Minecraft villager trading rebalance: All you need to know

Minecraft villagers are one of the game's most fascinating creatures. They have a set routine and different professions in which they work every day. Working villagers can be interacted with to open the trading UI, and players can trade items or emeralds with them. In August 2023, however, Mojang Studios released an experimental feature called villager trade rebalance, which brought drastic changes to the trading system.

Here is everything to know about the villager trade rebalance experimental feature in Minecraft.

---

Villager trade rebalance in Minecraft: What it does, how it changes the gameplay, and more

How villager trade rebalance works in Minecraft

Librarians will be heavily nerfed with this change. (Image via Mojang Studios)

Librarian villagers were considered the most overpowered variant of the mob since they could offer an enchanted book with most enchantments, even treasure ones. Over the years, players found a trick to break and replace the lectern to shuffle the trading list and get any enchantment they want.

On the other hand, wandering traders were another mob that usually spawns randomly in a generated chunk and sold items to players. However, the items sold by the wandering trader were not too useful to players.

These issues were first addressed with the villager trade rebalance. At first, Mojang Studios heavily nerfed the librarians and buffed wandering traders.

Librarians now offer certain enchanted books depending on which biome they spawn in, with the type of enchantment split into special and regular. Special enchantments that were more valuable were only available when a librarian reached master level with full XP.

Armorer and cartographer villagers also receive some changes. (Image via Mojang Studios)

Along with these changes, the experimental feature added seven new maps that cartographer villagers can sell. All seven of them were village maps for different biomes, making it slightly easier to find unique villages.

Armorer villager's trades were also changed. The developers added a few new trades and tweaked others to make it more challenging for players to find certain special items in Minecraft.

---

How does this affect Minecraft's gameplay?

Villager trading halls will need changes if trade rebalance is officially released. (Image via Mojang Studios)

This rebalance will drastically change the entire method of how players trade with these creatures. Many experienced players who have created massive villager halls - with each villager having a specific trade - will now have to change the trading and breeding locations just to receive special enchantments or other items.

Furthermore, those who do not have a trading hall system and simply wander around in search of a librarian will also have to focus on which biome a village is being generated.

In general, the villager trading system will get a lot tricky with the rebalance changes.

---

Villager trade rebalance is still in the experimental stage

The villager trade rebalance system is still behind the experimental tab in both editions. (Image via Mojang Studios)

While the villager trade rebalance system will massively shift how players deal with villagers, there is still time before it gets implemented. As of now, this feature is under the experimental section of the game and has not been added to the official game.

This means that when players start a normal world, they will not have to deal with the new trading changes. While creating a new world, they can find the experimental section where the villager's rebalance feature can be toggled on or off. By default, the feature is off in all Minecraft versions.