Villager

Not to be confused with Pillager or Illager.

This article is about the current villagers. For the documentation of villagers prior to Village & Pillage, see Villager (old). For other uses, see Villager (disambiguation).

"Merchant" redirects here. For other uses, see Merchant (disambiguation).

Villager

Adult ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Adult ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Baby

Adult ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Adult ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Baby

Adult

Baby

Adult

Baby

Adult ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Adult ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Baby

Adult ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Adult ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Baby

Adult ‌^{[Java Edition only]}

Adult ‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}

Baby

View all renders (Professions)

Health points	20HP × 10
Behavior	Passive[note 1]
Attack strength	Firework Rocket: Damage decreases with distance: Java Edition: Easy: 5HP Normal: 8HP Hard: 12HP × 6 Bedrock Edition: 7HP Thorns Armor:‌[JE only] 1HP to 5HP
Hitbox size	Adult In Java Edition: Height: 1.95 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks Adult In Bedrock Edition: Height: 1.9 blocks Width: 0.6 blocks Baby: Height: 0.98 blocks Width: 0.49 blocks
Speed	0.5
Spawn	Village Igloo basement When a zombie villager is cured Upon successful breeding

Villagers are humanoid passive mobs that inhabit villages, work at their professions, breed, and interact with each other. Their outfit varies according to their occupation and biome, and a player can trade with them using emeralds as currency, with their prices affected by reputation.

Spawning

Each villager spawns with an empty inventory. Villagers never spawn with armor or other equipment, but in Java Edition a dispenser can be used to equip armor on a villager.

Natural generation

Villagers can be found in villages, which spawn in several biomes such as plains, snowy plains, savannas, deserts, taigas, and snowy taigas‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]} and can cut into other biomes such as swamps and jungles. When the village is generated, unemployed villagers spawn in them, the number of which depends on the buildings in that village, as some buildings generate villagers inside and some do not.

Igloo basements always generate with one villager in the left cell and one zombie villager in the right cell.

• In Java Edition, the generated villager is always unemployed.^[1] The villager cannot pathfind to the brewing stand or cauldron to take on a profession unless some of the blocks confining them are broken. The generated zombie villager always has the profession of cleric and becomes unemployed once cured.
  • Both mobs are the plains variant. See § Appearance.
• In Bedrock Edition, the villager has a random profession and the zombie villager is unemployed.
  • Both mobs are the snowy variant.
  • The villager can change its professions to cleric or leatherworker, due to the presence of the brewing stand and cauldron. The zombie villager can do the same after being cured.
  • Changing profession takes time. If the player manages to trade with the villager before it changes its profession, the villager keeps its initial profession.
  • The zombie villager is unemployed immediately after being cured, so the player cannot lock in its profession.

Curing

Giving a zombie villager the Weakness effect and then feeding it a golden apple starts the curing process. After five minutes, it transforms into a villager, displaying purple Nausea status effect particles for 10 seconds after being cured.

The villager retains the profession it had, if it had one before turning into a zombie villager. If employed, a cured villager offers discounts on most of its trades.

In Bedrock Edition, if the zombie villager is spawned by a player, it adopts a randomly chosen profession. The villager can also be a nitwit, but it becomes a normal unemployed villager when cured.

In Java Edition, curing a baby zombie villager riding a chicken results in the villager riding a chicken. Eventually, the villager grows up and can gain a profession while still being on the chicken.

Drops

Farmers using bone meal when farming have an 8.5% chance to drop it when killed by a player or tamed wolf. Each level of Looting increases the chance by 1% per level. Adult^[2] villagers can drop armor equipped through dispensers. Otherwise, a villager, whether it is an adult or a baby, does not drop any items or experience when killed.

When a villager dies or is converted to a zombie villager, any items in its hidden inventory slots are lost (see § Picking up items).

If a villager is displaying a trade item to offer a deal, they will not drop it upon death. However, in Java Edition, carpets (held by shepherds), leather horse armor, and saddles (held by leatherworkers) can be removed using shears.​^{[until: JE 26.4]} Villagers do not drop any other trading-related items.

Upon successful trading, a villager drops 3–6XP.

Upon successful trading, while willing to breed, 8–11XP is dropped.

Curing a zombie villager with any armor or held items causes it to drop them as items.

Hero of the Village

In Java Edition, a villager can drop various items, depending on its profession, by throwing a gift toward a nearby player with the Hero of the Village effect. The gift is randomly selected from a list of items for the villager's individual profession, and there is a random cooldown before the villager can throw another gift.

Behavior

Movement patterns

Socializing

Nitwit and unemployed villagers leave their homes at day and begin to explore the village. Generally, they wander inside the village during the day. They may go indoors or outdoors, periodically making 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. Baby villagers may jump on beds and play tag with each other, similarly to how baby piglins and baby hoglins play tag.

In Bedrock Edition, baby villagers do not stop in order to stare at players, and thus continue moving as if the player is not there.

A villager tries not to travel far from its bed in a large village unless the job site or the nearest gossip site (bell) is far away.

Villagers emit green particles if they join a village, set a bed, or acquire a job site/profession.

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 near a bed until morning. In the morning, they head outside and resume normal behavior. However, some villagers, such as nitwits, stay outside later than others unless being chased by an illager or zombie.

Migration

If a villager finds itself outside the village boundary, or a villager without a village detects a village boundary within 32 blocks, it quickly moves 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 never despawns.

Pathfinding

Villagers, like most other mobs, can find paths around obstructions, avoid walking off cliffs of heights greater than 3 blocks, and avoid some blocks that cause harm. However, in crowded situations, one villager can push another off a cliff or into harm's way.

Villagers can open all wooden and copper doors and find paths to blocks of interest behind the doors. However, they cannot open any trapdoors, fence gates, or iron doors. Villagers can climb ladders, but do not recognize them as paths and do not deliberately use them. Any climbing of ladders seems to be a side effect of them being pushed into the block by another mob (usually by other villagers). Climbing a ladder can leave a villager stranded on the second floor and roof of some village structures, as they lack the necessary AI to intentionally descend ladders.

Getting attacked

Like other passive mobs, villagers sprint away when attacked, but they also flee from some nearby mobs even before being attacked.

Zombies, zombie villagers, husks, drowned and zoglins attack villagers and cause them to flee.

Pillagers, vindicators, evokers, illusioners and ravagers cause villagers to flee but only attack adults. Vexes also cause villagers to flee but only attack adults when spawned by an evoker.

Pufferfish, wardens and withers attack villagers but don't cause them to flee until actually attacked.

Preferred path

This feature is exclusive to Bedrock Edition.

When pathfinding, villagers prefer to stay on low cost blocks, such as dirt paths, cobblestone, bricks, and planks. They do this by trying to minimize the path cost of all of the blocks they walk across. They also avoid jumping, because it has a high path cost, but babies don't avoid it as much.

Preferred path blocks		Path cost
		Adult villager	Baby villager
Dirt Path		0
Block of Diamond Block of Emerald Block of Lapis Lazuli Block of Gold Block of Redstone Bricks Cobblestone Chiseled Sandstone Chiseled Red Sandstone Cut Sandstone Cut Red Sandstone End Stone Bricks Glass Glazed Terracotta	Glowstone Mossy Cobblestone Nether Bricks Planks Prismarine Red Nether Bricks Red Sandstone Sandstone Slabs Smooth Sandstone Smooth Red Sandstone Stained Glass Stone Stone Bricks	1
Barrel Beds Blast Furnace Brewing Stand Cartography Table Cauldron Composter	Fletching Table Grindstone Lectern Loom Smithing Table Smoker Stonecutter	50
Other		3	1.5
Jump cost		20	5

Job site blocks

For a list of job site blocks and the professions they are required for, see  § Professions.

