Fight a Zombie Horde at Your Door
Night falls and the groaning starts. Fourteen zombies, sometimes more, converge on the one block of wood between you and them. Panic and you get surrounded and chewed from three sides. Hold the line and a fourteen-strong horde becomes a single-file queue you cut down two at a time.
The whole fight comes down to one idea: make them line up. Win the geometry and the gear does the rest.
A zombie horde only beats you if it surrounds you. Everything below is built to deny that. Stand one block back from a doorway or inside a 1-wide tunnel so the AI can only deliver one zombie to your face at a time, while the rest pile up uselessly behind it.
Block with your shield, drop it, swing a timed sweep into the stacked pack, raise the shield again. Knockback II resets the front zombie's reach on every hit, so the queue keeps collapsing backward. With Sweeping Edge III each swing clips 5-6 zombies for chip damage, so the back ranks die before they ever reach the door.
Keep a Totem in your off-hand slot for the rare night a creeper or husk slips the line, and light your perimeter to level 8+ before the next dusk so there is no encore.
Clearing a horde, counted per zombie
A horde is twenty health per body and the fight is decided by how fast you can repeat the same swing. The last column counts full strength hits per zombie: three with a netherite sword and two with a netherite axe, but the sword gets to those three in under two seconds while the axe needs two.
| Weapon | Damage per hit | Full swings per second | Damage per second | Hits per 20 health zombie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherite Axe | 10 | 1 | 10 | 2 |
| Diamond Axe | 9 | 1 | 9 | 3 |
| Iron Axe | 9 | 0.9 | 8.1 | 3 |
| Copper Axe | 9 | 0.8 | 7.2 | 3 |
| Stone Axe | 9 | 0.8 | 7.2 | 3 |
| Netherite Sword | 8 | 1.6 | 12.8 | 3 |
| Diamond Sword | 7 | 1.6 | 11.2 | 3 |
| Golden Axe | 7 | 1 | 7 | 3 |
| Wooden Axe | 7 | 0.8 | 5.6 | 3 |
| Iron Sword | 6 | 1.6 | 9.6 | 4 |
| Copper Sword | 5 | 1.6 | 8 | 4 |
| Stone Sword | 5 | 1.6 | 8 | 4 |
| Wooden Sword | 4 | 1.6 | 6.4 | 5 |
| Golden Sword | 4 | 1.6 | 6.4 | 5 |
Quick answers
+How much damage does a zombie deal?
+Can zombies break my door?
+What is the best sword enchant for a horde?
+Why do my hits feel weak?
+Should I use a shield or armor?
+How do I stop zombies from spawning the next night?
+How much health does a zombie have?
+Sword or axe against a group?
Blocks and items in this guide
Totem Of Undying
Netherite Sword
Diamond Sword
Splash Potion
Copper Sword
Golden Apple
Golden Sword
Wooden SwordAll 8 of these are named in the guide above, starting with Totem Of Undying. Look them up in the item database.