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With the release of Minecraft 1.3.1, there now a small chance that a zombie pigman will spawn next to a nether portal in the overworld. This has already happened to me twice in the space of a few hours.

Is there any way to prevent this from happening?

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I kinda like those guys coming over. Invited one in for tea and cookies, he had a look around our entire house while occasionally grunting at the furniture. Nice fellow. – Hex Aug 13 '12 at 15:48

3 Answers

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So far the only way to prevent pigmen from spawning is to turn off your Nether portal. You can do that by dumping water on the inside of the portal frame using a bucket or dispenser with a full bucket inside. Lighting the portal doesn't stop the pigmen from spawning, because I have a very well lit portal and one still spawned nearby. According to this answer, zombie pigmen spawn inside the portal so you can't put a transparent block to prevent spawning either.

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I finally witnessed one spawn last night and I can confirm that they do spawn inside the portal frame just like a player would, not "near" the portal as the wiki says. – Chris Nava Aug 14 '12 at 13:43
Yes, they're not spawing in the portal frame, guys. They're using the portal and teleporting from the Nether to the Overworld, which mobs can do. – Wyatt Spycher Dec 21 '12 at 23:23
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@Wyatt That is incorrect. The Nether chunks aren't loaded into memory when the player is in the overworld, so nothing "happens" there. zombie pigmen therefore can't "use" the portal, because the game isn't running any zombie pigmen. It just occasionally spawns one in the frame. Of course, "using" the portal is the story, but it's not what actually happens. Try fencing off the Nether side: zombie pigmen will still spawn. – SevenSidedDie Dec 22 '12 at 4:24
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Surround portal with a fence, so they can't get far once they spawn.

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A lava moat (with a user-controllable drawbridge) could work too. – Wikwocket Jan 22 at 5:35
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Well i just built a portal on a nice closed room with a cave over it, and the pigman spawned on the cave above.

I imagine that's because the cave was the closest valid position for the game to place a pigman in.

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