A Nether gold farm is one of the most rewarding builds in Minecraft. By spawning huge numbers of zombified piglins and funneling them into a kill chamber, you can stockpile gold nuggets, the occasional gold ingot, golden swords and a steady stream of experience. This guide walks through exactly how the farm works, why magma blocks and fall damage matter, and the recent drop change that decides whether your design still earns the good loot.
How zombified piglin drops actually work
Getting the drop mechanics right is the whole game here, because a previous generation of farm designs no longer pays out. Every zombified piglin that dies for any reason drops 0–1 rotten flesh (about a 50% chance) and 0–1 gold nugget (about 50%). That part is easy — suffocation, fall damage, lava or a wolf will all produce nuggets and flesh.
The valuable drops are different. The gold ingot (a 2.5% chance), the golden sword (8.5%, rising 1% per level of Looting up to 11.5%) and the experience (5 XP for adults, 12 for babies) only drop when the mob is killed by a player or a tamed wolf. In the Java Edition 1.21.5 update, simply making piglins angry at you and letting them die some other way was patched out — an anger-only death now drops just the basic nugget and flesh. To get ingots, swords and XP, you must land the killing blow yourself (or let your wolf do it).
| Drop | Chance | Requires player/wolf kill? |
|---|---|---|
| Rotten flesh | 0–1 (~50%) | No — any death |
| Gold nugget | 0–1 (~50%) | No — any death |
| Gold ingot | 2.5% | Yes |
| Golden sword | 8.5% (up to 11.5% w/ Looting III) | Yes |
| Experience | 5 XP adult / 12 XP baby | Yes |
Looting also boosts the common drops: with Looting III, rotten flesh and gold nuggets average around 2 each per kill instead of 0.5.
Where zombified piglins spawn
Zombified piglins spawn at light level 11 and below in several Nether locations. The Nether Wastes is by far the best, with the highest spawn weight (around 59.5%) and groups of four at a time. Nether fortresses also spawn them in groups of four (about 17.9% weight) regardless of the surrounding biome. The Crimson Forest is a weaker source — roughly a 6.7% weight, in groups of 2–4. They cannot spawn on nether wart blocks. Because they are neutral mobs that ignore you until provoked, and because converted piglins do not despawn naturally, they accumulate well in a controlled space.
For a farm, the goal is to make your platforms the only valid spawning surface for a wide area, so the mob cap fills with piglins instead of other hostiles. New to the dimension? Our Minecraft Nether survival guide covers getting there safely, and the Nether portal guide explains portal sizes and tricks.
Why magma blocks and where to build
Spawn platforms are made of magma blocks. Zombified piglins are immune to fire and lava, so they happily spawn on magma blocks while most other mobs avoid them — this is a clean, passive way to spawn-proof the platform against unwanted mobs without slabs or lighting.
Location matters and differs by edition. In Java Edition, mobs cannot spawn on bedrock, and players cannot ascend above Y=127 in Survival, so a common approach is to build at the Nether’s maximum build height (or to clear out spawning spots below) so your platforms dominate the mob cap. In Bedrock Edition, players can reach the top of the bedrock roof, and portal-based farms that rapidly cycle on and off can outperform natural-spawn designs. Either way, you want to be within 128 blocks of the platforms and away from other spawnable surfaces while the farm runs.
The fall-and-kill chamber
The classic design softens piglins with a fall, then lets you finish them in one hit. Here is the key behavior trick: neutral piglins avoid ledges that would hurt them, but once they are hostile toward you their pathfinding changes and they willingly walk off edges to reach you. So you anger the swarm (or lure them) and they funnel into a drop shaft.
- Magma spawn platforms — flat magma surfaces below the roof (Java) or on it (Bedrock).
- A drop shaft — pull piglins to a central hole. Falling more than 24 blocks kills zombified piglins outright; tune the height so survivors land at very low health for a one-hit kill, rather than dying mid-fall (a fall death skips the player-only loot).
- A kill platform — you stand here and strike each piglin once with a Looting III sword to claim ingots, swords and XP.
To draw piglins toward the drop point, builders often use lures the mobs path toward. The point is to concentrate them so your manual kills do all the loot-bearing work. Because XP and ingots now require your hand, fully automatic mob-grinder designs only give nuggets and flesh — treat any auto-killing as a bonus, not the main payout.
Rates and what to expect
The most powerful documented natural-spawn designs reach roughly 1,600 gold blocks per hour in ideal conditions, while a well-known manual design produces around 600 gold blocks per hour. Real survival numbers depend heavily on your platform area, how clean your spawn-proofing is, your Looting level and how fast you can swing. Even a modest farm easily outpaces mining for gold and turns out enough rotten flesh and gold for trading and brewing. Spend the gold on villager trades or build toward a beacon with your blocks.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my gold farm only dropping nuggets and rotten flesh?
That is the expected result for any death that is not a player or tamed-wolf kill. Gold ingots, golden swords and XP only drop when you (or your wolf) land the killing blow — a change made in Java Edition 1.21.5. Switch to a manual kill chamber and finish each piglin yourself.
How far should piglins fall before I hit them?
You want them low enough that one sword hit finishes them, but not so high they die from the fall. A drop of more than about 24 blocks is lethal, so tune slightly under that for survivors at low health. Test the height in your world, since armor, baby piglins and edition quirks shift the exact number.
Is the Crimson Forest a good place to build?
It works, but it is not the best. Crimson Forest piglins spawn in groups of 2–4 at a low spawn weight, while the Nether Wastes has a far higher weight and spawns groups of four. For volume, build over Nether Wastes or at the build-height limit above it.
Gold farms are even better with friends — a partner can AFK the spawning area while another runs the kill chamber, doubling throughput. If you want to grind one together, you can spin up a Minecraft server to play with friends and keep the farm running while everyone explores. For step-by-step setup help, see our Minecraft server documentation.
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