Minecraft Wandering Trader: Best trades, spawn & AFK farm

Some players hate him, while others can’t wait for him to show up. The Wandering Trader in Minecraft is surprisingly divisive. On one hand, he offers plenty of great trades; on the other, he tends to appear at the most unusual times. And why are his offers even necessary? Today we’ll take a closer look at the Wandering Trader, his two llamas, and his varied inventory. He’s more useful than you might think! There’s also an automatic AFK farm at the end of the article.

Minecraft Wandering Trader explained: functions and benefits

At first glance, the Wandering Trader looks like a regular villager, but he works quite differently. Yes, you can trade items and emeralds with him, but he doesn’t stay in your world permanently. Alongside his two llamas, he roams Minecraft and only drops by from time to time. When he’s around, you should take advantage of his offers!

Unlike his sedentary friends, he sells many items that only generate in specific biomes. That makes spending a few emeralds with him worthwhile, especially if you don’t like traveling but still want different wood types or flowers.

Spawn mechanics of the Wandering Trader in Minecraft

Many players probably get startled when the Wandering Trader first (or tenth) appears in their world. He just pops up out of nowhere — usually right nearby. Roughly 20 minutes after creating your Minecraft world, he has a chance to spawn at random. The mechanic is designed so he only shows up occasionally, which means it can still take several hours between sightings.

You’ll see — and especially hear — him if you spend some time on the surface. In general, he tries to spawn at the highest daylight Y-level near you. Large, open areas are best to increase the odds. The trader spawns within a radius of 48 blocks around the player or a nearby bell.

He doesn’t stay forever, though, and eventually moves on. Typically, he can hang around for up to 40 minutes (two in-game days). Afterwards, his cooldown resets and he’ll likely only show up again hours later. You can’t stop him from disappearing with a name tag or any other method — the only workaround is the farm we’ll show you later.

Best Wandering Trader trades: buy, sell, tips

Thanks to a recent update, you can both buy from and sell to the Wandering Trader. Like regular villagers, emeralds are his currency. Keep some on hand, or get them from him when he first appears — handy if you haven’t found a village yet or you’re doing a challenge run.

These are the items the Wandering Trader buys:

All of these resources are easy to farm and thus a solid source of emeralds. Important: each time he appears, the trader will only want two of these items, and each trade locks after being used twice. So you can’t repeat them as often as with normal villagers. Still, they’re useful in a pinch!

These are the items the Wandering Trader sells (normal):

• 1 Emerald: Flowers (various types), Sugar Cane, Vines, Dyes (various types), Pumpkins, Seeds (various types), Moss/Pale Moss, Mushrooms, Sand/Red Sand, Small Dripleaf, Lily Pad, Pointed Dripstone, Rooted Dirt
• 2 Emeralds: Sea Pickle, Glowstone
• 3 Emeralds: Bucket of Tropical Fish/Pufferfish, Cactus, Coral Block (various types), Kelp
• 4 Emeralds: Slimeball
• 5 Emeralds: Saplings (various types), Nautilus Shell

Special sales:

• 1 Emerald: Packed Ice, 4x Gunpowder, 8x Log (random)
• 3 Emeralds: 3x Podzol
• 5 Emeralds: Potion of Invisibility
• 6 Emeralds: Blue Ice
• 6–20 Emeralds: Enchanted Iron Pickaxe

Each time he appears, the Wandering Trader generally offers five normal and two special sales — all randomly selected. That can make it tricky to wait for the perfect deal. For challenge runs, though, many of these are worth their weight in gold!

Practical tips for worthwhile trades:

• Grab a Nautilus Shell early if you want a Conduit quickly.
• Cactus and coral are ideal if you spawn far from a desert or warm ocean.
• Slimeballs can speed up early access to leads, sticky pistons, and honey block mechanics.
• Saplings help you get rare wood types without long journeys.

Extra tips: llamas, leads, invisibility, and drops

There are a few more tricks and secrets to discover. You can use shears to cut the trader’s llamas free from their leads and pick up the two leads. The llamas themselves — with their unique blankets — can be tamed and kept. Afterwards, you can swap their carpets as usual or breed them. If you kill the llamas, they only drop leather.

A fun mechanic: at night, the trader turns invisible. You can not only buy a Potion of Invisibility from him, you can even obtain one when he transforms at sunset. If you kill him at that moment, he may drop such a potion. The same applies when he drinks milk in the morning. A bit mean — but possible!

AFK farm for the Wandering Trader: step-by-step build

Because the Wandering Trader keeps appearing over time, you can incorporate him into an AFK farm. While you’re AFK, all traders are collected and sent into the Nether. That way they won’t disappear after 40 minutes.

Instructions for building a Wandering Trader farm:

1. Find an ocean with no spawnable land nearby. Build up high and create a large platform (about 100x100 blocks). Light it well to prevent monster spawns.
2. In the center, build a collection pit with a water stream toward a Nether portal. The hole should be about 9x9 blocks, with a separate platform, a bell, and transparent blocks underneath. Around it, between the large and small platforms, place two rings of trapdoors.
3. In the Nether, build a safe area around the portal and make sure the coordinates line up correctly.

Note: Due to its spawn mechanics, this farm is naturally not extremely efficient, but it can be very useful in superflat worlds or other challenges. Use it while you’re not actively playing to collect traders in the Nether; later you can take your time with their offers. A detailed guide to superflat: (Surviving in a Minecraft Superflat World: The Ultimate Guide) .

Conclusion: is the Wandering Trader worth it?

Although some players don’t like the Wandering Trader, he’s a valuable source of rare items. He roams the world and only visits every few in-game hours, but he always brings new offers — often from other biomes or dimensions. He also spawns on servers; a nearby player is chosen at random as the target. If you like, you can rent a Minecraft server from us right away: https://www.4netplayers.com/en/gameserver-hosting/minecraft/. The AFK farm presented here works on servers as well.