Here’s how to use the Village Merchant vendor in Minecraft Dungeons

Out of all the new vendors introduced to the camp in Minecraft Dungeons with the recent Creeping Winter DLC, the Village Merchant is the most mundane. Here you have an ordinary merchant who has a collection of various artifacts, weapons, and armor. If they have something you want, you buy it. If not, oh well, you can ask them to “check in the back” or wait for a restock. The Village Merchant is the closest you’ll find to a regular ole’ village shop in your camp, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few tips and tricks you might need, all of which we’ve compiled in this Minecraft Dungeons guide.

Here’s everything you need to know about using the new Village Merchant vendor in Minecraft Dungeons:

What is the Village Merchant in Minecraft Dungeons?

The Village Merchant is one of five new vendors added to Minecraft Dungeons, alongside the high-end salesman Luxury Merchant and the Blacksmith, and they’ll sell you a wide variety of goods across several categories. The Village Merchant has up to six items for sale at any one time, ranging from artifacts to weapons to armor. They’ll all have varying power levels and enchantments (but always appropriate for your level).

While the Luxury Merchant sells only a few expensive and powerful items that’ll cost you a pretty penny, the Village Merchant is more predictable. Check daily to see what they have, and if anything looks particularly appealing, then you can shell out the much more reasonable amount of emeralds to make it happen. By default, the Village Merchant only has two inventory slots, but they’ll open up their stock for you if you help them out with some unique missions. Now that you know what purpose the Village Merchant serves let’s talk about how to use them.

How do I use the Village Merchant in Minecraft Dungeons?

Using the Village Merchant is as simple as having emeralds to burn. If you check in on the Village Merchant and notice they have a sick new sword that just happens to have the exact enchantments you want, for example, check the price and then hold down the corresponding button (“A” on an Xbox controller) to make the magic happen. The Village Merchant won’t offer the most powerful equipment, but it’ll all be reasonably priced (half to a third of the cost at the Luxury Merchant) and will all be decently strong per your current difficulty level.

The items the Village Merchant has in stock is pretty random, so you’ll never be quite sure what’s going to show up there. It helps if you open up the Village Merchant’s additional inventory slots, as it allows them to offer more at once (giving you more variety), but by default, you’ll only have two things to choose from at a time. That being said, there are a couple of tricks you can use here if you need more choice, or if you want something but don’t quite have the money to buy it yet.

The first thing the Village Merchant allows you to do is restock. This means you can pay a little extra now to have the Village Merchant offer a new selection of goods. You don’t have a say in what will be offered, but at least it won’t be what was offered before, right? Restock randomly renews every available inventory slots, except for any that have been reserved. Yes, you can reserve specific items and lock them in place, so they won’t disappear or be subjected to a restock. Before we discuss reserving, though, keep in mind that every restock will raise the price on you until you complete a mission.

To reserve an item, simply highlight it in the Village Merchant’s menu and tap the corresponding button (“X” on an Xbox controller) and check to make sure there’s a small lock icon over the item’s picture. As long as an item is reserved, the Village Merchant will hold onto it for you, which is nice of them. Then you can feel free to go and grab some emeralds, possibly using our infinite emerald farm.

How do I upgrade the Village Merchant in Minecraft Dungeons?

The final stop on our Village Merchant tour is how to evolve from Two-Slot-Joe to Too-Many-Options-Jane. The Village Merchant has limited space for items at first, but if you complete some vendor-specific quests, you can unlock additional inventory slots that the Village Merchant will stock with more supplies. Every vendor (that can be upgraded) offers its own specific mission to complete, and the Village Merchant is no different. Being an average everyday villager, all they want is to confirm the safety of their friends and families from the grasp of the evil Arch-Illager. This means saving villagers during your journeys.

This mission has four tiers, requiring you to save 5, 15, 30, and then finally, 70 villagers to unlock every slot. These missions will track together, so you just need to save a total of 70 villagers to fully complete the Village Merchant’s quests. Keep in mind that captive villagers aren’t present in every level, though, so you’ll need to pick and choose which levels to play to save villagers. Creeper Woods is a good one and would allow you to finish these quests in a few hours at most.

Whenever you finish the Village Merchant’s missions, they will permanently have six items to choose from, all of which can be subjected to the same tools as before. You can choose to restock the entire inventory, reserve specific items, and buy whatever catches your fancy for the advertised price. Fully upgraded, the Village Merchant can be a big help in choosing the gear for your next loadout, or just helping out if you need a quick power boost.