Villager Trading: Getting the Best Deals

Villager trading stands as one of the most powerful and rewarding mechanics in Minecraft. It transforms seemingly simple NPC interactions into a complex economy that, with proper setup and understanding, can grant players access to endgame items like fully enchanted diamond gear, rare and powerful enchanted books, and unique resources such as bottles o' enchanting and name tags, often far more efficiently than traditional methods like mining or enchanting. Consider the time spent mining thousands of blocks for diamonds versus setting up a renewable trade system; villager trading offers a path to virtually infinite resources through clever use of renewable trades (like crops or wood) and strategic discounting. Mastering villager trading requires patience and planning, but the payoff is immense, saving you countless hours and resources in the long run and fundamentally changing how you acquire high-tier items. It shifts the endgame focus from resource gathering through exploration and mining towards building efficient, automated systems and managing a complex network of specialized traders.

Basic Trading Tips

Getting the most out of your villagers involves more than just clicking through trade windows. Strategic manipulation and careful management are key to unlocking the best deals and building a robust trading network. Employing these techniques systematically can turn a simple village into an economic powerhouse.

• Zombify and Cure Villagers for Permanent Discounts: This is arguably the most impactful tip for optimizing trades. When a villager is cured from its zombie state, it offers significantly reduced prices on all its trades permanently to the player who cured it. This discount is substantial and applies to every single trade the villager offers, forever. It's the cornerstone of obtaining those coveted one-emerald deals.

  • How it Works: Lure or trap a zombie near your villager. This is safest in a controlled environment, like a dedicated curing chamber – a simple 2x1 space can work, perhaps with a piston to push the zombie in and out, or a minecart system. Crucially, ensure the game difficulty is set to Hard, as zombies have a 100% chance to convert villagers on this setting. On Normal difficulty, there's only a 50% chance (the villager might just die), and on Easy, zombies cannot convert villagers at all, making Hard difficulty essential for reliable conversion. Once the villager transforms into a Zombie Villager, ensure it's safely contained (e.g., in a boat, minecart, or 1x1 hole) and protected from sunlight (use solid blocks for roofing) and other mobs. Throw a Splash Potion of Weakness directly at the Zombie Villager (aim carefully!), then right-click on it with a Golden Apple. The Zombie Villager will begin to shake and emit red particles. The curing process takes several minutes (3-5 minutes typically), during which it's vulnerable. Keep it safe! Once cured, it will remember your kindness with major discounts, often starting around 30-50% off the original price for the first cure.
  • Stacking Discounts: This effect can stack! Curing the same villager multiple times (up to five instances typically provide significant further reduction) can further reduce prices, sometimes down to a single emerald for valuable items like enchanted books (Mending for 1 emerald!) or diamond gear (a Diamond Chestplate for 1 emerald!). Each cure adds another layer of discount, though the benefit diminishes slightly with each repetition. The first cure gives the largest drop, subsequent cures provide smaller increments. Curing multiple villagers near each other (within about 16 blocks) can also sometimes provide minor additional discounts due to "gossiping," where cured villagers spread the word about your heroic deeds, slightly influencing their neighbors' prices.
  • Hero of the Village: Successfully defending a village from a raid grants the "Hero of the Village" status effect. While active, villagers in that village will offer temporary discounts on their trades as a thank you, indicated by particles around them and a special icon in the trading UI. This effect stacks with curing discounts, potentially leading to incredibly cheap trades (sometimes even free items if the discounts align perfectly, though rare) for a limited time (typically 30-40 minutes per raid level). This is particularly powerful for bulk-buying resources like glass or quartz.
  • Risks & Preparation: The process carries risks. The villager could be killed by the zombie before conversion (especially on Normal difficulty). The Zombie Villager is weak during curing and can be killed by sunlight, other mobs, or even player accidents. Ensure the area is completely secure (roofed, lit, enclosed) during the entire process. You'll need a steady supply of Weakness potions (requiring a Brewing Stand, Blaze Powder, Nether Wart, Spider Eye -> Fermented Spider Eye) and Golden Apples (requiring Gold Ingots - consider a gold farm - and Apples). Transporting villagers (boats, minecarts, water streams) and the initial zombie (leash, minecart, careful luring) also requires planning. Use name tags on zombie villagers if you need to leave the area during curing to prevent despawning.

• Choose the Right Villager Profession: Not all villagers are created equal! Each profession, determined by the workstation block they claim, offers a unique set of trades. To get specific items, you need villagers with the corresponding job.

