Villagers are passive mobs that inhabit villages, work at their professions, breed, and interact. Their clothing varies according to their occupation. A player can trade with villagers, using emeralds as currency.
Spawning
Natural generation
Villagers spawn inhabiting their villages, which spawn in several biomes such as plains, snowy tundras, savannas, deserts, taigas, and snowy taiga.
A priest villager and priest 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.
Baby villagers
Villagers will breed autonomously, but need doors[until BE 1.11.0] or beds[upcoming: BE 1.11.0] and need to be willing in order to spawn baby villagers. After exactly 20 minutes, the baby villager will grow up to an adult. See this section for more information.
Curing
Villagers will spawn if a player uses a splash potion of weakness on a zombie villager and then feeds it a regular golden apple. It will then shake and turn into a villager within 2-5 minutes. During the change, the zombie villager can still burn in the sun.
Variants
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.
Illagers
An illusioner attacking villagers.
Illagers are hostile villager-like mobs that spawn in woodland mansions as well as pillager outposts, illager patrols, or raids.[upcoming: JE 1.14 & BE 1.11.0] There are four kinds: vindicators, evokers, pillagers,[BE only][upcoming: JE 1.14] and illusioners, along with two associated mobs: vexes and ravagers.[BE only][upcoming: JE 1.14] Illagers are considered to be outcasts from villages.[1] In addition to attacking players, they will also attack villagers, wandering traders and iron golems.
Witches
Witches are hostile villager-like mobs, which spawn in the Overworld according to the usual mob spawning rules. They can also spawn exclusively in witch huts, or spawn from a villager struck by lightning. Witches may also spawn as a part of raids.[upcoming: JE 1.14 & BE 1.11.0]
Wandering trader
Wandering traders are new mobs released in the 1.14 snapshots. Wandering traders spawn randomly around the world, or in Bedrock Edition periodically in a village gathering site with two trader llamas. 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[Java Edition only], and vexes.
NPC
NPCs are villager-like mobs in Education Edition and Bedrock Edition.
Drops
Villagers drop nothing upon death.
Behavior
Movement patterns
Upon spawning, villagers will leave their homes 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, in which they will stare at another villager for 4-5 seconds at a time. In the case of players, they will continuously stare at them as long as the player is close enough, unless the villager tries to get into a house at night, farm food, or flee from a zombie.
In Java Edition, when a player attacks a villager, the villager will not run away, but anger particles will fly out from the villager if it is in a village. In Bedrock Edition, villagers do not stop continuously in front of players. They will also sprint away if the player attacks them.
Villagers, like other mobs, will find paths around obstructions, avoiding walking off cliffs and some blocks that cause harm. However, in crowded situations it is possible for one villager to push another off a cliff or into harm.
At night or during rain, villagers will run inside, closing doors behind them, and staying indoors until morning. In the morning they will head outside and resume normal behavior.
Villagers will run away from zombies, vindicators and vexes within 8 blocks, and evokers 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 will move quickly back within the boundary. A villager taken more than 32 blocks away from its village boundary will forget 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.
There is evidence that villagers are prone to overcrowding certain areas of a village while leaving other areas completely empty. When moving inside, the AI prefers doors within 16 blocks (Euclidean distance). It 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 will be out of range of this check. During the day, it has been observed that villagers will 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.
Workplace blocks
In Java Edition 1.14[upcoming] and Bedrock Edition 1.11.0,[upcoming] villagers (other than babies and nitwits) want a profession and employment. An unemployed villager acquires a profession and a job by claiming the first unclaimed workplace block it can find. When a workplace block is claimed, its owner emits green particles and no other villager can claim it unless the owner relinquishes it.
If a workplace block is broken or destroyed, its owner (if any) emits anger particles and becomes jobless, but retains its profession. A villager who already has a profession but no job tries to acquire a new job:
- A novice level villager (one who only has its first tier trades unlocked) can claim any workplace block and will change its profession along with acquiring a new job.
- Villagers above the novice level can only claim a workplace block associated with their profession.
| Profession | Workplace Block |
|---|---|
| Armorer | Blast furnace |
| Butcher | Smoker |
| Cartographer | Cartography table |
| Cleric | Brewing stand |
| Farmer | Farmland[until BE Edition 1.11.0] Composter[upcoming: BE Edition 1.11.0 & JE Edition 1.14] |
| Fisherman | Barrel |
| Fletcher | Fletching table |
| Leatherworker | Cauldron |
| Librarian | Lectern |
| Shepherd | Loom |
| Stone Mason [Bedrock Edition only] Mason [Java Edition only] | Stonecutter |
| Tool Smith | Smithing table |
| Weapon Smith | Grindstone |
Schedules
in Java and Bedrock editions,[upcoming: JE 1.14 & BE 1.11.0] 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farmer | Fisherman | Librarian | Other | ||||
| 00000 | Work | Wander | Play | Sleep | |||
| 02000 | Wander | ||||||
| 08000 | Gather | Gather | |||||
| 10000 | Work | Wander | |||||
| 11000 | Home | Home | Home | ||||
| 12000 | Sleep | Sleep | Sleep | ||||
| 13000 | Home | ||||||
| 14000 | Sleep | ||||||
Working
Employed villagers will spend most of their day standing next to their workplace blocks. From time to time they will "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.
