Whether you're new to Minecraft or really good at it, iron is super useful. It's not challenging to find, makes your tools better, and can help you build fine houses. Yet there's only so much iron in one place, so you need to explore more to get more. Don’t worry! We've got a solution! Just follow our guide to make an iron farm, and you won't need to search for iron anymore. No more digging in mines! Sounds fun, right? Let's get started and learn how to make an iron farm in Minecraft.

The Way an Iron Farm Works in Minecraft

In Minecraft, you can get iron in two ways. The first way is to find and mine iron ores, which can be tough. The second, more intense way is by defeating Iron Golems. These big guys are made of iron and drop iron pieces when they're defeated. This is the same idea that our automatic iron farm uses.

Iron Golems Minecraft
An Iron Golem in Minecraft

In the iron farm, it creates Iron Golems every so often and then defeats them to gather iron pieces. You do not need to do anything yourself; it all happens on its own. Your work is no more than collecting the iron; the rest is automatic.

Iron Golems Spawning Mechanics

Iron Golems usually appear near villagers, but if you want to make them show up on your own, you need to meet these conditions:

  1. There are 3 villagers around.
  2. Provide 3 beds for those villagers to sleep in.
  3. Bring in a zombie to frighten the villagers, which will make an Iron Golem appear.

So, to put it simply, an Iron Golem shows up when 3 scared villagers have beds to sleep in, and there isn't already another Iron Golem nearby. To make things easier, it's a good idea to build your iron farm away from other villages in the game. Alternatively, you could clear out a village, leaving just 3 villagers to meet the requirements.

How to Make an Iron Farm in Minecraft: Items Required

Before learning how to make an iron farm in Minecraft, players need to collect the following items first:

  • 2 villagers
  • 1 Zombie
  • 12 pieces of scaffolding or ladders (optional)
  • 3 stacks (192 copies) of any solid blocks (including glass)
  • 2 sticky pistons
  • 2 sculk sensors
  • 1 bucket of water
  • 1 bucket of lava
  • 4 wooden signs
  • 1 hopper
  • 1 chest
  • 1 name tag

You can easily gather all the items mentioned above by finding villagers, chests, and sturdy blocks in Minecraft villages. Plus, villages can also have zombies at night, so you're all set in that department too.

Sticky Pistons

Sticky Pistons Minecraft
Crafting recipe of piston (up) and Crafting recipe of sticky piston (down)

To make a sticky piston in Minecraft, put together slime balls and a regular piston. Now, making a standard piston involves using 1 piece of Redstone dust, 4 cobblestone blocks, 3 wooden planks, and an iron ingot in the crafting recipe.

Buckets

You can create a bucket by crafting it with three iron ingots on a crafting table. To begin setting up an iron farm, prepare a bucket of water and a bucket of lava to collect and use these liquids.

Make Bucket In Minecraft
You can create a bucket by crafting it with three iron ingots on a crafting table.

Sculk Sensor

The Sculk Sensor is a special block found in the deep dark biome, which was added in the Minecraft 1.19 update. Unlike some other blocks in this biome, Sculk Sensors aren't limited to Ancient cities, so you can find them elsewhere, away from the intimidating new mob called the Warden.

Sculk Sensor Minecraft
Sculk Sensor in Minecraft

>> Read more: Complete Guide For The Warden In Minecraft 2023

However, there's a catch: You need to use a hoe that has a silk touch enchantment to break and collect this block. If you try to break it without a silk touch-enchanted hoe, the Sculk Sensor will be destroyed instead of dropping as an item.

Signs

Creating signs in Minecraft is a straightforward process. Just combine 6 wooden planks with a stick, and you can craft 3 signs at once. Follow the crafting recipe displayed in the screenshot below to do it.

How To Make Signs In Minecraft
How To Make Signs In Minecraft

Hoppers

Hoppers are incredibly handy utility blocks, especially for our iron farm to work correctly. To make a hopper in Minecraft, you'll need to combine 5 iron ingots with a chest, following this recipe:

How To Make A Hopper In Minecraft
How To Make A Hopper In Minecraft

Name tag

Nametags are special and somewhat rare items in Minecraft that let you give a name to any game mob. Unlike most in-game items, players can't craft the nametags. Instead, explore the Minecraft world to find them. Nametags can often be discovered in chests located in dungeons, mineshafts, and woodland mansions. Another way to obtain name tags is by trading with librarian villagers or by going fishing in rivers and oceans.

>> Watch more:

How to Make an Iron Farm in Minecraft

When building an iron farm in Minecraft, it's crucial to remember that it contains various interconnected parts. Just make sure you follow the right order while constructing each single part to ensure everything works smoothly.

