A major part of Minecraft is collecting and using resources that you find in the world. Finding creative ways to gather resources includes creating farms. These will ensure that you have a solid output of resources. Iron farms are one of the most common factories that players create. In this Minecraft guide, I go over how you can farm Iron.
Creating an Efficient Iron Farm in Minecraft
Creating an iron farm ensures that you have a solid output of iron. Setting up a farm means that you do not need to worry about manually farming it. Golem farming is a great way of farming iron since they drop iron ingots when they die. Follow the steps below to create your own iron farm in Minecraft using golem farming.
Setting Up The Iron Farm
First, you will need to find a nice large area of flat land. Once you have found a suitable place for your farm you need to dig out a 9x9x2 area.
Once done, place a water source in all four corners and you should have a dry block in the middle.
Place 8 fence gates around the dry block.
Now, head to the middle and dig out a 3×3 hole that is 30 blocks deep. Once you are 30 blocks deep, you want to dig out a small room to the side.
Now turn around and put down two chests and 9 hoppers.
You can then place 9 signs above the hoppers.
Place one lava and it should spread out over the signs. The lava will not destroy the signs.
From the bottom of the hole that you dug, turn around and dig a 7-block tunnel (opposite the chests). You can then use ladders to make your way out and then have a path to easily get back inside.
From the corner of the water pool (on the surface), count 3 blocks diagonally and on the third block remove three blocks.
Make the hole 6 blocks deeper (not 6 blocks deep, 7 blocks deep in total). Dig out a 3x2x3 room. Make sure that you dig this room away from the farm and not towards it. Once you have dug out the small room, you should place three beds there.
This is where your villagers are going to live. This space should have two blocks of space in it to accommodate the villagers but must not have enough room for golems to fit inside.
Now, above the beds, place slabs on both sides and a trapdoor in the middle.
Dig a 3x2x2 room in here and then dig out a line in the middle.
Place 7 torches in the room to avoid anything from spawning inside. Put your boat right in the middle.
With that out of the way, you can make simple stairs to make your way out.
Now place a torch on each stair on your way out. Replace the block at the end and put down trap doors on the two remaining open blocks.
Now that you have done this on one corner of the farm, you need to repeat this process three more times to cover all four sides. Just make sure that you create small rooms for the villagers facing away from the farm and not towards it.
Once you have all four sides covered, your farm should look similar to the image below:
Bring in the Villagers
Now that your farm is ready, you can bring in three villagers to one of the holes. You can bring them to your farm in a boat. Place three beds above the holes.
Once it gets dark you can remove the boats and the villagers will get into the beds. You can then destroy the beds to make the villagers fall into the holes. You will need to do this three more times for the other holes. Repeat the steps involving the villagers three more times. Once all the villagers are in place, you can fill up all the holes.
Lure in the Zombies
Now that you have your villagers in place, you want to lure a zombie into the two trap doors. Once the zombie falls in you can close the trap doors. The zombie will head inside and sit inside the boat. This will ensure that it does not despawn.
Zombies spawn at night and will start following you once you are close enough. So you can kite them or lure them wherever you want as long as you keep your distance. Do keep an eye on your health. If the zombie defeats you then you will need to lure it all over again.
Lure three more zombies to get one inside all four holes. Zombies will increase the effectiveness of your villagers and your iron farm. The zombie will startle the villagers, making them squirm, which leads to more golems spawning. Now your farm is complete.
Once the farm starts, golems will start spawning on top of the villager box. The fences and walls are in place to prevent water or the golems from escaping. Golems will fall into the lava and die. Hoppers and chests are there to collect what the golems drop (iron ingots).
Make sure that you block off caves to prevent iron golems from spawning inside them.
If you are having trouble then you can follow the steps shown in the video below:
Build a Safe Space for Yourself
You will want to see your iron farm in action but staring at the screen while doing nothing can get boring. This is why I recommend making yourself a safe space or an AFK zone where you can remain safe while you wait for your rewards to come in.
Some safe spaces only need a room with a bed but you can also set a system where you can automatically sleep when it gets dark.
This is how you can effectively farm Iron in Minecraft. You can also learn about the fake players mod in Minecraft and how you can find a stronghold in the game. Minecraft is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and other platforms.