How Villagers Work

Villager mechanics in Minecraft have had a significant overhaul in the 1.14 Village & Pillage. This guide will walk you through the ways this affects trading, breeding, and jobs.

Types of Jobs

There are currently 16 villager types and 14 villagers jobs in Minecraft. This is a list of all the possible jobs a villager can take. If you want a certain job, you’ll need to place the job block that corresponds with the desired job next to an Unemployed Villager. The job assigned to the villager will determine what trades they will offer. If you don’t have an Unemployed Villager, you can destroy the job block a villager is using. If you don’t get the desired trades from a villager, you can break the job block and place it back down to reload their trades.

As of the current version of Minecraft, there are 15 types of villagers. Below is the list:

• Farmer – Trades involve food and crop based items.

Job Block: Composter

• Butcher – Trades involve mainly meat based products.

Job Block: Smoker

• Fisherman – Trades involve fish and fishing related equipment

Job Block: Barrel

• Librarian – Trades involve enchanted books, paper, glass, and other miscellaneous items.

Job Block: Lectern

• Armorer – Trades involve armor equipment.

Job Block: Blast Furnace

• Tool Smith – Trades involve tools of various materials.

Job Block: Smithing Table

• Shepperd – Trades involve dyes, wool, and wool related products.

Job Block: Loom

• Leatherworker – Trades involve leather related materials and products.

Job Block: Cauldron

• Cleric – Trades involve various occult items including rotten flesh, ender pearls, and glowstone.

Job Block: Brewing Stand

• Cartographer – Trades involve tools and items relevant to exploration and navigation.

Job Block: Cartography Table

• Fletcher – Trades involve fishing and archery related items like arrows,

Job Block: Fletching Table

• Weapon Smith – Trades involve various close combat related items such as axes and swords.

Job Block: Grindstone

• Mason – Trades involve various building materials such as clay, bricks, and quartz

Job Block: Stonecutter

• Unemployed - This is a type of villager that does not have an assigned job block and thus will not trade for or with or for anything.

Job Block: N/A

• Nitwit - This is a relatively rare villager that is unable to acquire a profession but is still capable of breeding.

Job Block: N/A

New Textures:

Though only a cosmetic change, villagers now have different textures depending on which biome they are born in, as well as which profession they are assigned to.

[Insert variations picture here]

Trade Economy:

With the update to villagers there are two concepts that are important to understand in regards to villager trading:

• Supply & Demand: If a specific trade is performed quickly in a short period of time, the price of that trade will increase, as well as the stock the villager is holding will entirely deplete. On the other side of this coin, if a trade is not used after some time, the price will go down.
• Stock: Villagers which have a depleted stock of any given item, including emeralds will need time to restock their supplied and be able to trade the same item, see below for more information.

Villagers follow a schedule for their jobs. They will replenish their trades with access to a job block twice per day, but never at night. Having access to a job block is the only requirement for villagers to continue trading and restocking their items.

Villager Mastery:

Villagers display the level of their given profession on a badge as well as in the trading GUI. There are five levels which are:

• Novice - Stone
• Apprentice - Iron
• Journeyman - Gold
• Expert - Emerald
• Master - Diamond

By trading with a villager, you gain experience points, as they progress through the different stages of their profession. When the green bar fills up, continuing to trade with will not count towards their career progression and it is advised you exit out of the GUI.

When the bar is filled you will see their badge change to the next tier up to and including the diamond badge. Each tier brings new trades, though usually at more expensive prices.

Wandering Trader

The wandering trader is the exception to everything mentioned above. While he is often considered a type of villager, he shares very little with any of the other types of villagers.

The wandering trader spawns randomly around a player, with two llamas on leads. The trades offered are difficult to predict as seen in the chart above, typically consisting of some of the more uncommon items in the game.

Unlike their normal villager counterparts, these trades are fully unlocked without the need of career advancements, however they also do not replenish with stock, once they are out, they are permanently out.

Reputation:

This is not a new feature of the 1.14 update, however reputation functions a little differently to previous versions of Minecraft. The negative reputation of attacking or killing a villager still bring your reputation down in the entire village, however there are now negative consequences to this as well as benefits to positive actions that affect trading.

Curing zombie villagers, trading with villagers, and defending the villagers against illager raids will all boost this reputation system, allowing for cheaper trades in the village.

Conclusion

Using the information in this article you should be able to achieve all of your villager related goals and quickly amass a fortune in emeralds. While the changes to villagers add some complexity to their mechanics, it makes for a more immersive experience and in many ways makes it easier for you to get exactly what you're looking for from these hard working mobs. Hopefully this guide helped you with any questions you have in regards to the updated mechanics in 1.14+

Updated on: 01/04/2022