- Fishermen have a custom schedule that allows them to have a job-specific goal, but currently none is defined.
- Librarians inspect bookshelves.
When a villager can reach its workplace block, it will resupply itself (unlock its locked trades). They can do that twice per daytime, some time after their work schedule, even without having a bed or while sitting in a minecart.
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 workplace 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 workplace block it can claim, it does so, assumes the skin for the associated profession, and immediately begins following the appropriate schedule.
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, workplace 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" using unique sounds). 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
Villager children chasing one another.
Baby villagers wander randomly searching for others to play with. When they find one, the two of them will follow each other for a while and sometimes run as if racing or chasing each other.
They will sometimes stop to stare at an Iron Golem. If the Iron Golem holds out a poppy, the baby villager will cautiously accept it.
Returning home
All villagers except Nitwit 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 will not go through a door again before sleeping.
A villager who has no bed simply wanders in search of one it can claim.
Sleeping
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.) They will get up early if used, attacked, or if their bed is broken or a player uses it. If possible, they will go back to bed after the interruption. When villagers successfully sleep, they will heal themselves when waking up at dawn.
Villagers who have no beds continue wandering and searching for a bed they can claim.
Gossiping
in Java Edition,[upcoming: JE 1.14] a feature necessary for iron golem spawning and some villager behavior is spreading gossip. Villagers will acquire pieces of gossip through various means, and will spread them to other villagers when they converse. There are six types of gossip: major_negative, minor_negative, major_positive, minor_positive, trading, and golem, although two (major_negative and minor_positive) do 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 minor_negative gossip if it is attacked by a player, major_negative gossip if it is killed by a player (which is immediately lost with its death), major_positive gossip if it is cured by a player, and trading gossip if a player traded with the villager. Negative reputation will make villagers increase their prices for the player in question, while positive reputation will make villagers lower prices. Overall reputation will also cause or prevent attacks from the village iron golems.[needs testing]
Villagers will also generate golem gossip on their own.[more information needed] If a villager has gossiped with five other villagers about a golem (and the gossip is strong enough), an iron golem will spawn within a 16-block radius of the villager who originally spread the gossip.
Each piece of gossip has a type, a target, and a strength or "value". For golem 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 will be increased instead. If the gossip has a high strength then villagers will be more likely to act on the gossip over other types of gossip. For example, if a villager has a golem gossip value of 30 or higher and another villager has a trading gossip value of 10–29 (and the iron golem gossip has been spread to at least five other villagers), the golem gossip will be prioritized over the trading gossip and a iron golem will spawn instead of villager trade prices decreasing. This effect also seems to decrease the competing gossip's value, sometimes to negative.[needs testing]
Picking up items
Villagers have eight hidden inventory slots, which start empty whenever the villager is spawned. Villagers will not intentionally seek out items to pick up, but they will collect any bread, carrots, potatoes, wheat, seeds, beetroot and beetroot seeds they happen to come within range of. These are the only items they are able to pick up, though 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 will always pick it up first.
Even when gamerule keepInventory is set to false, villagers that are killed with any of the available items above will not drop them once they are killed.
Any items in these slots are lost if a villager becomes a zombie villager; a zombie villager has no inventory slots.
If /gamerule mobGriefing is false, villagers will not pick up items.
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 will be fully functional; for example, the Thorns enchantment will hurt zombies that attack a villager with a piece of armor enchanted with the Thorns enchantment equipped.
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
Adult and baby brown-robed villagers [JE & LCE only][until JE 1.14] or villagers wearing a straw hat[Bedrock Edition only][upcoming: JE 1.14] will tend crops within the village boundary. Villagers far enough outside the boundary of any village will 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 brown-robed villager (villager with straw hat[BE only][upcoming: JE 1.14]) does not have enough food in one stack in his inventory (15 bread, 60 carrots, potatoes, or beetroot, or 45 wheat) and finds fully-grown wheat, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot, he will move to the crop block and break it.
