Overview
A village pays for itself faster than any other structure in the game, because it is the only one you can farm indefinitely without fighting anything. The loop is simple: wall the perimeter, pair one bed with one job site block for every villager you want employed, and start trading. Librarians come first — an unemployed villager beside a lectern rerolls its book offer every time you break and replace that lectern, so Mending is a matter of patience rather than luck. Farmers buy surplus wheat, carrots and potatoes, which turns a field of dirt into a steady emerald income, and toolsmiths and armourers will sell you diamond gear before you have mined a single diamond yourself. The second reason to settle here is iron: a village whose residents sleep and work spawns iron golems on its own, and a golem farm built from a handful of relocated villagers answers iron for the rest of the world. Protect what you build, because a villager killed by a zombie is gone for good, while one merely converted into a zombie villager can be cured with a splash Potion of Weakness and a Golden Apple — and the cure permanently slashes that villager's prices, often to a single emerald.
Emeralds, enchanted books and diamond armour bought rather than mined, a bell, free crops, a bed you did not have to craft, and a renewable iron supply once golems start spawning. It is also the only place a villager can be cured for permanent discounts.
Villages generate in five architectural variants — plains, desert, savanna, taiga and snowy — each built from local materials with its own house shapes, and the variant is fixed by the biome of the village centre even if it sprawls across a border. A village is a cluster of houses, farms, paths, a well, and job site blocks that assign villagers their professions. Iron golems appear on their own once several villagers have both slept in a bed and worked at a job site block — the old rule of twenty beds and ten villagers was replaced in 1.14. Desert villages are the only place camels generate, and every village is a raid target once you carry Bad Omen.
It is common in the Overworld, restricted to Plains, Meadow, Sunflower Plains, Desert and 4 more, and it generates on the surface.
How to get it
Villages sit on the surface in plains, meadow, sunflower plains, desert, savanna, taiga and snowy biomes, and walking 1,000 blocks in a straight line across flat terrain usually crosses at least one. At night they give themselves away as clusters of lit windows and torch-lined paths.
Tips
- Wall or fence the whole village before your second night: one zombie that reaches a villager costs you a trade you cannot replace.
- Keep beds and job site blocks paired one for one — unpaired villagers stop restocking their trades and golem spawning stalls with them.
- Trade with a villager at least once before you move it; an employed villager keeps its profession, an unemployed one rerolls at the new job block.
- Cure a zombie villager rather than killing it, and read villager trading and cheap Mending before you build the trading hall.
Version notes
Villages were rebuilt from scratch in 1.14 with five biome variants, job site blocks and levelled trading; before that they had no professions worth the name. Desert villages became the only natural camel spawn in 1.20.
Properties
It generates in the Overworld, which is the only dimension with a day-night cycle and weather, and the one every distance in the game is measured against. In a world with cheats on, /locate structure minecraft:village gives the coordinates of the nearest one. Without cheats, an explorer map from a cartographer villager is the reliable route for the structures that have one; everything else is exploration.
- Biomes it generates in
- 8
- Notable loot items
- 8
Where it generates
Village generates in 8 biomes: Plains, Meadow, Sunflower Plains, Desert, Savanna, Taiga, Snowy Plains, and Snowy Taiga. Outside those it will not generate at all, however far you travel.
Notable loot
Its loot includes Emerald, Iron Ingot, Bread, Wheat, Saddle, Iron Pickaxe, Enchanted Book, and Obsidian. These are the notable entries rather than the full loot table — the common filler (bread, coal, iron nuggets) is omitted, and in some structures the best of it comes from a vault or a spawner rather than a chest.
Mobs found here
Villager, Iron Golem, Cat, and Camel generate here. Several of them spawn nowhere else, which is usually the reason to make the trip.
What to watch out for
4 things to prepare for before you go in:
- Zombie sieges at night can convert villagers
- Raids triggered by Bad Omen
- Falling into the well shaft
- Illager patrols wandering in
Guides and tools that cover this
Frequently asked questions
How many villagers does a village need before iron golems appear?
Three or more villagers who have both slept in a bed and worked at a job site block will gossip a golem into existence. The old rule of twenty beds and ten villagers has not applied since 1.14.
Can a village be moved somewhere safer?
Yes — push villagers along in boats or minecarts, then place beds and job blocks at the destination. The village centre follows the beds, so the whole settlement can be relocated a few hundred blocks at a time.
Do villagers respawn if they die?
No. Villagers only appear again through breeding, which needs two willing villagers, three spare beds and a supply of bread, carrots, potatoes or beetroot.
How do I find Village?
Village generates in the Overworld, only in Plains, Meadow, Sunflower Plains, Desert and 4 more, and is common. /locate structure minecraft:village finds the nearest one instantly with cheats on.
What loot is in Village?
The notable entries are Emerald, Iron Ingot, Bread, Wheat, Saddle, Iron Pickaxe and 2 more.
When was Village added?
Village was added in Java Edition 1.0.0.
Related pages
Structures that share Village's loot, its mobs or its biomes — not simply the next few in the list.
