SHEPHERD
Workstation: Loom|13 trades across 5 levels
Sells colored wool, carpets, beds, banners, and paintings. Buys wool and dyes.
- Last checked
- 11 August 2026
- Java Edition
- 26.2, 13 of 13 rows found
- Bedrock Edition
- 1.26.30.5, 11 of 13 matching
- Edition differences
- none, 2 rolled prices aside
What is the Shepherd?
The Shepherd is one of Minecraft's 13 working villager professions, and an unemployed adult villager takes the job the moment it claims a Loom, the block that doubles as its job-site marker. Place that loom within range of a jobless villager and it will path to the block, change into shepherd clothing, and open its Novice-tier offers. Remove the loom before any deal is struck and the villager drops the profession again.
Across its 5 career tiers this villager exposes 13 distinct trades in total, and it is primarily an emerald sink that buys your surplus materials. It will take white wool, brown wool, black wool, and gray wool, among other items, off your hands for emeralds, and in return it sells shears, colored wool, colored carpet, and bed, and more. The Shepherd is not biome-specific, so the same trade pool appears no matter which biome the village generates in.
For players farming currency, the Shepherd's quickest route to an emerald is handing over 12 any dyes at the Apprentice 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 | |||
| | 16 | 2same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 1same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
The game draws 2 of the 5 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 40% of novice shepherds, and a specific one takes about 2.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 1, so there the same offer is on 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 1 on the shears (2 to 1) up to 6 on the gray wool (18 to 12). No cost ever drops below one.
The white wool offer pays the villager 2 XP a use and the shears 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 5 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 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | verified | Accepts any of the 16 dye colors | ||
| | 16 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | verified | Random color | ||
| | 16 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | verified | Random color |
The game draws 2 of the 37 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 5.4% of apprentice shepherds, and a specific one takes about 18.5 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 any dye goes from 12 to 6. No cost ever drops below one.
The any dye offer pays the villager 10 XP a use and the colored carpet offer pays 5, so the 60 XP from Apprentice to Journeyman is 6 trades one way and 12 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 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 | Different dye color from Apprentice | ||
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Random color |
The game draws 2 of the 21 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 9.5% of journeyman shepherds, and a specific one takes about 10.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 1, so there the same offer is on 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 2 on the bed (3 to 1) up to 6 on the any dye (12 to 6). No cost ever drops below one.
The any dye offer pays the villager 20 XP a use and the bed offer pays 10, so the 80 XP from Journeyman to Expert is 4 trades one way and 8 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 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 16 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | verified | Different dye color | ||
| | 12 | 15same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Random color |
The game draws 2 of the 22 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 9.1% of expert shepherds, and a specific one takes about 11 rolls to turn up. Bedrock builds this tier out of 2 groups and draws 1 of 1 and 1 of 1, so there the same offer is on 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 2 on the banner (3 to 1) up to 6 on the any dye (12 to 6). No cost ever drops below one.
The any dye offer pays the villager 30 XP a use and the banner offer pays 15, so the 100 XP from Expert to Master is 4 trades one way and 7 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 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 master shepherd 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 1 off every trade, so the painting goes from 2 to 1. 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 Shepherd 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: 19 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 white wool offer, 2 XP a useor any of the 3 others that pay 2 | 5 | 90 white wool | 5 emeralds |
| Apprentice to Journeyman | 60 | The any dye offer, 10 XP a use | 6 | 72 dye | 6 emeralds |
| Journeyman to Expert | 80 | The any dye offer, 20 XP a use | 4 | 48 dye | 4 emeralds |
| Expert to Master | 100 | The any dye offer, 30 XP a use | 4 | 48 dye | 4 emeralds |
| Novice to Master | 250 | no restock needed | 19 | 90 white wool and 168 dye | 19 emeralds |
The bill for the whole climb is 90 white wool and 168 dye (2.6 stacks). It pays for itself: 19 emeralds more than you started with by the time it is Master. No offer in the route runs past what its slot holds, so a Shepherd 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.
Shepherd trades by tier (Novice to Master)
A Shepherd 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 5 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 (2 offers), 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
5 trades · available from the startSell to villager: 18 white wools for 1 emerald, 18 brown wools for 1 emerald, 18 black wools for 1 emerald, and 18 gray wools for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: shears for 2 emeralds.
Tier 2 · Apprentice
3 trades · 10 cumulative XPSell to villager: 12 any dyes for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: colored wool for 1 emerald and 4 colored carpet for 1 emerald.
Tier 3 · Journeyman
2 trades · 70 cumulative XPSell to villager: 12 any dyes for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: bed for 3 emeralds.
Tier 4 · Expert
2 trades · 150 cumulative XPSell to villager: 12 any dyes for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: banner for 3 emeralds.
Tier 5 · Master
1 trade · 250 cumulative XPBuy from villager: 3 painting for 2 emeralds.
Shepherd trading tips
- Fastest emerald income: stockpile any dye and sell it in stacks of 12. This Shepherd 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 loom and restock (which it does up to 2 times a day).
- Best-value purchase: the cheapest thing this villager sells is colored wool for 1 emerald at the Apprentice tier, a reliable sink for spare emeralds.
- Cure for permanent discounts: let a zombie infect this Shepherd 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 Shepherd 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 loom 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 loom so it forgets the job, then give it back to generate a new Novice list. Our villager rolling guide walks through it.