- If a brown-robed villager (villager with straw hat[Bedrock Edition only][upcoming: JE 1.14]) has any seeds, carrots, potatoes, or beetroot seeds in his inventory and finds an air block above farmland, he will move to it and plant a crop. They will always plant from the first eligible slot in their inventory.
- If
/gamerule mobGriefingisfalse, villagers will not be able to farm.
Baby villager behavior
A group of villager children playing a game of tag.
Baby villagers will sprint around, entering and leaving houses at will. They will sometimes stop sprinting to stare at an Iron Golem. If the Iron Golem is holding a poppy, the children will 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 will give gifts of poppies or seeds to players who have the Hero of the Village 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.[Bedrock Edition only].
Zombies
Zombies will try to find and attack villagers within a 42 block radius (even when the villager is invisible), and will attempt to break down doors. Zombies will only successfully break doors if the difficulty is set to hard, though only a fraction of zombies spawned in hard mode have the capacity to break doors. Villagers will run away from zombies, sometimes hiding in houses. The villager's only "natural" defense are the iron golems, which attack nearby hostile mobs.
Zombies will try to kill villagers, or convert them to zombie villagers. The chance that the villager will become a zombie villager on death is 0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard. Baby villagers can be infected by zombies as well.
Villagers will also run from zombie pigmen, though the latter will not attack them.
Drowned will chase and attack villagers in the same way zombies will, and villagers will run from drowned in the same way they run from zombies. Drowned can also 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, it will turn into a witch.
Raids
During a raid, villagers will run away from illagers and run to the nearest house, similar to a zombie siege. For a villager to hide, the house must have a door.[upcoming: JE 1.14]
A villager will often stay in the house it ran to, but may exit its house occasionally. The player will still be able to trade with villagers during the raid, however the villager will display water particles as if sweating.[upcoming: JE 1.14]
Once the player gains the Hero of the Village status after defeating a raid, villagers will lower their trade prices and throw gifts to the player:[upcoming: JE 1.14]
| Profession | Possible reward items |
|---|---|
| Farmer | |
| Cleric | |
| Librarian | |
| Shepherd | |
| Fisherman | |
| Butcher | |
| Armorer | |
| Cartographer | |
| Fletcher | |
| Weaponsmith | |
| Toolsmith | |
| Leatherworker | |
| Baby |
Breeding
Two villagers mating.
Villagers will mate depending on the number of valid doors (beds[BE only][upcoming: JE 1.14]). If "willing" (see below), villagers will mate as long as the population is less than 35% (Bedrock Edition: 100%) of valid doors (beds[BE only][upcoming: JE 1.14]), rounded down. The type of villager that spawns is independent of the villager's parents.[until JE 1.14] All baby villagers are initially unemployed.[upcoming: JE 1.14]
A valid door is any door within the village radius where the number of "outside" spaces within 5 blocks in a straight line on one side of the door is not the same as the number of "outside" spaces within 5 blocks on the other side of the door. A space is considered to be "outside" if it has nothing but transparent blocks above it all the way to the sky.[Java and Legacy Console editions only][until JE 1.14]
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 will be 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 will 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 will mate with each other and produce a child.
Willingness
Additionally, villagers must be "willing" in order to breed. After mating, they will no longer be willing, and must be made willing again.
Villagers may become willing when the player trades with them. Willingness is granted the first time a new offer is traded, or at a one-in-five chance on subsequent trades. Green particles will appear if the villager becomes willing by trading. This will not cause them to immediately seek out a mate, however.
Villagers can also become willing by having either 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots[Not in Java Edition][2] in one stack in their inventory. Any villager with an excess of food (usually farmers) will 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 will consume the required food upon becoming willing.
Professions and careers
Each villager has a profession, which can be identified by their clothing. Villagers also have careers specific to their profession. The player can identify a villager's career by reading the title at the top of the trading interface.
Below is a table listing the various villagers, with their careers in relation to their professions, as well as the IDs specifying these.[Legacy Console and Java editions only][until JE 1.14] While each profession has a 1 in 5 chance (20%)[Legacy Console and Java editions only][until JE 1.14] of occurring, the probabilities for individual careers to occur are more diversified. They are listed in the table as well.
When a villager is transformed into a zombie villager, the profession of the zombie villager will remain unchanged. However, the career will be reset and randomly picked again if the zombie villager is cured, allowing for the player to get a villager with a new career and new trade offers. Old trade offers will disappear, even if the same career is chosen again.
Nitwit
| “ |
|
„ | |
| — Jeb about the Nitwit[3] |
The Nitwit villager is a villager that wears a green robe and can not be traded with.
