Pumpkin in Minecraft

Basics: where to find pumpkins

Pumpkins generate naturally in the world on grass blocks in the following biomes:

• Plains
• Forests (forest, birch forest)
• Taiga
• Savanna
• Woodland mansion: some rooms contain pumpkins

You can find pumpkin seeds in chests in dungeons, abandoned mineshafts, villages and woodland mansions. You can also get seeds by carving a pumpkin with shears (4 seeds drop).

A pumpkin breaks fastest with an axe (of any material) and needs no special tool to harvest. Every pumpkin drops itself as a block.

Growing pumpkins

Pumpkins are grown much like melons, from seeds on farmland:

1. Prepare the soil: till dirt blocks with a hoe. Make sure there is water within 4 blocks (hydrated farmland is dark brown).
2. Plant the seeds: right-click the farmland with pumpkin seeds in your hand.
3. Wait for the stem to grow: the stem grows through 8 stages. Full growth takes 10-30 minutes (random ticks). Bone meal speeds up the stem's growth.
4. The pumpkin grows next to the stem: a mature stem tries to generate a pumpkin on one of the 4 neighboring blocks (north, south, east, west). The block must be air above dirt, grass or farmland. If all 4 sides are blocked, no pumpkin will appear.
5. Harvest: break the pumpkin (by hand or with a piston). The stem stays and will generate another pumpkin.

Important: the pumpkin grows on a neighboring block, not on the stem. Leave empty blocks next to every stem. The best farm layout is alternating rows of stems and empty blocks.

Light: pumpkin seeds need a light level of 9 or higher to grow.

Carving a pumpkin

Since version 1.13 (Java), pumpkins don't have a face by default. To get a carved pumpkin:

1. Place a pumpkin on the ground.
2. Take shears in your hand.
3. Right-click the pumpkin.
4. The pumpkin turns into a carved pumpkin with a face. 4 pumpkin seeds drop on the ground.

The carved pumpkin's face points toward the side you clicked. This matters when placing golems and decorations. The face orientation depends on the player's position when you carve (if the pumpkin is already placed) or when you place it (if you place a carved pumpkin from your hand).

The carved pumpkin has two uses that a regular pumpkin doesn't: building golems (iron and snow) and wearing it on your head (protection from endermen).

Jack o'Lantern

The jack o'lantern is a light-emitting block made from a carved pumpkin and a torch:

Recipe: carved pumpkin (top slot) + torch (bottom slot) on a crafting table or in the 2x2 inventory grid.

Jack o'lantern properties:

• Light level 15: the maximum possible, the same as glowstone and the sea lantern
• Works underwater: unlike a torch, a jack o'lantern doesn't go out underwater. Useful for lighting underwater builds.
• Can replace the pumpkin in golems: a jack o'lantern on top of an iron or snow golem structure works the same as a carved pumpkin.
• Decoration: used to light buildings, paths and gardens. Its Halloween look makes it popular in themed builds.
• Melts snow and ice: light level 15 is enough to melt nearby snow layers and ice (glowstone does the same). For lighting bases in snowy biomes, soul lanterns and soul torches work better. They glow dimmer and don't melt snow.

Iron golem from a pumpkin

The iron golem is a powerful protective mob that defends villages and players. You can build one by hand:

How to build an iron golem

1. Place 1 iron block on the ground (the lower part of the body).
2. Place a second iron block on top of it (the upper part of the body).
3. Place 1 iron block on each side of the upper block (left and right) for the arms. Together they form a T shape.
4. Place a carved pumpkin or a jack o'lantern on the middle top block (above the body, between the arms).
5. The golem appears immediately with a spawn animation.

Important rules:

• You must place the pumpkin/jack o'lantern as the last block. If you place it before the iron structure is finished, the golem won't appear.

Iron golem stats:

• Health: 100 HP (50 hearts)
• Damage: 7.5-21.5 (3.75-10.75 hearts) + knockback
• Behavior: attacks hostile mobs (zombies, skeletons, spiders etc.) within 16 blocks. Neutral toward players unless a player attacks the golem or a villager.
• Drops: 3-5 iron ingots + 0-2 poppies (on death)

Snow golem

The snow golem is a friendly mob that throws snowballs and leaves a trail of snow behind it:

How to build a snow golem

1. Place 2 snow blocks one on top of the other.
2. Place a carved pumpkin or a jack o'lantern on top.
3. The snow golem appears immediately.

