In Minecraft, there are approximately 40 different food items available for consumption. These range from quite beneficial to rather unpleasant. Among these, you can find spider eyes, poisonous potatoes, and any type of raw meat. However, there’s also a particularly repulsive category that includes just one item—rotten flesh.
Rotten flesh was introduced in the Minecraft Bedrock beta version 1.8. Alongside it came steaks, experience orbs, melons, ender pearls, and Endermen. The addition of rotten flesh helped resolve a peculiar issue: previously, zombies dropped feathers upon death, which were needed for arrows, but now they have shed this burden and truly embraced their zombie nature!
Let’s take a step back and examine the earlier events that led to the evolution of zombies. Initially, chickens emerged as the feather producers, which made much more sense than before. However, another issue arose: what kind of drop item should zombies have? “What are they even made of?” the team pondered. Naturally, the answer was rotten flesh.
To obtain rotten flesh, you need to eliminate zombies. However, in addition to that, you can also acquire it from drowned creatures, corpses, zombie horses, villager zombies, zoglins, and piglin zombies. Essentially, these are all entities within the zombie family tree. Furthermore, rotten flesh can be discovered in chests and while fishing. If you tame a cat, it will occasionally bring you these delightful morsels. As a seasoned zombie hunter, over time, the amount of flesh in your chests will grow so large that you’ll start wondering what to do with it.
The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, to eat it. Even though it restores two hunger points, rotten flesh is likely to inflict a debuff that makes your character feel hungry more often. However, this effect only triggers once, so you can stave off the decline in saturation levels by consuming rotten flesh as frequently as possible.
Wolves have significantly stronger stomachs than humans, allowing them to consume rotten flesh without any negative effects. In fact, wolves are so fond of this food that you can use it to tame them, heal them, and even accelerate the growth of their pups.
If all the previous methods of utilizing rotten flesh have proven ineffective, we can suggest something else. Some rural priests occasionally purchase 32 pieces of rotten flesh for a single emerald. It’s not entirely clear what they need it for. Perhaps the priests are breeding massive packs of wolves, or maybe they’re involved in much darker and more secretive activities…
Let’s discuss rotten flesh in the real world, particularly regarding zombies. The first and foremost thing to understand is that zombies do not exist. The term originates from Haitian folklore, which likely drew influence from West African traditions. Breaking down the word “zombie,” you get “nzambi,” meaning God, and “zumbi”—an entity with supernatural powers.
In the past few decades, zombies have become common protagonists in films and video games. They often take on human-like forms, exhibit characteristics similar to humans, and sometimes even form friendships with their living counterparts.
The zombies in Minecraft resemble disheveled beings that are of no assistance and constantly make odd noises. It’s unlikely you’ll view a zombie as a companion, but who knows what one golden apple might achieve.
The zombies in Minecraft resemble disheveled beings that are of no assistance and constantly make odd noises. It’s unlikely you’ll view a zombie as a companion, but who knows what one golden apple might achieve.