Village and Pillage
All plains biome variant professions (except unemployed) corresponding to their different utility blocks.
Every villager skin type per profession and biome.
Villagers and zombie villagers have seven skin types corresponding to the biome they spawned in. Two of these (the jungle and swamp villagers) can only be spawned with the use of spawn eggs or curing zombie villagers in their corresponding biome. 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.[upcoming: JE 1.14] In Bedrock Edition villagers only 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
- Snowy 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 back)
- Cleric (purple apron and creeper cloak)
- Weaponsmith (pirate eyepatch and black apron)
- Armorer (welding mask)
- Toolsmith (black apron)
- Librarian (eyeglasses with book as hat)
- Cartographer (golden monocle)
- Leatherworker (brown apron and brown gloves)
- Butcher (red headband and white apron)
- Stone Mason[Bedrock Edition only]/Mason[Java Edition only] (black apron and black gloves)
- Nitwit (green coated)
- Unemployed (no overlay)
Adult villagers have 1⁄15 chance to spawn as 1 of 15 available profession, while baby villagers have higher chance to spawn as unemployed.
Villagers can sleep in beds, change their profession, work, and mingle, although villagers spawned from igloos still use their old behavior.[BE & JE only][until BE 1.11.0][upcoming: JE 1.14]
Dynamic professions
In Bedrock Edition and Java Edition 1.14, Villagers can change their profession. They do this by claiming one of the crafting blocks as their work station. Villagers can only claim work stations that are not already picked by another villager if they are inside a village boundary with at least 1 bed. If this station is removed, they will either change to another profession or become unemployed. Farmers don't have a dedicated block; instead, they use farmland and crops[Bedrock Edition only][until BE 1.11.0]. When they go to work, they use their built-in schedule to stand in front of their associated block (lecterns for librarians, barrel for fisherman, etc.) Some professions like farmers, librarians, and nitwits can do more jobs, as farmers plant crops, librarians can inspect bookshelves, and nitwit sleep during daytime.
Below are the 13 villager professions, along with their workstation:
- Farmer: farmland[until BE 1.11.0] composter[Java Edition only][upcoming: BE 1.11.0]
- Fisherman: barrel
- Shepherd: loom
- Fletcher: fletching table
- Cleric: brewing stand
- Butcher: smoker
- Leatherworker: cauldron
- Weaponsmith: grindstone
- Armorer: blast furnace
- Toolsmith: smithing table
- Librarian: lectern
- Cartographer: cartography table
- Stone Mason: stonecutter
A villager cannot be changed to into a Nitwit.
Novice-level villagers can lose their profession and change into unemployed.
Nitwit and unemployed baby villagers cannot change profession. Unemployed adults will actively seek for an unclaimed workstation and change into the corresponding profession. Nitwit villagers sometimes seek for an unclaimed bed to sleep during the day.
Trading
A trading interface displaying a trade of 28 paper for 1 emerald.
Villager badge changes color depending on the level of the villager. From left to right: stone (novice), iron (apprentice), gold (journeyman), emerald (expert), and diamond (master).
| “ |
|
„ | |
| — Marsh Davies[4] |
The trading system is a gameplay mechanic that allows players to trade emeralds for items and vice-versa with villagers. Their trades can be good or bad, depending on what the cost is and what items the player might get. Trading is only available for adult villagers; the player cannot trade with baby villagers or the nitwit villager.
Right-clicking a villager will allow a player to trade with them, and display their career. Villagers will make offers based on their profession and career, and will only make trades based on whatever offers they are making. Different offers may be viewed by pressing the left and right buttons next to the currently displayed offer. All offers involve emerald as a currency, and some item pertinent to the villager's profession and career. Trading allows the acquisition of rare items that would otherwise be fairly difficult to obtain, such as chain armor. The trading mechanic allows players to get bottle o' enchanting in survival mode. When villagers get a new trade, pink particles and green cross particles appear.
After trading a new offer once, the villager will allow a new tier of offers. After 2-12 times an offer is repeated, the villager will lock the trade offer. That is, the villager will no longer offer this trade. When this happens, the player will have to use another new trade offer in the villager's window once (or several times if it is already used once), and then wait for a short time. If green particles appear, all trades unlock. That is, the villager will start offering all trades. There is a maximum number of tiers each villager can possess, varying by career. Once the villager has unlocked all tiers, it will not open any new ones. However, players will still be able to renew all offers by trading.
Trade offering
Several villagers offering trade items to a player. Note the jobless villager.
As of Java Edition 1.14[upcoming] and Bedrock Edition when a player is holding an item near a villager who wants that item, the villager will hold up an item it offers in trade for it. For example, if a villager will buy 20 wheat for one emerald and the player is holding wheat, the villager will hold up an emerald, offering it to the player. If the villager has more than one trade for an item, it will cycle 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.
