Top 5 things to know about villager breeding in Minecraft

Villagers in Minecraft are unique passive mobs. They are the closest to regular human beings and have several special behaviors. Living peacefully in their villages, these mobs have a fixed sleep cycle and routine. Players will usually interact with naturally spawned villagers in a village. However, there is a way to breed them as well.

Breeding is a feature in Minecraft that allows two mobs to mate with each other and spawn a baby. Players need to give food to mobs for them to enter 'love mode.' Most farm animals can breed pretty easily, however, villager breeding is slightly more complicated since additional conditions need to be met.

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5 important points regarding villager breeding in Minecraft

1) Amount of food for villagers

Villagers need more food items to breed than normal Minecraft mobs (image via Mojang)

When players breed any regular farm animal mob, they usually have to offer only one food item to get them to breed. Villagers, on the other hand, need a particular number of food items to enter a special state called 'willingness.'

They can only enter this mode if they have 12 food in their own inventory. Players can give them food items like bread, carrots, potatoes, and beetroots. One bread counts as four food in villager terms. One carrot, potato, or beetroot will count as one food.

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2) Unclaimed beds should be present

A total of three unclaimed beds should be present near villagers in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Beds are used by villagers to sleep at night. Even though villagers don't actually use these beds while mating, at least three unclaimed beds must be in their vicinity. Two of them are for the breeding villagers, and the other is for the baby villager that will spawn.

Additionally, the beds should also have two blocks of space above them. This is to ensure that the baby villager can have proper in-game behavior as they frequently jump on their beds.

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3) Cooldown after breeding

There is a five minute cooldown after villagers breed in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Like with other breedable mobs in the game, villagers also have a particular cooldown period soon after they breed. This is to ensure that players do not spam breed and instantly get loads of villagers. Once two villagers breed, they have a five-minute cooldown before they can breed again.

During this time, those particular villagers will go about their daily routine. If players want to continue the breeding process, they will have to choose two different candidates.

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4) Baby villager growth

The baby villager might take bread, but they will grow at their own pace in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Baby villagers might look identical to their parents, but they have a very different daily routine. Once they spawn, they mostly roam around and have fun in the village. Unlike other baby versions of mobs, there is no way to grow them quickly by giving them food.

Baby villagers fully grow up about 20 minutes after birth, even if they are stuck in a boat or minecart. Once fully grown, they can breed with other villagers as well.

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5) Time of day

The time of day is quite important for villagers in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

As mentioned above, these mobs are the only ones who have a routine based on the day-night cycle of the game. This also applies to their breeding process since they only breed during the day. If players attempt breeding at night by forcing them to stay away, they will not mate with each other.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.