The upcoming Minecraft update will nerf the villager profession

Minecraft has a lot of different items, and there are a variety of ways to get them. Some things can be crafted, others have to be obtained by trading with the villagers, and some items can only be obtained by looting chests. One such item is the saddle that’s needed to control horses, pigs, and even the strider in the nether. Since the game's release, saddles can only be obtained from loot chests or trading. However, things are about to change.

The latest snapshot, titled 25w20a, made a major change in game mechanics. Saddles can now be crafted using three leathers and one iron ingot. This change inadvertently makes a villager's profession completely redundant. The leatherworker will now be next to useless, and here’s how.

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Craftable saddles in Minecraft make leatherworkers redundant

Leatherworkers in Minecraft will become redundant very soon (Image via Mojang Studios)

Villagers are usually leveled up so that players can get better trades. The leatherworker usually gives basic leather armor in the initial levels, but in the “Master” level, players can get saddles in exchange for some emeralds. This was a great trade as finding one saddle in a loot chest is already rare. However, finding multiple saddles in early gameplay is extremely rare.

This was a big issue, especially in multiplayer gameplay, because not being able to ride a horse to explore early on when moving around different biomes is a major disadvantage. Thankfully, this will be fixed with the upcoming summer game drop, as saddles can be crafted quite easily.

However, this also means leveling up the leatherworker makes no sense, as the trades aren't worth the effort. In a sense, the saddle update will make the leatherworker redundant unless players want to give up precious emeralds for a saddle that they can craft using dirt-cheap items.

Now that saddles can be crafted, some players are asking Mojang to make name tags craftable as well. The summer game drop is expected to be released in June this year, and it will bring some interesting new content to the blocky world. New ghast variants have been added, the locator bar is also coming, and the lead has been improved to make it more useful.

The happy ghast can be used to fly around the world with four other players. Since the saddle can be crafted, exploration in multiplayer mode will be much more fun. It seems Mojang is paying a lot of attention to improving the gameplay experience with friends in Minecraft.