Zombie vs door with “Mining Fatigue III” in Minecraft

Hi everyone! Today I want to share an experiment that honestly surprised me. I decided to find out: how fast can a zombie break a wooden door — and what happens if we give it the “Mining Fatigue III” effect? First thought: zombies are tough, what’s the difference! But it turned out much more interesting.

Step one: zombie without effects

I started with the simplest setup. Night, survival, a wooden door (a true newbie classic!), I lead a zombie to the door and… He doesn’t hesitate — starts breaking it right away. I barely blinked twice before the door crashed down. The whole experiment took just a few seconds! Nothing new here — in Minecraft, zombies vs doors, zombies almost always win.

Step two: zombie with “Mining Fatigue III”

Now the fun part. I summon another test subject, but first — the command: /effect give @e[type=zombie,limit=1,sort=nearest] minecraft:mining_fatigue 60 2. I watch closely: the zombie freezes before the door, and everything seems to slow down. It pokes the wood, knocks and knocks, and the door just stands there! Seriously, it can try for a minute, two, five — no damage at all. That was a surprise! I even had a tea right behind the door to double‑check. Door intact, zombie disappointed.

Observations during the experiment:

A regular zombie breaks a door in about 3–5 seconds.

A zombie with “Mining Fatigue III” can’t break the door at all — not even a crack!

Visually it still looks like it’s attacking, but in practice the door takes no damage.

Pros and cons of this approach

Pros:

• The door becomes fully protected from zombies with “Mining Fatigue III.”
• You can safely experiment or set up mini‑games without the risk of a horde breaking in.
• A fun way to surprise friends or followers with unusual mob behavior.

Cons:

• In regular survival it’s hard (or impossible) to apply this effect en masse to all zombies.
• The protection only works against zombies: other mobs can breach the defense in their own ways.
• You lose some of the challenge and “zombie apocalypse” vibe — it becomes too easy.

Conclusions

This experiment really changed how I see home defense against a zombie apocalypse! Turns out, if you somehow apply “Mining Fatigue III” to a zombie (via map or command), your wooden door becomes an impenetrable wall for them. In normal gameplay it’s not easy to apply this effect, of course, but for creative or mini‑games it’s a great find.

I recommend repeating the experiment: the results are surprisingly fun and clear! Maybe you’ll notice something else interesting? Share your stories — it’ll be great to read and discuss together!