A village is a collection or arrangement of buildings and various constructions that occur organically in the Overworld. The village provides the player with valuable resources that can be acquired through trading, loot chests (now including bundles since Minecraft 1.21.5), and other materials.
In this article, Gurugamer showcases a complete list of all village mechanics in Minecraft, updated for the latest versions as of September 2025 (Java Edition 1.21.9 and Bedrock Edition 1.21.100). Note that villages in Java Edition now generate slightly more spread out since 1.21, and desert villages feature warm-variant pigs and cows since 1.21.5.
1. Village Gathering Site
A gathering site in a village is where villagers spend their social time during the day, and it can be located anywhere in the village, not necessarily at the center. These sites are identified by the presence of claimed bells. When a bell is claimed, it emits green particles and becomes recognized as a gathering site.
During a raid, a villager goes to the gathering site and rings the bell to alert other villagers. By adding a bell, a new potential gathering site is established, even if the village already has one. Villagers remember their designated gathering site and gather there during their social time, even if another site is closer. However, new or unregistered villagers may choose to use the newly added site.
If the player is within a range of 48 blocks from a bell, regardless of whether it is claimed or not, when a wandering trader is spawning, the trader will appear within 48 blocks of the bell instead of the player. This mechanic remains unchanged in both Java and Bedrock Editions.
2. Housing
A "house" is determined by a bed that has been claimed by a villager. However, if the bed is blocked by a solid object, villagers are unable to reach it and therefore cannot claim it. In the Java Edition, this leads to the emission of anger particles from the villager's head and the bed itself. If a villager manages to sleep in a blocked bed, they will suffocate and die, leaving the bed unclaimed.
Once a villager has claimed a bed, that specific bed becomes recognized as their house within the village. This applies to both Java and Bedrock Editions (corrected from previous versions of this article). The villager remembers the location of their bed, even if it is underground. During the evening, villagers return to their beds. However, if a villager is unable to access their bed and loses ownership of it, other villagers can claim it. In such cases, the previous owner forgets the location of the bed and begins searching for another unclaimed bed.
In Java Edition, villages are defined by proximity to subchunks containing at least one claimed bed, bell, or job site block, within a 3×3×3 cube of subchunks. The maximum population is the number of valid beds. In Bedrock Edition, a village requires at least one acceptable bed and one villager, with the village size based on the distance to the furthest bed.
3. Job Site
Naturally occurring villagers in the game can spawn as either unemployed or, in the Bedrock Edition, as nitwits. The unemployed villagers have the ability to change their profession by searching for and claiming an unclaimed job site block.
In naturally generated villages, there are two main types of buildings: houses (any building with beds) and job sites (buildings with job site blocks). Villagers do not spawn in job site buildings. Consequently, if a naturally generated village consists solely of job site buildings, no villagers will spawn, and in the Bedrock Edition, these structures are not registered as villages.
Employed villagers dedicate their time to work at their assigned job site block, beginning in the morning. Unemployed villagers, nitwits, and baby villagers do not have job site blocks and therefore do not engage in any work. Once a villager selects a job site block, they remember its location. They go to work in the morning, socialize at their gathering point, and then return to work in the afternoon. There are 13 job site blocks corresponding to professions, unchanged since 1.20.
Note: The villager trade rebalance introduced in Java 1.21.5 and Bedrock 1.21.70 affects trade offers but not core job site claiming mechanics.
4. Cats
In the Java Edition, cats spawn naturally inside villages, with one cat spawning for every four beds (claimed or unclaimed), up to a maximum of five cats. Cats may despawn if not tamed.
In the Bedrock Edition, the number of cats spawned in a village is determined by the number of beds present. Only one villager is required for cats to spawn, and one cat can be generated for every four beds, up to a maximum of 10 cats. Cats will respawn based on the number of beds available.
If two villages, each with the maximum cats, are merged, the total remains capped at the edition's maximum, with no despawning. The player can drive cats out to allow additional spawns. These mechanics remain consistent across editions with the noted max differences.
5. Iron Golems
In the Java Edition, one iron golem spawns naturally near the village meeting point upon generation. Additional iron golems are created when villagers engage in specific behaviors. The requirements for their spawning are as follows:
- The villager must be either gossiping with another villager or panicking.
- The villager should not have recently encountered an iron golem.
- The villager must have slept within the past day.
- There should be at least 5 villagers (or 3 if panicking) within a 10-block radius who meet the aforementioned requirements, excluding the first one.
- The randomly chosen location for spawning the iron golem must not be obstructed by air or any liquid that blocks light.
- The selection of a random location is attempted 10 times within 16 blocks of the villager, and an additional attempt is made from 6 blocks above the chosen x and z coordinates, extending 6 blocks below it.
In the Bedrock Edition, iron golems are spawned in villages that satisfy the following conditions:
- The village must have a minimum of 20 beds and at least 10 villagers within a 16x6x16 volume centered around the village's core.
- 75% of the villagers must have engaged in work activities during the previous day.
- All villagers must be associated with a bed.
- A player needs to be within a horizontal range of 80 blocks from the village and within a vertical range of 44 blocks.
- On average, a spawn attempt is made every 35 seconds, and an iron golem can spawn if the 2x4x2 space above the spawn point contains only non-solid blocks and the spawn block itself is solid. Maximum of two iron golems.
These spawning mechanics have not changed since 1.20 in either edition.
>>> Read more: How To Farm Dripstone In Minecraft 1.21