Added in version 1.20.5 of Minecraft, armadillos breathe a new sense of life to the otherwise rather barren Savannas and Badlands biomes. In this article, we will cover how to breed them, and how to farm them, alongside some useful mods.
How Armadillos Work in Minecraft
Every 5 to 10 minutes, one armadillo will drop an “armadillo scute”. You can also make them drop one by using a brush. Scutes are the only item capable of crafting wolf armor – a valuable piece of equipment for protecting your wolves.
But if you want a steady supply of scutes, you’ll have to do more than just roam around for armadillos. Ideally, you’ll want to start an armadillo farm. To do that, you’ll have to start breeding them. Here’s everything you could need to know for feeding and taming armadillos in Minecraft.
Where to Find Armadillos
Before you can start breeding armadillos, you have to be able to find them. These passive mobs only spawn in the following biomes:
- Savannas
- Savanna Plateaus
- Windswept Savannas
- Badlands
- Eroded Badlands
- Wooded Badlands
Additionally, armadillos require light to spawn, so either wait for day time or place down plenty of torches.
Onto the good news. Armadillos spawn in groups of one to four, depending on your version of Minecraft. Since it takes two to start breeding, you’ll most likely be able to get started on breeding your very first group the moment you find them.
Once found, they can be guided back to your base (or wherever you please) either by using a lead or by getting them to follow you by holding a spider eye.
How To Breed Armadillos Using Spider Eyes
Like most other breedable mobs, armadillos need to be fed a specific item to start breeding. In this case, it’s spider eyes. Use a spider eye on an adult armadillo and it will enter love mode. You’ll know it’s working when hearts float out of the armadillo.
When two armadillos in love mode are near each other, they will close the distance and embrace, with a baby armadillo (and some experience orbs) appearing shortly after.
The two armadillos will need to rest for five minutes before breeding again, while the baby will take 20 real-life minutes to grow into an adult. You can speed this up by feeding the baby more spider eyes, each one shaving ten percent off of the remaining growing time.
Building Your Armadillo Farm
If you want to really maximize your armadillo scute output, gather what armadillos you can into a fenced off area. Return to this area every ten minutes or so, brushing every adult for scutes. Then, feed seven spider eyes to the resulting newborns. This will shrink their growth time down to just below ten minutes, so they’ll be an adult by the time you return again. Repeat this process until you have all the scutes you could need.
Minecraft Mods That Expand On Armadillos And Breeding
Armadillos are an adorable addition to Minecraft. However, both their level of interaction and the usefulness of scutes are pretty limited. You can expand what armadillos are good for, or even just simplify the mystery of mob breeding, with mods. These are some of the most fitting community-made content that comes to mind.
1. Just Enough Breeding
A plugin mod for the popular Just Enough (JEI) Items mod, Just Enough Breeding adds a new section to the JEI interface that provides all the details you could need for mob breeding. You’ll know what food to feed them, what the spawn eggs look like, whether they need to be tamed, and more. It’s a super convenient mod for anyone into Minecraft animal husbandry.
2. Armadillo Scute Armor
Why should wolves be the only ones wearing armadillo scutes? This mod adds in a new set of armor, crafted from scutes the same way you would any other set. Like regular armor, armadillo scute armor can be repaired, enchanted, and given custom trims. It essentially acts as a middle point between iron and leather in terms of quality, but with an armadillo farm in place, it would mean an endless supply of scutes for repairs.
3. Resource Armadillo
Turn an armadillo farm into a diamond farm! The Resource Armadillo mod introduces a new system for breeding unique armadillo variations that will drop special scutes. Those can then be converted back into whatever item that Resource Armadillo is based on. This is both a great way to establish reliable sources of hard-to-get items and a great reason to invest more time into keeping armadillos around.
How to Install Minecraft Mods
You can install the above mods automatically using the CurseForge app or manually by placing the mod files within your game’s mods folder. Both methods allow you to easily add custom features and enhancements into your vanilla Minecraft experience.If you want to learn more, you can read our detailed guide on how to install Minecraft mods.
Common Issues and Quick Fixes
My armadillos roll up instead of breeding
Armadillos will roll up to protect themselves whenever threatened or startled. That includes taking damage, sensing nearby mobs, or even just when the player sprints or is riding a mount nearby.
If an armadillo rolls up into a ball after being fed a spider eye, but before it can successfully mate, it cancels out the mating phase. This also resets the mating timer, too. If this happens, feeding it another spider eye should enable breeding again.
My armadillos aren’t accepting spider eyes
After a successful breeding, the participating armadillos can’t breed again for five in-game minutes. During this time, they won’t accept spider eyes.
Also be sure that you’re offering them fresh spider eyes and not fermented spider eyes. Despite the similarities, those aren’t a valid food item to armadillos.
I can’t find armadillos in my modded Minecraft game
Not all Minecraft mods support the most recent and up-to-date version of the game. In fact, the most common version of Minecraft to have mod support is 1.20.1, and a majority of the mods and modpacks available will be for this version.
Armadillos were not formally added to Minecraft until version 1.20.8. Check what version your modded game is. If it’s before that update, then armadillos are not natively available.