3

I have massive quantities of carrots, and potatoes and am trying to trade with a farmer, but it is taking a very long time. Is there a way to speed this process up?

I am aware of the "standard" shortcuts for moving items up to the trading window, and down from the trading window. But, that still takes forever.

1

2 Answers 2

1

After much experimentation, it turns out there are a number of very significant things to keep in mind, in order to maximize the trading throughput. I'm answering this with the purpose to maximize the number of emeralds / real world minutes played.

  • The Farmer is the best option. Because it is simple to create completely automated pumpkin, wheat, carrot and potato farms.
  • Pick a farmer villager that has the best possible trading options for your farms. i.e.
    • 16 or fewer carrots / emerald (so you get 4 emeralds / stack instead of 3)
    • 16 or fewer potatoes / emerald.
    • 8 pumpkins / emerald.
    • 20 or fewer wheat / emerald.
  • Learn the keyboard short cuts, to minimize mouse movements between your inventory, and the trading window.
  • Stage lots of chests of items near the villager to minimize Steve movement.
  • Maximize trades with the farmer. That is, completely trade as much wheat as possible, then completely trade as much potatoes as possible etc. Keeping the trading window open the entire time. Once you have gotten every trade closed, then close the trading window. With very high probability all trades will get refreshed.

In my experience (I've traded for about 100 stacks of emeralds) the last bullet point above maximizes the villager's chances of getting the regeneration effect, and reopening all trades. And it's obviously the fastest keyboard/mouse approach.

In my experience, if you trade for a single emerald at a time, and close the trading window between each trade, you are much more likely to close a trade than refresh trades. Basically, if you do single trades you get on average about 32 emeralds before all trades are closed and you have to start buying things with emeralds. (I just have a potato, wheat and carrot farm, I haven't finished the pumpkin farm yet, I suspect the numbers improve with 4 trades). With the bulk trading option, I've only had the villager lock all trades, and not release trades once.

One last note: I have read some commentaries that tell you not to drop items at the villager's feet, because they'll pick them up. This is not quite true. A farmer will pick up 5 full stacks of wheat, potatoes, and/or carrots. (Also seeds, and bread). Once the farmer is "full" he won't pick up anything else, so this is only a very short term issue.

0

Villagers have a limit to what they trade. I don't mean the stuff they will trade, but how much you trade for. One example is that I would get emeralds quickly without mining by trading a villager lots of wheat. But then the emerald slot disappears. So there's a limit to what they trade. You don't need to trade everything at once. Once you trade something to a villager, there will be particles all over it when you exit the trade system, meaning the villager has something else to trade. But you're right. There might be a big limit to how much you trade, so that's why I tell you that you don't have to trade everything at once. I hope that answered your question. Good trading!

6
  • By the way, after a villager closes a trade, it will appear again after a few minutes. Dec 30, 2015 at 18:32
  • @HolyBlackCat That has not been experience in Vanilla 1.8.9. What version are you running?
    – John
    Feb 9, 2016 at 0:54
  • @John It works for me in Vanilla 1.8.9. I close villager screen, wait like 5-10 seconds, talk to him again and he has the trade opened. Feb 9, 2016 at 12:23
  • @HolyBlackCat Do you have all particles enabled in your video output? My guess is you do not. When you have them enabled, you'll see the villager endure a "regeneration" effect. That's the sign that trades have been "reopened." This effect does not happen every time you close the trading window. When that does not happen, you have to trade more to get it to occur.
    – John
    Feb 9, 2016 at 14:56
  • No, I have particles enabled and I see that effect. They show up every time when I close villager screen after using a single trade to the limit. When I open his screen again, that trade is open again. Feb 9, 2016 at 15:31

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .