Breeding Villagers in Minecraft: Explained (2022)

We have tested the method on the latest Minecraft 1.18 update as well, and you can rest assured about compatibility. The process here has a variety of variables attached, so follow the steps carefully. Use the table below to jump directly to specific sections with ease.

What are Villagers in Minecraft?

If you don’t know already, villagers are passive mobs in Minecraft that live in villages. Each villager, if not unemployed, has a specific role to play in the village. And you can trade for different items with each type of villager based on its occupation. Additionally, depending upon the biome where the village spawns, the villagers’ costumes and houses vary drastically. 
Among the variants, you can find witches, villagers, wandering traders, and even zombie villagers. You can also cure zombie villagers in Minecraft, but breeding villagers is a good replacement to restore the population. Anyhow, the only variants that we will focus on are the regular adult villagers and baby villagers.
Baby Villagers Baby Villagers are a variant of villagers and the target of this tutorial. They spawn as the result of breeding between two adult villagers. In themselves, baby villagers aren’t useful. But they become adult villagers within 20 minutes of spawning. Until then, baby villagers only run around and jump on beds. At times, you can find them carefully taking poppy flowers from the iron golems too.

Benefits of Breeding Minecraft Villagers

Here are some of the endless benefits of breeding villagers in Minecraft:

Villagers in a specific area automatically make the Iron Golem spawnA variety of villagers can help you get a variety of trade deals (as well as discounts)If you have enough farmers, you can create a multiple automated food farmVillagers such as librarians can provide rare items like enchanted books, which you can use for the best sword enchantments, best trident enchantments, and more.Aesthetically, your base can be more colorful and active with the villagers in it

Requirements for Breeding Villagers in Minecraft

Unlike breeding other mobs, the process to breed villagers in Minecraft is a little complex. Let’s go over the various factors that affect it separately. You need to ensure all of the requirements below are met to breed villagers in the game.

At least Two Villagers

Yeah, the most basic requirement for breeding is at least two villagers. And two willing villagers at that. We have explained how willingness is important to make the villagers breed and get a baby villager in this section below.

Breeding Area

The second requirement to breed villagers is a proper space. You need to place a bed for each villager while leaving two empty blocks above each bed. The empty space above the bed allows the baby villagers to jump, and thus, improves the circumstances of their spawning. Beyond that, make sure the area where you keep your villagers is large enough. A good practice is to have 3 block area for each villager. So, if you want to breed 10 villagers, make sure you have an empty area of 30 blocks. You can use one of the designs we cover later in the tutorial to utilize this space better and breed villagers faster to grow your farm.

Food Items

Unlike animals, you can’t feed food to Minecraft villagers to make them breed. But having enough food supplies does make them willing to breed. So, you need to collect and throw food in front of each villager. The villager will then pick up the food items until they have 3 bread, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots.
We already have a tutorial on how to get carrots in Minecraft. You can use that to grow the crop quickly and satisfy your villagers. Also, we have covered how to plant seeds and grow beetroot and potato in Minecraft in another guide. Do check it out from the link here. Also, you should know that if a villager has excess food, they will throw it for others to pick it up. So, you don’t have to worry about providing food to individual villagers.

Willingness

Compared to real life, the villagers in Minecraft don’t have defined gender roles. But they do follow the concept of consent. So, once you have provided food and shelter, the rest of the process remains with the villagers. Willingness is usually dependent on the amount of food a villager has. So, you must keep providing food if you want your villagers to keep breeding.

How to Breed Villager in Minecraft: A Step-by-Step Guide

Once you have fulfilled all the above requirements, the actual process is easy, and you can follow the steps below to breed villagers in your Minecraft world. Here’s how it works:

  1. To begin, you need to lure two villagers to a certain enclosed location. Minecraft being Minecraft, you have to do it by force. You can either push the villager to the location or build a structural path to lead them. Though, the simplest way is to place a boat in front of the villagers and wait for them to sit in it. Then, you can row the boat to a specific area.
  2. Now, you need to trap the two villagers close to each other by creating a structure of some kind. The best place to make villagers breed is either their house or a dedicated breeding area.
  3. Finally, you need to place 3 beds around the villagers and give them their desired food. Doing so will increase their willingness to breed, and within minutes, you will meet the baby villagers.