  • Workstations & Professions: Key examples include: Lectern (Librarian), Composter (Farmer), Fletching Table (Fletcher), Blast Furnace (Armorer), Smithing Table (Toolsmith), Grindstone (Weaponsmith), Brewing Stand (Cleric), Stonecutter (Stonemason), Cartography Table (Cartographer), Loom (Shepherd), Barrel (Fisherman), Smoker (Butcher).
  • Rerolling Trades: Before you trade with a villager even once, you can change its profession and reset its initial trade offers by breaking its claimed workstation block and placing it down again (or placing a different workstation). The villager must be able to pathfind to the workstation. Repeat this process until the villager offers the desired trade in their first tier (e.g., a Mending book for a Librarian, or trading carrots/potatoes for emeralds with a Farmer). Once you trade with them, their profession and all current and future trades (up to Master level) are locked in permanently. Patience here is key to getting the exact trades you want without relying purely on luck with higher-level unlocks.
  • Target High-Value Professions:
    • Librarians: The undisputed kings for enchanted books. Can offer any treasure enchantment (Mending, Frost Walker, etc.) and many standard ones at level IV or V (Protection, Sharpness, Efficiency, Unbreaking). Also trade paper/bookshelves for emeralds and buy Ink Sacs. Essential for top-tier gear.
    • Farmers: Excellent for generating emeralds renewably. Buy wheat, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, and sell bread, pies, suspicious stew, or golden carrots. Easy to set up large-scale crop farms to fuel these trades.
    • Fletchers: Perhaps the easiest source of emeralds. They buy Sticks (32 for 1 emerald is standard before discounts) – easily farmed with huge tree farms. Also buy Flint, String, Feathers and sell Arrows, Bows, Crossbows.
    • Armorers/Toolsmiths/Weaponsmiths: Offer diamond gear (often enchanted, sometimes with curses!) at higher levels in exchange for emeralds. They also buy coal, iron, diamonds, and lava buckets. Essential for kitting yourself out if you dislike mining/enchanting lottery.
    • Clerics: Buy Rotten Flesh (great for mob farm output) and Gold Ingots. Sell Ender Pearls (crucial for End exploration), Redstone Dust, Lapis Lazuli, Glowstone, and Bottles o' Enchanting (a unique source of XP).
    • Stonemasons: Buy Clay, Stone, Granite, Diorite, Andesite. Sell Bricks, Quartz blocks, various polished stones, and Terracotta. Great for builders or those with access to large amounts of stone/clay.

• Manage Trade Locking and Refreshing: Villagers don't offer infinite trades immediately. Their trades lock after a certain number of uses and need to be refreshed.

  • Usage Limits: Each trade has a limited number of uses (typically 2-16, visible as a red 'X' when depleted) before it locks.
  • Refreshing Mechanism: Villagers need to work at their claimed workstation to refresh their trades. They attempt to do this twice during the Minecraft day (once in the morning, once mid-day). Critically, the villager must be able to pathfind to their workstation block. If they are trapped in a cell without access, their trades will never refresh.
  • Trading Hall Design Implications: This means your trading hall design must allow each villager to physically reach its workstation block from its holding cell. Common solutions involve placing the workstation directly in front of the villager's 1x1 cell, inside the cell, or using mechanisms like pistons to temporarily give access. Ensure the villager is linked to the correct workstation (green particles will appear when placed).

• Optimize Your Emerald Income: Trading is a two-way street. You need a reliable source of emeralds to buy the good stuff. Focus on renewable resources.

  • Prioritize Renewable Loops: The best emerald farms leverage resources you can produce infinitely or nearly infinitely.
  • Top Renewable Sources:
    • Sticks (Fletcher): Requires only wood. Giant Spruce or Dark Oak farms provide vast amounts quickly. Minimal setup beyond tree farming.
    • Crops (Farmer): Carrots and Potatoes are generally best as they drop multiple items per harvest. Requires automated or semi-automated farms, but highly scalable. Pumpkin and Melon farms are also viable farmer trades.
    • Iron (Armorer/Toolsmith/Weaponsmith): If you build an efficient iron farm, selling iron ingots becomes a very lucrative emerald source.
    • Paper/Bookshelves (Librarian): Requires Sugarcane farms (for paper) and Wood (for bookshelves). Can be very effective, especially automated sugarcane farms.
    • Rotten Flesh (Cleric): Excellent synergy with general mob farms (spawner-based or large dark rooms). Turns a common nuisance item into valuable currency.
    • Stone/Clay (Stonemason): While stone is technically infinite with cobblestone generators, mass excavation or specialized farms (like renewable clay farms using mud and pointed dripstone) are needed for efficiency. Good for early game or specific setups.
  • Diversify: Relying on just one trade can be risky if Mojang adjusts trade values. Setting up multiple types of villagers (e.g., Fletchers for bulk emeralds, Librarians for books, Armorers for gear) provides resilience and flexibility.

• Establish a Villager Breeder: To populate a large trading hall without the immense hassle of transporting villagers across potentially thousands of blocks, setting up a villager breeder is essential.

  • Breeding Basics: Villagers need three things to breed: available beds (more beds than current villagers, with 2 blocks of air space above them), sufficient food (12+ carrots, potatoes, or beetroots, or 3 bread per villager in their inventory), and 'willingness' (often triggered by trading with them, or by farmers sharing food).
  • Simple Breeder Design: A common automatic design involves containing 2-4 villagers in a central area with beds just outside their reach. A farmer villager is placed on a plot of farmland (e.g., 9x9 carrots/potatoes) with a composter. The farmer harvests crops and throws excess food to the other villagers, triggering breeding. Baby villagers are typically channeled using water streams or trapdoor setups into a separate holding area or directly into your trading hall transport system. Ensure the breeder is well-lit and protected from mobs.

• Design an Efficient Trading Hall: A well-organized trading hall makes managing dozens of villagers much easier for trading, rerolling professions, and curing.

  • Core Principles: Keep villagers confined, separated, safe, and easily accessible for both trading and curing. Prevent them from pathfinding away or claiming the wrong workstations.
  • Individual Cells: The most common approach uses 1x1 cells (usually 2 blocks high) for each villager. This prevents movement and makes targeting specific villagers simple.
  • Workstation Access: Ensure each cell design allows the villager inside to access its specific workstation block placed nearby (often directly in front of the cell opening).
  • Zombie Curing Access: Plan how you will get a zombie to each cell for the curing process. This might involve a rail line running behind or under the cells with designated "zombie stations," temporary openings you can block off, or a system to move the villager to a dedicated curing chamber and back.
  • Scalability & Organization: Build with expansion in mind. Label your cells (e.g., with signs indicating the villager's key trades) for easy identification. Group similar villagers (all Librarians together, all Farmers together) for efficiency.