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I've recently finished building an iron golem farm at the top of my mob spawner tower. The first floor of the farm is at y=242. I'm using Docm77's basic iron farm design, but I haven't gotten any drops yet, after playing nearby for at least an hour.

Is there a height limit at which Golems will spawn? Are they despawning before they get killed? (I'm playing between y=64 and y=100, mostly [I didn't think Iron Golems despawned though])

Any ideas?

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Edit: this farm works fine at lower levels. I had one in this very world in this very area, but I moved it because I didn't like where it was. The only difference is that it's so high. I've built one at the same exact height in my creative world, and there are no spawns from that either, after AFK-ing for about an hour.

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  • Since you say it's only a height issue, have you actually tried afking closer to the farm? The wiki is unclear on the matter of Iron Golems despawning. – MrLemon Jan 23 '15 at 9:24
  • I figured out the problem, see my answer below. – Johonn Jan 23 '15 at 16:28
  • hmm, I know this was back in 2015, but do you remember the altitude of your upper spawn area? It would be nice if you could post the exact max height upon which they will spawn. – Daniel Santos Feb 24 '19 at 7:50
  • Please see the answer below - it wasn't an altitude issue, but a farm design issue. My lower floor was not tall enough, and the upper floor was out of range of the villagers. – Johonn Feb 25 '19 at 19:05
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Ok, I figured it out... I guess I didn't provide enough detail to answer the question.

I had lowered the ceiling of the farm to 3 blocks, because Iron Golems are 2.9 blocks high. However, I found a detailed post about villages and iron golems on the forums and the guy said they require 4 blocks to spawn. They also only spawn in 6 blocks of vertical space, as well, so the placement of my doors and villagers meant that the top spawning pad was out of range (too high).

So to fix it, I had to raise the ceiling of the farm, as well as the doors and villagers, one block up, so that there is 4 vertical blocks of space on the first pad, and the second pad is within the right range of the "village" center.

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  • 3.5 blocks of space between spawning floors is also valid. I've built a working iron farm with slab floor (3,5 block space) in my test world, and then with full blocks (3 block space) in my hardcore survival, and woundered what could be wrong. – Orc JMR Apr 24 '16 at 18:51
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I don't think that height is the issue. After some research, I found the Iron Golem page on the Minecraft Wiki, in which it says:

Golems will spawn in a 16×16×6 area, centered between the 21 or more valid doors in a village if it has at least 10 villagers. The chance of spawning is 1 in 7000 per game tick, which averages around one every six minutes.

This means that your Iron Golem farm needs to have at least 21 doors and 10 villagers in close vicinity before they will spawn (plus a bit of patience).

EDIT: With 24 doors, and 12 villagers, I managed to spawn an Iron Golem. I suggest that you double check that there is a spawning platform of exactly 16x16x6, and that the doors are placed from inside the spawning area (having them open outwards). It is also worth blocking the back of the doors so villagers can't travel through.

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  • I had no idea that Iron Golems could spawn without being manually done, or with an actual spawner! – Chantola Jan 23 '15 at 5:12
  • Sorry, that's not the issue. I'm using an Iron Golem Farm, as I mentioned in the original question. It has 24 doors and 12 villagers. Just so you know, I studied the Iron Golem page quite carefully, as well as the village page, etc, before I posted this question. – Johonn Jan 23 '15 at 5:27
  • Thanks for your help; I eventually figured out the problem and posted it in an answer. – Johonn Jan 23 '15 at 16:29

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