Stats:

• Health: 4 HP (2 hearts), very fragile
• Attack: snowball (0 damage, but knockback + provoking mobs). Deals 3 damage to blazes.
• Special: leaves a layer of snow on the blocks it walks on (if the biome allows it). It melts in warm biomes (desert, badlands) and on contact with water or rain.

Uses of the snow golem:

• Snow farm: the golem leaves snow and you collect it with a shovel. An endless source of snowballs and snow blocks.
• Mob lure: the golem provokes hostile mobs and draws them to itself. Handy in mob farms.
• Base defense: the knockback from snowballs slows mobs down. It doesn't kill them, but it buys you time to react.

Pumpkin pie

Recipe: pumpkin (a regular one, not carved) + sugar + egg on a crafting table (a shapeless recipe, so the layout doesn't matter).

Pumpkin pie restores 8 hunger points (4 drumsticks) and 4.8 saturation. For comparison:

• Steak: 8 hunger, 12.8 saturation. Better, but needs a furnace
• Golden carrot: 6 hunger, 14.4 saturation. Expensive, but the best saturation
• Pumpkin pie: 8 hunger, 4.8 saturation. Needs no furnace, but low saturation

Pumpkin pie is a food that needs no cooking, since you craft it directly. That is its main advantage over steak and pork. The ingredients are easy to get (a pumpkin farm + sugar cane + chickens). Farmer villagers buy pumpkins, which makes them useful for trading.

Pumpkin as a helmet

A carved pumpkin can be worn on your head (helmet slot). Effects:

• Protection from endermen: when you wear a pumpkin on your head, endermen don't get angry when you look at them. You can look an enderman in the eyes freely without provoking it. Essential for ender pearl farms and exploring the End.
• Screen overlay: the pumpkin puts a dark overlay on the screen with cut-out eye holes, limiting your field of view. Annoying, but acceptable in exchange for the protection.
• No defense: the pumpkin gives no armor points. You give up the helmet slot (which normally gives 1-3 armor points) for a cosmetic effect and protection from endermen.
• Decoration: using a dispenser to put a carved pumpkin on the head of a zombie, skeleton or another mob.

How to remove the overlay (without mods): press F1 (hide HUD). It hides the whole interface, including the pumpkin overlay. Not ideal, since you lose the hotbar and the health bar too.

Trading with villagers

Pumpkins have value in the villager economy:

• Farmer: buys 6 pumpkins for 1 emerald at the Apprentice level (the 2nd trading level). That's a solid source of emeralds, because a pumpkin farm produces large amounts of the resource.
• Pumpkin pie: a farmer villager also sells pumpkin pie for emeralds (but it's cheaper to craft it yourself).

A pumpkin farm + a farmer villager is one of the simplest and most efficient ways to get emeralds in the game. An automatic pumpkin farm with pistons can generate hundreds of pumpkins per hour.

Automatic pumpkin farm

The simplest automatic pumpkin farm uses an observer and a piston:

1. Plant pumpkin seeds on farmland. Next to it (where the pumpkin will grow), leave an empty block of dirt.
2. Above the empty block (at height 2), place an observer facing down. It watches for the pumpkin to appear.
3. Next to the observer, place a piston facing the pumpkin. Connect the observer's output to the piston's input with redstone dust.
4. When the pumpkin grows, the observer detects the block change and activates the piston. The piston pushes the pumpkin, destroying it and turning it into a drop.
5. Under the spot where the pumpkin is pushed, place a hopper connected to a chest.

The farm scales by repeating rows. 16 rows with observers and pistons give hundreds of pumpkins per hour with no player involvement. Output depends on random ticks, averaging 1 pumpkin per stem every 7-8 minutes.

Advanced version: a farm with multiple layers (stacking) lets you fit more stems in a smaller space, but it is more complicated to build.

Frequently asked questions