Golem Factory, Iron Farm

Greetings!

I downloaded the 12w08a snapshot. They added iron golems, a robot that guards villagers from zombie attacks. I found out that for every 15 villagers that have a door nearby, one golem spawns. I also found out that golems being made of metal will sink if placed in water.

A rather cruel idea came into mind and I decided to make an iron farm that would give me almost endless supplies of iron.

What you do is round up as many villagers as you can into a room with single slab flooring. There have to be at least 15 in there. Then you put a wood door in the house (not make sure that they can’t use this to get out. Dig a 3 wide and 3 deep moat around your house and put water on the edges. Putting water on the edges pushes the golems down. Around the moat you put a 3 block tall wall. Line the top with single half steps. I put slits in the wall so I could see where the golems were. The half steps stop anything from spawning on them, including the golems.

How to Use It

When an iron golem spawns it should get pushed into one of the corners. It will drown there because it can’t swim and then you can jump in, get the iron, and swim out. In the time it took me to build this I got 64 iron ingots.  Note: hitting the golems is not advisable as they might hit back and each time you hit them, the get a breath of air.

What to do with the iron?

Well, you can use it to make tools and armor. But if you prefer gold, you can go to the Nether and build a gold nugget farm. Simply make a flat area that is well lit up. Place an iron golem or two and wait for the Pig-Men to spawn!   Nine gold nuggets in your crafting bench slot make one gold ingot.