Unemployed villagers (other than babies and nitwits) seek employment at job site blocks (also referred to as workstations), and employed villagers use job site blocks to refresh their trades (see § Working). Villagers who have made their first trade must claim a site block that corresponds with their profession, whereas tradeless villagers may change their profession to match a site block.

In Java Edition, an unemployed villager claims job site blocks by searching for the nearest unclaimed site in a 48-block sphere. When a suitable site block is detected, the villager starts pathfinding to it, staking a provisional claim. This can occur only while the villager is awake. A provisional claim is released if the villager cannot reach the block within 60 seconds, however the villager may try again immediately.^[3] To fully claim the site and change profession, the villager must approach within a 2-block radius of the job site's center. When a job site block is fully claimed, its owner emits green particles, and no other villager can claim the block unless the owner relinquishes it.

In Bedrock Edition, all villagers in a village search for unclaimed job sites in a 16 block radius and 4 block height. If a site block is found, it is added to a shared list of valid job site blocks for the whole village. An unemployed villager with a bed claims the first site block on that list and immediately acquires the profession to match, regardless of the distance or accessibility to the site block.^[4] The villager can even claim the site block while sleeping. When a job site block is claimed, both the block and the villager making the claim emit green particles and the site block is removed from the list. If a villager cannot pathfind to its claimed site, both the site block and villager emit anger particles. The site block may need to be broken or interacted by a piston before the villager unclaims it.^{[verify for Bedrock Edition]}

Gossiping

For the formula to calculate the exact price based on gossips, see Trading § Sale prices.

Villagers can store positive and negative‌^{[JE only]} memories about players and share them with other villagers. A player's reputation is determined by these memories, and can be changed by trading with, curing, attacking‌^{[JE only]} and killing villagers‌^{[JE only]}, which influences trading prices.

Killing a villager increases the value of the corresponding gossip for all villagers whom it has a line of sight inside a box extending 16 blocks from the villager in all coordinate directions.‌^{[JE only]} Trading with, curing or attacking‌^{[JE only]} a villager only increases the value of the corresponding gossips for the targeted villager. Attacks and kills only result in negative gossip‌^{[JE only]} when villagers can determine their source, so indirect methods like fire, lava and suffocation from falling blocks can be used to kill villagers without losing reputation.

Villagers can share gossip by talking to each other, though the shared gossip's value will be decreased by the sharing cost. Because the cost of sharing the major gossip gained from curing is greater than its maximum, it can never be shared.

Every 20 minutes, all gossips of a villager decays by the amount in the "Decay" column. This rate does not depend on the time of day and cannot be sped up by sleeping. Because the decay of the major gossip gained from curing is 0, the gossip is permanent.

A player's total reputation with a villager is determined by multiplying each gossip's value by its respective multiplier and adding the results together.

When trading, villagers will change prices based on reputation. In Bedrock Edition negative reputation can only cancel out positive reputation and other price discounts but not increase the price.

Iron golems that were not built by players become hostile toward all players whose reputation is -100 or lower with any villager within a box centered on the golem and extending 10 blocks in every horizontal and 8 in both vertical directions.

Items of interest

Each profession can have certain items it is especially interested in. This does not have many mechanical effects, other than affecting which items villagers will pick up and share. Currently, only one profession makes use of this system:

Profession	Items of interest
Farmer	Wheat, Wheat seeds, Beetroot seeds, Bone meal

Picking up items

Each villager has eight hidden inventory slots, which are initially empty when the villager is spawned. A villager can fill its inventory slots with items it picks up.

In Bedrock Edition, a villager does not intentionally seek out items to pick up, but does collect any bread, carrots, potatoes, wheat, wheat seeds, beetroot, beetroot seeds, torchflower seeds, pitcher pods, and bone meal within reach.​ Only farmers can pick up seeds, wheat, and bone meal.

In Java Edition, a villager seeks out and picks up these items within 4 blocks:

• Items in the #villager_picks_up item tag.
• Items with the villager_food component.
• Items of interest to the villager's profession.

The listed items are the only items villagers can pick up, although the /item replace command can put any 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. If several villagers are next to an item, the same one picks up the item every time. This behavior prevents villagers from successfully sharing food or breeding in a small space.

When killed or converted to a zombie villager, any inventory item of the villager is lost, even when /gamerule keepInventory is set to true.

If /gamerule mob_griefing is false, villagers cannot pick up items, and farmer villagers cannot plant or harvest crops.

Like other mobs, villagers have four slots for worn armor, separate from their inventory slots. An adjacent dispenser can equip armor, elytra, mob heads or carved pumpkins to a villager,‌^{[Java Edition only][5]} but the armor is not rendered (except for carved pumpkins and mob heads). The equipment functions as normal; for example, a villager wearing an armor piece enchanted with Thorns can inflict Thorns damage to attackers, and a villager wearing Frost Walker boots is able to create frosted ice. If a villager is converted into a zombie villager, the armor it was wearing is dropped, though it may be able to pick it up and equip it again. A villager with Thorns III deals more damage to zombies that attacked the villager than the villager takes damage.

Nutrition

Different food items provide villagers with different amounts of nutrition points:

Food	Nutrition points
Beetroot, Carrot, Potato	1
Bread	4

In Java Edition, this is controlled by the villager_food item component.

Villagers will not eat food until they are about to breed. When this happens, they will consume food items from their inventory, starting at the first inventory slot and working their way forward, until they have reached or exceeded 12 nutrition points, and then immediately spend 12 nutrition points on the act of breeding. Depending on how the food is ordered in the villager's inventory, this can leave the villager with unspent nutrition points for next time.

Sharing food

In Java Edition, when a villager is interacting with another villager, they will try to share items under the following circumstances:

• If a villager has 24 or more nutrition points in their inventory, and is either a farmer or is talking to a villager with fewer than 12 nutrition points in their inventory, the villager will try to share food items. (Unspent nutrition points outside the inventory are not considered.)
• If a villager is a farmer and the wheat in their inventory adds up to more than half a stack, they will try to share wheat.
• If the professions of the two villagers have any items of interest in common (including when they have the same profession), the villager will try to share items of interest.

When trying to share items, the villager will scan through its inventory for the first item stack that contains the correct kind of items, and which is either more than half the maximum stack size or more than 24 items. If the stack that is found is more than half the maximum stack size, the villager will throw half the items in the stack (rounded down) to the other villager. If the stack that is found is not more than half the maximum stack size, but is more than 24 items, the villager will throw enough items to reduce the stack size to 24. If no item stack of sufficient size is found, nothing will be thrown.

There is no delay between sharing attempts, so a villager may continue throwing more items immediately if they are still eligible. For example, a villager with 60 bread may throw 30 bread (half the stack size), and then immediately throw 6 more bread (30 − 24), throwing a total of 36 bread. The other villager can also share items, until all villagers have shared all items they can.

