Villager

Villagers are passive mobs that inhabit villages, work at their professions, breed, and interact. Their clothing varies according to their occupation and biome. A player can trade with villagers, using emeralds as currency.

Natural generation
Villagers spawn in the houses with beds of their villages, which spawn in several biomes such as plains, snowy tundras, savannas, deserts, taigas, and snowy taigas.

A cleric villager and cleric zombie villager spawn locked up in the basements of igloos, under the carpet of the floor. In Bedrock Edition, the villager and zombie villager inside igloo basements have random professions instead of always being clerics.

Breeding
Adult villagers breed depending on the time of the day, and need to be willing in order to spawn, 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 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 attempt 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.

Willingness
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.

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 is, villagers won't pick up food.

Curing
Villagers spawn if a player uses a splash potion of weakness on a zombie villager and then feeds it a regular golden apple. It then shakes and becomes a villager within 2-5 minutes. The zombie villager's behavior is unchanged during this transition.

Zombie villagers
When a zombie kills a villager, it can turn the villager into a zombie villager, depending on the difficulty: 0% chance on easy, 50% chance on normal and 100% chance on hard. Zombie villagers also spawn naturally in the Overworld in the same conditions as a normal zombie, although much less commonly. Zombie villagers also spawn in zombie villages.

Illagers


Illagers are hostile villager-like mobs that spawn in woodland mansions as well as pillager outposts, illager patrols, or raids. There are four kinds: vindicators, evokers, pillagers, and illusioners along with two associated mobs: vexes and ravagers. Illagers are considered to be outcasts from villages. In addition to attacking players, they also attack villagers, wandering traders and iron golems. In Bedrock Edition, illagers do not attack baby villagers although baby villagers still flee from them.

Witches
Witches are hostile, villager-like mobs, which spawn in the overworld according to the usual mob spawning rules. They can also spawn in witch huts, or spawn when a villager gets struck by lightning. Witches may also spawn as a part of raids.

Wandering trader
Wandering traders spawn randomly around the world in Java Edition, or periodically in village gathering sites in Bedrock Edition. Two trader llamas spawn leashed to the wandering trader. Players may use emeralds to buy items from wandering traders, but cannot trade items for emeralds. Like villagers, wandering traders are attacked by most zombie variants, illagers, ravagers, and vexes.

NPC
NPCs are villager-like mobs in Education Edition and Bedrock Edition.

Drops
Both baby and adult villagers drop no items nor experience upon death, regardless of the cause.

Movement patterns
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 illager.

In Java Edition and 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 their job site or the nearest gossip site (Bell) is far from the villagers bed.

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.

Villagers flee from zombies, 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.

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, $$, villagers have a set schedule in which they socialize and mingle at gathering sites (near a bell) at midday.

Job site blocks
In Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, villagers (other than babies and nitwits) seek employment by searching a 48 block horizontal radius 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 immediately detected regardless of placement, reachability or even visibility, as long as it is in range and not already claimed. When the block is claimed, its owner emits green particles 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 and becomes jobless, but retains its profession if it has been traded with. Otherwise, the villager becomes unemployed unless there is another job site within its detection radius. 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.
 * Villagers above the novice level can claim a job site block only if the block is associated with their profession.

Villagers can change professions only during the day, even if it has job sites it can claim.

Gossiping
A feature necessary for iron golem spawning and some villager behavior is spreading gossip. Villagers acquire pieces of gossip through various means, and spread them to other villagers when they converse. There are six types of gossip:, although does not naturally appear in the game.

Some villager gossip affects the reputation of the player when the villager spreads it to others. A villager generates gossip if it is attacked by a player,  gossip if it is killed by a player (which is immediately lost with its death),  gossip if it is cured by a player, and  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.

Villagers also generate gossip on their own. If a villager has gossiped with five other villagers about a and the gossip is strong enough (greater than 30), an iron golem attempts to spawn within a 16×6×16 area around the villager who originally spread the gossip. The spawn attempt fails if the chosen spot is obstructed. If the spawn attempt succeeds, each of those gossip values are set to negative.

Each piece of gossip has a type, a target, and a strength or "value". For gossips the target is the villager who came up with the gossip. For reputation gossips, 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 act on the gossip over other types of gossip. For example, if a villager has a gossip value of 30 or higher and another villager has a  gossip value of 10–29 (and the iron golem gossip has been spread to at least five other villagers), the  gossip is prioritized over the  gossip and an iron golem spawns instead of villager trade prices decreasing. This effect also seems to decrease the competing gossip's value, sometimes to negative.

Picking up items
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 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 only hold a maximum of 4 stacks of the same item.

Villagers never drop the items in their inventory upon death.

Any items in their inventory are lost if a villager becomes a zombie villager; as zombie villagers have no inventory slots.

