Villager

Villager
Health Points	20 ( x 10)
Behavior	Passive
Armor Points	0 unless equipped with armor via dispenser.
Attack Strength	Set firework: 5(File:Half Heart.png)–6()
Drops	None
Location	In NPC Villages and in Igloo basements.
First Appearance	Beta 1.9 Prerelease
Network ID	120 (JE) 15/115 (BE)
Technical Name	minecraft:villager villager_2 (BE)

Villagers are humanoid passive mobs that spawn in villages and igloo basements. They have different variants in the game. Their texture will change depending on their profession and the biome the village is located in. There are currently 5 types of villages: plains, savanna, desert, snowy tundra, and taiga villages with some rarely appearing in jungles and swamps.

Appearance

Each villager has a presence that matches their profession. For example, farmers wear straw hats, and librarians have a book on the top of their heads. Unemployed villagers will wear the default clothing of the village's biome, without any additional work attire, and nitwits wear a green robe in the style of the village's biome. All villagers have green eyes, distinctly long noses, and have their arms crossed over their chests. Almost all villagers have headgear of some kind, as well as patterned robes going down to just above their feet.

Professions

These are the professions that exist in the game, and the required job site block they need to have to get the said job.

• Fisherman - Barrel
• Cartographer - Cartography Table
• Butcher - Smoker
• Toolsmith - Smithing Table
• Weaponsmith - Grindstone
• Armorer - Blast Furnace
• Leatherworker - Cauldron
• Cleric - Brewing Stand
• Farmer - Composter
• Fletcher - Fletching Table
• Shepherd - Loom
• Librarian - Lectern
• Mason (Stone Mason) - Stonecutter
• Nitwits & Unemployed - None

Villagers will spawn in their respective buildings depending on their profession. Trading with villagers fills their rank bar. When a villager's bar is filled, then happy particles (green particles) and purple bubble-like particles will appear, and the villager will unlock more of its items to exchange for. Each villager with each job trades different things. Some villagers don't trade at all unless they were given a profession by using a kind of job site block (if it is unemployed), or unless the villager in question's trading system has been maxed out by trading with the villager enough to rank it up to the max level, Master level. Unemployed villagers will wander the village looking for a job site block to claim. The job site block can be anywhere in the village, as long as it is unobstructed and unclaimed.

Villagers whose job site block has been destroyed will lose their profession unless they have been traded with before. In that case, they will keep their profession, but angry (orangish-red) particles will appear on their heads, and they will wander the village, much like unemployed villagers, looking for their corresponding job site block. For example, a farmer who has been traded with before will not lose their profession if their composter is destroyed, but rather, they will search the village for an unclaimed composter.

Behavior

Villagers are considered as one of the most intelligent of all peaceful mobs. However, there are some factors that they are unaware of or pay no attention to. Villagers realize the day-night cycle as well. Villagers are not fond of water, and unlike the other peaceful mobs, they will immediately attempt to find a nearby escape route. Villagers will try to avoid zombies. If anything unintentionally attacks a villager, the harmed villager will be alarmed; however, nearby villagers won't react unless the player's popularity in the village is negative. If this happens, then their Iron Golems will start being hostile towards that player until the popularity becomes positive. (Note: In Bedrock edition, if a player attacks a villager, iron golems will instantly attack the player.)

File:HeartBroken.png

The heart broken icon that appears when a player hits a Villager

Panicking

When a villager notices a zombie, they immediately begin to panic and run away from them. Villagers are fast enough to escape a zombie, zombie villager, or husk. However, this will not always protect them, since a baby zombie, baby husk, or baby zombie villager will outrun them due to their increased speed. When it becomes night time, all villagers move in-doors to safety. Villagers will also run away when they see an illager such as a vindicator, evoker, pillager, ravager, or illusioner. Each of these hostile mobs has a panic radius. If a villager is inside this panic radius, they immediately panic and flee.

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

Villager Interaction

A common sight in a village would be a villager, if facing each other, assuming the human-like characteristic of "talking". However, villagers usually stare at other villagers who are very close to "talk". When a player attacks a villager, they have steam coming from their heads, most-likely indicating anger or frustration. As of 1.6, villagers will produce noises (sounding similar to a "hrmmm", a grunt, or a humming sound). They make noises on several occasions: when breeding is activated, when struck by a player, or when a player trades with one.

Villager Gathering

Villagers also can pick up food, and trade it with other villagers. They will pick up wheat, bread, carrots, potatoes, and beetroots. All villagers will additionally pick up seeds and beetroot seeds. Still, only farmer villagers will plant them (giving grains to a non-farmer villager is only useful for disposing of excess seeds). Once a villager has enough food, and there are enough beds in the village, villagers will begin to breed.

