You’re tired of mining. Honestly, we all are. You spend three hours underground, dodge a dozen creepers, and come back with maybe two stacks of iron ore. It’s exhausting. That’s why setting up an easy iron farm minecraft bedrock edition style is basically a rite of passage for anyone who actually wants to finish their mega-base without losing their mind.
Iron is the literal backbone of the game. Hoppers, pistons, anvils—everything costs iron. If you’re still clicking on individual blocks of ore in 2026, you’re playing on hard mode for no reason.
But here’s the thing: Bedrock is finicky. It isn't like Java. You can’t just scare a villager with a zombie and call it a day. The mechanics are rooted in "village" logic, which means if you don't follow the rules, your farm is just a decorative stone box in the sky.
The frustrating truth about Bedrock iron mechanics
Bedrock Edition treats villages differently. In Java, a single villager seeing a zombie triggers a golem. On Bedrock, a "village" is defined by beds. Specifically, you need at least 20 beds and 10 villagers to even see a glimmer of a golem.
Most people mess this up by building too close to their actual base. If your farm is within 96 blocks of another bed, a bell, or a workstation, the game gets confused. It merges the two "villages" and your spawn point shifts. Suddenly, golems are spawning in your storage room or on your roof instead of the killing floor. It's a mess.
You need a clean slate. Go out into the plains. Find a spot that’s empty.
Why 20 is the magic number
You’ll see tutorials claiming you can do it with ten villagers. Sure, you can, but it’s slow. To get the maximum spawn rate, you want 20 villagers all paired with 20 workstations.
The game checks two things:
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- Are 75% of the villagers "working" at their stations?
- Are there at least 20 beds?
If you hit these markers, the game attempts to spawn a golem every 35 seconds or so. It’s not lightning fast, but over an hour of AFK time, you’re looking at several stacks of ingots. It adds up while you’re off eating dinner or folding laundry.
Building the spawn platform without overcomplicating things
Keep it simple. You want an 8x8 or a 10x10 platform. Stone bricks are fine. Cobblestone is fine. Just don't use leaves or glass for the floor because golems can't spawn on transparent blocks.
I usually build mine about 20 blocks in the air. This keeps the golems from spawning on the ground outside the farm. You want them concentrated.
Water logic and the lava blade
Water flows eight blocks. Use that to your advantage. You want the water to push the golems into a central 2x2 hole. At the bottom of that hole, you place signs. Why signs? Because signs don’t burn, but they hold up lava.
The golems are three blocks tall. You place the lava at their head height. Their feet stay in the water, but their heads sizzle. It’s gruesome, but it’s efficient. They die, the iron drops, and the water carries the loot into your hoppers.
The villager problem
Villagers are the worst part of any easy iron farm minecraft bedrock project. They move like they have no self-preservation instincts. They fall off ledges. They take the wrong jobs.
Here is the secret: fletching tables.
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Don't use lecterns. Don't use composters. Fletching tables are cheap—just some flint and wood—and they don't have "interactive" animations that lag out your game as much. Plus, fletchers rarely get stuck in "job-seeking" loops compared to other professions.
Avoiding the "Green Coat" trap
Nitwits. The guys in the green coats. They are useless. They don't work, so they don't count toward your 75% work requirement. If you see a green coat, get rid of it. Lava, a long drop, a sword—it doesn't matter, just make sure they aren't taking up a slot in your farm.
You also need to make sure your villagers can actually touch their workstations. In older versions, you could just shove them in a hole. Now, they need to be able to "work" to refresh the spawn timer. A 1x1 cell for each villager is usually the safest way to prevent them from wandering and unlinking from their beds.
Real world efficiency: What to expect
If you build this correctly, you're looking at roughly 300 to 400 iron ingots per hour.
Is it the "fastest" farm in existence? No. There are quad-chunk industrial designs that produce thousands. But those take ten hours to build and require precise ticking mechanics. For a standard survival world, a 400-per-hour farm is plenty.
You’ll have more iron than you know what to do with after three days of play.
Common points of failure
If your farm stops working, check the beds first. Bedrock villagers love to unbind from their beds if they can't pathfind to them. Even if they are trapped in a pod, if the game thinks they should be able to walk to the bed and they can't, the village logic breaks.
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- Lightning: If a lightning bolt hits your villagers, they turn into witches. Witches don't count as villagers. The farm dies. Put a glass roof way up high—at least 30 blocks above them—to prevent this.
- Cats: Cats will spawn. A lot of them. They take up the "mob cap" for the village. Use some of your string to make a few tame cats and sit them around the farm; this often prevents more from spawning and clogging the system.
- The Leader: One villager is the "leader" of the village. He usually has sparkles around him when he claims a bed. If he dies, the village resets.
Actionable Next Steps for Your Build
Start by gathering two stacks of flint. You'll need it for those fletching tables.
Once you have your materials, scout a location at least 100 blocks away from any existing doors, beds, or villagers. This is the most common reason farms fail—proximity interference.
Build your 20-bed chamber first. Place the beds and wait for the green particles to show they've been "claimed" by the game engine. Only after the beds are down should you start bringing villagers in. Boats and minecarts are your best friends here, though a water elevator is often faster if you're moving them from a nearby breeder.
After you've got your 10 to 20 villagers locked in and working, build the spawning platform above their heads. Ensure the water flow is perfect and the lava is suspended by signs at the correct height.
Once the first golem falls into the pit, you're set. Just stay within simulation distance—usually 4 to 6 chunks—to keep the farm active while you work on other projects. The iron will keep flowing as long as the sun is up and the villagers are "working" at their stations.
Don't overcomplicate the redstone. A simple hopper line into a double chest is all you need to start. You can always expand the storage later once the iron starts backing up.