Minecraft 1.20.2 villager trading changes explained

In Minecraft, villagers have remained relatively untouched by Mojang Studios' development team for quite some time, but that appears to be changing. The developers released a preview for the villager rebalances with snapshot 23w31a, which has made some substantial changes to Minecraft 1.20.2 villager trading alongside changing diamond ore distribution and a few other things of note.

The most prominent changes have been applied to librarian villagers and the Wandering Trader. However, additional changes for villagers may be planned in future previews, though Mojang hasn't indicated anything of the sort thus far.

Whatever the case may be, examining the tentative changes being made to villagers and their trades in Minecraft 1.20.2 isn't a bad idea.

Note: All of these new Minecraft 1.20.2 villager trading changes are part of an experimental toggle and haven't been implemented officially.

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Analyzing Minecraft 1.20.2 villager trading changes

Librarians

According to Mojang's release notes for snapshot 23w31a, the development team has believed for some time that trading with librarian villagers has been a bit overpowered.

Since players can get some of the most powerful enchantments in Minecraft, even from novice-level librarians, Mojang has sought to balance this out.

After 23w31a, players will notice that librarian villagers will sell different enchantments based on their home biome. Furthermore, each village type will possess one enchantment trade that can only be accessed by a master-level librarian, giving players more incentive to level these villagers up.

After Minecraft 1.20.2 villager trading change debuts in earnest, players will be encouraged to roam the game world and check out different villages in different biomes to trade for high-level enchantments. Additionally, Mojang has stated that there are two "secret" village types with their own enchantments to trade for with librarians.

This means that players will have to build swamp and jungle villages since these areas don't intentionally generate by default. By building these structures and breeding villagers in the necessary biomes, players should be able to acquire the "secret" enchantment books from master-level librarians.

Enchantments provided by each village post-1.20.2

• Desert - Fire Protection, Thorns, Infinity, Efficiency III (master)
• Jungle - Feather Falling, Projectile Protection, Power, Unbreaking II (master)
• Plains - Punch, Smite, Bane of Arthropods, Protection III (master)
• Savanna - Knockback, Curse of Binding, Sweeping Edge (Java Edition only), Sharpness III (master)
• Snow - Aqua Affinity, Looting, Frost Walker, Silk Touch (master)
• Swamp - Depth Strider, Respiration, Curse of Vanishing, Mending (master)
• Taiga - Blast Protection, Fire Aspect, Flame, Fortune II (master)

Additionally, Mojang stated that some enchanted books have been completely removed from the trading tables for librarian villagers. This was allegedly carried out to allow players to find powerful enchantments elsewhere and rely less upon librarian trades.

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The Wandering Trader

In the patch notes for Minecraft snapshot 23w31a, Mojang remarked that the Wandering Trader had absurd prices and didn't sell too many useful items or blocks when it appeared. Since this was the case, many players tended to ignore the Wandering Trader or not utilize its trades as much as Mojang preferred.

To address this issue, Mojang has added the ability for the Wandering Trader to buy items and blocks from players. Furthermore, this trader has received more trades and possesses items/blocks in larger quantities. This should ideally make the Wandering Trader more useful when it appears in Minecraft.

New Wandering Trader trades post-1.20.2

• Water Bottles (Buying) - One bottle for one emerald
• Water Buckets (Buying) - One bucket for two emeralds
• Milk Buckets (Buying) - One bucket for two emeralds
• Fermented Spider Eyes (Buying) - One eye for three emeralds
• Baked Potatoes (Buying) - Four potatoes for one emerald
• Hay Bales (Buying) - One bale for one emerald
• Wooden Logs (Selling) - Eight logs for one emerald
• Enchanted Iron Pickaxe (Selling) - One pickaxe for 6-20 emeralds
• Potions of Invisibility (Selling) - One potion for five emeralds

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Cartographer Changes

As part of Minecraft 1.20.2 villager trading changes, players will now be able to get a wide variety of maps from cartographers. Here are all the new trades for cartographers depending on their biome:

• Desert Cartographers - Savanna and plains village maps, jungle explorer map
• Jungle Cartographers - Savanna and desert village maps, swamp explorer map
• Plains Cartographers - Savanna and taiga village maps
• Savanna Cartographers - Desert and plains village maps, jungle explorer map
• Snow Cartographers - Plains and taiga village maps, swamp explorer map
• Swamp Cartographers - Snowy and taiga village maps, jungle explorer map
• Taiga Cartographers - Plains and snowy village maps, swamp explorer map

Changes to zombie villagers

Minecraft players have long cured zombie villagers with potions of weaknesses and golden apples to receive the resulting trading discount. However, it appears that Mojang has taken note of the fact that the discount stacks with each subsequent time a villager is cured of being a zombie.

According to Mojang in the 23w31a patch notes, the discount will now only trigger once upon curing a zombie villager. This will heavily influence the effectiveness of creating villager trading halls and farms. Minecraft players can no longer repeatedly infect and cure villagers to reduce their trade prices down to just a few emeralds.

This appears to be a game-balance decision on Mojang's part, as the company likely believes that the ability to reinfect and cure villagers leads to trades being incredibly easy to exploit.

However, the studio has asked for feedback on 23w31a's and pre-release 1 experimental changes, so it's possible that all of the Minecraft villager trading changes outlined above may not make it to the official version based on fan response. Players new to the game will need a Minecraft villager trading guide to learn this tedious process.