Villagers cannot pick up items if is.

A dispenser can be used, if adjacent to a villager, to place armor on it. While not visible in most cases (other than pumpkins and mob heads) the equipment still functions; for example, villagers with an armor piece enchanted with Thorns can inflict Thorns damage to any enemy that attacks it.

Sharing food
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 or 12 carrots, potatoes or beetroot 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
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, potatoes, or 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 is , villagers cannot farm.

Baby villagers
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 effect.

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.

A baby villager becomes an adult 20 minutes after birth.

Zombies and drowned
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 is 0% on Easy, 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
When lightning strikes within 3–4 blocks of a villager, the villager is replaced by a witch.

Raids
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, 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.

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.

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. For a list of items they can gift, see.

Schedules
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.

Working
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 will resupply 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. A villager can still "reach" it diagonally, even if he can't actually see or touch a face of the block.

Wandering
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 jobless if the villager is at novice-level and no nearby job site block is available. Any other nearby jobless villager has a chance to become the block's new owner. If there are no jobless 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
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
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
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 wanders in search of one it can claim.

Sleeping
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.) They get up early if, attacked, woken up, or if their bed is broken or a player  it. If possible, they return to sleeping in bed after the interruption. When villagers successfully sleep, they heal themselves when waking up at dawn.

Villagers who have no beds continue wandering and searching for a bed they can claim.

Professions
Each villager can have a profession, which can be identified by their clothing as well as by the title at the top of the trading interface. A villager can choose their profession by claiming a job site block. When they go to work, they use their daily schedule to get to their claimed job site block. Some professions, like farmers and librarians, do other things. Farmers plant crops, and librarians can inspect bookshelves.

A job site block can be claimed only if it is unclaimed and within a village boundary with at least 1 bed. Removal of a claimed job site block causes the owner to switch to another profession or become unemployed, provided that the villager has no prior trades with the player. If the villager has prior trades, it keeps its profession and claims a new job site block that matches its profession if one is available. So, once a player trades with a villager, the villager keeps its profession forever.

Nitwits and baby villagers cannot change their profession.

Novice-level villagers can lose their profession and change into unemployed villagers.

Unemployed adults actively seek for an unclaimed job site block and change into the corresponding profession.

Below is a table listing the various professions, along with the specific job site block that each profession requires:

Nitwit
"It started because players could summon villagers without a career by using commands: it was the only way to get villagers with green robes. Whenever we discover we have a bug which is used by the community we just see it as 'undefined behaviour' - and 'fix' it by making it a feature. In this case we just needed a profession for the green-robed villager. I don't remember what name we came up with first - I think it was 'unemployed' or something, but it doesn't really fit in the world, because I don't really think the other villagers are employed by anyone either. So I think the next suggestion was 'village idiot' but I thought 'nitwit' was a more fun name."

- Jeb about the Nitwit

Nitwit villagers wear green robes. They cannot acquire a profession, trade, or gather around bells. They wander around the village for about 2000 ticks after other villagers go to sleep, before seeking a bed. If they can claim a bed, they arise in the morning 2000 ticks after the rest of the village wakes up. A villager cannot change into a nitwit.

Appearance
Villagers and zombie villagers have seven skin types corresponding to the biome they spawn in. Their appearance also varies based on their profession and their five tiers. They show which trade tier they have unlocked by a badge of a varying material on their belt. A new tier is obtained every time a player trades with a villager and the badge appears as stone, then iron, gold, emerald and finally diamond. In Bedrock Edition villagers have three badge tiers: iron, gold, and diamond.

Villagers have different outfits depending on the biome where they spawned, which are:


 * Desert outfit: desert and badlands biome and variants
 * Savanna outfit: savanna biome and variants
 * Taiga outfit: taiga, giant tree taiga, and mountains biome and variants
 * Snow outfit: any snowy biomes (including frozen river and snowy beach and excluding frozen ocean and variants)
 * Swamp outfit: swamp biome and variants
 * Jungle outfit: jungle biome variants (including bamboo jungle)
 * Plains outfit: plains and all other biomes not listed above.

Villagers have 15 professions, which are as follows:
 * Farmer (straw hat)
 * Fisherman (fisher hat)
 * Shepherd (brown hat with white apron)
 * Fletcher (hat with feather and quiver on the back)
 * Cleric (purple apron and creeper cloak)
 * Weaponsmith (pirate eyepatch and black apron)
 * Armorer (welding mask)
 * Toolsmith (black apron)
 * Librarian (eyeglasses with book as a hat)
 * Cartographer (golden monocle)
 * Leatherworker (brown apron and brown gloves)
 * Butcher (red headband and white apron)
 * Stone Mason/Mason (black apron and black gloves)
 * Nitwit (green coated)
 * Unemployed (no overlay, base clothing of biome without extra features)

Trading


"Right click on a villager and you can trade with them, offering them emeralds in exchange for better equipment, maps to notable treasures or food. Unless you are trying to trade with a nitwit, of course, in which case you’re going to get squat. Who’s the nitwit now?"

