How to build an iron farm in Minecraft (26.x)

An iron farm turns three trapped villagers and one zombie into a steady stream of iron golems, which a lava blade kills over a hopper. This build is for Java Edition 26.3 and needs no redstone.

In Java Edition, a villager that panics at a zombie tries to summon an Iron Golem every 5 seconds, as long as:

• it has slept in a bed within the last 20 minutes (one in-game day),
• at least 3 villagers within 10 blocks meet the same conditions,
• none of them has detected an iron golem within 16 blocks, or been near a summoning, in the last 30 seconds.

Workstations and professions are not needed. The golem appears on top of a solid block within 8 blocks sideways and 6 blocks up or down from the villager, but never on glass. That is why everything in this farm except the floor is glass.

Build far from any village: a village golem walking within 16 blocks of your villagers blocks the farm. Put the floor at least 4 blocks above the ground and keep trees and hills within 10 blocks of the farm below that height, or golems will spawn outside it.

Build an 11×11 floor of Cobblestone (120 blocks) and leave the centre block open. Place a Chest one block under that gap, then sneak and place a Hopper in the gap so it feeds down into the chest. The hopper sits level with the floor.

On the outermost ring of the floor, build a wall of Glass 2 blocks high (80 glass). Inside you now have a 9×9 room with the hopper in the middle.

Use Crimson Fence Gate or Warped Fence Gate: Nether wood does not burn, while lava can set oak gates on fire and then leak.

1. Sneak and place a fence gate on top of the hopper.
2. On the next layer up (2 blocks above the floor), place 4 gates around the centre: north, east, south and west of it. Put a temporary block on the floor, place the gate on top, then break the block. Fence gates stay in the air.
3. Open all 5 gates. Open gates have no hitbox, but lava cannot flow into them.
4. Sneak and empty a Lava Bucket on top of the lower gate. The lava sits 2 blocks above the floor, held on all sides by gates.

A golem standing on the hopper has its upper body in the lava. Its drops fall below the lava, straight into the hopper.

Empty a Water Bucket into each of the 4 inside corners of the room. Water flows 7 blocks, so it covers the whole floor except the centre, which is 8 blocks from every corner. The current pushes every golem onto the hopper. If water reaches the centre, a source is in the wrong place.

Levels count from the floor (the floor is level 0). Arms point west, east and north from the centre column above the hopper. Everything is glass unless stated.

• Level 4: a Cobblestone Slab in the bottom half, directly above the hopper (the zombie stands on it). Glass on the 3 blocks of each arm and on the 1 block south of the slab (10 glass).
• Level 5: glass on the 4 blocks touching the centre column. On each arm, place a White Bed from the outside so the pillow lands 2 blocks from the centre and the foot 3 blocks out. Glass on both sides of each pillow (10 glass, 3 beds).
• Level 6: glass on both sides of each pillow, on each bed foot and south of the centre column (10 glass).
• Level 7: glass on both sides of each pillow and above each bed foot (9 glass). Leave the centre and the 3 blocks next to it open for now.

Each villager will stand on its pillow and look across a one-block gap at the zombie, one level lower. Mobs cannot see through glass, so the gap must stay open at level 6. A trapdoor at level 7 makes it too low for a villager or the zombie to pass.

At night, bring an adult zombie with empty hands in a Minecart on rails (or in a boat), stop above the open centre column and break the cart: the zombie drops onto the slab. Rename a Name Tag on an Anvil and use it on the zombie so it never despawns. Then:

1. Place a Cobblestone block at level 7 above the zombie. It keeps the sun off.
2. Place an Oak Trapdoor in each of the 3 gap blocks at level 7 by clicking the upper half of the cobblestone's side. Leave them closed.
3. Bring 3 adult villagers the same way and drop one onto each pillow.
4. Close the top at level 8 with 7 glass: over the cobblestone, the 3 trapdoors and the 3 villagers.

Villagers must sleep before they can summon, so the farm starts after the first night. From then on, golems appear on the floor, the water carries them to the centre and the lava kills each one in about 10 to 15 seconds. Every iron golem drops 3–5 Iron Ingot (4 on average) and 0–2 Poppy.

The 30-second cooldown caps a three-villager farm at about 120 golems, or roughly 480 ingots, per hour. Villagers also wait 30 seconds after they last saw a golem, so real output is lower: the Minecraft Wiki gives 240–400 ingots per hour as the usual range for working golem farms. The farm only runs while you stay within simulation distance.

• No golems: check that all 3 villagers sleep at night, that each sees the zombie through air (not glass) and that no golem is stuck anywhere within 16 blocks.
• Golems outside the farm: a non-glass surface lies within 8 blocks sideways and 6 blocks vertically of a villager. Lower it or cover it with glass.
• Zombie gone: it burned or despawned. Check the cobblestone cover and the name tag.
• Water at the centre or lava on the floor: move the water sources to the exact corners and check that all 5 gates are open and in place.

This design does not work in Bedrock Edition, where golems spawn per village (at least 10 villagers and 20 beds).