Piglin Bartering Strategies

Bartering Basics

Piglin bartering is the primary method for obtaining ender pearls in Random Seed Glitchless speedruns. Adult piglins accept gold ingots and return a random item after a 6-second inspection period. The system is straightforward in concept but has significant depth when optimized for speed.

The Loot Table

On Java Edition, each gold ingot barter has the following probabilities for speedrun-relevant items:

• Ender Pearls: 2.18% chance, yields 2 to 4 pearls per successful roll. You need 12 pearls total for eyes of ender.
• Fire Resistance Potion: 1.74% chance. Extremely valuable for blaze fights and lava protection.
• Obsidian: 8.71% chance, yields 1 block. Useful for building exit portals.
• Iron Nuggets: 2.18% chance, yields 10 to 36. Can be crafted into iron ingots.
• String: 4.36% chance, yields 3 to 9. Useful for crafting a fishing rod (for flint and steel components) or wool for beds.
• Crying Obsidian: 8.71% chance, yields 1 to 3. Not useful for portal building but the barter slot is wasted on it.

With a 2.18% ender pearl chance yielding 2 to 4 pearls per hit, you statistically need about 40 to 60 gold ingots worth of barters to get 12 pearls. This is roughly 5 to 7 gold blocks, but variance is high. Some runs get 12 pearls from 20 ingots; others need 80 or more.

Gold Sources in Bastions

Each bastion type provides different amounts of gold:

• Treasure Bastion: 15 to 27 gold blocks in the treasure room floor plus chest loot. Best gold source.
• Bridge Bastion: 8 to 15 gold blocks along the bridge and in rooms.
• Housing Bastion: 10 to 18 gold blocks scattered throughout the multi-level structure.
• Stables Bastion: 5 to 10 gold blocks. The worst for gold volume.

Mine gold blocks with an iron pickaxe or better. Each gold block yields 9 gold ingots. Smelt raw gold if you find it in chests.

Optimal Bartering Technique

Speed matters during bartering. Here is the optimized process:

1. Find a group of 2 to 4 adult piglins. Baby piglins do not barter and are useless for this purpose.
2. Drop gold ingots by pressing Q near multiple piglins. Each piglin picks up one ingot and begins its 6-second inspection.
3. While piglins are inspecting, mine more gold blocks or manage your inventory.
4. After 6 seconds, each piglin throws an item. Collect the drops immediately.
5. Repeat: drop more ingots to the same piglins and continue collecting.
6. Count your ender pearls as you go. Stop bartering once you reach 12 or more.

Multi-piglin bartering is critical. Bartering with 3 piglins at once triples your barter throughput compared to one piglin. Always seek out groups of piglins rather than solitary ones.

Managing Piglin Aggro

Piglins turn hostile if you are not wearing gold armor, if you open chests near them, or if you attack any piglin. Managing aggro is critical for safe bartering:

• Always wear at least one piece of gold armor. Gold boots are the standard choice because they are cheap to craft and leave better armor slots for iron or diamond.
• Do not open bastion chests while piglins are nearby. Opening a chest near piglins makes all nearby piglins hostile for 30 seconds.
• If you must open a chest, block it off from piglin line of sight first, or kill nearby piglins.
• Piglin brutes (found in all bastions) are always hostile regardless of gold armor. Avoid or kill them before bartering.

Bad RNG and Reset Criteria

Bartering is one of the most RNG-dependent parts of a speedrun. Sometimes you burn through 100 ingots without getting 12 pearls. When to reset depends on your goals:

• If you have used more than 80 ingots and still lack 12 pearls, the run is likely too slow for a competitive time.
• If you run out of gold blocks in the bastion before getting enough pearls, you either need to find another bastion (very slow) or reset.
• Getting a fire resistance potion early from bartering can salvage an otherwise mediocre run by making the blaze fight safer and faster.

Track your gold usage mentally. Knowing how much gold you have spent helps you make informed reset decisions rather than hoping blindly for pearls.

Version Differences

Bartering mechanics differ between versions. Java 1.16.1 has a different loot table than 1.16.5 or later versions. Always check the loot table for your specific speedrunning version, as pearl drop rates and quantities have been adjusted across updates.

Bedrock Edition has a completely different bartering loot table with different probabilities and item yields. If you speedrun on Bedrock, do not use Java Edition bartering strategies.