BUTCHER
Workstation: Smoker|11 trades across 5 levels
Buys raw meats and sells cooked foods. Great for converting animal farm products into emeralds.
- Last checked
- 11 August 2026
- Java Edition
- 26.2, 11 of 11 rows found
- Bedrock Edition
- 1.26.30.5, 11 of 11 matching
- Edition differences
- 1 pays different villager XP
What is the Butcher?
The Butcher is one of Minecraft's 13 working villager professions, and an unemployed adult villager takes the job the moment it claims a Smoker, the block that doubles as its job-site marker. Place that smoker within range of a jobless villager and it will path to the block, change into butcher clothing, and open its Novice-tier offers. Remove the smoker before any deal is struck and the villager drops the profession again.
Across its 5 career tiers this villager exposes 11 distinct trades in total, and it is primarily an emerald sink that buys your surplus materials. It will take raw chicken, raw porkchop, raw rabbit, and coal, among other items, off your hands for emeralds, and in return it sells rabbit stew, cooked porkchop, and cooked chicken. The Butcher is not biome-specific, so the same trade pool appears no matter which biome the village generates in.
For players farming currency, the Butcher's quickest route to an emerald is handing over 4 raw rabbits at the Novice tier, which is worth keeping in mind when you decide whether to build a trading hall around this profession.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP |  Java 26.2 |  Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | 16 | 2same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 16 | 2same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 16 | 2same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 1not in the Bedrock table | verified | verified |
The game draws 2 of the 4 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 50% of novice butchers, and a specific one takes about 2 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 3 and 1 of 1, so there the same offer is on 33% or 100% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 3 on the raw rabbit (4 to 1) up to 6 on the raw porkchop (7 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
The raw chicken offer pays the villager 2 XP a use and the rabbit stew offer pays 1, so the 10 XP from Novice to Apprentice is 5 trades one way and 10 the other. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 4 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 16 | 2Bedrock 10 | verified | verified | |||
| | 16 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 16 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
The game draws 2 of the 3 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 67% of apprentice butchers, and a specific one takes about 1.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 100% or 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the coal goes from 15 to 9. No cost ever drops below one.
The cooked porkchop offer pays the villager 5 XP a use and the coal offer pays 2, so the 60 XP from Apprentice to Journeyman is 12 trades one way and 30 the other. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Bedrock pays 10 on the coal offer rather than 2. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 3 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 16 | 20same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 16 | 20same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
The game draws 2 of the 2 offers this tier holds, which is all of them, so every journeyman butcher shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock builds this tier out of 1 group and draws 1 of 2, so there the same offer is on 50% of them. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the raw mutton goes from 7 to 1. No cost ever drops below one.
Every offer here pays the villager 20 XP a use, so the 80 XP from Journeyman to Expert is 4 trades whichever one you use. That fits inside the 16 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 2 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
This tier holds one offer and every villager gets it, so every expert butcher shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the dried kelp block goes from 10 to 4. No cost ever drops below one.
Every offer here pays the villager 30 XP a use, so the 100 XP from Expert to Master is 4 trades whichever one you use. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
The 1 trade on this page was read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
This tier holds one offer and every villager gets it, so every master butcher shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the sweet berries goes from 10 to 4. No cost ever drops below one.
Master is the top tier. Its offers still pay 30 XP a use, but there is no tier above for that XP to open. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
The 1 trade on this page was read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
Novice to Master: what the climb costs
A Butcher does not level up on time served, it levels up on trading XP, and each of its offers pays a fixed amount of it. That makes the climb a countable thing rather than a chore: 25 trades take one from Novice to Master if you use the offer that pays most at every tier, and the tiers below say which offer that is.
