How to heal iron golems in Minecraft

Iron golems are Minecraft's village defenders, doing their best to protect villagers from hostile mobs such as zombies and skeletons.

However, their jobs are naturally dangerous, and they take some punishment as a result. Although iron golems are sturdy, they aren't invincible and can begin to crack from damage.

Eventually, iron golems in Minecraft will take too much damage and fall apart. Fortunately for players on Minecraft: Java Edition, there is a solution to this problem. They can restore an iron golem's health by 25 (12.5 hearts) by using iron ingots.

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Minecraft: How iron golems interact with hostile mobs

Iron golems will crack as their health percentage drops. (Image via Mojang)

Oddly enough, iron golems in Minecraft behave differently with certain hostile mobs and don't directly attack all of them. However, when provoked, they will defend themselves regardless.

It is important to know which hostile mobs can get a free hit on an iron golem and vice versa. This can help Minecraft players keep their golems in decent condition and avoid losing them.

Mobs that Iron Golems attack on sight

• Blazes
• Chicken Jockeys
• Drowned
• The Ender Dragon
• Endermen
• Endermite
• Ghasts (if the ghast is close by and isn't moving much)
• Guardians
• Elder Guardians
• Hoglins
• Goats (they can randomly attack iron golems which force them to defend themselves)
• Llamas (if a llama hits an iron golem with spit, the iron golem will retaliate)
• Magma Cubes
• Phantoms
• Piglins
• Piglin Brutes
• The Player (when attacked or if the player has -15 reputation with a village)
• Pufferfish (when damaged by the pufferfish's defense)
• Shulkers
• Silverfish
• Skeletons and their variants
• Slimes
• Spiders and their variants
• Vexes
• Illagers
• Witches
• The Wither
• Zombies and their variants
• Zombie Piglins
• Zoglins

Mobs that attack Iron Golems on sight

• Drowned
• Goats (randomly)
• Magma Cubes
• Silverfish (Minecraft: Bedrock Edition only)
• Skeletons and their variants
• Snow Golems (they can accidentally hit iron golems with snowballs)
• Llamas (they can accidentally hit iron golems with spit)
• Spiders and their variants
• Vexes (can attack when near the iron golem, but also when an evoker summons at least three vexes nearby)
• Witches (just in Bedrock Edition, as for Java Edition, witches will only attack if they are provoked or if they are part of an illager patrol)
• The Wither
• Zombies and their variants
• Zoglins
• Pillagers and Illagers

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