Yes, shepherd villagers in Minecraft's Java Edition do sell wool, offering various colors starting from their apprentice level trades.
Shepherd villagers are a valuable resource for players looking to acquire specific wool colors without needing to dye sheep or collect a wide range of dyes. Their trading options provide a convenient way to gather materials for building, decoration, or crafting.
The Shepherd Villager: Your Source for Wool
The shepherd villager, easily identifiable by their brown attire with woolly accents, specializes in all things related to wool and sheep. Once a villager takes on the shepherd profession, they unlock a series of trades that evolve as they gain experience and level up.
Key details about wool trades from shepherds in Java Edition:
- Villager Type: Shepherd
- Trade Level: Apprentice (the second level of villager trades)
- Item Offered: One or two blocks of colored wool.
- Cost: One emerald per trade.
- Chance of Offering: Apprentice-level shepherd villagers have a 2/7 chance of offering a trade for one or two colored wool. This means that at any given time, there's a strong possibility they will have a wool trade available.
- Specific Color Chance: With five different colored wool blocks potentially offered (white, orange, magenta, light blue, yellow, lime, pink, gray, light gray, cyan, purple, blue, brown, green, red, black), each individual colored wool block has a 1/56 chance of being the specific trade offered.
This system means that while a shepherd is quite likely to sell some colored wool, finding a trade for a specific color might take a few refreshes (by trading other items or waiting) or checking multiple shepherds.
Understanding Wool Trades
To help you quickly identify and utilize these trades, here’s a summary:
| Villager Profession | Required Level | Item Sold | Price | Edition | Chance of Offer (Java) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shepherd | Apprentice | Colored Wool (1-2) | 1 Emerald | Java | 2/7 chance for any colored wool trade; 1/56 chance for a specific colored wool. |
For more in-depth information on villager mechanics and trades, you can consult the Minecraft Wiki on Villagers and Shepherd villagers.
Practical Applications of Wool Trading
Trading for wool with villagers offers several advantages, especially in specific gameplay scenarios:
- Convenience: Instead of setting up large-scale sheep farms or constantly searching for different dyes, you can accumulate emeralds and trade directly with shepherds for the wool colors you need.
- Resource Efficiency: If you have an abundant supply of emeralds (perhaps from other villager trades or mining), trading can be a far more efficient way to acquire large quantities of varied wool compared to manual farming or resource gathering.
- Specific Color Acquisition: For rare or hard-to-find dye colors, trading with a shepherd can be an excellent alternative to finding the natural resources required to craft the dye.
- Early Game Advantage: Once you establish a basic villager trading hall, access to colored wool for beds, carpets, or building can be significantly expedited.
For players focused on creative builds or needing a consistent supply of specific wool colors without the overhead of animal husbandry, cultivating a relationship with a good shepherd villager is an excellent strategy.
