Minecraft villager trading calculator and trade optimizer

How villager trading works in Minecraft

Villagers are some of the most important NPCs in Minecraft. Every villager with a profession offers its own set of trades that let you swap resources for emeralds and the other way around. To start trading, just right-click the villager and the trade window opens with the available offers.

Trading is one of the most powerful systems in the game. It gets you items you can't craft on a crafting table (such as the Mending enchantment), lets you buy diamond gear with emeralds instead of mining diamonds, and gives you a renewable source of ender pearls, which you need to reach the End.

Trading gets even better when you pair it with automatic farms. A carrot or potato farm combined with a Farmer is a practically endless source of emeralds, and you can spend those emeralds with any other villager on diamond tools, armor or enchanted books.

The 13 villager professions

A villager can take one of 13 different professions in Minecraft. Each profession is tied to a specific workstation. When you place a workstation next to a villager without a profession, the villager automatically takes the matching profession and starts offering trades. Here is the full list:

1. Farmer (Composter): food, buys crops
2. Fisherman (Barrel): fish, fishing rods, buckets of fish
3. Shepherd (Loom): wool, dyes, paintings
4. Fletcher (Fletching table): bows, crossbows, arrows
5. Cleric (Brewing stand): ender pearls, bottles o' enchanting, brewing materials
6. Armorer (Blast furnace): iron, chainmail and diamond armor
7. Toolsmith (Smithing table): pickaxe, axe, shovel, hoe
8. Weaponsmith (Grindstone): swords, axes
9. Cartographer (Cartography table): explorer maps
10. Librarian (Lectern): enchanted books, lanterns, glass
11. Leatherworker (Cauldron): leather armor, saddles
12. Butcher (Smoker): raw and cooked meat
13. Mason (Stonecutter): decorative blocks, terracotta, quartz

There is also the Nitwit, a villager in a green robe who never takes a profession and doesn't trade. Nitwits have no practical use beyond decorating a village.

Villager levels (5 levels)

Every villager starts as a Novice (level 1) and can rank up to Master (level 5). A villager levels up once it has earned enough XP from trades and is standing at its workstation. Higher levels unlock better, rarer trades.

• Novice (0 XP): 2 starting trades, basic offers
• Apprentice (10 XP): new trades, slightly better offers
• Journeyman (70 XP): specialized trades, access to rarer materials
• Expert (150 XP): diamond items, valuable materials
• Master (250 XP): the best trades, unique items

A villager earns XP from every trade. The amount depends on the trade, and more expensive trades usually give more XP. To level up, the villager needs access to its workstation. The level-up usually happens right after the required XP is reached, as long as the workstation is in range.

Resetting a villager's profession to get the trades you want

One of the most important techniques in the game is resetting a Librarian's trades to get a specific enchantment (such as Mending) at the very first level. Here is how:

1. Place a lectern next to a villager without a profession and it becomes a Librarian
2. Check which enchantment it offers at the first level
3. If it's not the enchantment you want, break the lectern
4. The villager loses its profession (it goes back to the brown robe)
5. Place the lectern again and the villager takes the profession again, with new random trades
6. Repeat until the enchantment you want shows up

Note: Resetting only works if you haven't traded with the villager even once. After the first trade the profession is locked in for good, and even breaking the workstation won't change its offers. That is why you should check the trades before the first one.

Zombie villagers: curing and discounts

One of the most effective ways to bring prices down is to cure a zombie villager. When a zombie kills a villager on Normal difficulty (50% chance) or Hard (always), the villager turns into a zombie villager. You can cure it by throwing a splash potion of Weakness at it and feeding it a golden apple.

Once cured, the villager permanently lowers prices for the player who cured it, provided it had a profession before it turned into a zombie. The size of the discount depends on the offer, and for many trades the price drops as low as 1 emerald. Only the first cure counts: since Java 1.20.2 and Bedrock 1.20.30, further cures of the same villager no longer lower prices.

How to cure a zombie villager

1. Pick a villager that already has a profession, because only those give a discount once cured
2. Let a zombie infect it (on Hard this always works, on Normal about half the time)
3. Throw a splash potion of Weakness at the zombie villager
4. Feed it a regular golden apple (an enchanted one doesn't work)
5. Wait 3-5 minutes for the cure to finish

Tip: You only need to cure each villager once. Further infections and cures don't give an extra discount. In Bedrock Edition, villagers within 16 blocks of the cured one also get a smaller discount.

Hero of the Village effect: an extra discount

After you defend a village from a raid, you get the Hero of the Village effect for 40 minutes (game time). During that time, all villager prices are reduced by about 30% (depending on the effect level). Importantly, this effect stacks with the discount from curing a zombie villager, so with a cured villager and Hero of the Village active, many prices drop to the minimum of 1 emerald.

The calculator accounts for both kinds of discounts at once. Turn on both controls in the discount section to see the final prices after the double reduction.

Must-have villagers

1. Librarian: an absolute must-have. It is the only villager that sells enchanted books, including Mending, which repairs your items with XP. Without Mending you have to craft new tools every so often. With Mending, one tool lasts the whole game.
2. Farmer: the easiest source of emeralds. Build an automatic carrot or potato farm and sell the crops. A single Farmer can handle hundreds of emeralds a day.
3. Armorer: diamond armor for emeralds, no diamond mining needed. At Expert and Master levels it sells enchanted diamond armor pieces.
4. Toolsmith: the same idea as the Armorer, but for tools. An enchanted diamond pickaxe at Master level saves a huge amount of time.
5. Cleric: at Expert level it can sell ender pearls, so you don't have to hunt Endermen. You need them for eyes of ender, which lead you to the stronghold and the End portal. At Master level it also sells bottles o' enchanting.

Building an optimal trading hall

To get the most out of trading, build a dedicated trading hall. Here is a layout that works:

1. Build an enclosed corridor with 1x1 cells for the villagers (a bed plus a workstation in each)
2. Put the Farmers next to an automatic carrot/potato farm
3. Add a Librarian with Mending at the first level
4. Add an Armorer and a Toolsmith for diamond gear
5. Add a Cleric for ender pearls
6. Protect the village from zombies (lighting, fencing)

The key rule: a villager needs access to its workstation (it can just stand next to it) and a bed (it can sleep in it) to restock its trades and level up. Trades restock twice a day (morning and evening of the game day) while the villager is at its workstation.

Advanced tips for getting the most out of trading

Demand and supply: dynamic prices

Prices in Minecraft Java Edition change dynamically. If you keep buying the same item, its price goes up (the demand mechanic). If you stop buying it for a while, the price returns to normal. That is why it is worth trading with several villagers of the same profession instead of wearing out a single one.

Nitwit vs. unemployed villager

A Nitwit (green robe) never takes a profession, no matter which workstations are nearby. An unemployed villager (brown robe) takes a profession when it ends up next to a free workstation. Don't mix the two up: Nitwits can't be “fixed”.

How to use the optimizer

The calculator has four views. Browse professions lets you pick a profession and see all of its trades across the 5 levels. Search item searches every trade for a specific item: type something like “Diamond”, “Ender pearl” or “Bread” and see who sells it cheapest. Best trades shows a ranking of the most profitable trades. Efficiency is the full ranking of emerald earners across all professions.

Frequently asked questions