Iron Golem

"... There's at least one giant reason not to mess with villagers. Their loyal defenders that can't drown, suffer pain from falling or even be knocked back. Sentient statues that deal huge damage with just a single swing of their mighty arms. We pity you if you're caught attacking villagers – we really do – because then you've just made an enemy of the Iron Golem. Don't be surprised if that's the last thing you ever do – they're one of the hardest hitting mobs in the Overworld."

- Tom Stone

Iron golems are large, strong utility mobs that defend players and villagers.

Villages
Since Java Edition 1.14, an iron golem spawns based on villager gossip at a gathering point. The villager who starts the gossip must have a profession that is not nitwit, slept in the last 24000 ticks, been to their job site block in the last 36000 ticks, gossiped 5 times about the need for an iron golem, and have four other villagers within 80 blocks. The Iron Golem then has a chance to spawn in a 16×6×16 area centered on the location of the villager who spread the gossip.
 * Java Edition

Since Bedrock Edition 1.11, an iron golem can spawn when a village first generates naturally. An iron golem also spawns in villages having at least 21 beds and 10 villagers. The spawn volume is 4 blocks tall, and extending for 8 blocks in all directions around any of the beds.
 * Bedrock Edition

In Legacy Console Edition an iron golem spawned in a 16×6×16 area, centered vertically and horizontally between the bases of the 21 or more valid doors within a village occupied by at least 10 villagers.
 * Legacy Console Edition

In both Legacy Console and Bedrock, the chance of spawning is 1 in 7000 per game tick, which averages to one every five minutes and 50 seconds. Iron golems can spawn provided the blocks it spawns in are transparent and the block it spawns on has a solid flat top surface that is not a slab.

Creation
Iron Golems are created by placing four iron blocks in a T shape (as shown in the image), and then placing a carved pumpkin, a jack o'lantern or a pumpkin on top of the center upper block. The pumpkin may be placed by the player, a dispenser or a pumpkin stem, but it must be placed last. It needs space around it to be able to spawn and will not spawn in a confined area.

The block arrangement can be placed upright, lying down, or upside-down. The four empty spaces in the diagram (above and below each of the arms) must be air blocks. Any non-air block (including blocks such as snow layers, tall grass, and water) present in any of the empty spaces will prevent the golem from spawning.

Like other constructed mobs, iron golems always spawn facing south. Their large size may cause them to take suffocation damage from nearby solid blocks at the level of their head.

Pillager outposts
Iron golems can also be found surrounding pillager outposts, trapped inside of dark oak cages.

Drops
Iron golems drop when they die: The Looting enchantment is ineffective against iron golems as it does not give any extra iron ingots or poppies when killed.
 * 3–5 s
 * 0–2

Behavior
Iron golems are 2.7 blocks tall and 1.4 blocks wide.

Iron golems will wander around a village in a patrol-like fashion, staying close to the edges of buildings and other structures. Like villagers, iron golems will not wander away from a village, regardless of how they were spawned. Iron golems will sometimes face a villager, as if they are speaking to each other. Iron golems are able to spawn poppies in their hands and offer them to villagers, symbolizing the friendly relationship between the villagers and golems. However, they won't offer poppies to other iron golems.

If not within a village, iron golems will slowly wander around, usually making their way to a nearby village.

Iron golems can walk up a full block height without jumping and walk over a 1 block wide hole without falling in. They will avoid water, lava, fire and cacti. Iron golems are immune to both drowning and fall damage. When in water, they will sink, immobilize, and become passive, but will still be pushed by flowing water and by bubble columns. In Bedrock Edition they can move freely when in and under water.

Like all utility mobs, iron golems can be leashed.

Attacking
When provoked, an iron golem will move quickly toward its target and swing its arms up violently to attack, dealing to  damage and flinging the target into the air. Iron golems have a comparatively large attack range, allowing them to attack through a solid 1 block thick wall, even without a line of sight to the target.

Iron golems have a chance of accidentally hitting another mob while attacking a hostile mob. Sometimes the golems will accidentally hit each other and fight, usually resulting in one or more golems dying. Additionally, it is possible for multiple golems to simultaneously hit the same target. The height to which the victim is sent flying is relative to the number of golems that attack it.

Iron golems will attack most hostile or neutral mobs within 32 blocks of them, although they are not effective on flying mobs (ender dragon, wither, phantom). Additionally, pufferfish are the only passive mob they will attack should either get close to the other.

A naturally-spawned iron golem know raiding illager locations from behind solid walls and from underground, and will move toward them. An iron golem created by the player or summoned by a command cannot detect raiding illagers through obstructions.

Being attacked
Zombies, skeletons, spiders, cave spiders, slimes, magma cubes, vindicators and evokers will naturally attack iron golems on sight, and may cause major damage, especially if the mobs attack in groups. If an iron golem is attacked by multiple mobs, it will retaliate in the order it was attacked. In Bedrock Edition, endermites, silverfishes and witches may naturally attack it too.

Iron golems have 100% knockback resistance. However, they can be knocked back by the Knockback enchantment on swords and the Punch enchantment on bows.

Data values
Iron golems have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia



 * The iron golem's holding out flowers to villagers is a reference to the ancient robots in Hayao Miyazaki's animated film Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
 * When villager children notice the poppy in its hand, they will slowly approach, and take the flower eventually. Iron golems do not actually pick up poppies; they spawn them in their hands.
 * Tamed wolves will continue to attack iron golems even after the iron golems have turned passive towards the player.
 * If a player throws an ender pearl at an iron golem, it will become hostile.
 * Even with a poppy in its hands, an iron golem can still hit a hostile mob.
 * If an iron golem is in a boat, no other entities except for a player can ride as a passenger or control the boat.
 * According to the illustrations in Mobestiary, the Iron Golem may in fact be a machine.
 * This is interesting to note, as the original inspiration for the Iron Golem were machines.

Publicity

 * The iron golem is a purchasable avatar item on the Xbox 360 Marketplace.