Regeneration
When a villager gives off particles from a new trade, they get 10 seconds of regeneration I, which gives them 4![]()
.
Commands or external editors can be used to give custom trades to villagers.
Economic trade
In Bedrock Edition 1.11.0[upcoming] and Java Edition 1.14[upcoming] 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. They cannot resupply trades instantly and it can only be done using the /resupply[Bedrock Edition only] command, however, villagers can resupply themselves by working more at their work station.
If villagers change their profession, their experience bar and locked trades still remain the same and is saved to their NBT data, ex: weaponsmith villager has empty iron axe supply, and change into shepherd, when they change again to weaponsmith, iron axe trades still locked. However once levelled up, the villager cannot change proffesion.
Popularity
Villagers will 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).[upcoming: JE 1.14][Java Edition only]
Hero of the Village
When a player receives Hero of the Village, players will be instantly discounted on all items traded by villagers.[upcoming: JE 1.14][upcoming: BE 1.11.0]
Data values
ID
Villager/ID
Entity data
Villagers have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.
- Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can breed
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- Tags common to all villagers
- Inventory: Each compound tag in this list is an item in the villager's inventory, up to a maximum of 8 slots. Items in two or more slots that can be stacked together are automatically condensed into one slot. If there are more than 8 slots, the last slot is removed until the total is 8. If there are 9 slots but two previous slots can be condensed, the last slot returns after the two other slots are combined.
- An item in the inventory, excluding the Slot tag.
- Tags common to all items
- An item in the inventory, excluding the Slot tag.
- LastRestock: The last tick the villager went to their job site block to resupply their trades.
- LastGossipDecay: The last tick all gossip of the villager has decreased strength naturally.
- RestocksToday: The number of restocks a villager has done in 10 minutes from the last restock, or
0if the villager has not restocked in the last 10 minutes. When a villager has restocked twice in less than 10 minutes, it waits at least 10 minutes for another restock. - Willing: 1 or 0 (true/false) – true if the villager is willing to mate. Becomes true after certain trades (those that would cause offers to be refreshed), and false after mating.
Villager type
Villager profession
Achievements
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| The Haggler | Acquire or spend 30 Emeralds by trading with villagers or with wandering trader. [sic] | — | 30G | Silver | ||
| Treasure Hunter | Acquire a map from a cartographer villager, then enter the revealed structure | Visit the structure indicated while the purchased map is in your main hand (hotbar). | 40G | Silver | ||
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | What a Deal! | Successfully trade with a Villager | Adventure | Take an item from a villager or wandering trader's trading output slot, and put it in your inventory. | adventure/trade
|
![]() | Very Very Frightening | Strike a Villager with lightning | A Throwaway Joke | Hit a villager with lightning created by a trident with the Channeling enchantment. | adventure/very_very_frightening
|
Video
- Note: This video does not include all villager types, cartographers and nitwits are added in 1.11 and masons in 1.14.
History
| Java Edition | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease | Added villagers with the same AI as pigs and had the name "TESTIFICATE" displayed over their heads as player names are displayed in multiplayer. They had 5 main professions (0, 1, 2, 3, 4), and other profession numbers were a green-robed unnamed villager. | |||
| "We added them in 2011, but in the beginning they were completely useless - you couldn't trade with them, they didn’t have any sound effects or anything. Their only purpose was to live in the villages. We discussed a lot about what they would do - we knew we wanted trading, but we weren't sure about what would happen with the village itself. Would the player do quests around the village? Would it expand?" – Jeb[4] | |||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Removed "TESTIFICATE" name above villager's heads. | ||||
| 1.1 | 11w49a | Added Villager spawn egg in Creative mode. Only farmer Villagers were spawned. | |||
| 1.2.1 | 12w05a | Villagers can now open and close doors. | |||
| Villagers will now go inside at night and detect houses. | |||||
| 12w06a | Villagers can now socialize with each other and passive mobs. | ||||
| Villagers are now attacked by and run away from zombies. | |||||
| 12w07a | Villagers will now repopulate villages by the number of houses there are. | ||||
| Villager children will sprint. | |||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w18a | Villagers spawned via a spawn egg will now have a random profession. | |||
| 12w21a | Added trading with villagers. Leaving a trading window open will cause villagers not to wander under normal circumstances. | ||||
