Minecraft Elegance: Iron Farm on Day 1 of Survival, Java 1.16-1.20
A simple, practical iron farm in survival that is optimized for early game constraints. Does not work on Bedrock Edition.
- Minimal building material requirements (30 easy-to-obtain items need placement)
- Fast build time (less than 1 Minecraft day)
- No iron needed beforehand
- No lava needed
- No nametag needed, any zombie will work
- Easy loading of villagers and zombie into farm
FAQs:
"The fence gate catches fire." Make sure you don't forget the sign on top of the gate, which fireproofs the gate so that it doesn't burn. If it still burns, I suspect this is recent bug in Forge. One workaround is to place string on top of the signs to fireproof them, or craft the signs from nether stems.
"The zombie doesn't get in the boat." The bottom step of the staircase needs to be even with the floor of the chamber. The zombie needs to be at the same level of the boat in order to get it in.
"My zombie keeps despawning!" An iron golem is probably spawning in the zombie area and killing it. The golem then suffocates and dies. This happens when part of the zombie chamber is not spawn-proofed. The boat should be in the center of the room in order to stop the golem from spawning there. And there needs to be torches at the base of the steps, as well as on the steps.
"Iron golems are spawning outside of the pool." The villagers aren't deep enough underground. You can fix this issue by spawnproofing within 8 blocks horizontally from the beds. You can use buttons, flowers, slabs, or redstone dust, for example; or you can convert the ground to dirt path with a shovel.
"Iron golems aren't spawning at all." There's a good chance that an iron golem has spawned inside a cave within 8 blocks of the beds, and this golem is preventing further golems from spawning. Find the cave, kill the iron golem, and spawnproof the cave or fill it in. If that isn't the issue, try breaking and placing the beds again.
Efficient yield of 175 ingots/hr, and easily upgraded to 335 ingots/hr with lava. Rates in 1.18 seem to be slightly lower at 320 ingots/hr.
Discord: https://discord.gg/G9aa2YTTQX
0:00 Intro
0:51 Mechanics
3:33 Finding a village
3:49 Collecting beds and site selection
4:08 Materials
4:23 Build instructions
6:38 Upgrades
7:47 Demo of iron farm built and working on Day 1 of survival
NOTES
4:58 Don't use a bamboo raft.
5:53 Instead of using a hoe to turn the dirt into farmland, starting in 1.17, you can use a shovel to turn dirt blocks into dirt path blocks. This is a little more convenient since you don't need to craft an additional tool and you don't need to wait for the block to become hydrated.
7:17 Preventing other iron golems from interfering. Use a lead on a golem so that it stays close to the village bell, which is a hot spot for the gossip that often summons a golem. (Destroying all other beds in the village will also work if you don't have a need for them, such as for breeding.)
7:31 The fence should be a rectangle that goes out at least 16 blocks horizontally from the villagers. Find the 2x3 area on the surface that is directly over the underground beds, and then count 16 blocks in each direction to see how far the fence needs to go.
7:35 The 2 iron farms are mirror images of each other and there are 9 blocks in between the spawning pits. This keeps the iron golems in one farm more than 16 blocks horizontally from the villagers at the other. Here is a compact 4-farm setup (the beds are under the planks):
https://imgur.com/OuU9Uka
Iron farm mechanics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSwe-jerWX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O6q53zmCMY
- Minimal building material requirements (30 easy-to-obtain items need placement)
- Fast build time (less than 1 Minecraft day)
- No iron needed beforehand
- No lava needed
- No nametag needed, any zombie will work
- Easy loading of villagers and zombie into farm
FAQs:
"The fence gate catches fire." Make sure you don't forget the sign on top of the gate, which fireproofs the gate so that it doesn't burn. If it still burns, I suspect this is recent bug in Forge. One workaround is to place string on top of the signs to fireproof them, or craft the signs from nether stems.
"The zombie doesn't get in the boat." The bottom step of the staircase needs to be even with the floor of the chamber. The zombie needs to be at the same level of the boat in order to get it in.
"My zombie keeps despawning!" An iron golem is probably spawning in the zombie area and killing it. The golem then suffocates and dies. This happens when part of the zombie chamber is not spawn-proofed. The boat should be in the center of the room in order to stop the golem from spawning there. And there needs to be torches at the base of the steps, as well as on the steps.
"Iron golems are spawning outside of the pool." The villagers aren't deep enough underground. You can fix this issue by spawnproofing within 8 blocks horizontally from the beds. You can use buttons, flowers, slabs, or redstone dust, for example; or you can convert the ground to dirt path with a shovel.
"Iron golems aren't spawning at all." There's a good chance that an iron golem has spawned inside a cave within 8 blocks of the beds, and this golem is preventing further golems from spawning. Find the cave, kill the iron golem, and spawnproof the cave or fill it in. If that isn't the issue, try breaking and placing the beds again.
Efficient yield of 175 ingots/hr, and easily upgraded to 335 ingots/hr with lava. Rates in 1.18 seem to be slightly lower at 320 ingots/hr.
Discord: https://discord.gg/G9aa2YTTQX
0:00 Intro
0:51 Mechanics
3:33 Finding a village
3:49 Collecting beds and site selection
4:08 Materials
4:23 Build instructions
6:38 Upgrades
7:47 Demo of iron farm built and working on Day 1 of survival
NOTES
4:58 Don't use a bamboo raft.
5:53 Instead of using a hoe to turn the dirt into farmland, starting in 1.17, you can use a shovel to turn dirt blocks into dirt path blocks. This is a little more convenient since you don't need to craft an additional tool and you don't need to wait for the block to become hydrated.
7:17 Preventing other iron golems from interfering. Use a lead on a golem so that it stays close to the village bell, which is a hot spot for the gossip that often summons a golem. (Destroying all other beds in the village will also work if you don't have a need for them, such as for breeding.)
7:31 The fence should be a rectangle that goes out at least 16 blocks horizontally from the villagers. Find the 2x3 area on the surface that is directly over the underground beds, and then count 16 blocks in each direction to see how far the fence needs to go.
7:35 The 2 iron farms are mirror images of each other and there are 9 blocks in between the spawning pits. This keeps the iron golems in one farm more than 16 blocks horizontally from the villagers at the other. Here is a compact 4-farm setup (the beds are under the planks):
https://imgur.com/OuU9Uka
Iron farm mechanics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSwe-jerWX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O6q53zmCMY
