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Let's talk about Villager Trading! - Librarian, Wondering Trader

The latest snapshot/preview includes experimental changes to the wandering trader and librarian trades, which we're introducing to rebalance the villager trade system. Here's a look at what's changed: 

Librarian

Before these changes, players could get any village enchantment from any librarian. A novice librarian could sell the best enchantment in the game! For some players, this felt too random and made trading feel overpowered when compared to using the enchanting table or searching for enchanted books in structures.

With the new rules, librarians from different biomes sell different enchantments, and each village biome has one enchantment that is only sold by master librarians.

Players will have to work towards getting the best trades instead of relying on random chance. We hope this makes librarian trading more interesting and skilful, while also revealing some clues about their history of each village type through the enchantments that are sold there.
 
Wandering Trader

Some players felt that the Wandering Trader had unfair prices and didn't sell many useful items. We have lowered their prices, added more trades and increased the amounts available. The Wandering Trader will also now buy useful items from players, so it's possible to help them on their journey by giving them supplies even if you don't feel like buying anything.

As this is an experiment, we would really appreciate your feedback as work continues and to help us decide on the future direction for villager trades!

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  • 92
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    Dont do it, villagers are already frustrating. This is a horrible idea.

  • 0
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    Its a good idea but the its executed poorly. The concept of needing to get different villagers and breed in different biomes and needing to combine different book's to get the max enchant is not harder, its just way more annoying and a huge inconvenience. Now you have to spend far more time and many more hours to get books that you need instead of making it simply harder. I get how the enchanted books early game (pre dragon) can make the game a lot easier but it should not be a inconvenience for late game.

  • 1
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    This is too bad, it will only make the game more boring. Please stop this update

  • 36
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    I don't think it's good, if it is to be modified, it is more reasonable to trade directly with the villagers to increase the cost of obtaining the enchanted book, such as increasing the cost of breeding and the cost of trading for the villagers, so that it only restricts the players in the early stage, and can still obtain the enchanted book in bulk in the later stage. Enchanted book trading is only linked to biome, which is not entirely a good idea;
    I'm a casual gamer, and I want Minecraft to be able to make every other area as possible for all players to play in different areas, and I don't want to weaken the villagers because I want players to explore

  • 0
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    I get that the villager trading need to be rebalansed, but I don't think this is the way to do it. 

    You would have to set up trade systems in all of those biomes, and if you want them somewhat close then you might have to travel very far to look for something like that or people will search for certain seeds that have these biomes somewhat close to each other... To me, this doesn't sound fun at all. 

    I get that it encourages the player to explore, but then you lock it behind the master level, kinda forcing the player to stay there to grind enough stuff to level the villager up and get enough books for their future gear / spare gear as well... and then it is a pain for the inventory once more. 

    If you do want to encourage the player to explore and find these biomes, make those books one of the first books to come up, so it doesn't force the player to stay put and grind and grind, because it also gives the freedom to move on and when you find one of the same biomes closer by then it wouldn't be as hard to gather the gear again. 

    for those who do like that it is locked behind the master level, then maybe add it as an option? that you can increase the difficulty for these things? For maybe the SMP's ect who kinda want it to be more difficult ect.

     

  • 73
    Registered User commented
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    I don’t like these changes for the villager trading at all it just seems way to tedious to get the books now. :(

  • 0
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    This is absolutely a very controversy update, I'm fine with it being able to be toggled on and off but keep it that way. Don't make it a feature of minecraft but keep it an option. Villager trading is already a pain in the ass.

  • 0
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    While this is a great change, it has major flaws such that the biome mechanism is a hassle for the players in biomes such as jungle and swamp with no actual village. Secondly, with the addition of this, it may be impossible to get max level enchanted gear especially boots since it requires a lot of enchants and the anvil may not support that. It needs to be possible to get max level enchantments so the player base can work towards getting the max level enchants by either buffing the anvil or by making it available from these biome specific villagers. And the last flaw is with the way seed generation works, villager trading may become a tedious task of trying to travel between 1000s of blocks for each biome, especially in early game.

    So finally for this mechanism to be well received by the community,
    1. Anvil must either be buffed or the Biome Specific Villagers must sell the high level enchants as well
    2. Swamp and Jungle gets a village
    3. Seed Generation must be tweaked or make early game transportation better by buffing horses or making saddles more common.