| 12w22a | Villagers will now reassign their profession if there is a lack of a specific profession or if the number of villagers in a profession is unbalanced (i.e., if there are many Farmer villagers and no Blacksmith villagers, one will change its skin, showing it has changed its profession). | ||||
| Trading has also been changed where an extra input space has been added where tools can be placed for buying enchantments and/or repair. | |||||
| 12w25a | Villagers may remove a trade option after it has been used at least 3 times. | ||||
| 12w26a | Although requiring external tools or modifications to apply, monster spawners can spawn the previously unavailable Green Robe Villagers in unmodified Minecraft clients. | ||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w32a | Villagers will like and dislike the player, depending on how they react to them. | |||
| Villagers can be infected by zombies, causing them to change their appearance and attack the player and other villagers. | |||||
| 1.4.4 | pre | Villager children can now be spawned easily by right clicking a villager with a villager spawner egg. | |||
| 1.6.1 | 13w22a | Added sound effects for villagers. They have different sounds for taking damage, talking to villagers, successful trades, and canceled trades. | |||
| 1.7.4 | ? | A bug caused Adult Villagers killed by baby zombies to turn into baby villager zombies. | |||
| 1.8 | 14w02a | Added careers to villagers, splitting up the trade offers within a profession. This career is shown in the trading interface. | |||
| Reworked the trading system to be less random; it is now tier-based instead, and several offers may be generated at one time. | |||||
| Due to the changes in the trading system, attempting to trade with generic villagers will crash the game. | |||||
| Villagers only breed when willing. This limits the amount of villagers and prevents infinite breeding villages. | |||||
| 14w02c | Villagers that had professions more than 4 now repeat in 0-4. | ||||
| Generic villagers can now only be spawned using negative profession numbers. | |||||
| 14w03a | Villagers struck by lightning will turn into witches. | ||||
| 14w04a | Farmer (profession) villagers now harvest fully grown crops | ||||
| Villagers can be made willing using 3 bread, 12 carrots or 12 potatoes. | |||||
| 14w04b | Villagers now have an NBT tag that allows control over getting Experience for trading (rewardExp). | ||||
| 14w20a | The generic villager is completely removed. However, the texture still exists on the Minecraft files. | ||||
| 1.8.1 | pre4 | Villagers no longer ignore data tags or damage values. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Farmer villagers now harvest beetroot crops, but ignore the drops. | |||
| 15w38a | Villagers now pick up beetroot and beetroot seeds. | ||||
| Villagers now use and share beetroot as food. | |||||
| Farmer villagers can now plant beetroot seeds. | |||||
| 15w39a | Villagers are slightly taller (1.95 blocks tall rather than 1.8, with babies 0.975 blocks tall rather than 0.9). | ||||
| 15w43a | A priest can be found caged in an igloo basement. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w32b | Re-added Generic Villagers, who are now called Nitwits, as Profession 5. However they can no longer trade, because right clicking on a Generic Villager does nothing. | |||
Changed entity ID from Villager to villager | |||||
| 16w39a | Added a new career for the librarian villager called "Cartographer". | ||||
| 16w43a | Villagers are now able to draw from their own loot tables. | ||||
| 1.13 | ? | Changed the Weapon Smith's career ID from 3 to 2 and the Tool Smith's from 2 to 3. | |||
| 18w11a | Villagers will now run away from drowned. | ||||
| September 29, 2018 | The Village and Pillage update, which will improve villagers and villages, was announced at MINECON Earth 2018. | ||||
| Upcoming Java Edition | |||||
| 1.14 | 18w47a | Villagers will now hide in houses during raids. | |||
| Villagers will no longer trade while a raid is ongoing, right clicking them will instead make them emit sweat particles. | |||||
| 18w50a | Added new Mason profession. | ||||
| Villagers now have different skins based on biome (including swamps and jungles, which do not contain villages) as well as profession. | |||||
| Villagers now have five tiers and show which trade tier they've unlocked, by a badge of a varying material on their suit. The first trade tier appears as a stone badge, the next iron, then gold, emerald and finally diamond. | |||||
| Villagers now run away from and get infected by giants. | |||||
| 19w03a | Villagers no longer run away from nor get infected by giants. | ||||
| 19w11a | Added many new villager trades, for each villager profession. | ||||
| Villager trading prices now also depend on player's popularity in the village. | |||||
| Villagers now resupply their trades up to two times a day, if they get to work at a workstation. | |||||
| Updated the villager trading UI. | |||||
| Villagers now level up in a new way. | |||||
| Villagers now have a daily schedule. They will, for example, go to work and meet up at the village bell. Each villager will try to find their own bed and work station. Each profession has a specific block that works as a work station for them (e.g. lectern for the librarian and cauldron for the leatherworker). | |||||
