Movement patterns[edit]

Nitwit and unemployed villagers leave their homes at day and begin to explore the village. Generally, they wander
aimlessly inside the village during the day. They may go indoors or outdoors, and they periodically make mumbling
sounds. Occasionally, two villagers may stop and turn to look at each other, in a behavior called socializing, during
which they stare at another villager for 4-5 seconds at a time. They continuously stare at a nearby player unless the
villager is trying to get into a house at night, farm food, work, or flee from a zombie or pillager.
In Bedrock Edition, villagers do not stop continuously in front of players, though they still do stare as they move.
They also sprint away if the player attacks them.
Villagers tend to not travel far from their beds in a large village, unless the job site or the nearest gossip site (Bell) is
far from their beds.
Villagers, like other mobs, can find paths around obstructions, avoid walking off cliffs, and avoid some blocks that
cause harm. However, in crowded situations, it is possible for one villager to push another off a cliff or into harm's
way.
Villagers run inside at night or during rain, closing doors behind them. They attempt to sleep at night, but if they
cannot claim a bed, they stay indoors until morning. In the morning they head outside and resume normal behavior,
However some villagers stay outside later than others unless being chased by a pillager or zombie.
Villagers flee from zombies, zombie pigmen, vindicators, pillagers, ravagers, and vexes within 8 blocks,
and evokers and illusioners within 12 blocks.
If a villager finds itself outside the village boundary, or a villager without a village detects a village boundary within
32 blocks, it moves quickly back within the boundary. A villager taken more than 32 blocks away from its village
boundary forgets the village within about 6 seconds. Whether in a village or not, a villager is never prone
to despawning.
Villagers cannot open trapdoors, fence gates, or iron doors, but can open all kinds of wooden doors and can climb
ladders. (though not intentionally.)
When moving inside, villagers prefer doors within 16 blocks (Euclidean distance) and also tends to prefer doors with
fewer villagers nearby, however "nearby" in this case is only 1.5 blocks and, when moving inside, villagers prefer to
move 2.5 blocks inside when the inside is to the south or east and therefore out of range of this check. During the
day, it has been observed that villagers tend to cluster near a trapped villager or any existing large cluster of
villagers, likely due to the "socialize" AI routine overriding their inclination to wander. Conversely,
in Java and Bedrock editions, villagers have a set schedule in which they socialize and mingle at gathering sites
(near a bell) at midday.

Job site blocks[edit]

For a list of job site blocks and the professions they are required for, see § Professions.
In Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, villagers (other than babies and nitwits) seek employment by searching a 48
block horizontal radius[verify] for a job site block. An unemployed villager acquires a profession and a job by claiming
the first unclaimed job site block it can detect in that area. A job site block can be detected as long as it is in range,
not already claimed and the villager can pathfind to the block to claim it. This means if they can't see or get to the
block, they won't claim it. When the block is claimed, its owner emits green particles [Bedrock Edition only] and no other
villager can claim it unless the owner relinquishes it.
If a job site block is broken or destroyed, its owner (if any) emits anger particles [Bedrock Edition only] and becomes jobless,
but retains its profession if it has been traded with. A villager who already has a profession but no job site attempts
to find one:

 A novice level villager (one who has only its first tier trades unlocked) can claim any job site block and
changes its profession along with acquiring a new job (they change profession only if they have not been traded
with at all).
 Villagers above the novice level can claim a job site block only if the block is associated with their
profession.

Villagers can change profession only during the day.

