Minecraft villagers trading guide: Leveling, best prices, more

❘ Updated: 2022-11-28T23:31:07

Minecraft

Trading with villagers in Minecraft is not only a great way to earn experience and emeralds, it can also unlock some items that are otherwise unobtainable.

Finding a village in Minecraft is often a godsend to players who are lacking in diamonds, enchantments, or other key supplies. Rather than foraging throughout the world to get necessary materials to build a powerful bow, you can simply trade for them instead.

But it’s important to know not only that you can trade with villagers, but also how to properly optimize those trades to get the best items and prices.

Here is everything you need to know about trading with villagers in Minecraft.

How to get the best possible trades with Minecraft villagers
How to change a villager’s trades in Minecraft
Why are some trades unavailable with a villager?
How long does it take for a villager’s trades to restock?
How to get the most Emeralds in trades with Minecraft villagers

How to get the best possible trades with Minecraft villagers

With each trade, not only do you gain experience but the villager does as well.

In order to get a Minecraft villager’s best trades, you will have to level up your relationship with them. Each time you trade with a villager, you will both gain a small amount of experience.

Gain enough experience via trades, and your villager will level up. Leveling up unlocks new trades for better items, which means it’s to your advantage to trade with as many villagers as you can.

For the villager, this increase is indicated by the filling status bar in the trade menu.

The five villager levels are:

Novice
Apprentice
Journeyman
Expert
Master

The Master level unlocks the villager’s best trades, which often include items that are unobtainable by other means.

How to change a villager’s trades in Minecraft

You can change a villager’s first trades by destroying their job block and then placing it back down near them.

Similar to how you would change a villager’s profession, breaking and replacing the villager’s job block also changes their first trades.

Unfortunately, you won’t know which trades they will offer at higher levels, so you won’t know what enchanted equipment will be available for trade, but you can at least influence the first few trades.

Why are some trades unavailable with a villager?

Make enough trades with one villager and that trade will be blocked.

If you offer the same trade to the same villager enough times, you will see a red X appear on the trade indicating that this trade has been temporarily blocked.

This is because villagers only have a limited amount of inventory at any one time, so they can only complete the same trade a certain number of times.

Villagers will have the opportunity to restock their inventory once per day, so the trade will not be blocked permanently, but you may need to wait.

How long does it take for a villager’s trades to restock?

Villagers who are connected to a nearby bed will restock their inventory every 10 minutes of gameplay. If they have not restocked in the last 10 minutes, though, the villagers will instantly restock the first time their inventory of a good runs out.

If you notice that your villager is not restocking their inventory, it is probably because they do not have a nearby bed that they are linked to. Until the villager finds an available bed, they will be unable to restock their goods and make more trades.

How to get the most Emeralds in trades with Minecraft villagers

There are two ways that players can improve a villager’s prices: get the Hero of the Village effect or trade with a cured zombie villager. Doing so will let you trade materials for tons more Emeralds than normal, or get high-quality enchanted armor for just a few Emeralds.

In addition to leveling up by trading, a villager’s trading prices will drop if the player has the Hero of the Village effect, which not only makes villagers shower you with gifts but also improves the prices for trades. You can get the Hero of the Village effect by defending a village from a Pillager raid.

Finally, if you cure a zombie villager, that villager will permanently offer you reduced prices. Doing so will also cause nearby villagers to offer a smaller, temporary discount on their trades.