Summary

  • Efficiently trade with villagers for items using Emeralds instead of mining or exploring.
  • Villagers have different trades based on job types, offering items like Enchanted Books or rare maps.
  • Restock villagers by interacting with job blocks to improve prices and availability of trades.

Minecraft is all about gathering items and the right tools to go from simple survival to thriving in its sandbox world. While players can take the hard route and simply try and discover all the rare and useful items in the wild, a more efficient method is to simply trade for the items they need by interacting with villagers.

Villagers come with different jobs, which means that they have different trades. There are two types of trades for players to be aware of: Emerald trades, which allow players to get Emeralds easily without having to mine for them in mountain biomes, and "loot" trades, which let players use Emeralds and other items to buy various precious objects from the villagers. This can include Enchanted Books or maps to Woodland Mansions. With that clarified, let's take a look at the best Minecraft villager trades.

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Updated on September 11, 2024, by Ben Painter: Minecraft is always popular among fans, old and young. Gamers can create whatever they want in the game and play it exactly the way that they feel. This is why it is still one of the most-played games 13 years after its release. A great way to build up a Minecraft world is to trade with villagers. They have some great items for sale for the cost of Emeralds, the game's currency. Likewise, the best way to get Emeralds is to trade with villagers using some items that players may have lots of. This update adds two more of the best villager trades in Minecraft.

Most trades can only be made a set number of times before the villager runs out of stock. The villager will restock a maximum of twice a day by interacting with their job block, so make sure they can access their job block at all times. The more a player trades, the better the prices will also be, so players might notice that the trade prices listed here will change over time when villagers take a liking to the player.

30 7 Raw Porkchop For 1 Emerald

Butcher

Butcher Villager In Minecraft
  • Level Required: Novice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Kill Pigs

Having lots of pigs in Minecraft is easy. Breeding two pigs with carrots, potatoes or beetroots will produce a baby and this can be done until there are too many pigs to know what to do with. Killing a pig will drop up to three raw porkchops and this item can then be traded to the Butcher, who will offer a price of 1 emerald for 7 porckhops.

As this is a novice trade it will be available from the start and the other versions of this begging trade (14 raw chicken for 1 Emerald and 6 raw rabbit for 1 emerald) aren't as good of a trade as this one as there are more chicken required and rabbits aren't as common as pigs in the game.

29 12 Emeralds and 1 Compass For Trial Explorer Map

Cartographer

Cartographer Villager In Minecraft
  • Level Required: Journeyman
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Trade From Other Villagers (Emeralds), Craft From 4 Iron & 1 Redstone (Compass)

A brand-new kind of structure for Minecraft, launched in 1.21, is the Trial Chambers. A combat challenge arena where players battle their way through various mobs and are rewarded handsomely with emeralds, enchanted items, smithing templates, and so on.

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But these new structures, buried deep underground, are hard to find, so a simple way to locate one is to trade the map with a villager. For the very reasonable cost of 12 emeralds and 1 compass, players can gain the location of a trial chamber. Emeralds can be achieved easily by trading with villagers and a compass is crafted with iron and redstone, items which players should have plenty of. Gamers need to level up their cartographer to Jounrneyman to unlock this trade, which is the third tier out of five.

28 5 Emeralds For 1 Cherry Sapling

Wandering Trader

Wandering Trader In Minecraft

  • Level Required: N/A
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Trade From Villagers

The cherry sapling and its tree were introduced in Minecraft 1.20 as a new tree, but finding one inside a world can cause some issues. The cherry tree is found exclusively in the Cherry Grove biome, which is a rare find in mountainous regions of the game.

This is where the Wandering Trader comes in, as gamers can pay just 5 Emeralds to get their own cherry trees. This trade only needs to be done once, as the grown tree will produce its own saplings to grow further trees. For some players, this trade will be unnecessary if they are lucky enough to spawn near the biome, but nine times out of ten, this trade will be a winner.

27 5 Emeralds 1 Mangrove Propagule

Wandering Trader

Minecraft Wandering Trader Trails Tales

  • Level Required: N/A
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Trade From Villagers

In a similar vein to the cherry tree, the mangrove propagule and its mangrove tree can be a difficult find, only available in the illusive Swamp biome. Players can spend hours traversing through a Minecraft world and not encounter one of these biomes.

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For the price of 5 Emeralds, gamers can get their hands on this seed, known as a mangrove propagule, to grow their own mangrove trees. This tree is unique, as it doesn't produce much wood, but it does generate mangrove roots, which are a very useful decoration block for Minecraft builds.

26 8 Emeralds For Globe Banner Pattern

Cartographer

Minecraft Cartographer

  • Level Required: Master
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Trade From Villagers

Adding detail to a world is very important. It adds to the overall look of the world and allows for a much more immersive experience. Adding banners, from various designs, is a good way to add some detail. There are eight banner patterns in the game, and most can be crafted, but the Globe Banner Pattern has to be traded for from a Cartographer villager.

Sadly, this one is locked behind the Master trade, the highest level, so players will need to put in some trading work in order to unlock this banner pattern, but it's worth it. In a loom, it will add a globe to the banner, which will add some detail to museum or study builds.