Gossiping[edit]
Spreading gossip informs other villagers of the reputation of players. Villagers acquire pieces of gossip through
various means, and spread them to other villagers when they converse. There are five types of
gossip: major_negative , minor_negative , major_positive , minor_positive ,
and trading . major_positive cannot be shared.
A villager generates minor_negative gossip if it is attacked by a player, major_negative gossip if it is killed by a
player (which is immediately shared with all other nearby
villagers), major_positive and minor_positive gossip if it is cured by a player, and trading gossip if a player
traded with the villager. Negative reputation cause villagers to increase their prices for the player in question, while
positive reputation results in lower prices. Overall reputation also determines the hostility of the village iron
golem toward the player.
Each piece of gossip has a type, a target, and a strength or "value". The target is the player who caused the gossip.
If a piece of gossip would be generated in or spread to a villager, but the villager already has a piece of gossip with
the same type and target, the existing gossip's strength is increased instead. If the gossip has a high strength then
villagers are more likely to share that gossip.
When a gossip is shared, it is received at a reduced value. The reduction varies by gossip type (-20 for trading , -5
for minor_negative & minor_positive and -10 for major_negative ). Gossips also reduce in value every 20
minutes by various amounts (-2 for trading , -20 for minor_negative , -10 for major_negative and -1
for minor_positive ; major_positive does not reduce).

Picking up items[edit]
Villagers have eight hidden inventory slots, which start empty whenever the villager is spawned. Villagers do not
intentionally seek out items to pick up, but they do collect any bread, carrots, potatoes, wheat, wheat
seeds, beetroot and beetroot seeds within range. These are the only items they can pick up, although the player
may use the /replaceitem command to put an arbitrary item into a villager's inventory. If a player and a villager
are in the pickup range of an item at the same time, the player always picks it up first.
A villager can hold a maximum of 4 stacks of the same item.
When killed or converted to a zombie villager, any inventory item of the villager is lost, even when gamerule
keepInventory is set to true
Villagers cannot pick up items if /gamerule mobGriefing is false .
A dispenser can be used, if adjacent to a villager, to place armor on it. While not visible (except pumpkins and mob
heads), the equipment functions as normal; for example, villagers with an armor piece enchanted with Thorns can
inflict Thorns damage to any enemy that attacks it.

Sharing food[edit]
If a villager has enough food in one inventory stack (6 bread or 24 carrots, potatoes, beetroots, or 18 wheat for
farmers only) and sees a villager without enough food in one inventory stack (3 bread,12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12
beetroots for non-Farmers; 15 bread, 60 carrots, potatoes, or beetroot, or 45 wheat for Farmers), the villager may
decide to share food with that villager.
To share, a villager finds his first inventory stack with at least 4 bread, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot or with at least 6
wheat, and then throws half the stack (rounded down) in the direction of the target villager. When wheat is shared, it
is first crafted to bread which may result in 1 or 2 less than half the stack being shared.

Farming[edit]
Farmer villagers tend crops within the village boundary. Villagers far enough outside the boundary of any village also
tend nearby crops.
Farmland to be tended is found by seeking for certain blocks up to 15 blocks away from the villager in the X and Z
coordinates and up to 1 away in the Y coordinate (a 31×31×3 area total).

 If a farmer villager does not have enough food in one stack in its inventory (15 bread, 60 carrots, 60
potatoes, 60 beetroot, or 45 wheat) and finds fully-grown wheat, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot, the villager
moves to the crop block and harvests it.
 If a farmer villager has any seeds, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot seeds in his inventory and finds an air block
above farmland, the villager moves to it and plants a crop. They always plant from the first eligible slot in their
inventory.
 If /gamerule mobGriefing is false , villagers cannot farm.

Breeding[edit]
For a tutorial on breeding mechanics in Java and Bedrock editions, see Tutorials/Village mechanics. For
breeding mechanics in Legacy Console Edition, see Tutorials/Legacy Console village mechanics.
Adult villagers breed depending on the time of the day, and need to be willing in order to spawn § Baby villagers,
which also require beds.
If a villager dies to a non-mob, non-player source while a player is within 16 blocks (spherical radius), or if a monster
kills a villager, then villager breeding ceases for approximately 3 minutes.
The breeding depends on the number of valid beds. If a villager is "willing" (see below), villagers breed as long as
the population is less than 100% of valid beds. All baby villagers are initially unemployed. Willing villagers reproduce
as long as there are unclaimed beds available within the limits of the village.
A census is periodically taken to determine the current population of the village. All villagers within the horizontal
boundary of the village and within 5 vertical blocks[Java and Legacy Console editions only] of the center are counted as part of the
population to determine if continued villager mating is allowed. However, any villager within the horizontal boundary
of the village and within the spherical boundary of the village attempts to enter mating mode as long as there is at
least one villager within the boundary. If two villagers simultaneously enter mating mode while they are close to one
another, they breed and produce a child. The child is born unemployed, and the biome depends on where the
breeding occurs, even if both parents are from a different biome.
Two villagers mating

