Villagers are Minecraft's economy. Once you understand the 13 jobs, the job site blocks that lock them in, and the tier system that gates their best trades, a single chunk of village can supply your whole base with enchanted books, armor, food and emeralds. This guide is the playbook we use to set up a trading hall in under a day on a fresh world — and it pairs with the MineBuildr Beacon Calculator for when those emeralds turn into a Conduit-tier base.
How villager jobs work
Every adult villager without a profession ("unemployed," wearing a brown robe) will claim the nearest unclaimed job site block within a 48-block radius. The block they claim assigns their profession, their clothing, and the trade list they can offer. Move or break the block before any trade is locked in and the villager goes back to unemployed — break it after a trade and the villager keeps the profession but resets the trade list. Baby villagers don't take jobs until they grow up.
All 13 villager jobs and their job site blocks
These are every profession in current Minecraft (1.20+, Java and Bedrock):
- Armorer — Blast Furnace. Sells enchanted iron, chain and diamond armor.
- Butcher — Smoker. Buys raw meat, sells cooked meat and emeralds.
- Cartographer — Cartography Table. Sells empty maps, explorer maps to Woodland Mansions and Ocean Monuments.
- Cleric — Brewing Stand. Buys rotten flesh and gold ingots, sells redstone, lapis, glowstone, ender pearls and bottles o' enchanting.
- Farmer — Composter. Buys crops, sells bread, cookies, cake, pumpkin pies and golden carrots.
- Fisherman — Barrel. Buys string and coal, sells enchanted fishing rods and cooked fish.
- Fletcher — Fletching Table. Buys sticks and feathers, sells arrows including tipped arrows and enchanted bows.
- Leatherworker — Cauldron. Sells dyed leather armor and leather horse armor.
- Librarian — Lectern. Sells enchanted books, name tags, bookshelves, glass, lanterns and ink sacs.
- Mason / Stone Mason — Stonecutter. Sells polished stone, quartz, terracotta and colored glazed terracotta.
- Shepherd — Loom. Buys wool and dyes, sells all 16 colored wool, beds, banner patterns and paintings.
- Toolsmith — Smithing Table. Sells enchanted iron, diamond and (rarely) Mending pickaxes, axes, shovels and hoes.
- Weaponsmith — Grindstone. Sells enchanted iron and diamond swords and axes, including Sharpness V at master tier.
Villager trade tiers explained
Every villager has five trade tiers. They unlock by trading with the villager — each trade gives the villager a small amount of profession XP. The tiers and the XP needed to reach each one are:
- Novice — starting tier (0 XP). Basic trades, white badge.
- Apprentice — 10 XP. Yellow badge.
- Journeyman — 70 XP. Yellow badge with one stripe.
- Expert — 150 XP. Green badge — this is where Mending books and Sharpness V appear.
- Master — 250 XP. Diamond badge. Strongest version of every trade.
Most players camp at the Expert tier — it unlocks every enchanted book and almost every diamond gear trade, without the heavy XP grind to Master.
The Librarian — the most valuable villager in the game
If you only set up one villager, make it a Librarian. A Journeyman-tier librarian can sell any enchanted book in the game, including Mending, Sharpness V, Looting III, Fortune III, Unbreaking III and Soul Speed III. The price depends on the librarian's mood (Hero of the Village discounts, restocking discounts, zombie cures), but a discounted Mending book costs as little as 1 emerald.
How to roll a Mending librarian
- Cure a zombie villager near a lectern — this gives a permanent ~80% discount on every trade for life.
- Place a lectern next to an unemployed adult villager. Wait for them to claim it.
- Open the trade screen. If the second trade isn't an enchanted book you want, break the lectern and replace it.
- Repeat until the book is Mending (or whichever you want). Then trade once to lock it in.
Building a trading hall
A trading hall is just a row of single-villager cells, each with the job site block on the player's side of the wall. The villager can see and reach you for the trade UI, but is contained so it can't path away. The cleanest layout is a 1×1 cell per villager with a 1-block gap between cells (so they don't share job sites), the job block on the player's side, and signs or trapdoors above the villager to stop them jumping out.
How to refresh trades and discounts
Until the second-to-last trade is locked in, you can re-roll a villager's trade list by breaking their job site block, waiting until they lose the profession, and placing it back. Once a tier is reached, the trade list is permanent. Discounts come from three sources: restocking after a player has bought out a trade (small discount), Hero of the Village effect after a raid (huge discount), and curing a zombie villager (the strongest, longest-lasting discount in the game).
What to do with your emeralds
Most trading halls produce more emeralds than the player can spend. Common sinks are diamond gear from the Toolsmith and Weaponsmith, name tags from the Librarian, explorer maps from the Cartographer, and a full beacon pyramid from emerald-bought iron — the Beacon Pyramid Cost calculator shows exactly how much material a full-tier beacon takes.
A 12-villager hall pays for itself in the first afternoon. After that, every emerald is profit — and every enchanted book is one you don't have to grind XP for. Plan your XP routes with our XP leveling guide.