  • 0
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    This would ruin villagers in general ok it's grindy enough this makes it worse traveling possibly 1000s of blocks for one biome then moving villagers into 2 of them because they don't spawn naturaly like mending your better of spawning mending in then spending hours finding a biome and then moving villagers using an enchant table makes more sense now then bothering with this and just fishing for mending the old mechanics is way better than this this would honestly make the the game less fun please don't remove alot of the books like unbreaking 3 and trident enchantments or lock certain trades in specific biomes that are already rare if anything make different types of librarians like an armourer librarian for armor enchantment and a tools one and so on so at least you can obtain all the enchants in one biome instead of this pointless grind I love this game and hope you make the right choice

  • 0
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    Love the thought that was put into this but it would be nice if Efficiency, Fortune and unbreaking had the chance to roll higher levels. This is nice for players making long lasting survival worlds who are willing to put in the hours leveling up villagers. Overall really like this change as villagers were way to op but I also hope you guys are looking into adding more types of villagers for different types of blocks that arent currently farmable.

  • 1
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    I like the idea of trying to make some certainty with book trading, but this is a weird and somewhat misguided execution. The main issues I'm seeing is how it doesn't tie into other systems too well. Anvils have the "too expensive" problem and enchantment tables have such a vast uncertainty. This change puts so much more strain on the enchanting system as a whole without addressing other issues.

    Something I've been thinking about is using chiseled bookshelves with enchanted books in them to sort of focus an enchantment table to get a specific enchantment. Maybe it doesn't guarantee it, but just makes it more likely based on how many books you put in. That intial grind to get a book is still there, but then once you have it it becomes easier to get as you get more and reinvest into the set up. It makes sense with the particle effect of the enchantment table pulling knowledge from the books around it. Doing something like this would make for specialized enchantment setups and make for an interesting and engaging system.

    Anvils have also always struck me as a weird system. It feels like combining enchanted books would be better done thematically in an enchantment table, but that's a more complicated change. Then there's the anvil feature of repairing using materials, which I don't know anyone who uses because its so expensive to do when compared to finding mending ASAP. Buffing anvil repairs would have people engage with it more and drag out the stage before getting mending.

  • 0
    Registered User commented
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    Thank you for these changes. I really like that you are starting to move towards balance.
    Keep up the good work!

  • 1
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    This change fixes update 1.14. My friends and I have been waiting for this balance update. If Mojang continues to develop in this direction, Minecraft will become much more interesting as a game. Before that, it was very easy to get all the enchantments, but now you need to try harder to get all them, and the process itself is much more interesting and fun. It may seem to some that it will be boring, but not everyone needs top enchantments. Players, try not to get the top enchantments, it's also fun!

  • 0
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    i generally dont like these changes as it seems very unrealistic to have one villager trading hall in each biome, but whatever. what actually concerns me is that it will now be even harder to get max gear before the "too expensive" text appears, i think that this should be either removed entirely or the limit should be raised, on top of that the cost of combining should be lowered per combination, so for example, if you combine 4 books, instead of it being 2 6 14 20 or whatever it is its more like 2 4 10 14 or even lower, and it doesnt increase as fast

  • 0
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    i would like to say, please do not change villager trading.  it works fine. it is not easy to get cheap villager trades and i think changing villager trades will make the community experience worse and more grindy.

    as for wandering traders, i think that you should add more stuff that they trade.

  • 0
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    Mojang PLEASE do not nerf the villager trades. There is nothing overpowered about trying for sometimes hours on end to get the enchantments you want from a librarian villager!!! It's already horribly tedious and grindy and this will just make it so much worse, not to mention you won't even be able to get max level enchants from master traders for enchantments that go up to level 5, which means wasting levels combining books that will get you that dreaded "Too Expensive!" message before you can rename your tool. And removing the trident books from villager trading?? How else are we supposed to get those books???
    Every player who does villager trading at a serious level already finds the task of moving them around laborious and unpleasant, and if this change gets added that's something that will just add to that tedium, especially if the player has settled somewhere that's not near one or more of these biomes.
    On a more positive note, I do think the change removing stacking cure discounts is a decent balancing move, and the fact that the wandering trader can now give you emeralds for basic items is nice, especially for players who are encountering him early on when they have no emeralds, since currently all he's good for is free leads and leather. I do think he needs to be able to buy from you more than once though.