Willingness[edit]
Villagers must be "willing" in order to breed. After mating, they cease to be willing, and must be made willing again
before breeding.
Villagers must have enough beds within village bounds for baby villagers to spawn. The beds must have two blocks
of clearance above them, because there needs to be room for the baby villager to jump on them (this means that
the baby villager needs to be able to path-find the bed, it can't be in an unreachable spot).
Villagers can become willing by having either 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots in one stack in their
inventory. Any villager with an excess of food (usually farmers) throw food to other villagers, allowing them to pick it
up and obtain enough food to become willing. The player can also throw bread, carrots, beetroots, or potatoes at the
villagers themselves to encourage breeding. Villagers consume the required food upon becoming willing.
If /gamerule mobGriefing is false , villagers won't pick up food.

Baby villagers[edit]
Baby villagers sprint around, entering and leaving houses at will. They sometimes stop sprinting to stare at an iron
golem. If the iron golem is holding out a poppy, the children may cautiously take the flower from its hands. They tend
to group and chase one another around the village as if playing tag. They also jump on beds.
Baby villagers give gifts of poppies or seeds to players who have the Hero of the Village effect.[Java Edition only]
Baby villagers in Bedrock Edition have a slightly bigger head than in Java Edition and Legacy Console Edition; this
also can be seen in other baby mobs in the game as well. [Bedrock Edition only]
A baby villager becomes an adult 20 minutes after birth.

Zombies and drowned[edit]

Main articles: Siege and Zombie
Villagers flee from zombies and drowned, sometimes hiding in houses. Villagers also flee from zombie pigmen,
although zombie pigmen do not attack villagers.
A villager's only "natural" defense are the iron golems, which attack nearby hostile mobs.
Zombies and drowned seek out and attack villagers within a 42 block radius (even when the villager is invisible).
Zombies attempt to break down doors, but only a fraction of zombies have the capacity to do so, and can succeed
only when difficulty is set to hard. Zombies who cannot break doors tend to crowd around a door that separates
them from a villager.
Both zombies and drowned kill villagers or convert them to zombie villagers. The chance of the villager becoming a
zombie villager upon death if the difficulty is set to Easy is 0%, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard. Baby villagers
can be infected by zombies as well. Drowned can convert villagers to zombie villagers even when attacking from a
distance with a trident.

Lightning[edit]
When lightning strikes within 3–4 blocks of a villager, the villager is replaced by a witch.

Raids[edit]
During a raid, villagers flee from illagers and run to the nearest house, similar to a zombie siege. For a villager to
hide, the house must have a door and at least one bed.
Before the first raid wave in Java Edition, at least one villager rushes to ring the bell in the center of the village (if
they are close enough) to warn the other villagers of an incoming raid before going into their house.
in Bedrock Edition, the bell rings automatically regardless of whether a villager is nearby.
A villager often stays in the house it first entered, but may exit the house occasionally. The player can still trade with
villagers during a raid.[Java and Bedrock editions only][verify]
On random occasions the villager displays water particles as if sweating.
Once the player gains the Hero of the Village status after defeating a raid, villagers give them a discount for their
trades and throw them gifts related to their profession. [Java Edition only] For a list of items they can gift, see Hero of the
Village § Gifts.
Schedules[edit]
Villagers have set schedules depending on their age and employment status. Schedules define the villager's goals, which
mostly determine how they behave throughout the day. However, their goals can be interrupted by higher priority
behaviors most villagers have, such as fleeing from an attack, trading, and getting out of the rain.

