“ | Hmmmmm... | „ |
~ The Villagers' iconic sound in the game. |
The Villagers, originally called Testificates, are benevolent humanoid creatures from the video game Minecraft.
They are passive mobs that inhabit villages, work at their professions, breed, and interact. Their clothing varies according to their occupation. A player can trade with Villagers, using emeralds as currency. They are one of the deuteragonists because they will give the players items and useful resources to help them complete their own journey. In exchange, the player has to defeat the village raids in order for them to reward the player and will earn an advancement and multiple experiences. Their addition was way back in the full game's release last 2011. However, since villagers doesn't really impact the player's progress, they have been deemed useless by many people. But the 1.14 update gave them much more better and bigger roles for the player, and can effectively trade with them with useful items much more beneficially. They since then, became collectively the tritagonists of the game (1.14 and above).
They are the most innocent humanoid mobs so far in the main game, as they do not even try to murder or harm anyone or anything, including the players, and also welcome them anytime to their village, and hopefully reward them if they helped them defeat a villager raid. They are also the only humanoid mob that is very loyal to the player.
Personality
The Villagers are kind, good, loyal, passive, neutral, intelligent, merciful, trustful, caring, responsible, selfless, and slightly antagonistic sometimes. They will give any of their items to the player in return for helping them defeat the raid.
Appearance
Villagers and Zombie Villagers have seven skin types corresponding to the biome they spawn in. Their appearance also varies based on their profession and their five tiers. They show which trade tier they have unlocked by a badge of a varying material on their belt. A new tier is obtained every time a player trades with a Villager and the badge appears as stone, then iron, gold, emerald and finally diamond. In Bedrock Edition, Villagers only have three badge tiers: iron, gold, and diamond.
Spawning
Natural generation
Villagers spawn in the houses with beds of their villages, which spawn in several biomes.
Cleric Villagers spawn locked up in the basements of igloos, under the carpet of the floor. In Bedrock Edition, the Villagers and Zombie Villagers inside igloo basements have random professions instead of always being clerics.
Breeding
Villagers will breed depending on the time of the day, but new baby Villagers need beds and the adult Villagers need to be willing in order to spawn baby Villagers. After exactly 20 minutes, the baby Villager will grow up into an adult. If a Villager dies to a non-mob, non-player source while a player is within 16 blocks (spherical radius), or if a monster kills a Villager, then no Villager in the village will breed for approximately 3 minutes.
The breeding depends on the number of valid beds. If a Villager is "willing" (see below), Villagers will breed as long as the population is less than 100% of valid beds. All baby Villagers are initially unemployed. Willing Villagers reproduce as long as there are unclaimed beds available within the limits of the village.
A census is periodically taken to determine the current population of the village. All Villagers within the horizontal boundary of the village and within 5 vertical blocks of the center will be counted as part of the population to determine if continued Villager mating is allowed. However, any Villager within the horizontal boundary of the village and within the spherical boundary of the village will attempt to enter mating mode as long as there is at least one Villager within the boundary. If two Villagers simultaneously enter mating mode while they are close to one another, they will breed with each other and produce a child.
Willingness
Villagers must be "willing" in order to breed. After mating, they will no longer be willing, and must be made willing again.
Villagers need to have enough beds within village bounds for baby Villagers to spawn.
Villagers can become willing by having either 3 breads, 12 carrots, 12 potatoes, or 12 beetroots in one stack in their inventory. Any Villager with an excess of food (usually farmers) will throw food to other Villagers, allowing them to pick it up and obtain enough food to become willing. The player can also throw bread, carrots, beetroots, or potatoes at the Villagers themselves to encourage breeding. Villagers will consume the required food upon becoming willing.
Variants
Zombie Villagers
When a zombie kills a Villager, it can turn the villager into a Zombie Villager, depending on the difficulty: 0% chance on easy, 50% chance on normal and 100% chance on hard. Zombie Villagers also spawn naturally in the Overworld in the same conditions as a normal zombie, although much less commonly. Zombie Villagers also spawn in zombie villages.