  • 1
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    No. Just no. This change ruins the challenge of mc superflat and makes it basically impossible to get max armour on superflat. Not to mention all the famous minecraft worlds which contain villager traders where all the villagers are in one biome???? Those are ruined aswell plz don't put this change in 1.20.2 this might not ruin the game but make it significantly worse...

  • 75
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    Biome specific trades is just a bad idea with absolutely no justification.

    Villagers aren't in any need of changes being made to them and should stay as they are currently, wondering traders however, I believe have been improved somewhat.

  • 0
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    It is so frustrating when you get your first three diamonds and enchant that pickaxe and draw.... just Efficiency IV.

    A player in this situation can:

    • Villager Trade (which can take many cycles).
    • Mine more diamonds to enchant a new pickaxe + combine (which can consume 6 or even 9 diamonds and the levels to get the max enchants without mending).
    • Enchant books (which can be just as bad if not worse than Villager Trading because you have to xp farm rather than just replacing a lectern for hours).
    • Fish (very time consuming because you aren't just getting Enchanted Books). 
    • Create a raid farm (not easy or intuitive for new players).
    • Grindstone the pickaxe, XP farm, enchant, rinse and repeat until your enchanting jackpot arrives (maybe slightly more efficient than Villager Trading today, but with these changes this is the best option by far).

    Alternatively, biomes could lock books being enchanted on a table to specific 'types': Tools (ax, pickaxe, shovel, fishing rod), Bows (bow, crossbow), Blades (Sword, trident), and Armor. This is a better reason to go exploring without a frustrating & unintuitive villager breeding chore. 

    There are so many ways to change enchanting in way that still adds some challenge or some cost to getting the best gear without making it a timesink. People who work over 40 hours a week and just play in spare time don't want to spend all our game time grinding just to get the tools to make the builds we dream of. 

    Please do not move forward with the changes you made. 

  • 76
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    I dont think this is a good Idea and none of my friends do too. This only makes it more frustrating to get all of the enchantments you want and is also very technical, so new players wont understand this as easily. This wont stop pros from getting maxed out, it'll just make it more annoying for them.

  • 1
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    I like the idea of Wandering Traders being more useful to the game (mainly because it was only useful for its leads in the past). However, I'm not very keen on the idea of a Librarian getting different trades based on the biome in which they are located.

    In my opinion, the Librarian can be a real pain because it seems like I'd have to travel hundreds, if not thousands of blocks just to find one biome with the Librarian I'm looking for, a trade I'm interested in, and I would need to spend a considerable amount of time doing that (whether I have or don't have an Elytra) and that is something I'm not doing.

    As far as the new wandering trader's idea is concerned, I think it is a good one mostly because they are pretty useless aside from the leather and leads they have. The best part about this is that you can trade it with things you normally own, and since it's a one-time thing, you are not going to be able to take advantage of it. Also, I am a fan of the new trades it has; especially the invisible potion one scene they use it at night time to prevent zombies from being able to see them.

    Overall, I agree with the idea of new wandering traders, however, I believe that the Librarian idea is not a good option to have.

  • 40
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    These changes make the game more confusing for new players, while making it more tedious for older players to get books. Making librarians need a “blueprint” before selling each book seems better to me, for example requiring one unbreaking III book as a template before being able to sell it. Makes exploration more fun and rewarding for books like mending(the librarian could only take 1 enchant and not multiple)

  • 0
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    1) Finally getting rid of forced zombification atrocities! This is great as it fits with looking after community (one zombie getting in and you’d make sure it didn’t happen again if it was irl)
    2) Wandering trader buying stuff from you is wonderful, makes them seem more real.
    3) No to biome specific. It will make the start up of a new world much harder.
    4) I’m ambivalent to no longer having max enchantments from villagers, used to roll efficiency 5 very regularly on enchantment table. Issue I can see with this is tool/armour loss due too death. Grinding back to your good armour always takes time, now will take that bit longer to get back in the running.
    5) No Mesa Village? No Cherry Village either? We the player would love the four villages implemented.
    Thanks for the good work, and I really like the idea no more villager bullying with zombies for cheaper prices, could we implement this irl? :)