Since sharing will never empty an inventory slot, the only way villagers can free up inventory space for new items is by eating food during breeding, or by planting seeds and using bonemeal if they are a farmer. If a non-farmer picks up seeds or bonemeal, they will have no way of getting rid of them.^[6][7]

A bait villager can be used in a farm taking advantage of this mechanic to have a farmer villager collect and deposit crops.

In Bedrock Edition, 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, 60 potatoes, or 60 beetroots, or 45 wheat for farmers), the villager may decide to share food with that villager.

To share, a villager finds its 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 can tend planted wheat, carrots, potatoes, and beetroots, harvesting them if they are fully grown or bonemealing them if possible. They then share their harvested food with other villagers to breed.

Breeding

For tutorials on breeding mechanics, see Village mechanics § Breeding and population cap and Tutorial:Legacy village mechanics.

Adult villagers breed depending on the time of the day and need to be willing to spawn § Baby villagers, who require beds with at least two empty blocks above their heads. Job sites are not required for villagers to breed.

Breeding depends on the number of valid beds. If a villager is "willing" (see § Willingness below), villagers breed as long as there are unclaimed beds available within the limits of the village. All baby villagers are initially unemployed.

In Java Edition, two villagers nearby one another periodically enter mating mode if both have enough food and are not on cooldown. Breeding fails (with angry villager particles displayed) if no unclaimed bed can be reached via pathfinding within a 48-block radius. The appearance of the child is randomly determined by either the biome type of the parents or by the biome where the breeding occurred.

In Bedrock Edition, a census is periodically taken to determine the current population of the village. All villagers within the horizontal boundary of the village 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 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 appearance is determined by the biome where the breeding occurs in Bedrock Edition.

Willingness

Villagers must be willing to breed. Willingness is determined by the number of nutrition points a villager has access to. If the total nutrition points of all the food in a villager's inventory, plus any unspent points they have left over from last time, is 12 or greater, a villager is willing to breed. When breeding occurs, the villager will consume enough of their food to reach 12 or more unspent nutrition points and immediately use up 12 of them, even if breeding fails to produce a baby villager. After successfully breeding, villagers cease to be willing for 5 minutes, at which point they must gather a sufficient stock of food items to breed again.

Villagers must have enough beds within village bounds‌^{[Java Edition only]}/loaded terrain‌^{[Bedrock Edition only][verify for Bedrock Edition]} for baby villagers to spawn. The villager must be able to path-find to the bed from its current position. (Note that mobs view certain blocks, such as slabs, trapdoors, etc., as full blocks for pathfinding, so putting these types of blocks above a bed invalidates the bed.)

Villagers can become willing by having either 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, 12 beetroots, or any combination that adds up to enough nutrition. Farmers with an excess of food will throw food to other villagers, allowing them to pick it up and obtain enough food to become willing. Farmers will craft wheat into bread when they work at a composter. The player can also throw bread, carrots, beetroots, or potatoes at the villagers themselves to encourage breeding. If /gamerule mobGriefing is false, villagers don't pick up food or break crops.

Baby villagers

Baby villagers (sometimes called children, or child villagers) sprint around, entering and leaving houses at will. They sometimes stop sprinting to stare at other villagers, the player‌^{[Java Edition only]}, or an iron golem. If the iron golem is holding out a poppy, a child may cautiously take the flower from its hands. Baby villagers tend to group and chase one another around the village as if playing tag. They also jump on beds.

Illagers (except "Johnny" vindicators in Bedrock Edition) ignore baby villagers until they reach adulthood.

Baby villagers give gifts of poppies or wheat seeds to players who have the Hero of the Village effect in Java Edition.

Baby villagers can fit through 1×1 block gaps.

A baby villager becomes an adult 20 minutes after birth, even when in a boat or a minecart. Baby villagers with no AI do not grow up.

Golden dandelions do not work on baby villagers.

Lightning

When lightning strikes within 3–4 blocks of a villager, the villager is replaced by a witch that can't despawn. Even a baby villager that is struck by lightning is turned into a two-block-tall witch.

Iron golems will attack any villagers that turn into witches.

Iron golem summoning

In Java Edition, villagers can summon an iron golem to protect themselves from hostile mobs. This requires either a villager panicking in a group of 3 villagers or 5 gossiping villagers. If they don't find an iron golem within 16 blocks of their location for 30 seconds, another one is summoned.

In Bedrock Edition, villagers can summon an iron golem if there are more than 10 villagers per existing golem, the village has at least 20 beds, and 75% of these villagers must have worked in the past day.

Panicking

Villagers sometimes panic during a raid or a zombie siege by emitting water particles (sweat) and shaking.

In Java Edition, villagers panic if they see a mob that is hostile toward villagers, like a zombie, zombie villager, husk, drowned, zoglin, illager, vex, wither, or ravager and flee frantically from them, sometimes hiding in houses.

In Bedrock Edition, villagers panic by running around in circles around a bed in a village house, such as when a raid happens or when the player rings the village bell.

In Java Edition, villagers in panic are more likely to summon iron golems. To see these mobs, the villager must have an unobstructed line of sight to it (eye-level to eye-level), and be within a certain range (spherical distance between feet center bottom-most point of the villager and hostile mob):

Mob	Panic radius
Zombie, Husk, Drowned, Zombie Villager, Vex	8
Vindicator, Zoglin	10
Evoker, Illusioner, Ravager	12
Pillager	15

Zombies

Zombies, zombie villagers, husks, drowned, and frostbites​^{[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]} seek out and attack villagers within a 35– to 52.5–block radius (depending on regional difficulty)‌^{[JE only]} or a 16-block radius‌^{[BE only]} (even when the villager is invisible). Zombies and their variants attempt to break down doors, but only a fraction of them can 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. If a zombie comes across a set of doors with one open, it usually tries to go through the closed door.

All zombies either kill villagers or convert them into zombie villagers. The chance of the villager becoming a zombie villager upon death depends on difficulty, being 0% on Easy, 50% on Normal, and 100% on Hard. Baby villagers can be infected by zombies as well, becoming baby zombie villagers. Drowned and frostbites​^{[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]} are able to convert villagers into zombie villagers even when attacking from a distance with a trident or ice ball​^{[upcoming: Fourth Drop 2026]}, respectively.

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.

In Java Edition, 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. In Bedrock Edition, the bell rings automatically regardless of whether a villager is nearby. In Java Edition, when a bell is rung, all illagers within 48 blocks get the glowing effect for 3 seconds.

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.

In Java Edition, the villager displays water particles on random occasions as if sweating.

Hero of the Village

In Java Edition, 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. In Bedrock Edition, the villagers do not throw the player gifts, but they still give them a discount for their trades.

Staring

Villagers stare at any player that stares at them, or goes near them, even if they have the Invisibility effect. This also applies for some mobs, especially cats. A villager first turns its head toward the player, then the body. Villagers can keep staring at the player unless a raid happens or a zombie comes and chases them off.

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.‌^{[BE only]}

When a villager reaches its job site block, it commences "work". Two times a day, working resupplies any locked trades, 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 it at the height of their feet, or at the 9 blocks below that. Villagers can still "reach" them diagonally, even if they can't see or touch the face of the block.

Employed villagers do not breed with each other during their work schedule. Nitwits and unemployed villagers do not follow this rule, as they can breed with each other and employed villagers that are not working.

