How to Build a Minecraft Trading Hall

What a trading hall is

A trading hall is a building where each villager lives in its own cell, right next to the job site block that gives it its profession. Because the villagers cannot wander off, they are always where you left them, they can always reach their job site to restock, and zombies cannot get to them. Most players keep a few librarians for enchanted books, a cleric, an armorer, a toolsmith, a weaponsmith and a couple of farmers or fletchers for emeralds. Our best villager trades guide explains which villagers are worth a cell.

What every cell needs

• Its own job site block within reach. A villager can work at its job site when the block is right next to it at the height of its feet, or in the 3×3 layer just below its feet. Diagonals count too, even though the villager cannot touch a face of the block from there.
• A way to claim the job site. In Java Edition an unemployed villager looks for the nearest unclaimed job site within 48 blocks, walks to it and must get within about 2 blocks of it. If it cannot reach the block within 60 seconds it gives up the claim. In Bedrock Edition a villager needs a bed first, then claims a job site from its village's list regardless of distance, even one it cannot reach.
• Room to stand. An adult villager is 1.95 blocks tall in Java (1.9 in Bedrock) and 0.6 blocks wide, so a 1×1 space that is 2 blocks tall fits it exactly.
• Time to work. Villagers restock up to twice a day, and only while working at their job site. In Java their work time starts around 08:00 in-game (06:00 in Bedrock), so stay near the hall during the day. In Bedrock the villager must also be linked to a bed, but it does not have to sleep in it.

Java villagers do not need beds at all to work or restock. Beds only matter in Java if you want to breed new villagers.

The simple cell design

This is the design the planner uses. Each villager stands in a 1×1 space with solid walls on both sides and behind it. Its job site block sits directly in front of it at foot level, and a roof covers the cell and the job site exactly 2 blocks above the floor. The single open block above the job site is the trading window.

Why the villager stays put: to climb onto its job site the villager would have to stand on top of it, and with the roof only 2 blocks above the floor there is just 1 block of space there. An adult villager needs about 2. The walls block every other direction, so the villager is stuck in its cell but still next to its job site.

Why you can still trade: you stand in the hallway in front of the job site and look through the open block at the villager's head, well within reach.

Close the hall with solid walls and an iron door with a button on each side. Villagers can open wooden and copper doors, but not iron doors, trapdoors or fence gates.

Compact layouts

• Two rows: put a second row of cells on the other side of the hallway, facing the first. The hall becomes 8 blocks deep instead of 6 but only half as long. Switch the planner to "Two rows" to see it.
• Several floors: the roof of one floor can be the floor of the next, so each extra floor only adds 3 blocks of height. Keep each floor's job sites inside that floor's cells.
• Keep job sites close in Bedrock: Bedrock villagers find job sites by searching about 16 blocks around them, and only a few blocks up and down, so keep the whole hall compact and close to the beds.

Getting villagers in

Build the cells first and leave the job site spot open, so each cell has a 2-block-tall opening at the front. Then bring a villager in:

• Minecart: push a minecart into a villager and it gets in. Lay rails from the village (or your breeder) through the hallway and into the cell, push the cart in, then break the cart.
• Boat: a villager that touches a boat gets in. You can sit in the same boat and slide it slowly over land, or float it along a water channel.
• Water streams: flowing water pushes villagers along. A breeder next to the hall can drop new villagers into a stream that leads past the empty cells.

As soon as the villager is inside, place its job site block in the opening. That closes the cell and gives the villager its job at the same time.

Breeding: two villagers become willing to breed once they have 12 food points, for example 3 bread or 12 carrots, potatoes or beetroots. They also need a free bed with 2 empty blocks above it. After breeding they wait 5 minutes before they can breed again.

Choosing and locking trades

1. With the villager in its cell, place the job site block and open the trading screen.
2. If you do not like the trades, break the job site block and place it again. A villager that has never traded loses its job and picks it up again with new trades.
3. When the trade you want appears (Mending on a librarian, for example), trade once. From now on the villager keeps its profession and its trades forever, even if the job site is broken.

Place job site blocks one at a time. In Java an unemployed villager in another cell could claim a spare block you put down, and in Bedrock a villager can claim a job site it cannot reach at all. See the rerolling section of the villager trading guide for more detail.

Zombie curing station

Curing a zombie villager gives the biggest discount in the game, and the cured villager keeps its profession and trades. The process:

1. Get a zombie villager into a closed cell with an opaque roof, so it does not burn when the sun rises. A villager killed by a zombie turns into a zombie villager 100% of the time on Hard, 50% on Normal and never on Easy, so many players let a zombie reach the villager they want to cure on Hard difficulty.
2. Give it Weakness with a Splash or Lingering Potion of Weakness or an Arrow of Weakness (see the brewing chart).
3. Use a golden apple on it. It turns back into a villager after 3 to 5 minutes. Iron bars and beds nearby make this faster.

How big the discount is (Java): curing gives you permanent reputation with that villager plus a smaller part that fades over time. Each trade gets cheaper by its price multiplier times your reputation. For enchanted books and enchanted diamond armor the cure alone takes about 25 emeralds off at first and 20 emeralds off for good, and a cheap trade such as the cleric's ender pearl drops to 1 emerald. Prices never go below 1.

• In Java the discount is only for the player who cured the villager, and it does not stack: curing the same villager again does not lower prices further.
• Be online when the cure finishes. If you are not, you do not get the discount (bug MC-247647).
• In Bedrock the discount spreads to villagers within 16 blocks of the cured one as they gossip.
• In Java a zombie villager you traded with before it turned does not despawn, so you have time to cure it.

Protection from zombies, raids and lightning

• Zombies: use solid walls, an iron door and light up the inside, the roof and the area around the hall so no mobs spawn nearby. On Hard difficulty some zombies can break wooden doors.
• Raids: once villagers claim job sites there, your hall counts as a village. A raid starts 30 seconds after a player with Bad Omen enters it. You only get Bad Omen by drinking an ominous bottle, so do not drink one near your hall, and drink milk if you do. In Java, vindicators open doors to find villagers, and if all villagers die the raid is lost.
• Lightning: a strike within 4 blocks turns a villager into a witch. A roof prevents direct hits, but a strike on the roof can be that close. A lightning rod pulls in strikes within 128 blocks in Java and 64 blocks in Bedrock, and its lightning damage reaches 2 blocks below the rod, so put the rod on a post at least 3 blocks above the roof.

Materials for a 10-villager hall

For the simple design with 10 villagers in one row (21×6 blocks, 4 blocks tall including floor and roof), you need:

That is 389 building blocks, or 6 stacks + 5. Two rows of 5 cells would be 11×8 blocks instead. Use the planner for other sizes, and the stack calculator to turn the numbers into shulker boxes. Once your hall is full, the villager trades list shows every trade each villager can offer.