Middle-ground iron farm (the most iron for an evening's build)

919 iron an hour · 888 blocks · 1.0 an hour per block · 46 iron to build · two farms drop their golems into one water channel that carries them to one lava chamber and one chest

Villagers scared by a zombie summon iron golems; the farm kills them and collects their iron in a chest.

Nether quartz: 6; iron: 46. Fits in 6 chunk columns: 37×43×17. Its storage holds 10 hours of iron.

919 iron an hour from a 71-minute build

919 iron an hourIron farm3D view loading (or not available in this browser)

Try it

Press play to watch it work: the villagers sleep at night and panic at the zombie by day, golems spawn and die, and the hoppers carry their iron to the chest; the top right counts the game's time, the golems and the iron. The magenta floor is where a golem can spawn, seen through the blocks (Spawn spots hides it). The chest tagged OUT collects the first copy's iron; every copy has its own chest under its last hopper. In the game, build it and wait near it.

How this design does it: 2 farms side by side, 24 blocks apart, each with its own villagers, zombie and comparator-ring timer; their golems fall to one water channel deep below every farm's sight, which carries them to one lava chamber and one chest.

Build it

Download .litematic Download the design as text

The .litematic opens in Litematica (Minecraft 26.3): every block of the design in one region. The text file is the same build written as plain text, block by block.

Pour in the water and the lava (4 bucketfuls) where the view shows them.

Blocks used: chest cobblestone cobblestone slab comparator hopper lava oak boat oak fence gate oak trapdoor observer red bed redstone wire repeater villager water

What it is made of

Each part of this farm, what it takes to build, and the version of it this farm uses: follow a part to see its other versions side by side.

part	this farm's	blocks placed	build time
Villager cage	its own · other versions	122	30 min
Sleep trigger	its own · other versions	34	4 min
Golem spawn area	its own · other versions	268	11 min
Golem drop	its own · other versions	347	14 min
Kill chamber	its own · other versions	94	5 min
Collection	its own · other versions	6	5 min
Storage	its own · other versions	7	3 min
The whole farm		878	1 h 11 min

Details: how it works, measurements and properties

In depth

villagers scared by a zombie summon iron golems; the farm kills them and collects their iron in a chest

How to try it

Press play to run the farm. The villagers sleep in their beds at night and panic at the zombie by day, golems spawn, fall and die in the lava, and the hoppers carry their iron and poppies to the chest. The chest tagged OUT collects the first copy's iron; every copy has its own chest under its last hopper. The top right shows the game's time, the golems so far and the iron in the chest; the speed menu plays it faster or slower. Drag to look around, pinch or scroll to zoom.

Measurements

On Hard, through rain, thunder and lightning.

metric	value	what it means
iron per hour per block	1.03	iron ingots an hour for each block you place
iron per hour	919	iron ingots an hour
iron range	95% 904-934	the range its rate falls in, 95% sure
golems per hour	231.2	iron golems an hour
seconds per golem	15.6	the time between two golems
share of ceiling	96%	how close it comes to the game's limit: one golem every 30 seconds for each group of villagers
modules	2	groups of villagers that each summon golems on their own
iron per hour per module	460	iron ingots an hour for each group of villagers
kill	34.15 s	how long a golem lives before the farm kills it, at the longest
kill tail	the longest 56.75 s: no golem outlived 1 min in 3,083 golems (95% bound 0.10% a golem)
golems at the zombie	0 of 3,083 golems targeted the farm's zombie
neighbour sightings	87 of 3,083 golems sensed by another group (87 sensings, 0.03 a golem)
bill	46 iron, 6 quartz, 8 villagers, 8 beds, 2 zombies	what it costs in survival: iron (hoppers, the bucket and every tool you need), quartz, villagers, beds
payback	3 min	how long the farm takes to make back the iron it cost
build time	71 min at middle prices (878 placed, 0 dug, 1 lava trips, 8 villagers moved)	about how long the build takes: placing and digging its blocks, fetching the lava, moving the villagers in
time to an iron kit	73 min (the build	about how long from starting the build to a full set of iron armour (24 iron), its own iron counted
then	24 iron at the card's rate
then	the trip to the chest)
build minutes	71.2
t kit minutes	72.9
collecting	8 s per trip to the chest (2 x its depth, 8 layers
at	the access's speed)
iron per hour sleeping	922
volume per module	13,524
entities alive	14.3
entities peak	16
tools	bucket 3 + iron pickaxe 3	the tools you need and the iron each one costs: a bucket for lava and water, shears for leaves, an iron pickaxe for redstone dust
lava sources	4	lava source blocks to bring: one bucket trip each
materials	Nether: quartz in 6 blocks	the stage of the game its materials need: day 1, the Nether (quartz, slime, magma...) or the End
chunk columns	6	how many 16 x 16 chunk columns it covers
storage	9.7 h (175 slots; 227 poppies/h)	how long its chests and hoppers hold the iron and poppies before they fill
hoppers per 1000 iron/h	8.7	hoppers for each 1000 iron an hour: each hopper costs the server a little work every tick
redstone dust	52	the redstone dust its blocks take to craft (a repeater or a comparator 3, an observer 2, a piston 1...): redstone ore needs an iron pickaxe to mine

