What are Nitwits in Minecraft?

Nitwits are a different variant of villagers in Minecraft. Usually, when players enter a village, they will see loads of villagers roaming around in different outfits. They might be able to trade certain items. Some of them are considered to be quite important as they give the most valuable items.

Nitwits, however, are the exact opposite when it comes to efficacy. As the name implies, they are one of the dullest villagers in the game. They have slightly different routines, behaviors, and even appearances. Though players will hardly interact with them, it is fascinating to learn about these Nitwit villagers.

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Everything to know about Nitwit villagers in Minecraft

How they were added to the game

Nitwits will always have more green color in their appearance in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

Nitwits have a fascinating story of how they were added to Minecraft. At first, Mojang only added regular villagers. However, one of the players summoned a villager through commands which couldn't take up any profession. Though it was a bug, the developers thought of making it into a new villager variant.

At first, they were called 'villager idiots', since they were unable to take up any profession. However, Jens Bergensten (Jeb), one of the main developers in Mojang, thought that 'Nitwit' would be a better name for the dumb villager variant.

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Appearance

Difference between a normal villager and a nitwit, notice the top half is green (Image via Mojang)

Similar to other villagers, Nitwit's appearance depends on which biome they spawn in. However, they will always have a green robe on the top half of their body. This can be slightly hard to spot when looking at villagers for the first time. Of course, they never change their appearance as they cannot take up any job.

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Profession

Nitwits do not react to jobsite blocks and do not take up the profession in Minecraft (Image via Mojang)

As mentioned above, these are special variants of villagers that don't take up any villager job. Even if a jobsite is placed right in front of them, Nitwits will not react to it.

Since trading is one of the primary and most important aspects of villagers, Nitwits are quite useless to players. They cannot trade anything and simply shake their heads when players try to interact with them.

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Routine and breeding behavior

Nitwits sleep late and wake up late as well, but they can breed like normal (Image via Mojang)

Apart from appearance and inability to take up any job, Nitwits have a slightly different routine than other normal villagers in Minecraft. Firstly, they wake up late and sleep late as well. Secondly, they mostly wander around the village doing nothing while others work at their jobsite blocks.

Though they have all these differences, Nitwits can breed with other villagers without any issues. If given bread, potatoes, or any other food item they accept, Nitwits will enter 'willing' mode and find another willing villager to breed.