Iron Golems are strong, overworld Minecraft mobs usually found in villages and less commonly in pillager outposts. Since they are known to protect both villagers and players, Iron Golems are classified as neutral utility mobs. With 50 hearts of health and exceptional attack strength, they are by far one of the game's toughest denizens.
Aside from their protective nature and robustness, Iron Golems also boast useful drops. Players across all versions of Minecraft can get two items by slaying an Iron Golem. While Iron Ingot is a guaranteed item that drops in quantities of three to five, Poppy is purely based on chance. By and large, Iron Golem loot drops cannot be increased through the use of enchantments. As such, killing an Iron Golem with a weapon enchanted by Looting will not yield greater amounts of Iron Ingot or Poppies, so players will just need to find as many as possible.
Regardless of the version of the game, the player can occasionally come across Iron Golems confined inside dark oak cages surrounding the pillager outposts. These caged Iron Golems share most of the behavioral patterns with other Iron Golems spawned in a village or created by the player. Therefore, they are hostile towards mobs, including pillagers who are one block away from the cage because the AI allows Iron Golems to attack through one-block walls. The player can use this to their advantage and free the trapped Iron Golem(s), which will, in turn, aid them in defeating the pillagers and any other nearby mobs.
One of the easiest and fastest ways to generate an Iron Golem is to craft one. This is particularly useful when the player is looking to farm its loot or protect their new settlement without having met the spawning conditions pertaining to the village's structure. They can lay the foundation for an Iron Golem in both Java and Bedrock versions of Minecraft by placing four Iron Blocks in the shape of a capital T in an open area.
For the spawning to occur in the Java version, the player needs to add a Carved Pumpkin on top of the capital T formation. In Bedrock, however, they can also spawn an Iron Golem by opting for a Jack-o'-Lantern or an Uncarved Pumpkin instead. The spawned Iron Golem will be passive toward the player under all circumstances, but it can attack some of their tamed mobs, such as wolves.
When it comes to general spawning conditions for Iron Golems patrolling the villages, they are dependent on the version of the game. However, these conditions have no impact on the size of Iron Golems or the terrain they can spawn on. By default, Iron Golems are 2.7 blocks high and 1.4 blocks wide and can only spawn on solid blocks, provided there are no full blocks around the spawn point that would have them collide with any existing entities upon spawning. If the player is looking to establish an Iron Golem farm in a controlled environment, determining the potential spawn locations with respect to the Minecraft version while taking the Iron Golem's size into consideration will help them craft appropriate traps that will contribute to faster and safer loot farming.
In the Java version, Iron Golems spawn based on villager gossip or panic levels. That said, the villager who starts to gossip must satisfy certain conditions first. They cannot be a Nitwit and must have a profession. They also must have also slept in the last 24 in-game hours and worked in the last 36 hours. Moreover, they must have gossiped about the need for an Iron Golem at least five times and have another four villagers within 80 blocks of themselves. Only then will an Iron Golem have a chance to spawn within a 16x13x16 area centered around the villager who spread the gossip.
In the Bedrock version of Minecraft, Iron Golems spawn naturally when the village is first generated in the world. They can also spawn if the village has at least 10 villagers and 20 beds. However, for an Iron Golem to spawn within a 16x6x16 area around the center of the village defined by a bell, a bed or another meeting point, 100 percent of the villagers must be linked to a bed, while 75 percent of them must have worked within the past in-game day. Additionally, the player must be within 44 blocks vertically and 80 blocks horizontally of the village.
Although both versions of the game share a 1/700 chance of spawning an Iron Golem during each game tick when the designated conditions are met, the spawn rates are determined by the available space. Nevertheless, Iron Golems can respawn if the player traps and moves them away from the village because they will no longer count for the spawn limit. Comparably, if the village's original Iron Golem is slain in the Bedrock version, another one will not spawn unless the village is expanded. While Iron Golems do not despawn naturally, they can defect to a nearby village, get killed by a hostile mob, suffocate or glitch into a wall.