Illagers
The Illagers are the main archenemies of the Villagers as they raid their villages. Illagers are hostile Villager-like mobs that spawn in woodland mansions while the pillager lives in an outpost. Illagers are considered to be outcasts. In addition to attacking players, they will also attack Villagers, Wandering Traders and Iron Golems. In Bedrock Edition, Illagers will not attack baby Villagers, however baby Villagers still run away from them.
Witches
Witches are hostile, villager-like mobs, which spawn in the overworld according to the usual mob rules. They can also spawn in witch huts, or spawn from a Villager struck by lightning. Witches may also spawn as a part of raids.
Wandering Traders
Wandering Traders spawn randomly around the world in the PC version, or periodically in village gathering sites in Bedrock Edition. Two trader llamas spawn leashed to the Wandering Trader. Players may use emeralds to buy items from Wandering Traders, but cannot trade items for emeralds. Like Villagers, Wandering Traders are attacked by most of the hostile variants of the Villagers.
Behavior
Nitwit and unemployed Villagers will leave their homes at day and begin to explore the village. Generally, they wander aimlessly inside the village during the day. They may go indoors or outdoors, and they periodically make mumbling sounds. Occasionally, two Villagers may stop and turn to look at each other, in a behavior called socializing, in which they will stare at another Villager for 4-5 seconds at a time. In the case of players, they will continuously stare at them as long as the player is close enough, unless the Villager tries to get into a house at night, farm food, work or flee from a zombie or Illager. During a raid, Villagers will run away from Illagers and run to the nearest house, similar to a zombie siege. For a Villager to hide, the house must have a door. Before the first raid wave, at least one Villager will rush to ring the bell in the center of the village (if they are close enough) to warn the other Villagers of an incoming raid before going into their house. A Villager will often stay in the house it ran into, but may exit its house occasionally. The player will still be able to trade with Villagers during the raid. On random occasions the Villager will display water particles as if sweating. Once the player gains an advancements status after defeating a raid, Villagers will lower their trade prices and throw gifts to the player relating to their profession.
Heroic acts (Minecraft)
The Villagers are mostly known as the game's "damsel in distress", meaning they are always seeking for help once the hostile mobs or Illagers attack their village. Most common heroic qualities Villagers have are:
- Pure pacifism, as Villagers tend to cause no harm to any hostile mob or player that harms them; instead their trusted Iron Golem would do the work for them.
- Rewarding the player with many items that would help them in their objectives, showing their gratitude to the player. They even lessen their trades' prices once the player succeeds in protecting them from a raid.
- Extremely loyal to anyone, including the players themselves, and are considered the kindest mobs in the game, even acting as a companion to the players.
- They are also the closest thing Minecraft could get to being incorruptibly good, as they never made use of violence against any of the mobs in the game, and they don't even attack in self-defense.
- They don't seem to care if players intrude in their village or not; instead they unintentionally welcome any player who comes to their village, and would happily trade with them no matter what.
- Selflessness, as they always trade with the player for their goods, even lowering the price if the player helps them in a raid. Also, they even let them keep their houses even if the player doesn't own them, and are more concerned with the player's needs.
Trivia
- The Villagers were inspired by the shopkeepers in Dungeon Master 2.
- Originally, the mobs populating villages were to be pigmen.
- Name tags used on Villagers will always name the Villager instead of opening the trading interface.
- The Villagers are actually one of the kindest and trustful mobs in the game, as they actually never hurt any mob in the game (including the hostile mobs), and let their trusted Iron Golems do the work instead for them, making them true pacifists.
- After a Zombie Villager is cured, the Villager gets nausea for 10 seconds (indicated by the purple status effect particles).
- When a Villager is in love mode, it walks very slowly. However, when a Villager runs indoors as the night falls, it runs faster than the player's sprinting speed.
- Unlike players, Villagers can claim and sleep in beds in the Nether and the End without causing them to explode. Therefore, villages can be created in both dimensions.
- The new Villager skins added in the 1.14 update were inspired by 2018 fashion shows, such as Gucci's.
- Villagers occasionally sleep in odd ways during the night inside their beds, sometimes hanging halfway off the side of their bed or even glitching into walls.