks, or nether gold ore within their detection range. Mining their gold is a personal insult and they respond accordingly. Attacking any Piglin also aggros all nearby Piglins.
• Bartering Priority: If a gold ingot is on the ground within 8 blocks, an adult Piglin will pick it up and begin the bartering sequence — even mid-combat in some cases. This is a hard priority override and can be exploited to distract hostile Piglins.
• Hoglin Hunting: Adult Piglins periodically hunt Hoglins if there are enough Piglins nearby (typically 5 or more adults). After a successful hunt, the entire group performs a brief “victory dance” — bobbing their heads and waving their arms. It is the Nether equivalent of a touchdown celebration.
• Baby Piglin Behavior: Baby Piglins do not attack, do not barter, and cannot be traded with. They follow adult Piglins around, pick up items off the ground (including items you drop during bartering), and generally act like tiny thieves. They are immune to the zombification timer in the Overworld — baby Piglins take the normal 15 seconds to convert, same as adults.
• Flee Behavior: Piglins actively run away from Zombified Piglins, Zoglins, soul fire, soul torches, soul lanterns, and soul campfires. If one of these fear sources is nearby, Piglins will prioritize fleeing over attacking. This is why placing soul torches around a base in the Nether can keep them at a distance.
• Retreat When Outnumbered: If Piglins find themselves outnumbered by Hoglins during a hunt, they will retreat rather than fight. The threshold is roughly when Hoglins outnumber the hunting party.
• Despawn Rules: Piglins follow standard despawn rules — they can despawn if more than 128 blocks from the player and have not been interacted with or name-tagged. Piglins that pick up items become persistent and will not despawn.
• Crossbow Piglins: Piglins armed with crossbows maintain distance and strafe while shooting, similar to Pillagers. They will retreat if the player closes distance, making them more annoying to deal with than sword Piglins in open areas.

Abilities, Attacks & Status Effects

• Golden Sword Attack: Sword-wielding Piglins engage in melee combat with a golden sword. They swing at the player within a 2-block range with standard melee attack speed. The golden sword can spawn with enchantments on Hard difficulty in Java Edition — nothing quite like getting hit by a Piglin with a Fire Aspect golden sword in the Nether.
• Crossbow Attack: Crossbow Piglins fire arrows from up to 8 blocks away. They have a roughly 1.5-second reload time between shots and will attempt to maintain optimal range by strafing. They cannot fire while admiring a gold ingot.
• Group Aggro: When one Piglin is attacked, all Piglins within 16 blocks become hostile toward the attacker. This is a shared aggro system — hitting one is functionally the same as hitting all of them. In a bastion remnant, this can escalate from “minor inconvenience” to “complete disaster” in about two seconds.
• Item Pickup: Both adult and baby Piglins can pick up items from the ground. Adults prioritize gold-related items and will equip better armor or weapons if they find them. Baby Piglins pick up anything they can find. Any Piglin that picks up an item becomes persistent and will not despawn.
• Immunity to Fire: Piglins are NOT immune to fire or lava. This is a common misconception because they live in the Nether. They take full fire damage and can die in lava just like a player. They do have fire-related pathfinding avoidance, but they are not fireproof.
• Zombification: When a Piglin enters the Overworld or the End, a 15-second countdown begins. After those 15 seconds, the Piglin converts into a Zombified Piglin. This is irreversible. The Piglin shakes during the conversion process. Any items they were holding or wearing are retained by the Zombified Piglin.
• Shield Interaction: Piglins’ sword attacks can be fully blocked by a shield. Crossbow arrows can also be blocked. There is no shield-disabling mechanic on Piglin attacks — they cannot break your guard like a Vindicator’s axe does.

Food, Taming, Breeding & Growth

• Taming: Piglins cannot be tamed. Wearing gold armor makes them neutral, not friendly. They are tolerating you, not befriending you. There is a difference.
• Breeding: Piglins cannot breed. Baby Piglins spawn naturally alongside adults in the Nether.
• Baby Growth: Baby Piglins grow into adults after 20 minutes (24,000 ticks), the standard baby mob growth time. This cannot be accelerated with any food item.
• Leashing: Piglins cannot be leashed with a lead.
• Food: Piglins do not eat food items. They have no feeding mechanic. Baby Piglins will pick up food items off the ground but do not consume them — they are just hoarding, not hungry.

Variants, Jockeys & Special Forms

Baby Piglin

• Spawn Rate: Approximately 5% of naturally spawning Piglins are babies (in Nether Wastes and Crimson Forest biomes).
• Differences: Cannot barter, cannot hold weapons, picks up any item from the ground, 25% faster movement speed than adults, half the hitbox size.
• Persistence: Like adults, baby Piglins become persistent if they pick up any item.

