If you play Survival, you know emeralds mean power. Villager trades are the fastest way to stack emeralds and gear up without endless grinding. Minecraft 1.21 keeps trading simple, but some professions give better deals than others. Let’s break down all villager trades and the best ones to use.
How Villager Trades Work in Minecraft
Villager trading lets you swap items with NPC villagers for goods. All trades use emeralds as currency. You give villagers items they want and get items in return. For example, a farmer villager might trade emeralds for your excess wheat.
These trades are mainly used in Survival mode, but they work in all editions (Java and Bedrock) the same way. Each villager has a job (profession) that decides what items they buy or sell. Professions range from farmers to librarians, and each offers unique trade items.
Villagers have five trade levels: novice up to master. Trading with a villager earns experience for them and unlocks new trades as they level up. A novice starts with a few trades. As you trade, they gain experience and offer more deals. Villagers restock their trades up to two times daily.
This means if a trade runs out, the villager can refresh it twice a Minecraft day after working at their job block. However, each trade only works a limited number of times before locking. You will see a red “X” in the trade menu when a villager runs out of stock. You must wait for restock to trade that item again.
Keeping villagers happy is important for good deals. Hero of the Village is a status effect you get after defending a village raid. It makes trades cheaper for a while. Likewise, curing a zombie villager (turning it back into a normal villager) gives permanent discounts on trades.
Experienced players often use these tricks to save lots of emeralds. Seasoned Minecraft players also build trading halls – secure places to keep many villagers for easy trading. This way, you can access all the best trades in one spot without villagers wandering off.
Villager Trades in Minecraft 1.21 Update
Minecraft’s 1.21 update (the “Trials” update) introduced new content but kept trading mechanics familiar. The core villager trades in 1.21 remain similar to previous versions.
You still trade emeralds for items and vice versa, and no major overhaul happened to how villagers work. Minecraft villager trades 1.21 did get some new trade items, though. Notably, cartographer villagers can now offer a Trial Chambers explorer map, which leads you to the new Trial Chambers structure.
This Trial Explorer Map trade appears when a cartographer reaches the Journeyman level. It costs 12 emeralds and a compass. With it, you can find the tricky Trial Chambers introduced in 1.21. Aside from that, most villager trading rules stayed the same in the update.
Mojang has considered trade rebalances in recent snapshots (experimental versions). In one test, librarian villagers got biome-specific enchantments. However, in Minecraft 1.21’s current release, those changes are not in effect. Villager trades 1.21 are stable and work just as they did in 1.20.
This is good news for players; your trading farms and techniques from earlier versions will still work. Both Java and Bedrock Edition players can enjoy the same trading features in 1.21. No matter your platform, you can take advantage of villager trades to gear up and gather resources quickly.
All Villager Trades and Professions
There are 13 villager professions that offer trades in Minecraft 1.21. Each profession has a unique trading inventory and a job block that assigns the profession. Below is a list of all villager trades by profession (in both Java and Bedrock Editions).
This gives an overview of what each villager can buy or sell:
- Armorer: Buys coal and lava buckets. Sells armor pieces, even enchanted diamond armor at higher levels.
- Butcher: Buys raw meats like pork or beef. Sells cooked meat and stew for easy food.
- Cartographer: Buys paper, glass panes, and compasses. Sells maps (woodland mansion, ocean monument, Trial Chambers map in 1.21) and banners.
- Cleric: Buys rotten flesh, gold ingots, and other curiosities. Sells magical items like ender pearls, bottles o’ enchanting, and glowstone.
- Farmer: Buys crops such as wheat, carrots, potatoes, pumpkins, and melons. Sells food items like bread, golden carrots, and cakes.
- Fisherman: Buys fish, coal, and string. Sells fish (cooked), campfires, and even an enchanted fishing rod.
- Fletcher: Buys sticks, flint, and string. Sells arrows, bows (sometimes enchanted), and crossbows. This villager is great for obtaining bows and trading excess sticks.
- Leatherworker: Buys hides (leather, rabbit hide) and scutes. Sells leather armor and saddles for your horses.
- Librarian: Buys paper, books, and ink sacs. Sells bookshelves, name tags, compasses, and enchanted books (including rare ones like Mending).
- Mason (Stone Mason): Buys clay, stone, and ores like quartz. Sells bricks, terracotta, and quartz blocks and it is great for builders.
- Shepherd: Buys wool and dyes of various colors. Sells colored wool, beds, banners, and paintings for decoration.
