MASON
Workstation: Stonecutter|16 trades across 5 levelsBiome-specific
Also called Stone Mason in Bedrock Edition. Sells polished stones, bricks, terracotta, and quartz. Buys clay, stone, and nether quartz.
What is the Mason?
The Mason is one of Minecraft's 13 working villager professions, and an unemployed adult villager takes the job the moment it claims a Stonecutter — the block that doubles as its job-site marker. Place that stonecutter within range of a jobless villager and it will path to the block, change into mason clothing, and open its Novice-tier offers. Remove the stonecutter before any deal is struck and the villager drops the profession again.
Across its 5 career tiers this villager exposes 16 distinct trades in total, and it is primarily a supplier that sells finished goods for emeralds. It will take clay ball, stone, granite, and andesite, among other items, off your hands for emeralds, and in return it sells brick, chiseled stone bricks, polished andesite, and polished granite, and more. Because the Mason is biome-specific, the exact goods it offers (and their tints, patterns, or stock) shift with the biome its village sits in, so a desert Mason will not always match a plains one.
For players farming currency, the Mason's quickest route to an emerald is handing over 10 clay balls at the Novice tier, which is worth keeping in mind when you decide whether to build a trading hall around this profession.
Clay Ball
1 Emerald
BrickMason trades by tier (Novice to Master)
A Mason climbs five career ranks, and each rank it reaches adds a fresh batch of offers on top of the ones below it. In vanilla 1.21 the experience gates are fixed: the Novice tier opens immediately with 2 offers, 10 more trade-XP points unlock Apprentice (2 offers), 60 more trade-XP points unlock Journeyman (7 offers), 80 more trade-XP points unlock Expert (3 offers), and 100 more trade-XP points unlock Master (2 offers). 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
2 trades · available from the startSell to villager: 10 clay balls for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: 10 brick for 1 emerald.
Tier 2 · Apprentice
2 trades · 10 cumulative XPSell to villager: 20 stones for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: 4 chiseled stone bricks for 1 emerald.
Tier 3 · Journeyman
7 trades · 70 cumulative XPSell to villager: 16 granites for 1 emerald, 16 andesites for 1 emerald, and 16 diorites for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: 4 polished andesite for 1 emerald, 4 polished granite for 1 emerald, 4 polished diorite for 1 emerald, and 4 dripstone block for 1 emerald.
Tier 4 · Expert
3 trades · 150 cumulative XPSell to villager: 12 nether quartzs for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: colored terracotta for 1 emerald and glazed terracotta for 1 emerald.
Tier 5 · Master
2 trades · 250 cumulative XPBuy from villager: quartz pillar for 1 emerald and quartz block for 1 emerald.
Mason trading tips
- Fastest emerald income: stockpile clay ball and sell it in stacks of 10. This Mason 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 stonecutter and restock (which it does up to twice a day).
- Best-value purchase: the cheapest thing this villager sells is brick for 1 emerald at the Novice tier — a reliable sink for spare emeralds.
- Cure for permanent discounts: let a zombie infect this Mason 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 Mason 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 stonecutter to restock and gain XP.
- 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 stonecutter so it forgets the job, then give it back to generate a new Novice list. Our villager rolling guide walks through it.