| Iron golems will now spawn when enough villagers meet. | |||||
| 19w13a | Villagers can now trade during raids again. | ||||
| Villagers now sweat only during raids. | |||||
| Villagers will now hide in houses when a bell is rung by the player. | |||||
| Villagers will now throw gifts to players with the different Hero of the Village status effects, with the gift item depending on their profession. Baby villagers will throw poppies. | |||||
| 19w13b | Revamped trading UI. | ||||
| Available trades are now listed in a left sidebar, similar to Bedrock Edition. | |||||
| When players have the required materials, clicking on one of the trades puts the items into the slots automatically. | |||||
| 19w14a | Nitwits will now shake their head and grunt if the player tries to trade with them. | ||||
| Pre-Release 1 | Fletcher villagers no longer sell luck arrows. | ||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.9.0 | build 1 | Added villagers. Same level of AI as Java Edition version 1.0.0 - They cannot trade, harvest crops, breed or open doors. | |||
| build 2 | Villagers now have sounds. | ||||
| build 3 | Villagers are now attacked by and run away from zombies. | ||||
| Villager children will now sprint. | |||||
| 0.9.2 | Villagers now have sounds on iOS and Fire OS. | ||||
| 0.10.0 | build 6 | Changed villager walking animation. | |||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Villagers can now open and close doors. | |||
| Villagers will now go inside at night and detect houses. | |||||
| Villagers can now socialize with each other and passive mobs. | |||||
| Farmer villagers now harvest fully grown crops. | |||||
| Villagers will now repopulate villages by the number of houses there are. | |||||
| Villager children will now sprint. | |||||
| Villagers will now like and dislike the player, depending on how they react to them. | |||||
| Villagers can now be infected by zombies, causing them to change their appearance and attack the player and other villagers. | |||||
| build 10 | Villagers will always become zombie villagers in Hard difficulty. | ||||
| 0.13.0 | build 2 | Villagers will now open all wooden doors (rather than just oak). | |||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Villagers struck by lightning will now transform into witches. | |||
| Villagers are now slightly taller (1.95 blocks tall rather than 1.8, with babies 0.975 blocks tall rather than 0.9). | |||||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Villagers now run away from husks. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Villagers now spawn in igloo basements. | |||
| 1.0.4 | alpha 1.0.4.0 | Added trading with villagers. | |||
| Baby villagers now have larger-sized heads. | |||||
| Nitwit villager added for resource packs. | |||||
| Villagers now can share food with other villagers. | |||||
| Villagers can now be made willing by using 3 bread, 12 carrots or 12 potatoes. | |||||
| Villagers now only breed when willing. | |||||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Villagers now run away from illagers and vexes. | |||
| alpha 1.1.0.3 | Added a new career for librarian villager called "Cartographer". | ||||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.13.8 | Villagers now run away from drowned. | |||
| 1.9.0 | beta 1.9.0.0 | Villagers now run away from pillagers. | |||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | Added Nitwit and Unemployed villager. | |||
| Added Mason profession, which can be traded with. | |||||
| Villagers will now run away from the new ravager. | |||||
| Added a new type of villager. Both the old (pre-Village & Pillage) and new types of villagers are able to be spawned in-game and have different spawn eggs, although they have the same name and same spawn egg texture. | |||||
| Villagers now have different skins based on biome (including swamps and jungles, which do not contain villages) as well as professions, however, villagers spawned in igloo basements still use their old skin. | |||||
| Villagers now have three tiers and show which trade tier they have unlocked, by a badge of a varying material on their suit. The first trade tier appears as an iron badge, then next gold, and finally diamond. | |||||
| Librarian villagers will now inspect bookshelves. | |||||
| Villagers can now occupy beds to sleep. | |||||
| Villagers now have a schedule. Adult and child villagers have a different schedule and fishermen, farmers, and librarians have special work schedules. | |||||
| Villagers now will hold the item they want to trade. | |||||
| Villagers now have behavior to wander village outskirts. | |||||
| Villagers now can mingle in gathering sites. | |||||
| Split villager into 2 different mobs; new ones who spawn in new villages with improved behavior and themed clothes, and the old ones who spawn trapped in igloo basement who still use their old appearance and behavior. | |||||
| Villagers can now work in job sites with the corresponding work stations and can change professions depending on the available work station in villages. | |||||
| Upcoming Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.1 | Farmer workstation has now been changed from farmland to composter. | |||
| Added economic trades, which makes villagers level up and require experience to unlock next tiers, which makes it possible to instantly change their tiers from iron to diamond. | |||||