- Toolsmith: Buys coal, iron, flint, and diamonds. Sells tools including pickaxes, axes, and shovels, with enchanted diamond tools at master level.
- Weaponsmith: Buys coal, iron, and diamonds. Sells weapons like swords and axes, up to enchanted diamond versions.
Note:
The Wandering Trader is a special merchant that roams the world. It is not a villager but offers trades too. Wandering traders randomly spawn and sell various items (tropical saplings, dyes, rare materials) for emeralds. They do not buy items from the player. Keep an eye out for them if you need something uncommon, like a specific sapling or coral block, in remote areas.
Best Villager Trades for Emeralds
Emeralds are the currency for all trades, so getting emeralds easily is key. Several villager trades stand out as excellent sources of emeralds for players. Here are some of the best villager trades for emeralds that Minecraft players use:
- Sticks for Emeralds (Fletcher): A Fletcher often trades 32 sticks for 1 emerald. Wood is easy to gather, making this a quick emerald farm.
- Melons/Pumpkins for Emeralds (Farmer): Farmers trade emeralds for surplus crops. Pumpkins and melons can be farmed in large quantities, and around 4 melons yield 1 emerald – a profitable deal.
- Clay for Emeralds (Mason): Masons will trade 10 clay balls for 1 emerald. Clay is common in rivers, so this trade can quickly stockpile emeralds if you dig up clay or have a clay farm.
- Rotten Flesh for Emeralds (Cleric): Clerics buy rotten flesh, usually 32 pieces for 1 emerald. If you have a zombie mob farm or lots of rotten flesh from adventuring, this trade turns junk into gems.
- String for Emeralds (Fisherman/Fletcher): Fisherman villagers often trade string for emeralds, and fletchers may as well. String from spider farms can be converted into emeralds easily. Experienced players with mob farms take advantage of this.
All these trades are renewable and scalable. Experienced Minecraft players set up automatic farms for things like pumpkins or giant tree farms for wood. This provides a steady supply of goods to trade. By focusing on the trades above, you can get a large amount of emeralds in a short time. Emeralds then allow you to buy valuable items from other villagers, creating a beneficial cycle. These are truly some of the Minecraft best villager trades for anyone looking to build wealth and resources in the game.
Best Librarian Villager Trades
Librarians are often considered the most valuable villagers. They trade enchanted books, which can drastically improve your gear. The best librarian villager trades usually involve high-level enchantments that are otherwise rare or time-consuming to obtain.
A prime example is the Mending book trade. Mending is a treasure enchantment that lets your tools and armor repair themselves with experience orbs. Getting a Mending book from a librarian can save you from ever losing your favorite pickaxe or sword.
Top Enchanted Book Trades from Librarians
Other top-tier enchanted book trades include Unbreaking III (to make items last longer), Protection IV (for maximum armor defense), Efficiency V (to mine faster), and Fortune III (to get more drops from ores).
How to Reset Librarian Trades
You can obtain these enchants by trading with librarians that offer them. However, each librarian’s enchanted book is random when they first get their job. To get the book you want, you can use an expert trick: reset the librarian’s trades until the desired book appears. Place a Lectern to assign a job to an unemployed villager and check their first trade.
If it’s not the book you need, break the Lectern to remove their job and then place it again. The villager will become a librarian again with a new trade offer. Repeat this until, for example, the librarian offers a Mending book. Make sure to lock in the trade by buying the book once it appears, or the villager might change trades again.
Extra Deals from Librarians
Librarians also sell Name Tags at expert level, which is a notable trade because name tags cannot be crafted in survival. This is a reliable way to get name tags for your pets or mobs.
Additionally, librarians buy paper (usually 24 paper for 1 emerald) which can help you convert sugar cane farms into emeralds. Many seasoned players prioritize setting up a librarian trading station early on. This gives access to vital enchantments that can set you up for late-game success. With the right librarian trades, you can acquire end-game enchanted gear without relying on random enchanting table luck.
Conclusion
Villager trading is a powerful feature that rewards knowledge and strategy. We covered all villager trades in Minecraft 1.21, from the basics to the best deals available. Best villager trades Minecraft players should know include easy emerald sources and rare enchanted books.
By utilizing farmers, fletchers, masons, librarians, and more, you can obtain almost everything you need in the game. Remember to protect your villagers from zombies and keep them accessible (fences or trading hall setups help).
In Minecraft villager trades 1.21, nothing beats the feeling of turning a few common items into valuable loot. Master these trades, and you’ll be equipped like a pro in no time, all while saving hours of resource grinding.
Happy trading!