25 4 Books For 1 Emerald

Librarian

Librarian Villager In Minecraft
  • Level Required: Apprentice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Cows (Leather), Sugarcane (Paper)

The librarian villager is perhaps the most useful villager to have in the game as they offer a wide variety of useful trades to help make the game easier. Once the player has an enchanting table and full enchanted armor there isn't much use for books otherwise.

So, what gamers can do is trade them to the librarian to get some emeralds, books are easy to obtain, and bookcases spawn in certain structures. But they can also easily be crafted by killing some cows (easily bred for leather) and creating paper from sugarcane (easily farmed).

24 32 Rotten Flesh For 1 Emerald

Cleric

Cleric Villager In Minecraft
  • Level Required: Novice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Easiest Way To Obtain: Killing Zombie

Rotten flesh is a pretty useless item in Minecraft, at a pinch it is a food source, but it causes the hunger effect. However, it can be fed to wolves without any additional effects. But, this is not really useful, so, the main thing that can be done with the item is to trade it to the Cleric to receive an Emerald.

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It will cost 32 rotten flesh for 1 emerald, but considering how easy the item is to obtain, this should be a walk in the park. Gamers can spend one night killing zombies to receive a lot of rotten flesh or make a mob farm that can automatically kill zombies and collect the item. If done right, players will be rich in rotten flesh.

23 10 Clay For 1 Emerald

Mason

Minecraft Mason In Front Of House
  • Level Required: Novice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Find In Rivers

This starter-level trade with a Mason (grindstone required) is one of the easiest trades for players to make to quickly get some Emeralds. All players need is a shovel and a body of water, such as a river or a shallow pond nearby, to gather some clay. Swamp biomes are ideal for this.

Clay typically spawns underwater and is most common in shallower pools of water rather than oceans. It can be hard to distinguish from water when looking at it from the surface, but it breaks quickly when shoveled, even with a stone shovel. Due to how easily it can be acquired, it's likely one of the go-to trade items for starting players, provided the village does have a Mason.

22 6 Leather For 1 Emerald

Leatherworker

Leatherworker Villager In Minecraft
  • Level Required: Novice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Kill Cows

Leather is a fairly useful item, it can be used to craft: armor, item frames, horse armor, and books. Once gamers get past a certain stage in the game leather becomes obsolete. Considering how easy it is to farm, breed cows, and slaughter them, excess leather should be traded to receive some Emeralds and also XP.

Using the looting enchantment on the sword will reward the player with more leather from one cow, making this trade easier to obtain the item required.

21 26 Flint For 1 Emerald

Fletcher & Leatherworker

Minecraft Fletcher
  • Level Required: Apprentice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Mining Gravel

Both the Fletcher and Leatherworker villagers have a decent level 2 trade, which requires 26 Flint in exchange for one Emerald. Now, this definitely isn't the easiest trade to go for, especially for players who have just started their survival world. However, players who have been in survival for a while might have quite an excess of Flint in their storage.

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Otherwise, players can go shovel some gravel for quick and easy Flint. Each gravel block has a chance of dropping Flint, and if the shovel used comes with a Fortune enchantment, that chance is further increased.

20 10 Sweet Berries For 1 Emerald

Butcher

Minecraft Butcher
  • Level Required: Master
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Harvest From A Sweet Berry Bush

It's unfortunate that this trade is at the highest level for the Butcher because it's incredibly good for players who spawn in a taiga biome where Sweet Berry bushes can be found in abundance in the wild. Sweet Berry bushes grow quite fast, so players can set up a farm quickly once they get their hands on some Sweet Berries.

For only 10 Sweet Berries, players can get 1 Emerald. It's definitely a more niche trade since it requires a biome-specific item, but given how often players have the chance of spawning in a taiga, it's not impossible. The only downside is the high level of this trade, as leveling up a butcher requires players to trade in a ton of raw food that they would otherwise use to feed themselves once cooked.

19 4 Pufferfish For 1 Emerald

Fisherman

Minecraft Fisherman Next To Barrel
  • Level Required: Master
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Fishing

Another great Master-level trade sadly locked behind a ton of level grinding is 4 Pufferfish for 1 Emerald at the Fisherman villager. Pufferfish are fairly common to catch in just about any body of water that can yield fish, so by default, this is an excellent trade for players who regularly fish in Minecraft.

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That said, good luck leveling the Fisherman up to this level. While it's definitely doable, players will need to sacrifice some food resources like edible fish to actually get there.

18 3 Gold For 1 Emerald

Cleric

Minecraft Cleric
  • Level Required: Apprentice
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Mining In The Nether

Clerics appear in villages where a brewing stand is available. Most of their trades aren't all that interesting, and players will typically be using Clerics to trade for Emeralds, which are some of the most important trades in the game.

Clerics have an interesting trade for one Emerald, which only requires 3 Gold from the player. Considering that players can pretty easily farm Gold from the Nether and that aside from Piglin trades, Gold doesn't have a big utility in Minecraft, this is a decent trade to make when trying to farm Emeralds.

17 12 Nether Quartz For 1 Emerald

Mason

Minecraft Mason
  • Level Required: Expert
  • Easiest Way To Obtain: Mining In The Nether

The Mason will appear in any village that has a stonecutter. Masons are fantastic villagers to trade with for those who are looking for special blocks, but most of their trades are actually better off ignored in favor of this single Emerald trade.

Masons will trade 12 Nether Quartz for 1 Emerald. If players are lucky and get