Summary
Now that archeology has finally made its way intoMinecraft, the long-overdue mechanic could help salvage the love-hate relationship players have with the Wandering Trader and open up new potential for the mob following the Trails and Tales update. With its vast range of mobs in all shapes and sizes, it’s inevitable that a select fewMinecraftmobs are labeled most annoying by fansfrom skeletons to silverfish. But among these, the Wandering Trader seems to hold the reputation as one ofMinecraft’smore contentious mobs thanks to its general lack of long-term utility for players with its available trades.
But the ideas behind the Wandering Trader now have the opportunity to redeem the mob if it can be adapted to supportMinecraft’snew archeology features. After being held back in multiple updates, archeology is already off to a bumpy start and will therefore need all the help it can get to not disappoint fans. But potential pitfalls in the mechanic’s design from how it interacts with world generation to the tools and structures that are so far associated with it could be effectively resolved with the help of Wandering Traders, either by being directly repurposed or by inspiring a new mob based on its concept.
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Minecraft’s Wandering Traders Need An Upgrade
For the more inexperienced players, the Wandering Trader can seem exciting at first as it’s easy to perceive the random spawn as lucky and its trades as rare or valuable. But once players become acclimatized to the bigger picture ofMinecraft, the function of the Wandering Trader is to offer items and resources from other biomes that might not yet have been found or visited. So while these trades can be helpful during the game’s earliest stages, they gradually become less worthwhile over time until the repetitive appearances of the Wandering Trader are as annoying as they are useless.
On the one hand,the Wandering Trader should justify more random eventsinMinecraftif only to add some diversity to the player experience, but it doesn’t resolve the fate of the Wandering Trader itself. For instance, the Wandering Trader has limited use since it doesn’t share the Villager’s novice-to-master skill levels, and should players already own whatever is offered for trade, then its purpose is completely defunct. Left in its current state, the Wandering Trader will remain as one ofMinecraft’smost inconsequential mobs if it doesn’t receive an overdue upgrade, something it could finally have with the new archeology feature.
Wandering Traders Could Have a Future in Archeology
Starting from the general premise of the Wandering Trader, it would actually be a much better fit if this mob had connections withMinecraft’sarcheology, as it would make sense that a traveling merchant would collect and sell buried treasures and relics. Instead of a random spawn close to the player, then, the Wandering Trader could instead be found within the vicinity of structures like the new Trail Ruins or even Desert Pyramids and Jungle Temples. As a result, much like howAzalea Trees spawn atop Lush Cave biomesto help guide players, so too could a Wandering Trader hint to where buried Trail Ruins are.
But Wandering Traders could have a far more useful purpose than just guiding players. Since archeology specifically requires a brush, players would be forced to sacrifice inventory space for a limited-use item or waste time hastily searching for feathers and copper. Instead, a Wandering Trader could trade archeology-related items like brushes to spare players the trouble, while other trades could include pottery shards, explorer maps, or evenfashion-forward armor trims. But even if the Wandering Trader can’t be repurposed, then a new “Explorer” mob with a revamped skin and llamas swapped for camels would fit neatly within Trails and Tales' overall design and style.
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