Time (ticks) Employed Unemployed Child Nitwit

00000 Work / Breeding Sleep

Wander
02000 Work
Play
08000 Gather

10000 Work Wander Wander

11000 Home / Breeding Home

12000

13000 Sleep Home

14000 Sleep

Working[edit]
Employed villagers spend most of their day standing next to their job site blocks. From time to time they "gather
supplies" by wandering a short distance away, then returning.
Some professions have additional job-specific goals that are part of their work schedule:

 Farmers harvest and sow crops.

 Librarians inspect bookshelves.

When a villager reaches its own job site block, it will "work". Two times a day, this action of working resupplies any
locked trades. Villagers can resupply twice per day, even without having a bed or while sitting in a minecart. A
villager can "reach" its job site block if the block is in any of the 8 directly adjacent or diagonal block spaces
horizontally around him at the height of their feet, or at the 9 blocks below that. Villagers can still "reach" them
diagonally, even if they can't actually see or touch a face of the block.

Wandering[edit]
All villagers wander from time to time, but for the unemployed, wandering is their main goal because it maximizes
their ability to find a job site block they can claim (thereby becoming employed). A wandering villager chooses a
random block and walks toward it, then stands there for a variable amount of time before wandering again. If at any
time it detects a job site block it can claim, it does so, assumes the skin for the associated profession, and
immediately begins following the appropriate schedule.
A villager attempts to claim a job site block by finding a path to a block next to one, showing angry particles when
unable to reach it. After a villager fails to reach the job site block several times, it becomes unclaimed, indicated by
showing angry particles on it. The villager loses its job site block and eventually becomes unemployed if the villager
is at novice-level and no nearby job site block is available. Any other nearby unemployed villager has a chance to
become the block's new owner. If there are no unemployed villagers nearby, then the villager who lost the job site
block seeks for another unclaimed one, or tries to reclaim the same unreachable one in an endless loop (this also
happens for claiming beds).
The wander schedule includes a job-specific goal called "exploring the outskirts" that causes villagers to wander
near the edges of the village. This enables them to detect new beds, job site blocks, and bells that players have
used to extend the village.

Gathering[edit]
Late in the day, adult villagers (other than nitwits) gather at a meeting place (the area around a bell). When two
villagers encounter one another, they mingle (look at each other and "converse" by humming at other villagers).
They may also share food, or breed if both are willing.
If a villager isn't close enough to detect a bell, it wanders randomly, searching for one.

Playing[edit]

Villager children chasing one another.

Baby villagers wander randomly searching for others to play with. When they find one, the two of them follow each
other for a while and sometimes run as if racing or chasing each other.
Baby villagers wander randomly searching for beds to jump on.
They sometimes stop to stare at an iron golem. If the iron golem holds out a poppy, the baby villager cautiously
accepts it.

Returning home[edit]
All villagers except Nitwits head home a short time before sunset and Nitwits go home after sunset. They roam
around for a while, eventually targeting a block beside their bed. Once they reach it, they do not go through a door
again before sleeping.
A villager who has no bed simply waits inside a house until morning.

Sleeping[edit]

A villager sleeping in a bed at night.

At sunset, most villagers lie down in their beds and remain there until morning. (Nitwits stay up later at night and get
up later in the morning.) A villager wakes early if food is thrown at them, they are pushed out of bed, or if their bed is
destroyed. In Bedrock Edition, they also wake up when their bed is used or they are attacked.
If possible, they return to sleeping in a bed after the interruption. When villagers successfully sleep, they
immediately heal themselves when waking up at dawn.
A villager who has no bed continues wandering in search of a bed to claim.
Sleeping villagers wake up when a bell is rung.
 [hide]Biome

Profession
Job site block
Jungle Swamp
Desert [note 1] Plains Savanna Snow [note 1] Taiga

Unemployed N/A

Armorer Blast Furnace

Butcher Smoker

Cartographer Cartography Table

Cleric Brewing Stand

Farmer Composter

Fisherman Barrel

Fletcher Fletching Table

 Leatherworker Cauldron

Librarian Lectern

Stone Mason[BE only]

Stonecutter
Mason[JE only]

Nitwit N/A

Shepherd Loom

Toolsmith Smithing Table

Weaponsmith Grindstone

Equipment needed to cure a zombie villager[edit]