Leatherworker villagers can work at any cauldron, not only their job site block. Also, the cauldron does not have to be filled with water in order for the villager to work at it.

Wandering

All villagers wander from time to time, but for the unemployed and nitwits, they wander for the majority of their day. 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 of "exploring the outskirts" that causes villagers to wander near the edges of the village. This enables them to detect new beds, job site blocks, bells, and houses that players have used to extend the village. ‌^{[BE only]}

During this time of the day, they may also share items.

Gathering

Late in the day, adult villagers 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 around the village. When they encounter another baby villager, the two of them follow each other for a while and sometimes run as if racing or chasing each other.

In Java Edition, they sometimes stop to jump and bounce on a bed or to stare at an iron golem they encounter. In Bedrock Edition, if the iron golem offers them a poppy, the baby villager cautiously accepts it.

Returning home

All villagers head home a short time before sunset. They roam around until they get near their beds, then target a block beside the bed. The bed's head must be accessible for the villagers to "see" it. Once they reach their beds, they do not go through a door again before sleeping.

A villager who has no bed simply waits inside a house until morning. This includes players stealing a villager's bed to sleep in, mostly the villager stays in the house and doesn't move until sunrise. But sometimes, if they detect an unclaimed bed nearby they walk out of the house and toward the bed.

Sleeping

At sunset, villagers lie down in their beds and remain there until morning. Villagers wake early if food is thrown at them‌^{[JE only]}, they are pushed out of bed, or if their bed is destroyed. They also wake up when their bed is used, if they are attacked, or when a bell is rung. If possible, they return to sleeping in a bed after the interruption.

Jumping on a bed with a villager sleeping in it does not cause the villager to get up.

In Java Edition, a villager can be pushed on its bed and sometimes turn its head. A villager can be pushed off a bed,^[8] but is most likely to go back to sleeping after staring at the player who pushed the villager for a few seconds.

When sleeping in Java Edition, a villager's hitbox reduces to a cube restricted to the pillow part of the bed. If an anvil is dropped on the hitbox, the villager takes damage and wakes up and the anvil is dropped as an item.

In Bedrock Edition, dropping an anvil on a villager that is sleeping causes the villager to take damage but remain sleeping in the bed and the anvil remains on top of the bed.

A villager who has no bed continues wandering in search of a bed to claim.

Villagers follow their Overworld schedules regardless of which dimension they are in. They can sleep in the Nether or the End, without causing the usual consequences of the bed exploding (See Bed § Sleeping), if the Overworld's time is correct.^[9] This is because the daylight cycle continues in these dimensions, even though it is not normally apparent to the player.

Sometimes when a villager gets in a bed from another direction they turn their body until their head is on the pillow of the bed. Villagers also sleep with their eyes open.

Healing

A villager gets a brief Regeneration effect once leveling up in its profession. Pink Regeneration particles () appear while it is healing.

In Bedrock Edition, when a villager successfully sleeps, they immediately heal themselves when waking up at dawn (if they are hurt).

Professions

Each villager can have a profession except for the nitwit, indicated 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 investigate bookshelves‌^{[BE only]}. If an adult villager does not have a profession (either they are unemployed or a nitwit), they wander instead.

A job site block can be claimed only if it is unclaimed. 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. This means that once a player trades with a villager, the villager keeps its profession forever.

Nitwits and baby villagers cannot change their profession.

In Java Edition, villagers summoned by a spawn egg or via command /summon are always unemployed until they have claimed a job site block. In Bedrock Edition, however, villagers summoned in similar ways have a random profession^[10]; their profession can be changed by a job site block, however.

Novice-level villagers who have not yet traded 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 (13 jobs in total, not including unemployed/nitwit):

Profession	Job site block / Workstation	Biome
		Desert	Savanna	Jungle[note 2]	Plains	Taiga	Snow	Swamp[note 2]
Unemployed	None
Nitwit
Armorer	Blast Furnace
Butcher	Smoker
Cartographer	Cartography Table
Cleric	Brewing Stand
Farmer	Composter
Fisherman	Barrel
Fletcher	Fletching Table
Leatherworker	Cauldron
Librarian	Lectern
Mason	Stonecutter
Shepherd	Loom
Toolsmith	Smithing Table
Weaponsmith	Grindstone

Nitwit

Nitwit villagers wear robes that are green on top. They cannot change their profession, trade, or gather around bells, but are still able to breed. They are not equipped with a level stone since they cannot trade.

In Java Edition, pressing use on a nitwit causes it to grunt and bobble its head at the player. A nitwit must be born or spawned; no villagers change to nitwit from unemployed or a profession, and vice versa. Due to a bug,^[11] nitwits cannot spawn in through breeding. As such, they can only be found naturally or by curing naturally spawned zombie villagers. Zombie villagers can also be spawned as babies, meaning this is the only way to encounter baby nitwits in Survival mode.

In Bedrock Edition, every baby villager has a 10% chance to become a nitwit when they become an adult, as well as having a different sleep schedule where they wander around the village for about 2000 ticks (1 minute 40 seconds) 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.

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, iron, gold, emerald, and diamond.

Villagers have different outfits depending on their biome. Naturally generated villagers take on the outfit from the biome they were spawned in. When breeding occurs, the outfit of the child is determined by the biome where the breeding occurs, but in Java Edition, there is a 50% chance it's inherited from the biome type of the parents (equal chance for both parents). In case the villager's outfit is determined by biome but the biome has no specific villager type, it always becomes a plains villager. The outfits available are the following:

Desert

Savanna

Taiga

Snowy

Swamp

Jungle

Plains

Notes

Trading

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 valuable or somewhat meaningless, depending on the cost, the items the player might get, and how the player treats the villagers.

Only adult villagers with professions can trade; the player cannot trade with nitwits, unemployed villagers, or baby villagers. In Java Edition, attempting to do so causes the villager to display a head-bobbling animation and make a grunting sound, but in Bedrock Edition, the villager won't react at all.

Pressing the use control on 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 items related to the villager's profession.

Trading can allow the acquisition of items that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to obtain, such as enchanted books with "treasure" enchantments (e.g. Mending), bottles o' enchanting, or chainmail armor.

When a villager gets a new trade, they receive 10 seconds of Regeneration I (totaling to 4HP of restoration), which emits pink particles. The villager also emits green particles suggesting contentment.

Completing a trade with a villager increases its professional level, and makes the villager drop 3–6XP; while willing to breed, instead, 8–11XP is dropped. Some trades grant higher levels to the villager than others. As it advances through its profession, the villager offers additional trades. When a villager unlocks a new trade at a higher level, it almost always grants more experience than lower-level trades.

Villagers have a maximum supply of items and after the player has traded for an item that many times, the villager's supply of the item is exhausted. This results in the trade being temporarily locked. 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.

Using a name tag on a villager always names the villager instead of opening the trading interface.

In the villager's trading interface, clicking a trade option automatically sends items from the player's inventory into the trading input according to the ones required for exchange. In Java Edition, the same result can be accomplished by selecting a trade option and using ␣ Space repeatedly after successful trades, which can be a very quick trading method.

Supply and demand

For detailed information on Villager economics, see Trading § Economics.

The price of an item can rise and fall with changes in demand. The price of a traded item can rise when next resupplied, or fall from a risen price if not traded. Demand is stored per item, not per villager.

