Wandering Trader

The wandering trader is a passive mob that randomly spawns near the player. It can trade, making natural items more available, less dangerous to obtain, and in some cases, renewable.

Spawning
The wandering trader appears randomly across the Overworld with 2 leashed trader llamas. They typically spawn within a 48-block radius of a player. They also try to spawn by a claimed bell in a village.

At any time, there can be only one wandering trader naturally spawned in loaded chunks. However, it is possible to have more than one wandering trader present by having one spawn in loaded chunks, while having another in unloaded chunks. After 24000 ticks (20 real-life minutes, or 1 Minecraft day) have passed since the world is created, the game attempts to spawn a wandering trader. If there are no wandering traders currently in any loaded chunks, the game tries to spawn a new wandering trader after every following 24000 ticks. The first spawn attempt has a 2.5% chance of success; if it fails, after another 24000 ticks another spawn attempt is made with a 5% chance of success. If that fails, for all subsequent spawn attempts the chance caps at 7.5%. On average, it takes 14.325 Minecraft days (or 4.8 real-life hours) for a wandering trader to spawn. After 48000 or 72000 ticks, the trader despawns, even when named, along with its trader llamas, resetting the cycle. In Java Edition, each time a spawning attempt succeeds, 10 spawn attempts are made for the wandering trader and both trader llamas on the topmost block in chosen X/Z coordinates that is not air. Usual spawn-proofing (see Spawn) also works for wandering traders.

$$, when using spawn eggs or the command to spawn a wandering trader, llamas always spawn with it. Wandering traders never spawn if is set to.

$$, wandering traders never spawn if is set to.

When playing on a small remote island, wandering traders usually spawn in the water. The game prefers spawning them on the world surface, but they can also spawn underground if the player is more than 48 blocks from the surface and the spawn attempt occurs on a solid surface in an open volume.

More than one wandering trader can be spawned using a spawn egg or using commands, although all the wandering traders look the same, but not their trader llamas.

Despawning
The wandering trader despawns along with its leashed trader llamas after 2-3 days, which is 40-60 minutes of real-time. Naming the wandering trader with a name tag or placing the wandering trader in a boat/minecart does not prevent it from despawning. This also includes wandering traders as passengers of other mobs in Java Edition, where the wandering trader still despawns if summoned on top of another mob. In Bedrock Edition, unleashed trader llamas may never despawn, even when unnamed and/or left in unloaded chunks.

Wandering traders despawn sooner if all the trades are locked.

Wandering traders do not despawn if marked persistent, by setting the NBT tag, or setting manually with  or.

Behavior
The wandering trader has 6 random trades. New trades are not unlocked after trading with it.

After spawning, the wandering trader has a managed schedule for 40–60 minutes. After the time expires, the wandering trader despawns, even if the wandering trader is named with a name tag or put in a vehicle such as a minecart or boat. A wandering trader despawns sooner if all trades have been locked. The trader may later respawn with new trades.

The wandering trader can sometimes form a caravan, due to wild llamas that follow the leashed trader llama(s).

Wandering traders drink a potion of invisibility during dusk and as needed to renew the effect during the night. They also drink milk at dawn or when the player approaches them at night to remove the invisibility effect.

Wandering traders avoid zombies and their variants, all illager variants, and vexes, staying at least 8 blocks away. Unlike other villagers, a wandering trader killed by zombies does not become a zombie villager.

Wandering traders drink potions of invisibility if hurt by magic attacks or projectiles from hostile mobs, or when avoiding illagers, vexes, and zombies.

When attacked by a player, a wandering trader flees from the player as a villager would do. The llamas, however, attack the player by spitting if their master gets hit, except in Peaceful. The llamas stop attacking If the player is killed and respawns if the llamas are leashed after the wandering trader is killed or, if the player gets far enough away from them for a short period of time.

The wandering trader does not drink an invisibility potion if attacked by the player.

Unlike most other villager-like mobs, wandering traders do not visually sit down when riding objects such as boats and minecarts.

Trading


The trading system is a gameplay mechanic that allows players to buy items with emeralds, but from a wandering trader this time.

A player can click on the wandering trader to view the items offered for sale, similar to a villager. Different offers are visible in a list, and clicking on one of the offers moves the corresponding items to the slots above the player's inventory. All offers involve emeralds as a currency.

Wandering traders typically sell items generated in the world or otherwise related to nature, such as plants, dyes, and buckets of fish. They can also trade less common items, such as coral blocks, blue ice, or nautilus shells. Overall, trades offered by wandering traders offer a way to obtain biome-specific materials, without having to travel to the specific biomes.

After the player purchases the same item several times, the wandering trader locks the trade, but unlike villagers, never unlocks the trade. The wandering trader can appear again around the player with new trades after a while.

Wandering traders do not have the novice-master trading system like villagers. Instead, the player can buy anything from the wandering trader without the need of unlocking the previous trades.

Wandering traders do not increase or decrease the prices of its items being sold if attacked by the player, or if the player has the Hero of the Village effect.

Unlike villagers, wandering traders only sell items, they do not buy items. Wandering traders do not have an experience bar and do not modify their offers or prices based on changing demand. This (the trade items or prices) can be changed by the player by editing the corresponding NBT data flag through the use of the command.

As of the Wild Update, wandering traders are the only renewable source of sand, red sand, ferns, coral blocks, and small dripleaves.

The wandering trader cannot work at a job site block and restock, even summoned with a villager profession or other villager data.

Drops

 * A milk bucket (8.5% chance, increased 1% per level of Looting) if killed while holding or before finishing drinking.
 * A potion of invisibility (8.5% chance, increased 1% per level of Looting) if killed while holding or before finishing drinking.

A wandering trader also drops leads when killed or when separated too far from its trader llamas. The leads break and appear at the position of the llamas. The llamas also drop their leads when killed, and if a wandering trader and one of its llamas are riding the same boat, the lead breaks. This counts up to two leads.

Wandering traders do not drop any loot when they despawn.

Wandering traders do not reward any experience when killed or when the player successfully trades with the wandering trader.

ID




Entity data
Wandering traders have entity data associated with them that contains various properties.




 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.
 * See Bedrock Edition level format/Entity format.

Trivia

 * The Wandering Trader was inspired by traveling merchants from various RPGs, specifically ones that appeared to provide players with healing items in dangerous places.
 * Villagers display their held items differently than most creatures do, using the "ground" parameter instead of the usual hand parameter in model display settings.