Zombified Piglin (Conversion)

• Trigger: Entering the Overworld or the End starts a 15-second conversion timer.
• Result: The Piglin becomes a Zombified Piglin permanently. All held items and equipped armor are retained.
• Prevention: The IsImmuneToZombification NBT tag set to 1b prevents conversion entirely. This is the only way to keep a Piglin alive outside the Nether.

Piglin Brute (Related but Separate Mob)

• Note: Piglin Brutes (minecraft:piglin_brute) are a separate mob entity. They spawn exclusively in bastion remnants, carry golden axes, have 50 health (25 hearts), are always hostile regardless of gold armor, and cannot barter. They are covered in their own glossary entry — Piglin Brute.

Spawning

Interactions with Environment & Other Mobs

• Hoglins: Piglins actively hunt Hoglins when enough adults are present (roughly 5+). After killing a Hoglin, they perform a brief dance animation. Piglins will avoid attacking baby Hoglins. If Hoglins outnumber the Piglins, the Piglins retreat.
• Zombified Piglins: Piglins are afraid of Zombified Piglins and will flee from them. This is a one-way fear — Zombified Piglins do not react to regular Piglins at all.
• Zoglins: Piglins flee from Zoglins on sight. A Zoglin will attack Piglins, and Piglins will not fight back — they just run.
• Wither Skeletons: Piglins are hostile toward Wither Skeletons and will attack them on sight. This makes fortress exploration interesting when Piglins wander in from nearby biomes.
• Withers: Piglins flee from the Wither. They will not engage it in combat.
• Soul Fire Sources: Piglins avoid and flee from soul fire, soul torches, soul lanterns, and soul campfires. The fear range is approximately 7 blocks. This makes soul-based lighting an effective Piglin deterrent.
• Lava and Fire: Piglins are not immune to fire or lava. They have pathfinding avoidance for lava but can be pushed or knocked into it. They take normal fire damage.
• Boats and Minecarts: Piglins can be placed in boats and minecarts. They will not zombify while in the Overworld if loaded into a boat, as long as they were already in the boat before being transported — actually, they will still zombify. The 15-second timer applies regardless of their vehicle status.
• Iron Golems: Piglins do not specifically interact with Iron Golems, but an Iron Golem will attack a Piglin if the Piglin is hostile toward a player the Golem is protecting.
• Piglin Brutes: Piglin Brutes and regular Piglins coexist in bastion remnants. If a player attacks a regular Piglin, the Brute also joins in. However, Brutes are always hostile and do not require the gold armor check.

Drops & Loot

Bartering — Full Loot Table

Bartering is the Piglin’s signature mechanic and the reason most players interact with them intentionally. Drop or give a gold ingot to an adult Piglin (right-click on Java, interact button on Bedrock), and after about 6 seconds of admiring it, they toss you a random item from the bartering loot table. Each barter consumes one gold ingot, and the Piglin picks one result from the weighted table below.

Player Uses & Farming

• Gold Farm Bartering: The most common Piglin farm is a gold farm that kills Zombified Piglins for gold nuggets/ingots, then pipes the gold ingots into a bartering station where a trapped Piglin automatically receives and barters them. This creates a fully automatic source of Ender Pearls, obsidian, crying obsidian, Soul Speed books, and every other barter result.
• Bartering Station Design: The simplest manual bartering setup involves trapping an adult Piglin in a 1×1 area with a hopper underneath to collect drops. Throw gold ingots at the Piglin, wait 6 seconds per barter, and collect results from the hopper into a chest. For automation, use a dispenser to drop gold ingots into the Piglin’s detection range.
• Ender Pearl Farming: Piglin bartering is the fastest method for obtaining Ender Pearls in speedruns and early-game survival. With enough gold ingots, you can acquire a full set of Ender Pearls far faster than hunting Endermen.
• Soul Speed Source: Bartering is one of only two ways to get Soul Speed in survival mode (the other being bastion remnant chest loot). If you need Soul Speed enchantments, Piglin bartering is the renewable option.
• Crying Obsidian Source: Piglin bartering is the most reliable renewable source of crying obsidian for crafting Respawn Anchors.
• Preventing Zombification in Farms: When building Overworld bartering stations, use the /data merge entity command to set IsImmuneToZombification:1b on the Piglin, or keep the bartering station in the Nether to avoid the issue entirely.
• Baby Piglin Thieves: If baby Piglins are near your bartering setup, they will steal barter items off the ground before you can collect them. Always ensure baby Piglins cannot reach your bartering area, or use hoppers to collect drops instantly.

Commands & NBT

/summon minecraft:piglin ~ ~ ~ {IsImmuneToZombification:1b}

Summons a Piglin that will not convert to a Zombified Piglin in the Overworld or End.

