What are the uses for villagers in Minecraft?

Villagers, even in the latest 1.18 update, remain one of the most useful mobs in Minecraft. Players search far and wide to find them and often take them to make their own personal villages.

They are extremely important and have the capability to help players a lot. Without them, much of the game would be significantly harder.

Villagers serve a few functions in Minecraft. Here are all of their uses as of the 1.18 update.

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All the uses for Minecraft villagers

There are currently 15 different types of Minecraft villagers:

• Unemployed
• Nitwit
• Fisherman
• Farmer
• Stone Mason (just a mason in Java Edition)
• Weaponsmith
• Toolsmith
• Shepherd
• Librarian
• Leatherworker
• Butcher
• Fletcher
• Cleric
• Armorer
• Cartographer

Villagers are useful for their trades, which they have several of (Image via Minecraft)

This is their most useful trait: their jobs. Nitwits cannot get a job, so they are pretty much useless (except for breeding). Unemployed villagers simply need a job block assigned to them.

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Villagers who do have jobs can trade with players, which is their main use in Minecraft. For example, librarians are great for trading enchanted books. Clerics can trade ender pearls.

Fishermen can trade enchanted fishing rods while armorers and blacksmiths can give diamond tools or armor.

Villagers can really only trade, but it's an extremely useful trait. Trading with villagers is the best way to get several items. It removes the need to find and craft diamond tools or armor. It removes the need to enchant books.

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The other use that villagers have is to give XP. This can be done by trading or by breeding them. Each successful trade will see a villager drop 3–6 XP points. Upon successful trading, while willing to breed (after the hearts appear), 8–11 XP points are dropped.

Unfortunately, that's all they are good for. They can be killed fairly easily (iron golems will retaliate though) but they don't drop anything. They also don't give an XP when killed, so eliminating them is mostly fruitless.