Do Villagers Despawn in Minecraft?
The world of Minecraft is a dangerous and lonely place, with dusk bringing in hordes of zombies and terrifying wildlife that will try to rip you apart and feed on your flesh. The same goes for villagers who are even more helpless in the face of threats like these and rely on the player to keep them safe and secure, something that makes the nights worth surviving. However, you may be wondering how long a villager can stay alive in the game and whether they despawn after you’ve moved away from them over a certain distance.
All dropped items and embedded weapons automatically despawn after a couple of minutes, as do mobs without a nametag. Villagers on the other hand do not despawn at all. They have no despawn timers set and, unless there is a bug in the server, they will stay alive indefinitely provided they are not killed out in the world. Although, keeping villagers alive can be an arduous task since they can be killed in a number of ways such as natural phenomena like lightning strikes, murdered by hostiles, turned into zombies, starved to death, suffocated, or even pushed off a cliff.
With the world out there full of threats, it is best to keep villagers in quarantine for their own good and protection even it means sealing them inside a house without doors. You may also want to keep areas with villagers well-lit since zombies can spawn in places with a lighting level below 7. Make sure any housing you build has zero sky openings in the village so that hostile mobs can’t be spawned inside and be vigilant in keeping your villagers contained since they can forget their village if they wander more than 32 blocks away from it. All this can prevent gruesome deaths of villagers and keep them safe.