/summon minecraft:piglin ~ ~ ~ {IsBaby:1b}

Summons a baby Piglin.

/summon minecraft:piglin ~ ~ ~ {CannotHunt:1b}

Summons a Piglin that will not participate in Hoglin hunts.

/summon minecraft:piglin ~ ~ ~ {HandItems:[{id:"minecraft:golden_sword",count:1},{}],IsImmuneToZombification:1b}

Summons an immune-to-zombification Piglin holding a golden sword.

/summon minecraft:piglin ~ ~ ~ {HandItems:[{id:"minecraft:crossbow",count:1},{}],IsImmuneToZombification:1b}

Summons an immune-to-zombification Piglin holding a crossbow.

• IsImmuneToZombification — 1b prevents the Piglin from converting to a Zombified Piglin outside the Nether. Default is 0b.
• IsBaby — 1b makes the Piglin a baby. Default is 0b.
• CannotHunt — 1b prevents this Piglin from participating in Hoglin hunts. Default is 0b.
• TimeInOverworld — Integer tracking how long the Piglin has been outside the Nether (in ticks). Conversion happens at 300 ticks (15 seconds).
• HandItems — Controls what the Piglin holds. First slot is main hand, second is off-hand.
• ArmorItems — Controls equipped armor. Array of 4 slots: feet, legs, chest, head.

Tags, Gamerules & Datapack Hooks

• #minecraft:piglin_safe_armor — Item tag that defines which armor pieces prevent Piglin aggro. Includes all gold armor by default. Datapacks can modify this tag to add custom items.
• #minecraft:piglin_loved — Item tag for items Piglins are attracted to and will pick up. Includes gold ingots, gold blocks, raw gold, and other gold items.
• #minecraft:piglin_repellents — Block tag for blocks that scare Piglins. Includes soul fire, soul torches, soul lanterns, and soul campfires.
• #minecraft:guarded_by_piglins — Block tag for blocks that trigger Piglin aggro when opened or broken (chests, barrels, shulker boxes, etc.).
• mobGriefing — If set to false, Piglins cannot pick up items. This also disables bartering since they cannot pick up gold ingots.
• universalAnger — When true, angering one Piglin makes all Piglins in the area hostile to the player, not just the ones within normal aggro range.
• Loot Table Path: minecraft:entities/piglin — Controls death drops.
• Bartering Loot Table Path: minecraft:gameplay/piglin_bartering — Controls bartering outcomes. Modifiable via datapacks.

Difficulty & Edition Differences

• Easy vs. Normal vs. Hard (Damage): Piglin melee and ranged damage scales with difficulty. On Hard, sword Piglins deal 12 damage (6 hearts) per hit — nearly double their Easy mode damage of 5 (2.5 hearts).
• Hard Mode Enchantments (Java): On Hard difficulty in Java Edition, Piglins have a chance to spawn with enchanted golden swords or enchanted crossbows. This does not occur on Easy or Normal.
• Armor Spawn Rate: Piglins have a higher chance of spawning with gold armor on Hard difficulty compared to Easy.
• Light Level Spawning (Bedrock): Bedrock Edition restricts natural Piglin spawning to light level 7 or below. Java Edition has no light level restriction for Nether mob spawning.
• Bartering Loot Table: The bartering table is mostly identical between editions. The exception is Spectral Arrows, which appear only in Java Edition (Bedrock has no spectral arrows).
• Bartering Interaction: In Java Edition, you can right-click a gold ingot directly onto a Piglin to start bartering. In Bedrock Edition, you must drop the gold ingot on the ground near them.
• Baby Piglin Item Pickup: Functionally the same across both editions, though some edge-case pickup priorities may differ slightly.
• Crossbow Behavior: Crossbow Piglins on Bedrock Edition have slightly different strafing patterns compared to Java, but the overall behavior is functionally similar.

Sounds & Audio

• Ambient (Idle): entity.piglin.ambient — grunting, snorting sounds that play periodically.
• Angry: entity.piglin.angry — more aggressive grunting, triggered when a Piglin becomes hostile.
• Hurt: entity.piglin.hurt — pain sound when taking damage.
• Death: entity.piglin.death — plays on death.
• Retreat: entity.piglin.retreat — sound when fleeing from soul fire or Zombified Piglins.
• Admiring Item: entity.piglin.admiring_item — plays when a Piglin picks up a gold ingot to barter.
• Celebrate: entity.piglin.celebrate — plays during the post-hunt victory dance after killing a Hoglin.
• Jealous: entity.piglin.jealous — plays when another Piglin gets a gold item and this one does not.
• Converted to Zombified: entity.piglin.converted_to_zombified — plays when zombification completes.
• Step: entity.piglin.step — footstep sounds.