How to Make an Iron Farm in Villager Area

To control where the Iron Golem spawns, you'll need to confine at least three villagers within a floating structure. Here are the steps to create this structure:

How To Make An Iron Farm In Villager Area
1. Construct a climbable tower as a foundation for your structure. You can use ladders along with any solid blocks, or consider scaffolding for this purpose. Ensure that the tower is at least 12 blocks in height.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Villager Area
2. Utilize the tower you created to construct a platform that spans a minimum of a 7 x 7 area.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Villager Area
3. Build a border that is 2 blocks high around the interior of that structure. This border should not expand the platform's horizontal area. Inside this border, place 3 beds for the villagers to sleep in.

How to Make an Iron Farm in Zombie Area

To ensure that the villagers can see the zombie to trigger the Iron Golem spawn but also have the option to "unsee" it to sleep at night, let's create a basic cage for the zombie:

How To Make An Iron Farm In Zombie Area
1. Select any corner of the villager's platform. Place 3 blocks on the sides of this corner to form a small one-block-high enclosure.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Zombie Area
2. Break the 2 blocks positioned above the newly created border block within the boundary of the villager area. In their place, insert sticky pistons into the empty spaces. Ensure that these pistons are facing inward, as illustrated in the image.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Zombie Area
3. Position a sculk sensor on top of each of the sticky pistons. The vibrations caused by villagers and zombies will keep these sensors activated, and as a result, the sticky pistons will remain active as well.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Zombie Area
4. To complete the setup, put a solid block that can be pushed on top of the middle block within the boundary of the zombie cage. The sticky pistons will move this block, hiding and revealing the zombie to the villagers as needed.

Some builders prefer to design intricate Redstone contraptions for the zombie cage, but using the Sculk Sensor can simplify this process and make it more efficient.

>> You might also like: How to Make Powered Rail With Redstone In Minecraft

How to Make an Iron Farm in Iron Golem Spawn Area

To set up the spawn and killing area for Iron Golems in your Minecraft iron farm, follow these steps:

How To Make An Iron Farm In Iron Golem Spawn Area
1. Build a roof over the structure where the villagers are located. On this roof, add an internal boundary that is 3 blocks high. This will create a platform similar to the one used by the villagers.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Iron Golem Spawn Area
2. Position water in one corner of the platform. It will flow automatically and cover most of the platform, leaving only the opposite corner dry. You can choose to add a roof to cover this watered platform, but it's optional.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Iron Golem Spawn Area
3. Replace the block in the corner with a hopper. Afterward, position two signs directly above the hopper. One of the signs will be attached to the wall, while the others will be floating. To place the second sign, crouch and carefully add it while looking at the first sign.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Iron Golem Spawn Area
4. To complete the setup, put 2 additional signs on the border blocks directly above the adjacent blocks to the empty corners. Then, place lava on top of the original 2 signs. It's a good idea to replicate the arrangement shown in the image for this step.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Iron Golem Spawn Area
5. With this setup, when an Iron Golem spawns within the water flow, it will get pushed toward the lava. In this area, it will gradually disappear and drop iron ingots as it does. This is how you collect iron efficiently in your iron farm.
How To Make An Iron Farm In Iron Golem Spawn Area
6. To gather the iron ingots, you can inspect the hopper that was positioned on the top platform. Alternatively, for a more organized collection system in your Minecraft iron farm, you can connect a chest to the hopper. This way, you'll have a convenient and efficient way to store the iron ingots as they are collected.

How to Get Zombies and Villagers on The Iron Farm

When it comes to transporting mobs to their designated spots in mob-based farms, there are several quick solutions to consider:

Minecarts

The simplest way to move zombies and villagers into an iron farm is by placing them in minecarts. You can then create a straightforward railroad that leads to the designated spots.

Minecarts Minecraft
Minecarts

Baiting

If you want to avoid the complexity of minecarts, you can lure the mobs to their designated spots by creating a simple path. For villagers, you can use job site blocks to attract them, while zombies, being hostile mobs, will naturally follow players.

Force

Players looking for a cost-effective method can manually push the mobs along the planned path. However, be cautious not to hit the mobs too much, as excessive force can harm them. This method requires a more delicate touch.

Choose the method that best suits your preferences and the resources available in your Minecraft world to transport mobs effectively to your iron farm or other mob-based farms.

How to Prevent Zombies from Despawning

To prevent a zombie from despawning in its cage due to being out of the area or world reloading in Minecraft, you should use a name tag on the zombie. The specific name you give it doesn't matter; any name will do. However, because of the beds, villagers typically don't face these despawning issues, so you can leave them unnamed if you prefer. Naming the zombie ensures it stays in place and doesn't disappear.

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