Villager trades are no longer instantly refreshed as it now requires to resupply, which can only be activated using /resupply. | |||||
Old villagers will convert to villager_v2 . | |||||
| Baby villagers are now ignored by illagers, including ravagers and vexes. | |||||
| beta 1.11.0.3 | Villager now heal themselves upon waking up at dawn. | ||||
| beta 1.11.0.4 | Villagers will now hide in houses during raids. | ||||
| Changed villager economy trades. | |||||
| Supply and demand feature now works properly. | |||||
| Villagers now make sounds when they are work. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU7 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | Patch 1 | Added villagers. Same level of AI as Java Edition version 1.0.0 - They appear only as farmers and cannot trade, breed or open doors. |
| TU11 | Increased the limit for villagers in a world. | ||||
| TU12 | Villagers can now open and close doors. | ||||
| Villagers will now go inside at night and detect houses. | |||||
| Villagers can now socialize with each other and passive mobs. | |||||
| Villagers are now attacked by and run away from zombies. | |||||
| Villagers will now repopulate villages by the number of houses there are. | |||||
| Baby villagers will sprint. | |||||
| TU13 | Added a limit to the number of villagers spawned by breeding. | ||||
| Added the hearts display when villagers enter 'Love Mode'. | |||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Added trading with villagers. | |||
| Villagers are assigned random professions. | |||||
| Villagers that are spawned from a Spawn Egg will have a random profession. | |||||
| Villagers now make noises from being hurt, trading & wandering. | |||||
| Baby villagers can now be spawned by using | |||||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Villagers have additional professions and trading schemes. | |
| Villagers will now harvest crops. | |||||
| Villagers will only breed when willing (and can be made willing by giving them 3 bread, 12 carrots or 12 potatoes). | |||||
| Villagers will turn into witches when struck by lightning. | |||||
| TU54 | CU44 | 1.52 | Patch 24 | Patch 4 | Added a new career for librarian villager: "Cartographer". |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added Villagers. | ||||
| 1.9.19 | Added a new career for librarian villager: "Cartographer". | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Villager" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The villagers were inspired by the shopkeepers in Dungeon Master 2.[5]
- Originally, the mobs populating villages were to be pigmen.[6]
- Villagers tend to often cram into houses that are in the southern-eastern area of their village.
- Name tags used on villagers will always name the villager instead of opening the trading interface.
- Villagers can see invisible players.[until JE 1.14]
- 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 extremely fast, even faster than the player's sprinting speed.
- The Java Edition 1.6.1 release poster showed a blue-robed villager in the background. Such a villager has never been seen in-game. This texture was taken from the Tinkers' Construct mod.
- The priest, librarian and nitwit villagers have an unused hood in their textures.
- in Bedrock Edition, an emerald will appear above a villager while opening the trading GUI.
- Villagers run away from vindicators, evokers, pillagers[upcoming: JE 1.14], ravagers[Bedrock Edition only] vex, zombies, drowned, and zombie villagers.
- Villagers can wear armor but only using the
/replaceitemcommand or dispenser, and the armor will not appear. - The new villager skins added in the Village and Pillage update were inspired by 2018 fashion shows, such as Gucci's.[7]
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 from this April fools' Joke.
Gallery
Villager in Beta 1.9 Prerelease, when villagers had the word "TESTIFICATE" displayed over their heads.
Comparison of a villager to a witch
The villager found between Iron Golem and Horse in the Java Edition 1.6.1 update poster. This may also be what the Wandering Trader was based off of.
- Steve Villager before 1.5.png
An odd combination of Steve and a villager
The new Jungle villager textures shown in MINECON Earth 2018.
The new villager textures, announced as the Taiga biome variants, shown in MINECON Earth 2018. These were actually used for the Snowy Tundra biome variants.
A villager sweating instead of trading during a raid.
- Cleric villager.png
- A butcher villager.png
- Blacksmith villager.png
- Village breeder.png
A breeder with 4 adult villagers and 2 baby villagers.
- BabyButcher.png
- Multiple villagers in building.png
References
- ↑ https://youtu.be/Vm6oplvyyh0&t=23m7s
- ↑ MC-99198 - Villagers can't seem to breed with beetroot
- ↑ "Meet the Nitwit" – Minecraft.net, January 23, 2017
- ↑ a b https://minecraft.net/article/meet-villagers
- ↑ http://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/xfzdg/i_am_markus_persson_aka_notch_creator_of/c5m0p26
- ↑ https://twitter.com/notch/status/62531431175421952
- ↑ "Fun Fact: Most of the new villager designs were inspired by 2018 fashion shows like Gucci's." – @JasperBoerstra (Jasper Boerstra) on X, February 28, 2019