- Marsh Davies

The trading system is a gameplay mechanic that allows players to buy and sell various items to and from villagers, using emeralds as a currency. Their trades can be good or bad, depending on what the cost is and what items the player might get. Only for adult villagers with professions can trade; the player cannot trade with nitwits, unemployed villagers, or baby villagers.

an employed villager allows a player to trade, making offers based on the villager's profession and profession level. All offers involve emeralds as a currency and some item related to the villager's profession. Trading can allow the acquisition of items that would otherwise be difficult to obtain, such as enchanted books with "treasure" enchantments (e.g. Mending) and bottles o' enchanting. When villagers get a new trade, pink particles and green cross particles appear. When a villager gives off particles from a new trade, they get 10 seconds of Regeneration I (totaling to of restoration).

Completing a trade with a villager increases its profession level slightly. As it advances through its profession, the villager offers additional trades.

The villager's supply of an item is exhausted, and the trade is temporarily locked after the player has traded for that item a maximum allowable number of times (every item has a specified max amount of trades). A player can continue to trade for the villager's other available items, if any. Exhausted items are restocked when the villager works at a job site, up to twice per day.

In Bedrock Edition the price of an item can rise and fall with demand. If an item is traded then its price rises when resupplied. If the price is higher and the player doesn't trade for that item, then the price will be lowered the next time it is resupplied. Demand is stored per item, not per villager, so a single villager can offer trades where some of the prices are higher than usual while some of the items are cheaper.

Trade offering
When a player holds an item near a villager who wants that item, the villager holds up an item it offers in exchange. For example, a villager who buys 20 wheat for one emerald will hold up an emerald, offering it to a player holding wheat. If the villager has more than one trade for an item, it cycles through the trades, offering a different item every few seconds. This kind of trading interaction makes it easier to find villagers who offer a particular trade, but the player must still open the trading interface to complete the trade.

Economic trade
Villagers have levels and require experience to unlock the next tiers of trade; level 1 is novice, level 2 is apprentice, level 3 is journeyman, level 4 is expert, and level 5 is master. Villagers can resupply trades by themselves by working more at their job site block. $$, restocking can be forced instantly using the command (however this command does not work due to a bug).

Popularity
$$ Villagers increase their prices of trades if a player's popularity is low, (e.g from damaging villagers), and decrease it if their popularity is high (e.g from trading with multiple villagers).

Hero of the Village
When a player receives Hero of the Village, players receive discounted prices on all items traded by villagers. $$ The Hero of the Village also gets showered with gifts, each villager throwing gifts related to its profession.

Entity data
Villagers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia

 * The villagers were inspired by the shopkeepers in Dungeon Master 2.
 * Originally, the mobs populating villages were to be pigmen.
 * Name tags used on villagers always name the villager instead of opening the trading interface.
 * After a zombie villager is cured, the villager gets Nausea for 10 seconds (indicated by the purple status effect particles).
 * When a villager is in love mode, it walks very slowly. However, when a villager runs indoors as the night falls, it runs faster than the player's sprinting speed.
 * Unlike players, villagers can claim and sleep in beds in the Nether and the End without causing them to explode. Therefore, villages can be created in both dimensions.
 * The new villager skins added in the Village and Pillage update were inspired by 2018 fashion shows, such as Gucci's.
 * Villagers occasionally sleep in odd ways during the night inside their beds, sometimes hanging halfway off the side of their bed or even glitching into walls.
 * Similarly to librarians and farmers, fishermen have a custom schedule that allows them to have a job-specific goal. However, currently none is defined.

April fools
On April 1, 2014, Mojang announced that villagers have taken over the skin servers and content delivery networks (CDN) as an April Fools joke. This caused players's current skin to turn into villager skins, and caused users to be unable to change their skins unless modifying the launcher .json file. Different career villager skins were used, including the then-unused nitwit villager (green robe).

Many of the sounds were also changed, supposedly by the villagers. They seem to be similar to a villager talking (with words, rather than their normal sounds). The in-game music has also been altered to include villager like noises, and also features a villager version of the "Game of Thrones" theme on the title screen. The sounds originate from the sound resource pack created by Element Animation, titled The Element Animation Villager Sound Resource Pack (T.E.A.V.S.R.P.), which is based on the villagers appearing in their fan videos. The villagers were voiced by Dan Lloyd, Director of Element Animation.

The skins and the sounds were reverted to the way they were before on April 2, 2014. However, this update cannot be activated by setting the computer's date to April 1, 2014.

Bedrock and Legacy Console Editions are not affected by this April fools' Joke.