Best Designs for Villager Breeding Area

From automated farms to a simple breeding area, there are unlimited ways in which you can breed your villagers. Let’s go over a few of the systems that you can use in-game.

Enclosed Breeding Area

The first design for a breeding area is the simplest one. Here, you need to create a large enough open area and surround it with walls. Most players use glass walls to keep an eye on the villagers. Then, place some beds in the area and make sure to leave a space of two blocks on top of each bed. You can also place torches in the area to avoid mob spawning at night. Finally, throw in the aforementioned food items and lure some villagers. And now, you need to wait for the villagers to breed and fill up the rest of the area. It is the easiest design you can follow to breed villagers in Minecraft. Once the construction is done, you only need to drop food in the area every now and then.

Semi-Automatic Villager Collector

From what we have learned in this tutorial, we only need beds and food to breed villagers in this sandbox game. The layout is really simple here, but it decreases your involvement by a lot. Also, you need to create an above-ground room with 2 beds and place a dispenser on its top. In this dispenser, place food items and connect a level to them.
Once you place the 2 villagers in this house, you can dispense food for them to breed. However, we also need a way to get baby villagers out. For that, you should make a hole at the bottom of its wall and add water to it. The water flows out of the room, and since it’s only one block high, the baby village will randomly slip out through it too.

More Villager Breeder Designs

From adding an in-house carrot farm to pressure plate dispensers, you can create more cool designs around the same concept. The core idea that you need to keep in mind is food, beds, and a way to collect baby villagers. You can customize the design and technique as per your interest.

How to Protect Villagers from Zombies?

The easiest way to protect villagers is by placing torches. Hostile mobs usually don’t spawn in well-lit areas, even during the nighttime. Meanwhile, you can also place an iron golem in the breeding area for additional protection.

How Long Does it Take to Grow a Villager?

As mentioned in this tutorial, a baby villager only takes 20 minutes to develop into a fully grown adult. However, it doesn’t affect or stop adult villagers from breeding more baby villagers.

How Many Times Can 2 villagers Breed?

Minecraft does not define the number of times villagers can breed, and well, the villagers can actually breed more than once. There is a 5-minute cooldown after two villagers successfully have a child. Even if breeding is unsuccessful due to overcrowding or lack of resources, the villagers will try to breed once again after 5 minutes. So make sure to meet the requirements defined in this tutorial to keep the villagers breeding in your village.

Is There a Limit to Villager Breeding?

No, the villagers can breed indefinitely if you have added enough beds and food available in your breeding area. If the location is not overpopulated, the villagers will continue to breed with a 5-minute cooldown. So yes, you can make an infinite villager breeding farm if you are interested in that.

Where is the Best Location to Make a Villager Breeder?

You can create your own breeder or breeding farm inside an existing village to lower the transportation time. It also saves extra efforts put into creating houses and beds for them.

How to Assign Professions to Villagers?

In Minecraft, each profession has an item attached to it like a composter for farmers or a brewing stand for clerics. You just need to place a specific item near the villager for it to get that profession. Alternatively, you can also kill an existing villager to allow the new villager to take their profession. Many players use the latter method to obtain better trading options.

Easily Breed Villagers in Minecraft

The time to expand your village is finally here. With the ability to breed villagers in Minecraft, you can now create large villages, get the best trading deals, and even automatic farms. If used smartly, the villagers can be your best friends in the game. And you don’t even have to stop here. You can also use the techniques above to breed other mobs in the game, including pigs, cows, and more. And honestly, none of them are as complex as villagers. Meanwhile, you can also use these methods to create villages in Minecraft biomes that don’t spawn naturally. The possibilities are endless, and the best Minecraft modpacks will push them even further. All you need to do is keep an open mind. With that said, don’t forget to share why you are breeding villagers in the comments below. Until then, keep exploring!