Trade offering

When a player holds an emerald or other item near a villager who wants that item, the villager holds up an item it offers in exchange. In Bedrock Edition, villagers raise their arms when showing trade items. For example, a farmer villager who buys 20 wheat for one emerald holds 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. Note that villagers do not hold items to offer trades during their gather or sleep phases, even though it is still possible to trade with them.

Villagers do not offer trades that are currently out of stock.

Economic trade

Villagers have various professions that progress through experience-based levels, unlocking new trade tiers.

Experience levels

• To rank up a villager, the player needs to trade. Trading with a Novice-level villager adds 1 or 2 XP per trade and each level progressively gains more XP per trade until the Master rank which earns up to 30 XP per trade. To see more, go to Trading.

Popularity or reputation

In Bedrock Edition, 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). Curing a zombie villager also increases the player's popularity by 10.

In Java Edition, a villager's prices are affected by the player's reputation with that villager rather than by village popularity.

Hero of the Village

When a player receives Hero of the Village, players receive discounted prices on all the items traded by villagers in both editions.

The Hero of the Village also gets gifts.‌^{[JE only]} Each villager throws gifts related to its profession, and nitwits and unemployed villagers throw wheat seeds instead. These gifts range in value from common (like seeds) to rare items (like chainmail armor).

A player's popularity increases by 10 in Java Edition and doesn't increase in Bedrock Edition. Villagers also shoot off fireworks, with different colored fireworks with no pattern.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Working

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Armorer works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while an armorer is working	entity.villager.work_armorer	subtitles.entity.villager.work_armorer​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Butcher works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a butcher is working	entity.villager.work_butcher	subtitles.entity.villager.work_butcher​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Cartographer works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a cartographer is working	entity.villager.work_cartographer	subtitles.entity.villager.work_cartographer​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Cleric works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a cleric is working	entity.villager.work_cleric	subtitles.entity.villager.work_cleric​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Farmer works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a farmer is working	entity.villager.work_farmer	subtitles.entity.villager.work_farmer​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Fisherman works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a fisherman is working	entity.villager.work_fisherman	subtitles.entity.villager.work_fisherman​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Fletcher works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a fletcher is working	entity.villager.work_fletcher	subtitles.entity.villager.work_fletcher​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Leatherworker works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a leatherworker is working	entity.villager.work_leatherworker	subtitles.entity.villager.work_leatherworker​	0.9	0.8–1.2	16
	​Librarian works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a librarian is working	entity.villager.work_librarian	subtitles.entity.villager.work_librarian​	2.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Mason works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a mason is working	entity.villager.work_mason	subtitles.entity.villager.work_mason​	1.0	0.8–1.2 [sound 1]	16
	​Shepherd works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a shepherd is working	entity.villager.work_shepherd	subtitles.entity.villager.work_shepherd​	0.5	0.8–1.2	16
	​Toolsmith works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a toolsmith is working	entity.villager.work_toolsmith	subtitles.entity.villager.work_toolsmith​	1.0	0.8–1.2	16
	​Weaponsmith works	Friendly Mobs	Randomly while a weaponsmith is working	entity.villager.work_weaponsmith	subtitles.entity.villager.work_weaponsmith​	0.5	0.8–1.2	16

Bedrock Edition:

Working

Sounds
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Blast Furnace crackles	Blocks	Randomly while an armorer is working	block.blastfurnace.fire_crackle	subtitles.block.blastfurnace.fire_crackle​	3.0	0.6
	​Smoker crackles	Blocks	Randomly while a butcher is working	block.smoker.smoke	subtitles.block.smoker.smoke​	3.0	varies [sound 1]
	​Map drawn	Blocks	Randomly while a cartographer is working	block.cartography_table.use	subtitles.ui.cartography_table.take_result​	0.8	varies [sound 2]
	​Brewing stand bubbles	Blocks	Randomly while a cleric is working	random.potion.brewed	subtitles.block.brewing_stand.brew​	1.0	1.0
	​Composter filled	Blocks	Randomly while a farmer is working	block.composter.fill	subtitles.block.composter.fill​	1.3	0.8
	​Barrel opens	Blocks	Randomly while a fisherman is working	block.barrel.open	subtitles.block.barrel.open​	1.0	1.0
	​Block broken	Blocks	Randomly while a fletcher is working	dig.wood	subtitles.block.generic.break​	12.0	1.0
	​Bucket fills	Blocks	Randomly while a leatherworker is working	bucket.fill_water	subtitles.item.bucket.fill​	1.0	1.0
	​Book thumps	Blocks	Randomly while a librarian is working	item.book.put	subtitles.item.book.put​	4.8	1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	Randomly while a mason is working	block.stonecutter.use	​ ?	0.7	1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	Randomly while a shepherd is working	block.loom.use	​ ?	0.75	1.0
	​Smithing Table used	Blocks	Randomly while a toolsmith is working	smithing_table.use	subtitles.block.smithing_table.use​	1.0	1.0
	​Grindstone used	Blocks	Randomly while a weaponsmith is working	block.grindstone.use	subtitles.block.grindstone.use​	0.5	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Entity tags	Translation key
Villager	villager	cannot_be_age_locked followable_friendly_mobs	entity.minecraft.villager

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Family	Translation key
Villager (old)	villager	15	armorer butcher cartographer cleric farmer fisherman fletcher leatherworker librarian mob nitwit shepherd stone_mason toolsmith villager weaponsmith	entity.villager.name
Villager (new)	villager_v2	115	armorer butcher cartographer cleric farmer fisherman fletcher leatherworker librarian mob nitwit shepherd stone_mason toolsmith villager weaponsmith	entity.villager_v2.name

Entity data

Villagers have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.

Java Edition:

Type	Data value
Desert	minecraft:desert
Jungle	minecraft:jungle
Plains	minecraft:plains
Savanna	minecraft:savanna
Snowy	minecraft:snow
Swamp	minecraft:swamp
Taiga	minecraft:taiga

Profession	Data value
Armorer	minecraft:armorer
Butcher	minecraft:butcher
Cartographer	minecraft:cartographer
Cleric	minecraft:cleric
Farmer	minecraft:farmer
Fisherman	minecraft:fisherman
Fletcher	minecraft:fletcher
Leatherworker	minecraft:leatherworker
Librarian	minecraft:librarian
Nitwit	minecraft:nitwit
Unemployed	minecraft:none
Mason	minecraft:mason
Shepherd	minecraft:shepherd
Toolsmith	minecraft:toolsmith
Weaponsmith	minecraft:weaponsmith

Bedrock Edition:

See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Achievements

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		The Haggler	Acquire or spend 30 Emeralds by trading with villagers.	The Emeralds Acquired or spent does not have to be earned in the same world.	30	Silver
		Buy Low, Sell High	Trade for the best possible price.	Buy something for 1 emerald, or when the Hero of the Village effect is applied.	50	Gold
		Master Trader	Trade for 1,000 Emeralds.	Obtain 1,000 emeralds from trading with villagers.	30	Silver
		Star trader	Trade with a villager at the build height limit.	Trade with a villager at Y=319.	20	Silver
		Treasure Hunter	Buy an Ocean Explorer or Woodland Explorer map from a villager, then enter the revealed structure.	Buy it from a cartographer villager, and then visit the indicated structure while the purchased map is in your main hand (hotbar).	40	Silver

