Discount and Curing Mechanics
Villager Discounts
As discussed in the Buying and Selling Resources Page, trading is at the epicenter for progressing through a world; however, villagers are greedy scam artists that love to charge high prices for buying items and selling resources. As TMC is accustomed to finding the most efficient solutions to problems, we minimize the work we need to do to profit off of trading. The way we do this is by applying discounts to villagers to minimize their prices. There are a few different ways we can do this, which are all described in this page:
In Bedrock Edition, there are three different discounts we can apply to a villager. Two coming from Zombie Villager Conversion, and the other from Raids. The three discounts are as follows:
- Direct Discounts
- Area of Effect (AOE) Discounts
- Hero of the Village (HOTV) Discounts
The strength of a discount, or how much the price of a trade decreases, varies based on the type of discount, and the weight of a trade.
Trade Weights
Before we can dive into the types of discounts, we first need to discuss how different trades are affected by discounts, as some trades receive a larger discount than others.
Economy Trades aka Non-Weighted Trades, are trades that receive a normal discount amount. All "Sell" trades, and many "Buy" trades fall under this category. The "Buy" trades that fall under this category are usually basic resources and blocks.
Regular Trades aka Weighted Trades, are trades that receive a higher discount. The trades that fall under this category are equipment items such as tools, weapons, armor, and other special items that are related. A list of all weighted trades is below.
List of Weighted Trades
| All Helmets | |
| All Chestplates | |
| All Leggings | |
| All Boots | |
|
All Swords |
|
| All Pickaxes | |
| All Shovels | |
| All Axes | |
| All Hoes | |
| Shield | |
| All Horse Armor | |
| Saddle | |
| Fishing Rod | |
| All Enchanted Books | |
| All Explorer Maps | |
| Bell |
Zombie Villager Conversion
During the release of the Nether Update (1.16), Villagers received parity with Java Edition to receive discounts when cured from being a Zombie Villager. The application of the discount(s) has changed over the years to make it more balanced. In it's first form, all villagers in a 16 block radius had all their prices reduced to 1 emerald. Not too long after in 1.16.100, the mechanics now were more similar to Java in which villagers received a fair discount from zombifying and curing, and nearby villagers received a small discount. This could be done multiple times to stack discounts on top of each other. This was the way curing based discounts were for a good amount of time. That was until 1.20.30, when the bug for multiple discounts being applied was fixed (LIST BUG REPORT HERE), meaning that only a single discount of each type could be applied to each villager. Which is where the mechanics have stayed until today.
Despite the 1 cure limit, Zombie Villager conversion remains the most efficient way to apply discounts to villagers. Direct Discounts and AOE Discounts provide enough of a discount to bring many trades down to 1 emerald/resource. These two discounts are usually stacked together automatically based on how they are applied.
Let's look at both discounts:
Direct Discounts
Direct Discounts are the larger discount applied to a villager that was directly cured from being a Zombie Villager. These discounts are very powerful, providing the largest price reduction of all three discount types.
| Trade Weight | Price Reduction |
| Non-Weighted Trade | -5 |
| Weighted Trade | -20 |
Since the change to the discount system in 1.16.100, Direct discounts have remained a permanent effect. In game, a cured Villager will show a larger discount amount than the table above. This is because Villagers receive both a Direct and AOE discount when cured.
Area of Effect Discounts
Area of Effect Discounts are the smaller discount applied to Villagers within a certain area around a Zombie Villager. When a Zombie Villager is cured, villagers within this area receive the AOE discount.
| Trade Weight | Price Reduction |
| Non-Weighted Trade | -1 |
| Weighted Trade | -5 |
AOE discounts are applied within a 16 block cuboidal radius, centered at the blocks the Zombie Villager occupies when converted. The area defined by this radius is 33x34x33 blocks (xyz).
Previously, these discounts were temporary, each AOE discount lasted 4 hours before the effect would wear off; However, when the 1 discount limit was introduced in 1.20.30, AOE discounts were made permanent alongside Direct discounts.
There is also currently a bug in which Zombie Villagers created from a Zombie Spawner provide AOE discounts to Villagers. Although the 1 discount limit now makes this exploit not worth utilizing since zombifying and curing the villagers will provide both discounts, and since AOE discounts are now permanent, there's no reason to re-zombify a villager, meaning the Zombie Villagers created to provide multiple, constant discounts are obsolete.
Hero of the Village
Zombie Villager conversion may be the most efficient method of applying discounts, but it's not the only one. Hero of the Village is an effect which is obtained after successfully defeating a Raid which provides a small discount to all villagers you are able to trade with. Because this effect is applied to the player and not the villager, other players will not receive the discount unless they obtain the HOTV effect as well. HOTV lasts 40 minutes, making it the only temporary discount.
Instead of a set number that all prices are lowered by, HOTV instead reduces prices by decreasing their base cost by 30% while the effect is active. This means each price can have a different reduction applied to it. Because of this, the HOTV Discount Chart (LINK PAGE HERE ONCE MADE) will highlight all the discounted prices using HOTV.
Since HOTV is a temporary effect, and most trades can be reduced to a cost of 1 emerald/resource with Zombie Villager conversion, it is often not considered when discussing the maximum discount for Villagers.
If you're interested in making the most use out of HOTV, you'll need to use a Pillager Outpost in order to continuously start Raids. The best way to do this is to have a separate Village at the Pillager Outpost for just gaining HOTV, and your Trading Hall Village be nearby for trading.
Total Discounts
This section will cover the total price reduction from only Direct and AOE discounts. For the full chart of all discounts and prices, see the Total Discount Chart page (LINK PAGE HERE ONCE MADE).
| Trade Weight | Direct Price Reduction | AOE Price Reduction | Total Price Reduction |
| Non-Weighted Trade | -5 | -1 | -6 |
| Weighted Trade | -20 | -5 | -25 |
Based on these discounts, all Non-Weighted trades need to have a cost of 7 or less, and all Weighted trades need to have a cost of 26 or less to achieve a 1 emerald/resource price.