How Iron Farms Affect Server Performance

Direct answer

Test villagers, iron golems and item collection as separate work sources. The most useful change depends on whether the profiler shows villager sensing, golem ticking or a crowded collection chamber.

How to check it

1. Record villager count, golem count and the number of loaded farm modules. Profile a working farm with /spark profiler start --timeout 300 on supported Paper.
2. Compare a quiet module with all modules loaded. If ticking cost climbs with villagers, inspect beds, workstations, pathfinding and unnecessary nearby trading halls.
3. Check for golems trapped outside the collection path and for item entities or hoppers accumulating output.

What to change

1. Remove unnecessary villagers/modules only after confirming they are driving the measured work. Keep the farm’s necessary detection and spawning mechanics intact.
2. Paper has a per-world iron-golems-can-spawn-in-air option; it changes where golems may spawn and is not a general speed boost. Do not toggle it without testing the farm design.
3. Fix blocked item transport or excessive redstone updates independently of villager AI.

Software and version notes

Verify the result

Compare iron produced per hour, stray golem count and server MSPT before/after with the same module count and players.

References

• PaperMC world configuration
• PaperMC profiling guide