Achievements that apply to all mobs:

Icon		Achievement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)	Gamerscore earned	Trophy type (PS)
PS4	Other
		Overkill	Deal nine hearts of damage in a single hit.	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have nine hearts of health overall.	30	Bronze
		Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.	20	Silver
		Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor stands and players also count for this achievement as they are technically mobs.	10	Bronze

Advancements

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Zombie Doctor	Weaken and then cure a Zombie Villager	Use a golden apple on a zombie villager under the Weakness effect; the advancement is granted when the zombie villager converts into a villager. In multiplayer, only the player that feeds the golden apple gets the advancement.
	What a Deal!	Successfully trade with a Villager	Take an item from a villager or wandering trader's trading output slot.
	Surge Protector	Protect a Villager from an undesired shock without starting a fire	Be within 30 blocks of a lightning strike that doesn't set any blocks on fire, while an unharmed villager is within or up to six blocks above a 30×30×30 volume centered on the lightning strike.
	Star Trader	Trade with a Villager at the build height limit	Stand on any block that is higher than 318 and trade with a villager or wandering trader.
	Very Very Frightening	Strike a Villager with lightning	Hit a villager with lightning created by a trident with the Channeling enchantment, turning it into a witch.

Advancements that apply to all mobs:

Icon	Advancement	In-game description	Actual requirements (if different)
	Adventure	Adventure, exploration and combat	Kill any mob, or be killed by any living entity.
	A Throwaway Joke	Throw a Trident at something. Note: Throwing away your only weapon is not a good idea.	Hit a mob with a thrown trident.
	Take Aim	Shoot something with an Arrow	Using a bow or a crossbow, shoot a mob with an arrow, tipped arrow, or spectral arrow.
	Mob Kabob	Hit five mobs in the same Charge attack using the Spear	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement.
	Arbalistic	Kill five unique mobs with one crossbow shot	Armor Stand and Mannequin also count for this advancement. This is a hidden advancement, meaning that it can be viewed by the player only after completing it, regardless of if its child advancement(s), if any, have been completed.
	Over-Overkill	Deal 50 hearts of damage in a single hit using the Mace	Damage can be dealt to any mob, even those that do not have 50 hearts of health overall.

Videos

History

Announcement

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.0.0			Beta 1.9 Prerelease				Added villagers.
							Villagers share the same AI as pigs.
							Villagers have the name "TESTIFICATE" displayed over their heads as player names are displayed in multiplayer.
							Villages have 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[12]
			Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2				The "TESTIFICATE" name above villager's heads has been removed.
1.1			11w49a				Added the villager spawn egg to Creative mode. However, only farmer villagers are spawned.
1.2.1			12w05a				Villagers now go inside at night and detect houses.
							Villagers can now open and close doors.
			12w06a				Villagers can now socialize with each other and passive mobs.
							Villagers are now attacked by and run away from zombies.
							Villagers now go inside shelter whenever it rains.
			12w07a				Added baby villagers.
							Villagers now repopulate villages by the number of houses there are.
							Baby villagers now sprint.
1.3.1			12w18a				Villagers spawned via a spawn egg now have a random profession.
			12w21a				Added trading with villagers. Leaving a trading window open causes villagers not to wander under normal circumstances.
			12w22a				Villagers 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 changes 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.
			12w23a				Villagers procreate again.
			12w24a				Fixed losing the items in the second trade box if the player exits a trade with a villager.
			12w25a				Villagers may now 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 now spawn the previously unavailable green robe villagers in unmodified Minecraft clients.
1.4.2			12w32a				Villagers 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.
1.4.4			pre				Baby villagers can now be spawned easily by right-clicking a villager with a villager spawn 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.
1.8			14w02a				Added careers to villagers, splitting up the trade offers within a profession. This career is shown in the trading interface.
							The trading system has been reworked 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 crashes the game.
							Villagers now breed only when willing. This limits the number of villagers and prevents infinite breeding villages.
			14w02c				Villagers that had professions more than 4 now repeat in 0-4.
							Generic villagers can now be spawned only by using negative profession numbers.
			14w03a				Villagers struck by lightning now turn into witches.
			14w04a				Farmer (profession) villagers now harvest fully grown crops.
							Villagers can now 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 (reward exp).
			14w20a				The generic villager has been completely removed. However, its texture still exists in 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 now slightly taller (1.95 blocks tall rather than 1.8, with babies 0.975 blocks tall rather than 0.9).
			15w43a				A priest villager can now be found caged in an igloo basement.
1.11			16w32b				Generic villagers have been re-added. They are now called Nitwits, as profession 5. However, they can no longer trade, because right-clicking on a generic villager does nothing.
			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			17w47a				The Weapon Smith's career ID has been changed from 3 to 2 and the Tool Smith's from 2 to 3.
			18w11a				Villagers now run away from drowned.
1.14			18w47a				Villagers now hide in houses during raids.
							Villagers no longer trade while a raid is ongoing, right-clicking them instead makes them emit sweat particles.
			18w50a				Added the mason profession.
							All careers have been split into their own professions.
							Villagers now have different skins based on biome (including swamps and jungles, which do not contain villages), as well as profession.
							Added desert villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. These villagers also spawn in badlands biomes.
							Added jungle villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. However, jungles do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them or via spawn eggs.
							Added plains villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome.
							Added savanna villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome.
							Added snowy villagers, which all have unique textures in snowy biomes. These villagers spawn in any snowy biome, including frozen rivers, frozen oceans (and their variants) and snowy beaches.
							Added swamp villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. However, swamps do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them or via spawn eggs.
							Added taiga villagers, which all have unique textures for the biome. These villagers also spawn in giant tree taiga and windswept hills biomes.
							Added baby villagers to desert, jungle, plains, savanna, snowy, swamp and taiga biomes. However, jungles and swamps do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them or via spawn eggs.
							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 the player's popularity in the village.
							Villagers now resupply their trades up to two times a day, if they get to work at a job site block.
							The villager trading UI has been updated.
							Villagers now level up in a new way.
							Villagers now have a daily schedule. They go to work and meet up at the village bell. Each villager tries to find its own bed and job site block. Each profession has a specific block that works as a job site block for them (e.g. lectern for the librarian and cauldron for the leatherworker).
							Villagers now sleep in beds at night.
							Iron golems now spawn when enough villagers meet.
			19w13a				Villagers can now trade during raids.
							Villagers now sweat during raids.
							Villagers now hide in houses when a bell is rung by the player.
							Villagers now throw gifts to players with the different Hero of the Village status effects, with the gift item depending on their profession. Baby villagers throw poppies.
			19w13b				The trading UI of villagers has been revamped.
							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 now put the items into the slots automatically.
			19w14a				Nitwits and unemployed villagers now bobble their head and grunt if the player tries to trade with them.
			pre1				Fletcher villagers no longer sell luck arrows.
							100% of villager trades are now discounted when the player has the Hero of the Village effect.
1.14.3			pre1				Panicking villagers now have a higher chance of spawning iron golems.
							Farmer villagers now spend more time farming when they are working.
							Farmer villagers now always give away food even if other villagers do not need it.
			pre2				Panicked villagers now have to work and sleep, so they cannot be in a state of panic all the time.
							The "last slept" and "last worked" properties for villagers are now saved properly.
1.14.4			pre1				Villagers now voluntarily pick up items.
			pre2				Villagers now stock more items, so they now can trade more items before they lock their trades.
							Villagers now remember their gossip after becoming a zombie villager.
							Gossip about players who converted a zombie villager now last longer.
							Villagers can now work without also restocking at the same time.
							The performance of villager pathfinding has been improved.
1.15			19w35a				Nitwit villagers no longer have a leveling gemstone in their belt.
							If a player tries to sleep in a bed that is occupied by a villager, that villager is now kicked out of the bed.
1.16			20w19a				Villagers can now spawn iron golems regardless of their profession status or latest working time.
			20w22a				Villagers no longer try to work at the same workstation.
							When a workstation is placed, the most experienced nearby villager for that corresponding profession claims the workstation.
							Villagers now have to walk to and reach the workstation before they can acquire the profession/work there.
							Villagers can no longer claim workstations/professions during raids or nighttime.
							Villagers now check that their workstation is valid at all times of day as long as they are within 16 blocks of their workstation.
1.16.2			20w28a				Villagers now emit green particles when joining a village, setting a home bed, or acquiring a job site/profession to match Bedrock Edition.
			pre1				Villagers now lose their job sites when changing dimension.
1.17			21w11a				The overlay texture of the librarian has been changed.
			21w13a				Can now accept a filled cauldron as a valid workstation.
							Mason villagers can now sell 4 dripstone blocks for an emerald.
1.17.1			pre2				Villagers no longer drop trading related items they were holding when killed with looting.
1.18			21w37a				Baby villagers are no longer attacked by illagers.
			21w41a				Tweaked the armorer zombie villager's and weaponsmith zombie villager's textures to remove stray villager pixels.
1.19			22w17a				The model of villagers has been changed. The problem of cut-off hems on costumes for some professions has been resolved by extending the overlay model downward by two pixels. ​
1.20			23w14a				Torchflower seeds can now be picked up by farmer villagers.
			23w16a				Farmer villagers can now plant torchflower seeds and pitcher pods.
1.20.2			23w31a				Villagers now give major_positive and minor_positive reputation only the first time they are cured from a zombie villager. There are no longer multiple stacked discounts if a villager is zombified and cured multiple times.[13]
							Existing villagers with multiple curing discounts keep their lowered prices when updating to the new version.
1.20.2 Experiment Villager Trade Rebalance			23w31a				Librarians from different biomes now sell different enchanted books.
							Each village biome has one special enchantment that is available only from master librarians.
							The player must build two secret villages in biomes where villages do not generate to access their trades.
							Some enchantments have been removed from village trading and must be found in other ways.
1.20.5 Experiment Villager Trade Rebalance			24w03a				Villagers who buy armor now ignore durability and can buy damaged armor.
1.21.5			25w07a				The changes to cartographer trades have been moved from villager trade rebalance and are now available during normal gameplay.
1.21.9			25w37a				Moved the result slot of gui/container/villager.png up by one pixel.
26.1			snap1				Trades offered by villagers and wandering traders are now data-driven and can be customized by datapack developers.
			snap7				The model and textures of baby villagers have been changed.
			snap8				Adjusted the hitboxes of the baby versions of villagers and their variants to fit in 1 block high or 0.5 block wide spaces.
26.2			snap5				The heights of baby villagers have been changed from 0.99 blocks to 0.98 blocks, to match Bedrock Edition.

