I've looked all over the internet, and yet I haven't thought to really ask here. I am pretty-- no, incredibly dumb when it comes to villager/village logistics. I have an underground base, five villagers, and I'm trying to breed them.

First off, I understand that I have to build and underground "village" with access to the surface. I built a 10x10x3 box, put doors around the outside and placed the villagers inside. Then, I dug a column to the surface that was within 5 blocks of each door. This SHOULD render every door valid... I think.

Now, from what I understand you feed villagers to get them to breed. However, with mob griefing off, the brown coats won't pick up and replant crops, nor will they pick up stacks of food thrown at them. So, the only way to breed is to trade with them. Which I've done. Hundreds of times now.

Can someone help me? Is it simply not possible to breed them? or should I try something different? Any advice is appreciated!

You're right, trading is the only way to get them to breed with mob griefing off.

For the 'village' doors to be valid they must have more 'air blocks' above them on on one side than the other, within 5 blocks in a straight line. So if you have doors around a hole in the roof, only 4 the doors in the cardinal directions will be valid. Also, any blocks at floor level also count as blocking the light.

You also need to consider the village cap. Villages only breed until the number of villagers is about 1/3 the number of doors.
You can use an infinite villager breeder to get around this. Have a set of doors (at least 6) with a villager in them. Then put the villagers you want to breed at least 7 blocks above or 9 blocks below the doors and they will ignore the cap. This works because minecraft is dumb.

You should be able to tell if they are willing to breed when you trade with them. They give off green particles when they're ready to breed. They should do this every time you do a trade for the fist time ever.
Then it's a waiting game for them to actually do the deed, which can take bloody ages.

Hope you can make your villagers procreate!

*bows to you* Thank you thank you thank you. I'm going to try this out and see where i get!

Easier way to get villagers is to just find a doungen and convert it into a zombie grinder, wait until a zombie villager spawns and then filter it into a pit, kill the other zombies that might have fallen in with it and then cure it.
Lots of villagers in a short time and lots of flesh that you can... do random stuff with I guess

drop through lava and watch it burn

@_Confederacy_ Easier way to get villagers is to just find a doungen and convert it into a zombie grinder, wait until a zombie villager spawns and then filter it into a pit, kill the other zombies that might have fallen in with it and then cure it.
Lots of villagers in a short time and lots of flesh that you can... do random stuff with I guess

Rashiik and me made a 40x40x6 storage room with chests on the walls and lights that could be turned on and off (to avoid our base being found through shadow glitches)

It turned that mobs started spawning when the lights were off, including zombie villagers. Now we have more than 30 villagers on our base. I think this is the most efficient method if you live underground. I wouldn't risk opening any tunnels to the surface...

To add on to what @_Confederacy_ said. If you don't like the trades your villager has you can infect them again with a zombie and re-cure them to try to get better trades. For instance if you have a librarian you can re-cure them to try to get a better librarian. What you can't do is re-cure a librarian to try to get a farmer instead.

@pand1024 To add on to what @_Confederacy_ said. If you don't like the trades your villager has you can infect them again with a zombie and re-cure them to try to get better trades. For instance if you have a librarian you can re-cure them to try to get a better librarian. What you can't do is re-cure a librarian to try to get a farmer instead.

Does it really work? How do I infect it without killing it?

@bSan420 Does it really work? How do I infect it without killing it?

Feel free to test for yourself. On hard difficulty a zombie has a 100% chance to turn a villager into a zombie villager.

@bSan420 Be careful though. When you do this they will always have the same robe colour, but not the same career. Meaning if you infect and cure a farmer, it could turn into a shepherd.
Basically a librarian or priest will always be a librarian or priest. But anything else might change.

If so it's awesome! I will try it later.

Holy cow guys, thanks for all the advice. I had *just* found a zombie spawner the other day, but I made it into a squid spawner. Might have to go hunting for another spawner now, or try the "lights out" method.

Truly, thank you all!

Find a grinder, then ask a mod/admin to change it for you using a spawn egg you get from a craftycrate.

no xp, but ink sacs come in handy; lots of people that don't feel like going out and farming or risking drowning (no matter how small the risk). Definitely don't regret my decision. :)