Minecraft wiki entry for Beginner%27s_guide, associated text: If you see houses and other buildings nearby, this is not exactly a biome, but it means that you are near a village, which is a good thing. In fact, a village lets you skip past much of the first and second-day activities (due to ready-made shelter and beds) but it requires a bit of care. It's worth exploring the village and looting any chests you find; if you happen to find any emeralds, you might even be able to buy some useful items from the villagers. Besides providing equipment, food and other resources, a village also lets you collect the seeds for all four of the basic crops up front, from their farms, and you can also take one of their beds with you when you leave. You can even grab a few blocks of wood or stone from their houses, but try not to damage the village too much -- your best bet may be to disassemble one of the smaller houses and move its bed to one of the intact houses. (Don't bother doing this in a desert village, the sandstone is pretty but fragile, and you can't make tools out of it.)