In the Bedrock Edition, hitting villagers will make them run away from the player unless the player looks at its trading interface. Also, farmer villagers can be seen holding certain farm items like carrots and drop them to give them to other villagers.

As of 1.14, villagers can sleep in beds. Each villager has a specific bed they sleep in, and can be woken up by the player. Every villager goes to bed when it becomes night-time.

Villager Profession Acquiring

Also as of 1.14, all villagers first spawn as an unemployed villager and receive a job by being close to a particular job block (e.g. being within a certain distance of a barrel will turn a jobless villager into a fisher). Once the said villager gets a job, they will keep that same job for the rest of their lives until the said job block is broken, making them turn back into an unemployed villager and will be shown to be upset. Trading with a villager who has just got a job or changed profession will make it so they can't change their business again, and will be locked into that job. That trade, however on the bedrock edition, trading with a villager will secure their profession, but not their businesses, meaning once their profession is locked, their trades can still be picked. Villagers will often return to their work stations to re-stock their merchandise for trading. Take note that they will only re-stock the items twice a day.

File:Villager Sound.ogg

Nitwit villagers will wander out of the village, sleep a lot, and never participate in village meetings. They also cannot get a job, as they have no profession.

File:VillagersTalking-HV.png

Two villagers socializing.

Trading

Villagers can be traded within the game for various items depending on their "profession" or type of villager. The currency that they handle is emeralds. Some villagers will trade for emeralds while others will take them and give items. Farmer type villagers, known for their straw hats, will sell for things such as wheat, carrots, potatoes, and melon seeds for emeralds, or vice versa. Farmers tend to occupy farms and plant new crops and take out the full-grown food. The butcher type, known for their headbands and white apron, will trade for meat such as pork chops, beef, mutton, and chicken. It is far more common for the trade to require the raw version of the flesh. Clerics, which can be recognized by their purple aprons, business for Ender pearls, eyes of Ender, and other paraphernalia. They also allow a player to buy enchanted items by trading an unenchanted version of the article, in addition to a few emeralds as the cost of enchanting the item. One of the most common trades this particular villager offers is a sum of rotten flesh for an emerald. The blacksmith type of villager is now separated into three types: the toolsmith, which trades tool-related items, the weaponsmith (which usually sells for weapon-related purposes), and the armourer, which sells armour-related items. A typical trade to both of them is that they buy a large sum of coal for an emerald. The librarian villager is known for their book on top of their head; they purchase paper and vend books (sometimes also navigation-related items, such as bookshelves and compasses) and may even sell enchanted books. The fletcher, known for the quill in their hat, vends string-related items. The cartographers each adorned with a monocle, trade map-related items. The shepherd trades wool related issues. The Mason villager, known for their black apron, buys for stone-related details. Lastly, there is one other villager role called the nitwit (also referred to as the "generic villager"). In Java Edition, attempting to trade with the nitwit causes them to shake their head. They wear plain green robes and do not purchase or vend items, and don't have any type of job in the game.

File:VillagerTrades.png

Villagers all start with two trade agreements, usually an article for an emerald and an emerald for an item. They start at level one, called a novice. By trading with the villager, they slowly gain experience. With enough experience, villagers go to the next level and can have at least one possible trade. Note some villagers sell items more expensively than others meaning villagers have different costs.

Trading is one of the fastest ways to get emeralds legitimately in Survival, as farming animals and crops are far quicker than digging for them. This allows players to continually trade and renew trades that yield emeralds to a player. This is also known sometimes as "emerald farming".

As of Minecraft 1.8, the villagers' trading got a complete overhaul. Villagers could now have several trades when they are spawned, giving a player more flexibility when trading. Another factor that helps is that when purchasing, new trade possibilities can occur depending on how many new trades players have made already. Also, update 1.11 added new "cartographer" villagers who will trade their exploration maps for a compass and varied amounts of emeralds gathered by a player.

Ranking

As of 1.14 - Village and Pillage, villagers will now have a rank depending on how much the players trade with them. They will always start or spawn with the stone badge at first, but it will be better once players purchase with the same villager more often. A villager's rank is indicated both in the GUI and on a badge, a small yet obvious object hanging at their belt. Villagers with higher ranks tend to have more trades, as well as better trades. Here are the trading rankings of villagers, with the stone being the lowest. Take note that buying items will make them rank up a little faster than selling things.