History & Major Changes

• 20w07a (Java Snapshot): Piglins added to Java Edition for the first time as part of the Nether Update development cycle.
• 20w09a–20w22a: Multiple behavior adjustments including bartering mechanics, aggro triggers, and Hoglin hunting AI were refined through snapshot iterations.
• Java 1.16 (June 23, 2020): Official release of the Nether Update. Piglins added to the game alongside Hoglins, Zoglins, Piglin Brutes (added slightly later in 1.16.2), bastion remnants, and the Crimson Forest biome.
• Bedrock 1.16.0 (June 23, 2020): Piglins added to Bedrock Edition simultaneously with Java.
• Java 1.16.2 / Bedrock 1.16.20 (August 2020): Piglin Brutes added to bastion remnants. Bartering loot table received adjustments — several item quantities and weights were rebalanced. Baby Piglin behavior fixes.
• Java 1.16.4: Minor Piglin pathfinding and AI bug fixes.
• Java 1.19.3: Entity tags reorganized; some Piglin-related tags updated to the new format.
• Java 1.20.5: NBT format changes with component-based item data affected Piglin commands and summoning syntax.

Notable Bugs & Quirks

• Baby Piglin Theft: Baby Piglins will pick up gold ingots from bartering drops before you can collect them, effectively stealing your barter input with no return. This is intended behavior, but it catches a lot of players off guard the first time it happens.
• Bartering Kill Exploit: If you kill a Piglin during the 6-second admiration animation, it drops both the gold ingot AND its normal death loot. You get your gold back plus whatever it was carrying. This is technically intended but feels very much like getting away with something.
• Zombification in Portals: Piglins that wander into Nether portals can end up in the Overworld and immediately begin zombifying. This sometimes creates unexpected Zombified Piglins near your portal on the Overworld side.
• Armor Duplication Edge Case: In some older versions, killing a Piglin that had picked up armor could result in it dropping both its original armor and the picked-up armor. This has been largely patched but occasionally resurfaces in specific scenarios.
• Crossbow Piglins in Boats: Crossbow Piglins placed in boats will still attempt to shoot at targets but their aim becomes unreliable due to the boat restricting their rotation. The result is a very confused Piglin firing arrows in random directions.

Advancements / Achievements

• “Oh Shiny” (Java Advancement): Distract a Piglin with a gold item. Triggered by having a Piglin pick up any item from the #minecraft:piglin_loved tag. Part of the Nether advancement tree.
• “Oooh, shiny!” (Bedrock Achievement): Distract a Piglin with a gold item. Functions the same as the Java version but tracked as a Bedrock achievement.
• “War Pigs” (Java Advancement): Loot a chest in a bastion remnant. While not Piglin-specific, this advancement almost always involves dealing with Piglins since they guard bastions aggressively.
• “Those Were the Days” (Java Advancement): Enter a bastion remnant. Again, not Piglin-specific, but heavily Piglin-adjacent since bastion remnants are their home territory.

Spin-offs, Culture & Trivia

• Speedrun Bartering: Piglin bartering completely changed Minecraft speedrunning. The ability to obtain Ender Pearls through gold ingots rather than hunting Endermen made Nether-based routing the dominant speedrun strategy. Most world-record runs involve bartering with Piglins as a core step.
• Piglins vs. Zombie Pigmen: Piglins replaced the old “Zombie Pigman” as the primary pig-based Nether mob. The Zombie Pigman was renamed to “Zombified Piglin” in the same update, retroactively making them the undead version of Piglins rather than the other way around.
• Gold Armor Fashion: The entire gold armor requirement for Piglin neutrality created an unofficial “Nether dress code” in the community. Players often keep a pair of gold boots specifically for Nether trips, leading to the common advice: “Always bring gold boots to the Nether.”
• Minecraft Dungeons: Piglins appear as enemies in the Flames of the Nether DLC for Minecraft Dungeons, where they function as ranged and melee attackers in Nether-themed levels.
• Minecraft Legends: Piglins serve as the primary antagonist faction in Minecraft Legends, the action-strategy spinoff. They invade the Overworld in large armies and the player must rally Overworld mobs to fight them back.
• Design Inspiration: Piglins were designed to give the Nether a sense of civilization. Before the Nether Update, the Nether felt like an empty hellscape. Piglins (along with bastion remnants) established that the Nether has its own society, culture, and economy — even if that economy runs entirely on gold.

See Also

• Piglin Brute — the stronger, always-hostile variant found in bastion remnants
• Zombified Piglin — what Piglins become outside the Nether
• Hoglin — the mob Piglins hunt in groups
• Zoglin — the zombified Hoglin that Piglins flee from
• Bastion Remnant — the structure where Piglins spawn in large numbers
• Gold Ingot — the currency used for Piglin bartering