Villager Basics
Villager Tech Overview
Villagers have become one of the most impactful additions to Minecraft for many years, and their use only continues to grow as new updates give them more purpose. While understanding that a villager can give you some new items, villagers are possibly the most complex area of technical Minecraft to learn. This is because Villagers have a lot that go on behind the visible game in order to execute all the possible actions that are available. While most entities are only capable of a couple of useful functions, Villagers are more human like and perform more human like actions, which have a much deeper pool of mechanics that are specific to them. The range of these mechanics is so large to this one entity, that an entire area of tech was born around it with various fields within it.
This page will provide a brief overview of Villager tech, looking at what fields of tech exist within the scope of Villagers, and some basic ideas to understand to dive into the Testificate rabbit hole. The Villager Mechanics Book will have more pages which take a deeper dive into the various mechanics regarding Villagers.
What is Villager Tech?
As one might be able to guess given the name of the field, Villager Tech refers to mechanics, contraptions, and data that surrounds the Minecraft entity of the same name. Villager tech is arguably one of the most important areas of technical Minecraft because of how vital Villagers are to progression in a world. Despite being so useful, Villager tech is not as well versed by many players compared to other areas of tech. This is likely due to the frustrating nature of Villagers, which can seem unpredictable from less visual cues to indicate their mechanics. However, Villagers have a very logical system in which they work from, and when understood, can be used to make working with Villagers much more manageable.
Villager Tech Fields
Villagers have only a handful of fields that correspond to them. Each of these fields will have a page or pages dedicated to them. The sections below will provide a brief overview of what each field corresponds with and why they are useful.
- Iron Golems
- Trading
- Raids
- Breeding
- Crop Farming
Iron Golems
Iron Golems are the protectors of Villagers, but we instead like to harvest the material they are made out of. This field of Villager tech deals with the mechanics behind how Iron Golems spawn as well as the process for killing them. Since Iron is one of the most used materials in the game for making many redstone components, Iron Farms end up being one of the staple farms that a player should make. As such, a lot of research has went into this field to optimize Iron Farms for all. This field refers to the mechanics surrounding Iron Golems spawned from Villagers, and how to kill them efficiently.
Trading
Ever since Villagers were given the ability to trade items, they have been one of the most powerful entities in the game, offering a wide variety of resources that no other source can compete with. The Village and Pillage update expanded this further to provide a more robust economic system for Villagers and added a lot more mechanics that expand on this system. This field refers to Villagers' ability to buy and sell resources. Included in this field are trade prices, discounts, restocking, and anything else relating to trading with a Villager.
Raids
The Village and Pillage update brought with it a new mechanic for Villagers to have a threat against them, where Illagers are able to attack Villages in a Raid. These events host a good haul of resources that can be used in your world, and so tech players decided that farming them was a good idea (it was). This field of Villager tech refers to the mechanics of Raids, Illagers, and farming them effectively. This field could also fall under Mob Farming based on its nature.
Breeding
Since Villagers do not respawn naturally, the only way to make more is to breed them. Villagers have a slightly deeper system of mechanics in order to reproduce, and so this field began. Albeit the smallest field of Villager tech, if you want to perform any type of Villager tech in survival, you'll need to breed Villagers. This field refers to the mechanics behind breeding Villagers.
Crop Farming
Villagers have the ability to plant and harvest crops, which allows them to reproduce automatically in a world without player interference. Using this mechanic, we can use Villagers to automate the production of crops which is not possible using any other method. This field refers to the mechanics of Villagers planting and harvesting crops.
Villages
Point of Interest Blocks
Point of Interest Blocks (POI) are blocks that villagers can claim or "link" to and interact with. These blocks are what allow villagers to perform all tasks they are capable of doing. There are three types of POI in the game:
- Beds
- Bells
- Job Blocks aka Workstations
Villagers will claim POI in precedence of the order listed above.
Beds
Beds are the benchmark POI for villagers. When a villager claims a bed, a village is formed around it with the center being the north-west corner of the bed. This makes beds the most important POI for villagers and is necessary for nearly all villager functions. Beds have a claiming capacity of 1. Villagers will attempt to path-find to their claimed beds when night falls.
Bells
Bells are listed as ‘Meeting Place’ in the JSON files. When a villager claims a bell, they will path-find towards it during the early evening of a day. Unlike beds and workstations, bells are not required for any form of villager tech, however they can be found useful for specific tasks that make working with villagers and villages easier. Up to 20 villagers can claim a single bell.
Workstations
Workstations are the job blocks that villagers claim to have a profession and unlock trading. Villagers will path-find to their workstations during work periods. When a villager claims a workstation, the type of workstation claimed correlates to the type of profession the villager affiliates with. When the workstation is moved/broken, the villager will lose the profession and its trades. However, trading with a villager locks the villagers trades, and therefore will not change profession. A locked villager can only claim the workstation that matches their profession. Nitwits cannot claim workstations.
