Best Minecraft Villager Trades Worth Unlocking

Villager Trading Basics

Villager trading is one of the most powerful mechanics in Minecraft. A well-set-up trading hall can supply you with unlimited enchanted books, diamond tools, emeralds and rare items, all for renewable resources like wheat, sticks and coal. The key is understanding which professions offer the best trades, how to lock in good offers and how to reduce prices through zombie villager curing.

Every villager has a profession determined by the job site block they claim. They start at Novice level and advance through Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master as you trade with them. Higher levels unlock better trades. Importantly, you can break and replace a villager's job site block to reroll their Novice-level trades as many times as needed, but only before you trade with them for the first time.

Librarian, The Best Profession

Librarians are the single most valuable villager profession because their trades include every enchanted book in the game. At the Novice level, a librarian offers one random enchanted book trade. If you do not get the book you want, break the lectern and place it again to reroll.

Target these books first:

• Mending, The most important enchanted book in the game. A Mending librarian is worth protecting with a nameplate and enclosure.
• Efficiency V, High-level enchanting tables rarely produce Efficiency V directly. Getting it from a librarian is more reliable.
• Sharpness V, Same logic as Efficiency V. Book combining on an anvil is the only other way to reach level V.
• Protection IV, You need four of these for a full armor set. A Protection IV librarian saves enormous amounts of XP.
• Fortune III, Silk Touch, Looting III, All essential enchantments that are easier to acquire through trading than through the enchanting table RNG.
• Swift Sneak III, Only obtainable from ancient city loot, not from librarians. This is the one enchantment you cannot get through trading.

After curing a librarian from a zombie villager state five times, enchanted book trades can cost as little as 1 emerald per book. At that price, you can fully enchant every piece of gear in your inventory for a handful of emeralds.

Farmer, The Emerald Factory

Farmers buy crops and sell food. Their Novice trades accept wheat, potatoes, carrots and beetroot for emeralds. With large automatic crop farms, you can feed a farmer villager hundreds of items and extract emeralds at scale.

Key trades:

• Wheat (20) for 1 emerald, Wheat farms are trivially easy to automate.
• Potato (26) for 1 emerald, Slightly less efficient than wheat but still profitable.
• Carrot (22) for 1 emerald, Same category as potatoes.
• Pumpkin (6) for 1 emerald, Pumpkins are the best crop to sell because automatic pumpkin farms produce them continuously without replanting. Six pumpkins per emerald is an excellent rate.
• Melon Slice (4) for 1 emerald, At the Journeyman level. Melon farms are similarly easy to automate.
• Golden Carrot (3 for 3 emeralds), At the Master level, farmers sell golden carrots. This is the easiest way to obtain the best food item in the game.

After curing, farmers often accept just 1 pumpkin for 1 emerald, making a pumpkin farm an almost absurd emerald generator.

Weaponsmith, Diamond Gear on Demand

Weaponsmiths sell diamond axes and diamond swords at the Master level. While the enchantments on traded gear are random, the ability to buy diamond weapons for emeralds instead of mining diamonds is extremely valuable. Their earlier trades buy coal and iron, both of which are plentiful from mob farms and iron farms.

• Novice: buys coal (15 for 1 emerald)
• Apprentice: buys iron ingots (4 for 1 emerald)
• Master: sells enchanted diamond sword and enchanted diamond axe

Armorer, Full Diamond Protection

Armorers sell enchanted diamond armor at the Expert and Master levels. Combined with a librarian for specific enchanted books and an anvil, you can build a full max-enchanted diamond set entirely through villager trades. Armorers also buy coal, iron and lava buckets (the lava bucket trade at Journeyman level is particularly useful for nether farms).

Fletcher, Sticks for Emeralds

The fletcher's Novice trade of 32 sticks for 1 emerald is one of the easiest emerald sources in the game. Sticks come from two planks, and planks come from any wood. A tree farm produces an essentially infinite supply of sticks. After zombie villager curing, the trade can drop to as low as 1 stick per emerald, which is borderline broken in terms of economy.

Fletchers also sell arrows, tipped arrows and bows at higher levels, making them a decent source of ammunition.

Cleric, Rare Item Access

Clerics buy rotten flesh (a nearly worthless mob drop) and sell useful items like redstone dust, lapis lazuli, glowstone and ender pearls. The ender pearl trade at the Expert level is especially valuable early in the game before you have access to an enderman farm. They also sell bottles o' enchanting, which provide small amounts of XP.

Cartographer, Explorer Maps

Cartographers sell ocean explorer maps and woodland explorer maps, which lead to ocean monuments and woodland mansions respectively. These are one-time-use trades but can be valuable for locating structures you have not yet found. Cartographers also sell item frames and banner patterns.

Optimal Trading Hall Layout

• One librarian per enchanted book you need (5 to 10 librarians for a full enchanting setup)
• Two to three farmers for emerald production
• One fletcher for stick-to-emerald conversion
• One weaponsmith and one armorer for gear
• One cleric for ender pearls and rotten flesh disposal

Cure every villager at least five times for maximum discounts. Enclose each villager with their job site block and a bed so they cannot wander or lose their profession.

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