While exploring in Minecraft, the player will sometimes come across villages and their inhabitants. There are variations of these towns in a few different biomes, but they all contain the same core elements: villagers, houses, and loot. At first glance, it may be a bit confusing to figure out how to make the most out of village encounters.
Thankfully, since Minecraft's release in 2009, many diligent blockheads have experimented with different variables and methods to find out how to maximize the benefits of interacting with a village and with villagers. Despite some wonky layouts on occasion and silly AI occurrences, there are lots that can be done with these places if someone has the required knowledge.
10 Villages Were Meant To Grow
According to Jens Bergensten, lead creative designer at Mojang, villages were supposed to increase in population if the player made improvements and additions to the town.
Unfortunately, the developers found that this would take up too much of the game's thinking power, as constituting what a house was proved difficult. However, there are likely mods that do this, as in the decade since the game's release there have been mods for almost everything one could want.
9 The Inspiration For Villagers
Villagers were actually inspired by the shopkeepers from a game called Dungeon Master 2, which was released on multiple systems in the early 1990s.
It was a dungeon crawler with which Minecraft shares quite a few similarities besides the villager's aesthetic. Minecraft is legendary because it does a few things extremely well, but it would not even exist if not for the Dungeon Master games as well as similar ones.
8 Grand Columns Spawn Under Houses
The End is not the only place with huge pillars. To avoid the issue of "overhanging," which is when a building or part of the village spawns in the air with a big gap under it, the house will create dirt blocks below its floor and for every empty space beneath it until it hits something solid.
If this happens over a big, open area, like a ravine, a massive column of dirt would spawn to support the house.
7 Pigmen Were Meant To Be Villagers
The overworld villagers fans know today are the honking fellows with large noses, but this was not always the plan. According to Notch himself on Twitter, Pigmen, similar to those that inhabit The Nether, were initially supposed to be villagers.
Hopefully, they were planned to be alive and unarmed instead of the potentially violent, decaying forms they possess in the realm of Ghasts and lava.
6 Lonely Villages Can Spawn
Villages don't always spawn as a group of houses. Sometimes only a single house spawns with one lone villager. Due to the variables in the game's coding, on occasion, the extremes will be chosen by the RNG, which will result in very few or very large amounts of houses spawning.
Some see this as sad but it is possible that this villager enjoys the peace only solitude can bring; living the life of a hermit.
5 Villagers Can Run Faster Than The Player
Normally, villagers move at a slow to moderate pace when going about their various tasks. But when night falls, they rush indoors quicker than the player can ever move. These simple folk do not possess any weapons or armor to protect themselves with, so if their village's defenses aren't enough to keep away threats, their only option for survival is to escape whatever foul beasts approach their home.
This almost unnaturally swift movement is likely intentional and a means to allow villagers to live just a bit longer in the sometimes cruel world of Minecraft.
4 Farmers Are Better Than Most Players At Farming
Farmers are some of the most hardworking villagers one will find. They tend their fields all day, making sure that their crops grow big and strong.
They will actively use bonemeal on plants to speed their growth and will put spare seeds into composters as well. Their AI is even sophisticated enough to recognize and pick up these items if they come across any that are just lying about.
3 Villagers Can Sleep In Boats
If a villager's bed is close, but they are in a boat, they can lie down and rest in the wooden vessel. This looks a bit creepy, almost as if they are lying in an open coffin, but can be comical as well. Sometimes when this occurs, parts of the villager's body will clip through the boat or their body will contort into odd positions.
It is possible that this is due to villagers having no proper animation for sitting in a boat like the player does, so they either stand up straight or lie down.
2 Villager Skins Show Greater Detail
There are now proper jungle and swamp villages, complete with detailed new villager clothes. Jungle villagers look like they are supposed to be wearing some sort of animal pelt clothing. The yellow and brown makes it look like it might be meant to be ocelot fur.
They also seem to have a green belt made from a vine. The swamp villagers are covered in moss and wear lily pads upon their heads. Both types have charming designs that can go unnoticed if the player is in a hurry.
1 Ravagers Destroy Crops
These tough foes are not only challenging for the player to deal with, but they can also cause issues for villages and villagers. They have the ability to destroy crops and severely hurt villagers to the point where it can outright kill them.
Furthermore, this aggressive mob spawns during raids, the worst time for them to show up. They are even bold enough to take on iron golems. These beasts combined with pillagers are usually the end for most villages.