Historical renders

Baby villagers in Java Edition before Tiny Takeover (Java Edition 26.1):

• 
  Plains baby villager
• 
  Desert baby villager
• 
  Jungle baby villager
• 
  Savanna baby villager
• 
  Snowy baby villager
• 
  Swamp baby villager
• 
  Taiga baby villager

Bedrock Edition

Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0			build 1				Added villagers.
							Added baby villagers.
							Villagers have the same level of AI as PC version 1.0.0, as they cannot trade, harvest crops, breed or open doors.
			build 2				Villagers now have sounds.
							Villagers are now attacked by and run away from zombies.
							Baby villagers now sprint.
v0.9.2							Villagers now have sounds on iOS and Fire OS.
							The health of villagers has been reduced from 20HP × 10 to 10HP
v0.10.0			build 6				The villager walking animation has been changed.
v0.12.1			build 1				Villagers can now open and close doors.
							Villagers 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 now repopulate villages by the number of houses there are.
							Villagers 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 now always become zombie villagers in Hard difficulty.
v0.13.0			build 2				Villagers now open all wooden doors (rather than just oak).
v0.14.0			build 1				Villagers struck by lightning 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).
v0.15.0			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.
							The generic villager has been added for resource packs.
							Villagers can now share food with other villagers.
							Villagers can now be made willing by using 3 bread, 12 carrots or 12 potatoes.
							Villagers now breed only 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 villagers called "Cartographer".
Bedrock Edition
1.2.13			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 Experiment Experimental Gameplay			beta 1.10.0.3				Old villagers are automatically changed to new villagers, and old villagers can only be spawned by modifying the world's NBT.
							Added nitwit and unemployed villagers.
							Added mason profession, which can be traded with.
							Villagers now run away from the new ravager.
							Added a new type of villager, only available with Experimental Gameplay enabled. 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.
							Added desert villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. These villagers also spawn in badlands biomes.
							Added jungle villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. However, jungles do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them or via spawn eggs.
							Added plains villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome.
							Added savanna villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome.
							Added snowy villagers, which all have unique textures in snowy biomes. These villagers spawn in any snowy biome, including frozen rivers, frozen oceans (and their variants) and snowy beaches.
							Added swamp villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. However, swamps do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them or via spawn eggs.
							Added taiga villagers, which all have unique textures for the biome. These villagers also spawn in giant tree taiga and mountains biomes.
							Added baby villagers to desert, jungle, plains, savanna, snowy, swamp and taiga biomes. However, jungles and swamps do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them or via spawn eggs
							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 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 hold the item they want to trade.
							Villagers now have behavior to wander village outskirts.
							Villagers can now mingle in gathering sites.
							Villagers can now work in job sites with the corresponding job site block and can change professions depending on the available job site blocks in villages.
1.11.0 Experiment Experimental Gameplay			beta 1.11.0.1				The farmer job site block has been changed from farmland to composters.
							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 be activated only by using /resupply.
							Old villagers now convert to villager_v2 .
							Baby villagers are now ignored by illagers, including ravagers and vexes.
1.11.0			beta 1.11.0.3				Villager now heal themselves upon waking up at dawn.
							The new villagers are no longer available only behind Experimental Gameplay.
			beta 1.11.0.4				Villagers now hide in houses during raids.
							The villager economy trades have been changed.
							The supply and demand feature for villagers now works properly.
							Villagers now make sounds when they work.
1.13.0			beta 1.13.0.9				Villagers can now heal if they have bread in their inventory.
1.17.0			beta 1.16.230.54				Mason villagers can now sell 4 dripstone blocks for an emerald.
1.18.10			beta 1.18.10.20				Villagers spawning in the grove biome are now the snowy variant.[14]
1.18.10			beta 1.18.10.26				Removed the emerald icon above a Villager's head when trading.
1.19.40			Preview 1.19.40.20				Baby villagers again accept flowers from iron golems.
			Preview 1.19.50.21				While playing tag, baby villagers now run at a quicker speed that matches Java Edition.
1.19.60			Preview 1.19.60.20				Villagers now take damage from lightning bolts on Peaceful difficulty, like other mobs.
							Villagers now ensure that rain can pass through the block above them before launching fireworks when celebrating after a raid victory.[15]
			Preview 1.19.60.22				Fixed an issue that prevented some tripwire hooks from being valid when trading with a fletcher villager.
1.19.80			Preview 1.19.80.20				Villagers now generate green particles when a successful trade is completed.
1.20.10			Preview 1.20.10.20				A zombie villager now drops its armor and held items once cured.
							Farmer villagers can now pick up and plant torchflower seeds and pitcher pods.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.20.20				Villagers no longer drop items held in their hands when killed by players.
1.20.30			Preview 1.20.30.21				Villagers now give a big discount only the first time they're cured from a zombie villager. There are no longer multiple stacked discounts if a villager is zombified and cured multiple times.
1.21.30			Preview 1.21.30.24				Villagers no longer make any idle sounds when sleeping.
26.10			Preview 26.10.23				The model and textures of baby villagers have been changed.
26.20			Preview 26.20.22				The hitboxes of baby villagers have been changed, to closely match Java Edition.[16]

