Trading with villagers in Minecraft has become one of the most important parts of the game. Not only can you obtain rare emeralds, you can then exchange them for valuable items! Every villager can take a different job and therefore offers unique trades you can take advantage of. And while some are better than others, it’s worth looking at all trades in detail. There are some truly exciting ways to get gear, enchantments and weapons even more easily. We’ve put together the best options for every villager type for you, highlighting the top trades both for and against emeralds.
For more villager guides, take a look here:
- (Minecraft villager trading: permanent discounts with zombie curing)
- (How to Build a Villager Trading Post: Obtain Valuable Items through Trading)
Minecraft Farmer villager: Best trades with the Composter
Emeralds → Golden Carrots: Golden carrots are among the best food items in Minecraft, but growing carrots and wrapping them in gold nuggets takes time and effort. This trade is therefore unbeatable!
Potatoes → Emeralds: An easy way to stockpile emeralds using an automatic potato farm, then spend them on other trades. Potatoes often drop more than one item, so you’ll quickly get several stacks.
Librarian: Enchanted books and Mending trades
Emeralds + Book → Enchanted Book: Arguably the best trade in the entire game, as the Librarian can offer almost all enchantments. Especially important for Mending to repair your tools with XP. You can get these at the novice level and therefore keep resetting until the book you want appears.
Paper → Emeralds: With a large sugar cane farm, this trade becomes extremely lucrative (Minecraft Sugarcane Farm Guide: How to Build an Automatic Sugarcane Farm for Unlimited Paper and Sugar) .
Fisherman: Fishing rod trades and quick emeralds
Emeralds → Enchanted Fishing Rod: Fishing is often forgotten, yet it can yield very useful items such as enchanted books. Use “Luck of the Sea” and you’re good to go!
String → Emeralds: You can easily gather string from spiders or cave spiders, especially in mineshafts. This trade can net you plenty of emeralds.
Cleric: Ender pearls and gold for emeralds
Emeralds → Ender Pearls: The Cleric has many good trades, but ender pearls are, in our view, the best offer. They’re incredibly useful and, without a dedicated Nether farm, not easy to obtain.
Gold Ingots → Emeralds: Gold isn’t as rare as you might think and is fairly niche otherwise, except for this trade. Build a gold farm in the Nether to make the most of it (Minecraft Gold Farm: Build an advanced gold and XP farm) .
Leatherworker: Dyed leather armour and leather for emeralds
Emeralds → Leather Armour: The Leatherworker doesn’t have the strongest trades, but they’re handy for leather armour in different colours. Not essential, though.
Leather → Emeralds: This one’s very practical if you keep lots of cows. Hoglins and some rideable animals like horses also drop leather.
Toolsmith and Weaponsmith: Enchanted tools and iron trades
Emeralds → Enchanted Tools: As with other villagers, enchanted items are the standout option. You’ll save both levels and diamonds.
Iron Ingots → Emeralds: With an iron farm that spawns and kills iron golems, this trade is a breeze and can bankroll many other purchases.
Cartographer: Explorer maps and glass pane trades
Emeralds → Explorer Maps: These maps lead you to rare treasure or structures in your world. There are maps for woodland mansions, ocean monuments and trail ruins.
Glass Panes → Emeralds: Paper is also a great choice here, but for a change you can use glass panes. They’re crafted from just 6 glass blocks, yet you get 16 panes. That makes this trade very profitable!
Mason and Stone Mason: Quartz blocks and stone for emeralds
Emeralds → Quartz Block: Quartz is common in the Nether and can be bartered from Piglins, but it’s still tedious to farm. If you like building with this white block, trading with the Mason is one of your best options.
Stone → Emeralds: With a pickaxe and “Silk Touch”, this trade is child’s play and can net you many emeralds. You can also build a stone generator to farm stone effortlessly.
Butcher: Rabbit stew and dried kelp blocks for emeralds
Emeralds → Rabbit Stew: Rabbit stew is an involved recipe, but it’s also the best food in the game (aside from cake). A wonderful way to keep your hunger topped up.
Dried Kelp Block → Emeralds: Kelp is very easy to farm automatically, which makes this trade so practical.
Armorer: Best enchanted armour and coal trades
Emeralds → Enchanted Armour: Armour can cost you a lot of diamonds and levels. To avoid that, we recommend this trade. You can gear up easily and later upgrade that armour to Netherite.
Coal → Emeralds: Coal might not seem ideal at first, but it’s great in the later game when you have more than enough. With a “Fortune III” pickaxe, you can get up to 4 coal from a single ore block.
Fletcher: Enchanted bow and sticks for emeralds
Emeralds → Enchanted Bow or Crossbow: Both are indispensable for ranged combat and get even better with enchantments (Minecraft Ranged Combat Guide: Bow, Crossbow & Trident) .
Sticks → Emeralds: One of the best trades in the game, as you can get sticks simply by chopping trees and turning the wood into sticks. We recommend using this trade always.
Shepherd: Coloured wool and wool farm for emeralds
Emeralds → Coloured Wool: If you don’t want to dye wool yourself or lack dyes, this is quite handy. Generally, though, the Shepherd is better for earning emeralds than for spending them.
White Wool → Emeralds: With a wool farm, this is one of the best ways to get lots of emeralds quickly and easily (Minecraft Wool Farm Guide: How to Easily Automate Wool Farming in All Colours) .
Weaponsmith: Enchanted sword and flint trades
Emeralds → Enchanted Sword: Trade your emeralds for a sword with strong enchantments without having to enchant it yourself.
Flint → Emeralds: You can trade iron ingots here as well, but flint can also pay off. Use a “Fortune III” shovel on gravel and you’ll have more flint than you can handle.
Conclusion: Farm emeralds and secure top items with villager trades
A trading hall should include several of the most important trades to get the most out of this feature. While some offers are fairly useless, others can make you rich, earning lots of emeralds for further deals. You’ll also save resources, including diamonds and levels for enchanted armour and weapons.
Rent one of our Minecraft servers and dive straight into trading. With our guide, you can focus on the best trades early on or brief your fellow players on the top options.
