LEATHER LEGGINGS

Leather Leggings is the first piece of armor most players ever buy from a villager, not because it is good but because it is there. A fresh Leatherworker can list it from the moment he claims a cauldron, at his very first tier, and nothing else on his sheet costs fewer emeralds.

Be honest with yourself about what you are getting. Leather sits at the bottom of the game's four armor materials, so this piece stops earning its slot the day you find iron. Treat it as a bridge rather than a destination: something to survive the first nights with, not something to defend a base in later. A crafting grid needs 7 leather for the same result, and the villager dyes his stock to match the biome he lives in, so what you buy will not always be the plain brown you picture.

Of the four leather pieces the Leatherworker carries, this is the only one, along with Leather Boots, that shows up at a single tier and nowhere else. The Tunic and the Cap both repeat later in his list. Leggings do not get a second chance, so if a villager rolls it, that is the offer.

One trader, one tier, one price. The Leatherworker lists Leather Leggings the moment he reaches novice, asking 3 emerald for 1, and the offer holds for 12 uses before he has to restock. No other profession touches leather armor, and no tier above this one repeats the offer, so this is the whole of it.

That single price never moves either. Curing a zombie villager cuts prices across most of a trader's sheet, but a floor of one emerald cannot go any lower, and Leather Leggings is already close to it. What you are really shopping for is a villager who rolled this trade at all.

Leather Leggings sells for as little as 3 emeralds, from the Leatherworker at the Novice tier, and nothing else on the list costs less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Leatherworker will quote you exactly the same.

The Leatherworker at its novice tier asks 3 emeralds for leather leggings. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

3 lava buckets against 78 potatoes for the same 3 emeralds, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 1.9 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

Find an unemployed villager, drop a cauldron next to him, and he becomes a Leatherworker on the spot with his novice trades already loaded. There is no earlier tier to wait through and nothing to unlock first. Buying it pays him 1 trading experience per use, which counts toward the Apprentice trades where his more useful offers start showing up.

Break the cauldron before he settles into the job and you lose the profession along with it, so pick the spot for his workstation before you start clicking. Once he has traded at least once, the job sticks even if the block goes away.

Clicking through the offer 12 times takes about as long as your reflexes allow. Refilling it does not: the villager has to reach his cauldron, and the game blocks a second restock for 2 real minutes after the first. A full Minecraft day runs 20 real minutes and fits two of those refills.

So a single Leatherworker hands over 24 pairs of leggings for 24 emeralds in 20 minutes of real play, then goes quiet until the next day turns over. For a trade this cheap, standing there and watching the counter tick is rarely worth more than the leggings themselves.

Spend the emeralds early or not at all. A full slot costs 36 emeralds for 12 pairs, and since the price cannot drop with a cure, there is no reward for waiting once you have decided you want them.

Feed the same villager. He buys leather for an emerald a stack, so a cow farm or a pile of hide you are not using pays for this trade and several others on his list without you ever touching your own emerald stash.

Once his cauldron is placed, he is worth a full look rather than a single purchase. The same trader also carries Leather Tunic, Flint, Leather Cap, Leather Boots, Rabbit Hide and Leather Horse Armor, so a single cauldron can outfit a rider as well as a walker.

Leggings cost seven leather, more than the cap and the boots put together, which makes them the piece a new player skips. They are also the second most protective slot, so skipping them is the wrong economy.

Leather itself comes off cows, horses and llamas, and out of a fishing rod often enough to matter. Two rabbit hides also make one leather, which is worth remembering in a desert where there are no cows.

Like the rest of the set they take dye, so a full leather kit is the only armour in the game that can be any colour you like.