Notes from its designer

2 farms side by side, 24 blocks apart, each with its own villagers, zombie and comparator-ring timer; their golems fall to one water channel deep below every farm's sight, which carries them to one lava chamber and one chest.

Properties

Study	Mob farms
Kind	Middle-ground iron farm (the most iron for an evening's build)
Blocks placed	888
Box	37×43×17 (27047 blocks of space)
Works facing any way, anywhere	no: locational, it depends on where it is built
Inputs / outputs	no input / OUT
Flags	variation, faster than the smallest of its value
Design file	`water-channel-2`

The design file

on GitHub

Design file (821 lines)

# Iron farm: 919 iron an hour · 888 blocks · 1.0 an hour per block · 46 iron to build · two farms drop their golems into one water channel that carries them to one lava chamber and one chest
# https://vjeux.github.io/redstonepedia/farms/iron/water-channel-2.html
# CIRCUIT: seconds per golem 15.6
name: iron-late-row-channel-2x24
circuit: mob-farm iron_ingot
how: 2 modules in a row send their golems to one kill chamber
parts: hide off-delay-ring-L24 + a repeater
restart: yes
port output: 31 -30 1
entity: minecraft:villager 0.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:villager 2.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:villager 4.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:villager -1.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:oak_boat 2.5 0.5 -6.8 {Passengers:[{id:"minecraft:zombie"}]}
entity: minecraft:villager 24.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:villager 26.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:villager 28.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:villager 22.5 0.5625 0.5
entity: minecraft:oak_boat 26.5 0.5 -6.8 {Passengers:[{id:"minecraft:zombie"}]}
origin: -3 0 -7
palette:
  A minecraft:cobblestone_slab[type=bottom,waterlogged=false]
  B minecraft:comparator[facing=east,mode=compare,powered=false]
  C minecraft:chest[facing=north,type=single,waterlogged=false]
  D minecraft:comparator[facing=north,mode=compare,powered=false]
  E minecraft:hopper[enabled=true,facing=west]
  F minecraft:oak_trapdoor[facing=north,half=bottom,open=false,powered=false,waterlogged=false]
  G minecraft:oak_trapdoor[facing=south,half=bottom,open=true,powered=false,waterlogged=false]
  H minecraft:hopper[enabled=true,facing=down]
  I minecraft:observer[facing=south,powered=false]
  J minecraft:redstone_wire[east=none,north=none,power=0,south=side,west=none]
  K minecraft:redstone_wire[east=none,north=none,power=0,south=side,west=side]
  L minecraft:lava[level=0]
  M minecraft:redstone_wire[east=none,north=side,power=0,south=none,west=side]
  N minecraft:redstone_wire[east=none,north=side,power=0,south=side,west=none]
  O minecraft:oak_fence_gate[facing=east,in_wall=false,open=true,powered=false]
  P minecraft:redstone_wire[east=side,north=none,power=0,south=none,west=side]
  Q minecraft:redstone_wire[east=side,north=side,power=0,south=none,west=none]
  R minecraft:red_bed[facing=north,occupied=false,part=foot]
  S minecraft:redstone_wire[east=side,north=side,power=0,south=side,west=side]
  T minecraft:repeater[delay=1,facing=west,locked=false,powered=false]
  U minecraft:repeater[delay=2,facing=south,locked=false,powered=false]
  W minecraft:water[level=0]
  c minecraft:cobblestone
  h minecraft:hopper[enabled=true,facing=east]
  o minecraft:oak_fence_gate[facing=north,in_wall=false,open=true,powered=false]
  r minecraft:red_bed[facing=north,occupied=false,part=head]
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