Minecraft: How To Breed Villagers

Updated:

16 Jul 2020

Ever since they were introduced in Minecraft 1.0.0, villagers have been a fan favorite and truly a staple of Minecraft. Villagers are NPCs that allow for trade and they are friendly even if you loot their entire village! They are lovable and certainly people that you want on your side. It will prove to be important to harness the manpower of a whole village if you want to become rich and powerful in-game.

One of the ways that you can harness that power is through breeding villagers. Although it sounds inhumane to some, having their help while farming, smithing, among other things will prove useful. Today, I’m going to be providing you a step-by-step guide on how to breed villagers as of Minecraft 1.16.

Step 1: Locate a Village

To breed villagers it's obvious that your first step is to find some villagers. It is recommended that you set up a base nearby but not within the village so that you can maximize your breeding potential. Villages can be found in the plains, savanna, taiga, and desert biomes on all versions. Bedrock edition allows for villages to be spawned in ice plains and cold taiga biomes as well.

What to Do:

Although you can’t lure them with food like animals, if you are looking to move villagers far away from their village it is best to use boats or minecarts to get them there.
Move at least 2 adult villagers of any or no profession.

Step 2: Gather your Materials & Build a Breeding Area

Whether you’re breeding villagers by the expansion of their village, or moving them to a space near your base, you will need several tools to have your own working-class villagers. Although job sites are not required for villagers to breed, all baby villagers are born jobless and gain a job based on the biome where the breeding occurred (in Bedrock Edition) or by both biome type of the parents or breeding (in Java Edition).

What to Do:

Villagers are willing to mate as long as unclaimed beds are within the limits of the village or base. Place 3 beds for the villagers, two for the first two villagers, and the third for the unborn child (if there aren’t enough beds already).
If you are building an area for the villagers at your base, ensure that they can’t escape and that beds are available.
Begin gathering breeding materials, villagers can become willing to have a baby with either 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots.

3. Begin Breeding!

Once you have all the beds and breeding materials ready, it is time to get more villagers! If your villagers are taking part in the breeding process then they will display red hearts and a jobless baby villager will appear!

What to Do:

Unlike other mob breeding, villagers need to pick up the items themselves in order to become willing to breed. Because of this, players need to throw down the specific amount of the appropriate items to each villager.

For example: One villager will pick up 3 bread and the other needs to pick up 12 carrots, etc.

4. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Once you have your villagers you have the option to persuade them what job to have unless they have inherited the job of their parents (only in Java Edition). There are 13 different professions that villagers can obtain. All unemployed adult villagers are actively looking for jobs.

What to Do:

Each profession has a specific job block that it requires. To persuade villagers to obtain a certain profession they must be equipped with the specific job site block for that job. Placing that block near their bed or in their area will give them that profession.

For example: butchers require smokers and farmers require composters.

With this knowledge, you now have villagers right at your disposal! Thank you for reading through my tutorial on villager breeding in Minecraft. If you want some more insight on the art of villager breeding check out this video by ECKOSOLDIER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqVPStRgxLk.