How to find a village in Minecraft (2023)

Villages are useful in Minecraft for a myriad of reasons (Image via Mojang)

Minecraft worlds are big places, but they're made a little more friendly by the presence of villages. In these structures, players can interact with villagers and even trade or borrow supplies from them. They can also breed villagers and expand the structure to make it a thriving settlement.

Whether players enjoy Java or Bedrock Edition, villages spawn a bit differently in the Overworld. On average, Bedrock villages are more likely to appear near spawn since they can appear in more biomes than in Java. Whatever the case may be, if Minecraft players are searching for a village, there's a way to find them without needing to scout the Overworld.

If players are willing to enable cheats, they can find the nearest village to them quickly and easily without having to search the conventional way.

Finding a Village With Commands in Minecraft

The /locate command can provide Minecraft players with coordinates to villages (Image via Mojang)

With the reliable /locate command in Minecraft, players can enter a quick command and receive coordinates to find the closest village to their location. This only takes a few moments, and the command syntax is pretty simple compared to many other commands, so finding a village should be a straightforward proposal.

These commands also work in Java and Bedrock Edition (including Pocket Edition), so players will be on their way to the nearest village with just a few keystrokes or taps.

Using /Locate to Find a Village in Minecraft 1.19

Enable cheats on your world. This can be accomplished in single-player during world creation. However, if you're playing an existing world, you can either open the world to LAN and enable cheats in Java or enable them in Bedrock Edition via the pause menu.
With your cheats enabled, open your chat console, enter "/locate structure minecraft:village_(type)" without quotations, and then press enter in Java Edition. For the (type) field, be sure to enter the biome type of the village you're looking for (desert, plains, savanna, snowy, or taiga). For example, finding a plains village would use the command "/locate structure minecraft:village_plains" without quotations.
For Bedrock players, a somewhat altered command syntax is required. Players will want to use the command "/locate structure village" instead. Players can also enter "true" or "false" to determine if they want to use new chunks or not via a boolean search.
After pressing enter, the chat console should return with coordinates to the closest village. From here, you can head to the location using the coordinate system provided by the F3 menu on Java or the "show coordinates" setting in Bedrock. Alternatively, since cheats are still enabled, you can use the /tp or /teleport commands to teleport to the village instantly.

That's all there is to it. Rather than searching the world on foot or through the air for a village, using the /locate command saves time and effort. This is especially true if players are willing to use the /teleport command to jump to the village immediately. However, if players aren't willing or able to use the cheat console, they may have to rely on traditional in-game methods.