Minecraft Villager Jobs: A Guide

Posted: Jun 29, 2020 in Discussion

By David

Village & Pillage

Ever since 1.14 Village & Pillage, villages in Minecraft have been drastically changed. There has been a complete rework of how trading, item economy, and the jobs each villager takes on. This will be a comprehensive guide on how to manage trades and your villagers. By the end, you should have a sense of how to get the items you need. With that said, let’s jump in!

How Many Villager Jobs Are There In Minecraft?

There are currently 15 villager 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.

Armorer – Offers armor, and even Chainmail.
Job Block: Blast Furnace
Butcher – Offers emeralds and cooked meat.
Job Block: Smoker
Cartographer – Offers Maps and Banner Paterns.
Job Block: Cartography Table
Cleric – Offers magical items, and even Bottle o’ Enchanting.
Job Block: Brewing Stand
Farmer – Offers advanced food, and even brewing ingredients.
Job Block: Composter
Fisherman – Offers fish, and even an enchanted Fishing Rod.
Job Block: Barrel
Fletcher – Offers bows, arrows, flint, and even Tipped Arrows.
Job Block: Fletching Table
Leatherworker – Offers Leather Armor, Horse Armor, and even Saddles.
Job Block: Cauldron
Librarian – Offers Enchanted Books and even Name Tags.
Job Block: Lectern
Mason – Offers cut versions of blocks/bricks.
Job Block: Stonecutter
Nitwit – Offers nothing. Essentially useless.
Job Block: N/A
Shepherd – Offers varying colored wools and paintings.
Job BLock: Loom
Toolsmith – Offers tools of varying quality, even enchanted!
Job Block: Smithing Table
Unemployed – Offers nothing, but can be employed.
Job Block: N/A
Weaponsmith – Sells Iron and Diamond Swords/Axes, even enchanted!
Job Block: Grindstone

Villager Appearance:

Not only do villager’s jobs change depending on their profession, but their appearance will be different in each biome. To ensure each job remains distinct, they keep characteristics that pertain to their profession. For example, all Farmers will have a straw hat, and all Librarians have glasses.

Trading Stock:

As of 1.14, Mojang has introduced the lovely concept of ‘Supply and Demand.’ This basically means that if you do a specific trade too many times, not only will the villager run out of stock in that specific item, but prices (amount of items/emeralds you need to give) will also rise if the item is traded for often. Trades can be done around 4 times before stock runs out. Villagers will restock twice a day. If an item isn’t traded for at all, the price will go down.

Unlocking Trades:

When a trade is made between a villager and the player, both of them gain experience. When villagers level up, the next tier of trades are unlocked. Each villager has 5 levels of trades that unlock progressively higher quality items. A villager’s level is represented by a colored badge on their clothing, which ranges from Novice(Stone), Apprentice(Iron), Journeyman(Gold), Expert(Emerald), up to Master(Diamond).

Wandering Trader

This is a little out of the ordinary, but there is a single villager who acts nothing like the rest. The Wandering Trader is a passive mob, like normal Villagers, but it randomly appears throughout the world with seemingly no pattern at all. When it appears, it has two leashed trading llamas, which are basically normal llamas but with a cosmetic change. Another oddity with this Villager is that it has no trading levels, which means the trades that you’ve rolled with him are the ones you are stuck with. Fear not though, for his trades will reset the next time he spawns in.

The trades offered by the Wandering Trader are regarded as typically obscure, and difficult items to get. Not particularly impressive or powerful, but valuable nevertheless. Be quick, because the Wandering Trader will despawn after 40-60 minutes.

Popularity:

As a player, you have a level of popularity. This is decreased by performing negative actions like attacking villagers, but increased by trading often or curing zombie villagers. Negative actions increase prices, while positive ones reduce them.

Let’s say your village is spontaneously attacked by Illagers, while you coincidentally happen to be in the area and you successfully ward off the attack. You will be rewarded with the ‘Hero of The Village’ status effect, which will further reduce trade prices (except for trades that cost 1 emerald.)

Conclusion

Those are the basics of Villager Jobs and trading in villages. Now you should be able to manage that villager farm like a pro! Mojang feels the need to rip the carpet from right under our feet often, and for better or worse, trading is a little more complex with Supply & Demand mechanics, along with popularity functions. You can exploit these features to either greatly assist you, or ruin the trading economy on your Minecraft server. I hope this guide served you well. Good luck and I wish you the best!