• Stone - Novice
• Iron - Apprentice
• Gold - Journeyman
• Emerald - Expert
• Diamond - Master

Popularity

A player's popularity (or, reputation) within a particular village can be increased or decreased in many ways, with one notable consequence: if a player has demanded at or below -15, naturally spawned iron golems will become permanently hostile towards a player. Popularity can be gained by trading but will decrease by attacking villagers or iron golems. A player's demand can be high in one village, yet low in another. The reputation-meter starts for every player at 0. The minimum reputation is -30, and the maximum is 10. Actions which affect a player's status are as follows:

Action	Change in Popularity
Hero of the Village	+10
Spawning an Iron Golem	+5
Trading with a villager to Expert/Master	+4
Trading with a villager to Journeyman	+3
Trading with a villager to Apprentice	+2
Trading with a villager for the last offer slot on their list	+1
Attacking a villager	-1
Killing a villager	-2
Attacking a child villager	-3
Killing a child villager	-5
Killing an Iron Golem	-10

In Java Edition, popularity can also affect the trading system to the villagers. If the player has a negative reputation, the trades will become slightly expensive. If the player has a positive reputation, the deals will become a little cheaper.

Gossip

As of 1.14, villagers will now tend to talk to each other more often in the center area of the village (the center usually has bells around it) at a specific time. The villagers can gossip either about a player or for the sake of spawning an iron golem. Gossiping can be either have a positive or negative response and will affect the player's reputation unless the gossip is for a golem. The chatter can either be minor or significant, depending on what the player did. The reputation mechanic, however, is only present in the Java Edition.

Minor Gossip

• + A player trades with a villager.
• - A player hurts a villager.

Major Gossip

• + A player cures a zombie villager.
• - A player kills a villager.

Golem Gossip

• Villagers will gossip about spawning an iron golem if they have not seen an iron golem in that village for a few Minecraft days and might think of the sake of spawning an iron golem in the village.

Raids

Main article: Raid

Raids are in-game events that will occur if a player with a difficulty of easy, normal, or hard enters a village with bad omen with a different number of waves depending on the difficulty. When it occurs, the bossbar above the screen will be red if in Java Edition, or purple in Bedrock Edition. The bar will rise when the raid starts and illagers, pillagers, witches, vindicators, and ravengers (depending on the difficulty) will start spawning out of nowhere and attack the village. If the player can protect the village from the progressively harder waves of illagers, then the player will gain the Hero of the Village effect, resulting in a discount on all trades.

Variants

Illagers

Illagers are hostile, villager-like mobs. There are 5 (4 if excluding the ravager) types: the evoker, vindicator, illusioner, pillager, and ravager. All illagers will attack villagers, iron golems, wandering traders, and players. The evoker and vindicator spawn in woodland mansions while the illusioners rely on commands (/summon illusioner) to spawn (however, illusioners may/will naturally spawn in raids as of the 1.16 update). The pillager spawns in pillager outposts and illager patrols. All of these mobs can also appear when an invasion (called a raid) occurs.

Witches

Witches are a type of hostile villager-like "humanoid" mobs that are much like illagers. They rarely spawn in the Overworld in low light levels, or by a witch's hut. Witches will also spawn if a villager is struck by lightning within four blocks. They will not attack villagers but will attack Iron Golems. They may also join pillager raids as healers, but they will not attack villagers and use splash potions to attack players.

NPC

NPCs are villager-like mobs who are exclusive to Education Edition. They provide tips and come in several different looks. Despite strongly resembling villagers like the other variants, NPCs do not trade, but right-clicking opens their "speech" interface.

Wandering Trader

Wandering Traders are probably the closest non-villager mob to resemble villagers. Not to be mistaken for one, they have blue clothing and are seen in many places, walking around during the day. They also leash two exclusive trader llamas with them, and have a trading interface as well, although completing a trade won't gain more deals from the NPC. They despawn after 40-60 mins even if in a boat or with a name tag, and will also run away from zombies and illagers. They will also use an invisibility potion if they see any hostile mob or when it is night-time and will drink milk on java edition when the sun rises. Only one can be found in a player’s world at a time and this could be anywhere.

Zombie Villager

Main article: Zombie Villager

Zombie Villagers are mobs that appeared in Java Edition 1.4.2. They make up 5% of zombies that spawn in the Overworld. They will also look after a villager is killed by a zombie during a village siege, 50% on Normal and 100% on Hard, eliminating their trade offer. If a baby villager is killed during an assault, it will also become a baby zombie villager. Baby zombie villagers are faster than their grown-up counterparts and will not age. Zombie villagers can be cured and returned to ordinary villagers if weakened using a splash potion of Weakness, and then fed a golden apple. They will appear to shudder when being cured. Zombie villagers may be found below an igloo along with a normal villager, but it is very rare.

File:Zombie villagers 1.9.png

Multiple Zombie Villagers in Minecraft 1.9. Note how the color of their clothing relates to the Villager's original appearance.

File:2014-04-24 10.14.31.png

Two Zombie Villagers. Note that one of them is wearing Leather armor.