| Climb | XP | Offer that pays most | Trades | You hand over | You get back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice to Apprentice | 10 | The raw rabbit offer, 2 XP a useor any of the 2 others that pay 2 | 5 | 20 raw rabbit | 5 emeralds |
| Apprentice to Journeyman | 60 | The cooked porkchop offer, 5 XP a useor the other offer here, which pays 5 too | 12 | 12 emeralds | 60 cooked porkchops |
| Journeyman to Expert | 80 | The raw mutton offer, 20 XP a useor the other offer here, which pays 20 too | 4 | 28 raw mutton | 4 emeralds |
| Expert to Master | 100 | The dried kelp block offer, 30 XP a use | 4 | 40 dried kelp blocks | 4 emeralds |
| Novice to Master | 250 | no restock needed | 25 | 20 raw rabbit, 28 raw mutton, 40 dried kelp blocks and 12 emeralds | 13 emeralds and 60 cooked porkchops |
The bill for the whole climb is 20 raw rabbit, 28 raw mutton, 40 dried kelp blocks and 12 emeralds. It pays for itself: 1 emerald more than you started with by the time it is Master, plus 60 cooked porkchops. No offer in the route runs past what its slot holds, so a Butcher with full stock can be walked all the way up in one sitting.
Counted, not timed. The XP each offer pays is the xp field of its own trade file, the 10, 60, 80, 100 XP between the tiers is VillagerData.NEXT_LEVEL_XP_THRESHOLDS, and the prices and use counts are the table above. Where a tier has more than one offer paying the top rate, the route takes the one any villager can hold, then the one that pays rather than costs, then the cheapest. XP over the line is not lost, it counts toward the next tier, so no trade in the route is wasted. How that check works.
Butcher trades by tier (Novice to Master)
A Butcher climbs five career ranks, and each rank it reaches adds a fresh batch of offers on top of the ones below it. The experience gates are fixed: the Novice tier opens immediately with 4 offers, 10 more trade-XP points unlock Apprentice (3 offers), 60 more trade-XP points unlock Journeyman (2 offers), 80 more trade-XP points unlock Expert (1 offer), and 100 more trade-XP points unlock Master (1 offer). The full price list for every rank is laid out below; emerald costs marked as a range roll randomly within that band each time the trade is generated or restocked.
Tier 1 · Novice
4 trades · available from the startSell to villager: 14 raw chickens for 1 emerald, 7 raw porkchops for 1 emerald, and 4 raw rabbits for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: rabbit stew for 1 emerald.
Tier 2 · Apprentice
3 trades · 10 cumulative XPSell to villager: 15 coals for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: 5 cooked porkchop for 1 emerald and 8 cooked chicken for 1 emerald.
Tier 3 · Journeyman
2 trades · 70 cumulative XPSell to villager: 7 raw muttons for 1 emerald and 10 raw beefs for 1 emerald.
Tier 4 · Expert
1 trade · 150 cumulative XPSell to villager: 10 dried kelp blocks for 1 emerald.
Tier 5 · Master
1 trade · 250 cumulative XPSell to villager: 10 sweet berriess for 1 emerald.
Butcher trading tips
- Fastest emerald income: stockpile raw rabbit and sell it in stacks of 4. This Butcher buy slot can be used 16 times before it locks, so a single villager returns up to 16 emeralds per cycle before you must wait for it to work its smoker and restock (which it does up to 2 times a day).
- Best-value purchase: the cheapest thing this villager sells is rabbit stew for 1 emerald at the Novice tier, a reliable sink for spare emeralds.
- Cure for permanent discounts: let a zombie infect this Butcher on Hard difficulty (guaranteed), trap it safely, hit it with a Splash Potion of Weakness, then feed it a Golden Apple. After the 3-5 minute cure every price drops sharply, often to a single emerald even for its priciest goods. See the full method in our zombie-villager discount guide.
- Leveling up: trading is the only way a Butcher earns career XP. It needs 10 XP to leave Novice, 70 to reach Journeyman, 150 for Expert, and 250 for Master; a green badge becomes a gold one as it ranks up. The villager must be able to reach its smoker to restock and gain XP. Bedrock asks for the same four numbers: they are written into its own trade table, tier by tier.
- Locking and resetting: the very first completed trade locks this villager's offers for good. If you want to reset them, do it while it is still Novice and untraded, remove the smoker so it forgets the job, then give it back to generate a new Novice list. Our villager rolling guide walks through it.