Required[edit]
 1 Zombie Villager
 1 Splash Potion of Weakness or Arrow of Weakness
 1 regular Golden Apple

Optional[edit]
 Any type of expendable block (i.e. dirt or cobblestone)
 Torches
 A full set of armor, preferably iron or above
 Any type of mining tool, such as a pickaxe for stone or shovel for dirt
 Iron bars and a bed to speed up the curing process

Finding and crafting the equipment[edit]

Splash Potion of Weakness[edit]
To create a Splash Potion of Weakness, it must be brewed using a brewing stand, which can either be crafted using
blaze rods and cobblestone or found in a igloo basement, end ship, or a cleric house in a village.

 To brew a Splash Potion of Weakness, you will need:

 1Fermented Spider Eye, which can be crafted with spider eyes, brown mushroom, and sugar
 1 to 3 water bottles, which can be obtained by right-clicking a water source with glass bottles
  1 gunpowder, which can be obtained from creepers and ghasts or found in naturally-generated
chests
 1blaze powder to fuel the brewing stand

Place the three water bottles and the fermented spider eye in the brewing stand, then insert the blaze powder to
initiate the brewing process. Once your potions have brewed, place in the gunpowder to convert them into splash
potions.
A splash potion of weakness can also be found placed in igloo brewing stands.

Arrow of Weakness[edit]
Arrows of Weakness provide an alternative to Splash Potions of Weakness and eliminate the risk of splashing
yourself with the weakness potion; however, they are harder to obtain than splash potions.
To craft arrows of weakness, you will need to brew a Lingering Potion of Weakness, which can be done by brewing
a Splash Potions of Weakness with dragon's breath.

 Dragon's breath can be obtained by right-clicking the Ender Dragon dragon breath or dragon fireball clouds
with an empty glass bottle in hand
 Combine eight arrows and a Lingering Potion of Weakness in a crafting table, and you will craft eight Arrows
of Weakness.

Alternatively, there are multiple methods to obtain arrows of weakness without having to fight the Ender Dragon:

 Arrows of weakness can be obtained by filling a cauldron with a Potion of Weakness and then using arrows
on it. A full cauldron will tip up to a stack of arrows. [Bedrock, Legacy Console and New Nintendo 3DS editions only]
 Arrows of weakness can be obtained through trades with master level fletcher villagers.

Unenchanted Golden Apple[edit]

Unenchanted golden apples are crafted from eight gold ingots and an apple in a crafting table.
They can also naturally generate in:

 stronghold altars
 large underwater ruin chests
 dungeon chests
 desert pyramid chests
 mineshaft minecart chests
 woodland mansion chests
 igloo chests

Finding a zombie villager[edit]

Zombie villagers spawn in place of a normal zombie 5% of the time and can also be found in igloo
basements and zombie villages. Manually scouting your base's perimeter during night is a good way to find zombie
villagers.

Curing a zombie villager[edit]

1. When you find a zombie villager, secure it in a safe area that no hostile mobs can break into. Make sure to
include a roof so the zombie villager does not burn when the night ends.
2. Select the Splash Potion of Weakness or your bow if you are using Arrows of Weakness.
3. Throw the splash potion/shoot the tipped arrow at the zombie villager. If done correctly, the zombie villager
should have gray swirls emanating from it; this means that the zombie villager is currently inflicted
with weakness.
4. Feed the zombie villager the golden apple, done by facing the zombie villager and pressing the use key. If
done correctly, the zombie villager will begin to emit red particles and start shaking. Note that Iron bars and
beds will speed up the curing process.
5. After 2 to 5 minutes have elapsed, the zombie villager will convert into a normal villager. Note that if you
found your zombie villager in an igloo basement or a zombie village, you will most likely have to transport
them via boats, minecarts, upward bubble columns, nether portals, or other ways of manual movement, as
villagers cannot be leashed unlike other mobs.

After the zombie has been cured, you will obtain the Zombie Doctor achievement/advancement if it has not been
obtained yet. If the cured villager has a profession, it will permanently provide heavy discounts while trading. [Java
Edition only]