Minecraft villages create a reprieve from the usually solitary life of gathering and crafting in the game. Better yet, the NPCs in a village can have jobs, which gives them inventories and the ability to trade with a player for better resources. If you set up near a village, you can have a more enjoyable gameplay experience.
Here’s what you need to know about jobs for Minecraft villagers and how to use them to your advantage.
All Villager Jobs & What They Do
There are three categories of adult Minecraft villagers, which directly influence how they receive jobs:
- Nitwits – The nitwit’s job is to essentially be useless. Unlike other villagers, nitwits can’t switch jobs. You can easily differentiate the Nitwits from the rest of the villagers by their green robe tops. Even though nitwits don’t provide work value, they can still breed.
- Unemployed – They do not have a job but can find one in the Minecraft village. These villagers wander around looking for a block to claim. To provide a job for an unemployed villager, you need to create a utility block and move it next to them.
- Employed – they are actively involved in providing different services in the Minecraft village. The employed are further categorized into 13 different jobs. A villager who is employed but hasn’t traded with the player can also be rendered unemployed by breaking their utility block.
There are 13 official jobs a Minecraft villager can take, which means a villager can have one of 15 statuses (only one of which is permanent). Here are more details about each job for employed villagers, what they can grant, and what utility blocks you need to create a profession in a village.
1. Farmer
Farmers are relatively common to find inside an existing village.
Farmers can provide high-saturation food and ingredients for food and potions. A farmer can sell you cakes, pies, cookies, apples, and stew, depending on their level. The stew comes with a surprise buff or debuff. Higher-level farmers will offer you glistering melon slices (used for potions) and golden carrots (one of the best foods).
If you want to start trading with a farmer, you can use wheat to get emeralds, or emeralds to get bread.
Farmers can be found by a composter block, which you can use to create bonemeal. Therefore, you can create a farmer in a village by plopping a composter next to an unemployed villager.
2. Butcher
Butchers are found by the smoker, which you can use to smelt food items. It is twice as fast as a normal furnace.
Butchers can provide cooked meat which is rare to find. You can also buy rabbit stew, cooked porkchops, and cooked chicken (which can be used to heal tamed wolves and breed them) from the butcher.
You can start trading with a butcher by selling fresh meat (from rabbits, chickens, or pigs). A small chicken farm — which doesn’t require much upkeep — can be a great source of capital if you have a butcher in a nearby village.
3. Weaponsmith
Weaponsmiths are one of the most welcome jobs in a Minecraft village. They are well known for the weaponsmith’s chests that are preferred when on a speed run, and offer a bevy of great starter items like minerals and weapons.
Weaponsmiths sell iron axes, enchanted iron swords, bells, and enchanted diamond weapons at a higher level.
To trade with a weaponsmith, you need emeralds to get weapons. You can buy emeralds from them with coal, iron ingots, flint, and diamonds.
Weaponsmiths need a grindstone, which can also be used to repair items or remove enchantments.
4. Cleric
Clerics provide glow stones, enchantment bottles, Redstone dust, lapis lazuli, and ender pearls.
If you want to trade with the cleric, you can use rotten flesh, which can be obtained as junk while fishing or as loot from zombies, to get emeralds. They can sell items at higher levels.
Clerics can be made in the village by placing a brewing stand next to an unemployed villager. The block is also useful for brewing potions, which give the players a limited-time effect. If a Cleric doesn’t spawn naturally, some Nether adventures are needed to get a brewing stand.
5. Armorer
Armorers are found in the village at the blast furnace. A blast furnace smelts tools, raw metals, ores, and gold armor into base ingots or nuggets.
Armorers sell iron items such as helmets, chestplates, leggings, and boots, and you can also buy enchanted diamond items from them.
If you are trading with the armorer, you can give them coal, iron ingots, lava buckets, or diamonds for emeralds, depending on their level.
6. Mason
Masons in Java Edition are equivalent to Stone Masons in the Bedrock Edition.
Masons are based at the stonecutter in the Minecraft village. Apart from being the mason’s job site block, the stonecutter can be used for crafting stone items more efficiently than through a regular crafting station.
The mason creates and provides different types of stones, such as dripstone blocks, bricks, chiseled stone bricks, polished andesite, polished diorite, and polished granite.
You can level up a mason by selling them clay balls, which are relatively hard to create, or by buying bricks for emeralds.
