Minecraft wiki entry for Superflat_survival, associated text: If you are playing a version before 1.17, then the most efficient way to get gold is to trap a zombie in water, wait for them to turn into drowned, and they have a 5% (increasable with the looting enchantment) chance of dropping a gold ingot. You need 8 gold ingots for a golden apple. After 1.17, drowned drop copper ingots, although drowned still drop a lot of gold armor, which can be smelted into gold nuggets and turned into ingots.