Trading is one of the most useful features in Minecraft and can help you get valuable items quickly and easily. That’s why many players look for a village early on and bring villagers into a dedicated trading hall (How to Build a Villager Trading Post: Acquire Valuable Items Through Trading) .
But what if you could do even more with villagers? Some offers are probably too expensive — and you want discounts. Thanks to several game mechanics, that’s possible. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get permanently better deals with zombified villagers and a curing station.
Villager trading discounts in Minecraft: How they work

Villager trades are tied to several factors. First, offers are randomly selected from a pool of trades. You won’t always get the ones you want. When rolling a new villager, use the appropriate job site block (e.g., Lectern for Librarian, Composter for Farmer), break it, and place it again to reroll the trades. Even at this stage, you can get different prices or better options.
Once you’ve traded with a villager at least once, you can receive additional discounts. There are three mechanics that affect the price. Important: Only the required item cost is discounted — you don’t get more emeralds, you pay less.
Three ways to better villager prices: Gossip, raid buff, and zombie curing
Gossip system: In a village, villagers can “gossip.” If you’ve already traded with some and you treat them well, they’ll share their positive opinion of you with others. If you hit or kill villagers, it can lead to higher prices. They need line of sight to gossip — you can set this up in a trading hall, too.
Raid bonus (Hero of the Village): After successfully repelling a raid, you receive the Hero of the Village effect for about 40 minutes. Its level varies with the raid’s difficulty. The effect applies to all villager trades, not just in the village you defended. If you want to use the temporary discount while farming items, our guide helps: (Building a Minecraft Raid Farm: Farm Infinite Totems & Emeralds) .
Cure zombie villagers (permanent discounts): The only reliable permanent method is curing a zombie villager. The igloo with a hidden basement teaches the mechanic: cure with a Potion of Weakness and a golden apple. Zombie villagers spawn naturally, or you can let a zombie attack a villager to convert them — then cure them afterward. This is where an automatic curing station helps.
Build a zombie villager curing station: Lock in permanent discounts

Intentionally letting villagers be zombified and then curing them sounds grim — but it works brilliantly for large, permanent discounts. You can do this with new villagers or with ones whose trades you’ve already locked in (the latter is ideal, because you make their good trades cheaper). You can also repeat the cure multiple times to increase the discount further.
Pro tip: Play on Hard difficulty. Only then is there a 100% chance that a villager becomes a zombie villager from a zombie attack. On lower difficulties, there’s a higher chance the zombie will kill the villager — which you definitely want to avoid.
Step-by-step: How to build a curing station in Minecraft

- Secure supply: Build a villager breeder
To ensure you always have enough villagers, use a nearby village or build a small villager breeder. Basics: There must be enough beds. Use two villagers, give them food (e.g., bread), and place more than two beds nearby. When you need a new villager, transport them by rail about 48 blocks away to free up their bed again.

- Build the work area: Piston mechanism for safe conversion
Build the workstation for one villager (expandable later). Dig a trench for the zombie’s corridor; a 2-block side alcove serves as the villager’s chamber. Place a piston in the floor with redstone dust in front so you can raise and lower the villager. Place a trapdoor behind the piston and in front of the zombie tunnel, with a full block above it. Set the villager onto the piston via minecart, raise them, and place the job site block on the redstone.

- Secure the zombie: Prevent despawn, add sun protection
Catch a zombie and guide it into the corridor behind the workstations. Ideally, use a zombie that can pick up items, or give it a name tag — that way it won’t despawn. Make sure there’s a roof so it doesn’t burn during the day.

- Convert and cure: Potion of Weakness + golden apple
Set the difficulty to Hard, lower the villager with the piston, and let the zombie hit them. As soon as they become a zombie villager, raise the piston again and cure them with a Potion of Weakness and a golden apple. After a few minutes, the cure is complete — now you benefit from the discounts!

Extra tips for top prices:
- Heal the same villager multiple times to further increase the discount.
- Isolate villagers individually so gossip doesn’t accidentally lead to higher or inconsistent prices.
- Combine curing with Hero of the Village for maximum (temporary + permanent) savings.
Conclusion: Cheaper villager trades thanks to zombie curing
Villager trading is extremely powerful — and even more lucrative when you cure zombified villagers. With a simple curing station, you automate the process and lock in permanent discounts on your favorite trades. Integrate the station into your trading hall and profit long-term from lower prices and more emeralds.
Want to optimize this as a team? Rent a Minecraft server and build a massive villager area together — everyone benefits from the cheaper offers and can trade key resources: Rent a Minecraft server now.
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