At the expert level, you can trade in emeralds for any colored terracotta (which is found in badlands biomes) or glazed terracotta. You can also get terracotta by smelting clay. At a master’s level, you can get quartz pillars and quartz blocks in exchange for emeralds.
7. Fletcher
Fletchers are rarely found in the village and require a fletching table. Unlike most job blocks, the fletching table can’t be used by the player, making it useful exclusively within a village.
Fletchers trade in arrow components (flint, sticks, and feathers), and provide arrows, flint, bows, and crossbows, as well as enchanted bows and crossbows.
You can also get tipped arrows from master fletchers. Tipped arrows imbue the effect of a potion while hitting a player or a mob. Keep in mind these are not always negative effects, so their use in hunting may be limited.
8. Cartographer
Cartographers are useful for the player by helping them find hidden treasures, monuments, and mansions in the game.
The cartographers sell ocean explorer maps, woodland explorer maps, banners and item frames. The treasure maps generate in shipwrecks and underwater ruins. At the novice level, you can trade two dozen papers for an emerald with a cartographer or buy an empty map for seven emeralds.
Cartographers are found at the cartography table which besides being the cartographer’s job block site, can be used for locking maps, cloning maps, and zooming out.
9. Toolsmith
Toolsmiths are found in the village next to smithing tables naturally found in their houses.
Toolsmiths sell enchanted mining and gathering equipment — shovels, picks, axes, and hoes. At higher levels, they are diamond and enchanted.
You can get stone items or enchanted gear in exchange of emeralds or buy an emerald from the toolsmith using coal.
10. Librarian
The librarian is located at a lectern, which is also used for book storage for several players in multiplayer.
A librarian offers clock, lantern, compass, name tag, glass, and bookshelves in exchange of emerald. They also provide enchanted books which allow players to add enchantments to some specified items using an anvil block.
A journeyman librarian can trade an ink sac in exchange for an enchanted book or get a glass in exchange for an emerald.
11. Fishermen
The fisherman’s utility block is at the barrel. The barrel in the Minecraft village is used for storage and is similar to a chest.
Fishermen will offer you different types of fish, which are already cooked, or buy raw fish from you. You can also purchase a full bucket of cod from them in exchange of an emerald.
There is usually a campfire at the barrel and they can sell additional campfires for emeralds. Something else fishermen can offer is an enchanted fishing rod.
12. Shepherd
Shepherds are different from all other Minecraft villager jobs because they only offer one survival item – the bed, and only at higher level.
A shepherd’s main utility in the early game is getting shears without using iron. The shears can get wool from sheep without killing them, giving you a steady source of wool for future use.
They also trade in paintings, any color beds, colored carpets, blank banners, shears, and painted wool which is used for decoration. In exchange, you can provide them with emerald, any color of dye, or wool.
Shepherds are found at the loom where one can draw exceptional patterns on banners using the in-game editor. Many players are usually more interested in the utility block than they are in the shepherd because of the painting aspects.
13. Leatherworker
Leatherworks provide leather armor, which isn’t particularly useful, but is good for starting out.
At the master’s level, you can get horse saddles and leather cap in exchange for emerald. On the other hand, a novice can trade leather for an emerald.
The leatherworker is found at the cauldron. The cauldron can store water, snow, or lava, and can also hold dyed water and potions. Cauldrons can also be useful in landlocked villages for collecting rainwater.
Trading With the Minecraft Villagers
The main trading commodity in a Minecraft village is an emerald. Emeralds are fairly easy to locate in the game if you are keen enough, and can be mined. Employed villagers will give you an emerald if you give them basic items related to their profession in turn.
If you need a rare commodity that isn’t sold by any of the Minecraft villager jobs, then you can look for wandering traders. Technically, wandering traders aren’t considered members of the Minecraft village, but can be spawned near one.
They behave like the villagers and can trade with the player. They don’t have a definite list of items to trade in and their spawning block is usually restricted to a radius of 48 blocks. This means that each chunk of 48 blocks can have a trader inside.
FAQ
Are Minecraft jobs the same in Bedrock edition and Minecraft Java?
Yes, the Minecraft villager jobs are the same in both Bedrock editions and Minecraft Java.
How are Minecraft villagers assigned jobs?
Minecraft villagers are assigned jobs depending on the utility block that is close to them.
Our Job Is Done
The 13 Minecraft villager jobs listed above are available on both the Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. We hope that you have gained some insights about the Minecraft villager jobs and what they do.
How do you prefer to deal with Minecraft villagers? Let us know in the comment section below.
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