Trivia

• There is an unused texture for the villager found in the game files. It had an angry-looking face with red eyes.
• Villagers can see the player even with an invisibility potion effect.
• In the Minecraft 1.6 poster, a villager was wearing blue robes, but it never appeared in the final version of Minecraft 1.6.
• Setting the game rule "mobGriefing" to false will make farmer villagers stop planting or harvesting crops.
• Notch originally planned for villages to be populated by pigmen instead of villagers.
• Before 13w22a/1.6.1, villagers did not make sounds.
• In Beta 1.9 pre-release's files, there was a texture for nitwit villagers, which wear green robes. However, they could not be spawned at that time.
  • The nitwit villager could be spawned in 1.7 using commands.
  • In the 1.14 update, the nitwit made a comeback and is a green-robed villager, unable to get a job/trade.
• Before the 1.14 update, different but straightforward coloured clothes were used to indicate different professions of villagers. Brown suggested a farmer, purple reported a priest, white noted a librarian or cartographer, a villager with a black apron was a blacksmith, and a villager with a white apron was a butcher.
• The textures for the librarian villager, priest villager, the unused villager in green robes, and witches have a "hood" next to their head, where a mob's hat texture would be, but it does not appear in the game.
• When players stare at a villager, and the villager sees them, they will nod.
• Occasionally, children won't go inside houses at night.
• Only a child can take a poppy from an iron golem.
• Attacking a villager child is comparable to attacking an iron golem in terms of lowering popularity.
• As of version 1.11 in Bedrock Edition and 1.14 in Java Edition, an Iron Golem spawns in each village.
  • Before 1.11 in Bedrock Edition and 1.14 in Java Edition, iron golems only spawn if there are at least 15 villagers and 21 doors.
• On April 1, 2014, Mojang announced that the villagers had taken over Minecraft and caused everyone's skin to look like a villager, as an April Fools joke from the Element Animation video. Players were unable to change their skins during that time.
  • During this time, everyone also had Element Animation's TEAVSRP (The Element Animation Villager Sounds Resource Pack) automatically installed.
• When players put a ladder behind a door, and a villager tries to exit out of the door, the villager will go up the ladder, and they will spin in circles when they reach the top.
• Some players have noted villagers resemble "Squidward" from the television show "SpongeBob SquarePants" because of their long noses. Notch himself even commented on the resemblance, saying that they look like "Caveman Squidward's".
• Villagers were based on the shop keeper in Dungeon Master 2.
• Villagers were called "TESTIFICATE" in the Beta 1.9 pre-release.
• Before 1.9, zombie villagers all had the same appearance. Now, their clothing is based on the villager they come from (and will turn into if cured).
• In Bedrock Edition, villagers used to equip any kind of armour with the use of dispensers (simply fire an armour filled container, and the villager will equip it). This will increase the villager's defense, but doesn't show the shield on the said villager and will not drop the equipped armour on death. This feature is now removed, and will not work anymore.
• Frequently trading the same merchandise may make the price increase due to high demand. Not trading with a villager for a while may make them do discounts on their trades.
• Villagers at the maximum level may sometimes follow players.
• There was a glitch in the game where the villager's heads will be detached when they are sleeping.
• Villagers can still sleep in the Nether and the End without their beds exploding.
• If a player holds a spawn egg, they will not be able to trade with a villager.
• The design of the cleric villager's apron has a creeper face behind it.
• In Bedrock Edition, all zombie villagers will now wear regular robes regardless of the former outfit they formally wear. If they are cured; however, they will revert to the profession's outfit they last wore (zombie villagers that were naturally spawned will have a random job).
• Villagers will show their items in stock if they see a player holding something that they want (e.g. if a player has wheat, then a farmer villager will show an emerald to that player).
• Players can edit what the villager is holding using the /replaceitem command in the slot.weapon.mainhand. This will make a villager be seen holding an item the player has given to them via commands.
• There is a glitch in the game where a villager would work on a job block that is not supposed to be used by that villager (e.g. A cartographer was seen using a lectern).
• Throwing a snowball at a villager will result in them disliking the player, and trading with them will be more costly and expensive than usual.
• If a villager is multiple blocks away from the player when the trading menu is opened, the villager will walk up to the player and walk away after it is closed.
• A villager can be heard making agreeing or disagreeing noises during the trading process. For example, if there is not enough of an item, the villager will disagree, and if there is, they will agree. The "villager disagrees" and "villager agrees" noises can be read if subtitles are on.
• The trading currency was originally planned to be rubies; however, this was replaced with emeralds instead.
  • This is because Dinnerbone had a hard time telling the difference between ruby and Redstone Ore.
• Jobless villagers will bob their head when a player tries to trade with them. This probably means 'No.' or 'I have nothing to trade.'

Gallery

File:New VillagerB.gif

Click for full Villager gallery.

See Also

• Illager
• Witch
• NPC (Education Edition only)
• Pillager
• Ravager
• Vindicator
• Evoker
• Vex