Historical renders

Baby villagers before Tiny Takeover (Bedrock Edition 26.10):

• 
  Plains baby villager
• 
  Desert baby villager
• 
  Jungle baby villager
• 
  Savanna baby villager
• 
  Snowy baby villager
• 
  Swamp baby villager
• 
  Taiga baby villager
• 
  Base baby villager. This is only seen for a split second.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU7	CU1	1.00	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added villagers.
							Villagers have the same level of AI as Java Edition 1.0.0, as they cannot trade, harvest crops, breed or open doors.
TU11							The limit for villagers has been increased in a world.
TU12							Added baby villagers.
							Villagers can now open and close doors.
							Villagers 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 now repopulate villages by the number of houses there are.
							Baby villagers now sprint.
TU13							A limit to the number of villagers spawned by breeding has been added.
							Added the hearts display when villagers enter 'love mode'.
TU14		1.04					Trading with villagers has been added.
							Villagers are now assigned random professions.
							Villagers that are spawned from a spawn egg now have a random profession.
							Villagers now make sounds from being hurt, trading and wandering.
							Baby villagers can now be spawned by using on that mob using its spawn egg.
TU31	CU19	1.22	1.22	1.22	Patch 3		Villagers now have additional professions and trading schemes.
							Villagers now harvest crops.
							Villagers now breed only when willing (and can be made willing by giving them 3 bread, 12 carrots or 12 potatoes).
							Villagers turn into witches when struck by lightning.
TU43	CU33	1.36	1.36	1.36	Patch 13		A cleric villager can now be found caged in an igloo basement.
TU54	CU44	1.52	1.52	1.52	Patch 24	1.0.4	Added a new career for the librarian villager: "Cartographer".
							Nitwit villagers can now spawn.
TU69		1.76	1.76	1.76	Patch 38		Added an emerald icon above a Villager's head when trading.
							Baby villagers now have larger-sized heads.

PlayStation 4 Edition

PlayStation 4 Edition
1.91							Added nitwit and unemployed villagers.
							Added mason villagers, which can be traded with.
							Villagers have new clothing to indicate their level, profession, and biome.
							Added desert villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. These villagers also spawn badlands biomes.
							Added jungle villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. However, jungles do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them.
							Added plains villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome.
							Added savanna villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome.
							Added snowy villagers, which all have unique textures in snowy biomes. These villagers spawn in any snowy biome, including frozen rivers, frozen oceans (and their variants) and snowy beaches.
							Added swamp villagers, which all have unique textures for that biome. However, swamps do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them.
							Added taiga villagers, which all have unique textures for the biome. These villagers also spawn in giant tree taiga and windswept hills biomes.
							Added baby villagers to desert, jungle, plains, savanna, snowy, swamp and taiga biomes. However, jungles and swamps do not contain villages, so these villagers spawn only after the player has created a village for them.
							Villagers now have a schedule. Adult and child villagers have a different schedule.
							Villagers may now wander to the village outskirts.
							Villagers now attempt to find a door when it rains during the day and navigate to their bed at night.
							The pathfinding of villagers has been updated and improved.
							Villagers now have a visual-based trading system, and now hold up the item they wish to trade.
							Villagers now mingle together around gathering sites in the village.
							Librarian villagers now inspect bookshelves.
							Villagers can now switch professions depending on the job site blocks available in the village.
							Villagers now interact with beds and corresponding job site blocks.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added villagers.
							Added baby villagers.
1.9.19							Added a new career for the librarian villager: "Cartographer".

Data history

Issues

Issues relating to "Villager" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed there.

Trivia

• The villagers were inspired by the shopkeepers in Dungeon Master II.^[17]
• Originally, the mobs populating villages were to be pigmen.^[18]
• When a villager is in love mode, it walks slowly. However, when a villager runs indoors as the night falls, it runs faster than the player's sprinting speed.
• The villager skins added in the Village and Pillage update were inspired by 2018 fashion shows, such as Gucci's.^[19]
• Villagers are genderless, meaning they are neither male nor female.^[20]
• Villagers occasionally sleep in odd ways during the night inside their beds, sometimes hanging halfway off the side of the bed or even glitching into walls.
• Although the villages in snowy taiga biomes spawn the snowy villager variant in Bedrock Edition, they use the taiga village variant.
• In Java Edition, when the Programmer Art resource pack is enabled, all villagers wear a green hood on their heads.^[21] This is because the Programmer Art nitwit texture (which is directly copied from the pre-1.14 vanilla resource pack and had the hood in the texture since its addition) is called the same as the Village & Pillage base villager texture (...\entity\villager\villager.png).
  • In Bedrock Edition, when the Classic Textures pack from the Marketplace is enabled, the villagers still use their default texture instead of the old texture.^[22] This is because the old textures of villager are located in ...\entity\villager, while the textures for new villagers are in ...\entity\villager2.
• Giving a villager any item (with commands) causes it to hold the item as if offering it, but it cannot be traded.
• Fisherman villagers have been intentionally textured by Jasper Boerstra to display the long-since-removed raw fish texture.^[23]
• Villagers display their held items differently than most creatures do, using the "ground" parameter instead of the usual hand parameter in model display settings.
• Villagers (and baby villagers) on boats that have claimed a bed can still sleep when the bed is near to them resulting in them sleeping in the boat instead.‌^{[Bedrock Edition only]}
• Ancient villagers have been shown in Minecraft Legends, although they were hinted at in Minecraft Dungeons.
• In Java Edition, the death messages of villagers are recorded in the game's logs.^[24]
• Baby villagers taking poppies from iron golems is a reference to the 1986 Japanese animated movie Castle in the Sky, in which a giant robot covered in vines (inspiration for the iron golem) gives the main characters flowers to put on a memorial.^[25]
• Their vocal sounds are performed by Daniel Rosenfeld.^[26]
• During a raid victory celebration, a hostile or neutral mob damaged by a firework attacks the villager who launched it.
  • If a player is accidentally damaged by a firework, tamed wolves and trusting foxes attack the villager.
  • If any iron golem gets damaged from the firework, because they are neutral mobs, they would attack and consequently kill the villager.

Gallery

Renders