  • 0
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    While maybe limiting the level of books that can be obtained at lower trading levels is a good idea, making these biome based is just a hassle especially considering there is no true jungle or swamp village. This essentially makes it almost impossible to get mending unless you either move villagers what could be a couple thousand blocks from your base to breed them there, or get lucky and find a village that crosses over into those biomes. Also, considering the issues with the anvil and the max enchanting level, not being able to get max books from villagers can lock out certain high enchanted gear. Overall, for people who do not want to grind or are more casual players, the biome locked trades simply is more tedious than encouraging for exploration, as the methods of both moving around villager are currently horrible, and few people are going to want to set up villagers biomes away from their base for a few enchants.

  • 0
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    I like the push for exploration but finding all of these biomes could be hard for most players without 3rd party tools

    So i believe thsi woyld be the perfect time to expand the kind of maps cartographers can offer

    Currently they sell woodland and ocean explorer maps. These work perfectly fine and are a good addition to the game. But this begs the question: why not have more? Maybe a compass that points towards the nearest of a certain biome (EX: swamp compass points to nearest swamp) and maps to other structures like desert temples and ancient cities. I think this would not only add way more use to villagers in general, but also help people like me who dont like using things like chunkbase and instead make finding biomes more fun and interesting

  • 1
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    I don't think it's a good way of changing villager book trades.
    We have to consider why it was considered imbalanced in the first place. I believe the main reason is that if setup properly, villagers can eventually provide most of the enchantments in the game, and with the old cure villager trick, it requires 0 effort to obtain any enchantments, making it obsolete to explore, fishing and even enchanting table itself.
    I like the change where villager can only give a discount once, this actually already solved the part where everything is 1 emerald. However, the book trade change only makes the villager trading process more tedious, it follows the same way of the netherite gear change: it makes the player to do more (not in a fun way) to reach the same result. Setting up a proper trading hall already required a lot of effort. Looking for different villages just adds more effort to achieve what we had before. Not to mention the change will limit any skyworld/single biome/superflat world.
    How about adding more depth to the system, or provide other means to get the same enchantments instead? E.g
    1. Add a method to reduce enchanting table randomness
    2. Add super rare item obtained elsewhere to buff the book enchantment lv by 1
    3. Rework villager lv, higher lv→better trade, more interesting way to lv up
    4. Random special trades if villager is at specific biome (adding instead of changing)
    All above can make use of archaeology, structures and even fishing at specific biome, etc.

  • 27
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    Villager trading things are bad return to normal but everything else is good.

  • 28
    Registered User commented
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    Regarding the villagers, I believe some minor adjustments are acceptable, but this is a bit too much.

    But thank you for all you've done.

  • 1
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    I personally think that this does not fix villagers, it just makes it more grindy and stuff, in my opinion the way to "fix" or balance villagers is to make a "happiness" setting, like, the villagers need beds, some a certain amount of free space to wander around, nearby accesible farms, etc. it will make the villages feel more alive. And maybe for more OP enchantments villagers will require more than just emeralds and a book, maybe form mending it will be emeralds, a book and some kind of artifact or something more special. For Impaling/Riptide maybe a nautilus shell. For crossbow enchantments a pillager banner or a horn is needed.

  • 0
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    This makes villager trading so much more tedious, it's bad enough that you have to find a village, bring the villager back to base, and then spend time getting the enchantment you want. This would completely ruin villager trading because then you would have to go to one of the 7 village biomes find a village, trade with librarians to max level just on the off chance that you might get the book you're looking for. If there is an enchantment that you really wanna get and look up where to get it at and wouldn't you know it's in a swamp, so then you have to take a villager from a village to a swamp most likely using minecarts, which is stupidly expensive, and then you get there for it to be a chance that the villager gives you what you want, it is mind numbingly stupid. There are tons of ways to go about revamping villagers but this is not the way to do it, lots of the fanbase likes to have trading halls in their home for single player and multiplayer, but even more people will drop the game completely if this feature is added.