CARTOGRAPHER
Workstation: Cartography Table|13 trades across 5 levels
Sells explorer maps to structures, banner patterns, and empty maps. Buys paper and glass panes.
- Last checked
- 11 August 2026
- Java Edition
- 26.2, 13 of 13 rows found
- Bedrock Edition
- 1.26.30.5, 7 of 13 matching
- Edition differences
- none, 6 rolled prices aside
What is the Cartographer?
The Cartographer is one of Minecraft's 13 working villager professions, and an unemployed adult villager takes the job the moment it claims a Cartography Table, the block that doubles as its job-site marker. Place that cartography table within range of a jobless villager and it will path to the block, change into cartographer clothing, and open its Novice-tier offers. Remove the cartography table before any deal is struck and the villager drops the profession again.
Across its 5 career tiers this villager exposes 13 distinct trades in total, and it is primarily a supplier that sells finished goods for emeralds. It will take paper, glass pane, and compass off your hands for emeralds, and in return it sells empty map, village explorer map, swamp explorer map, and jungle explorer map, and more. The Cartographer is not biome-specific, so the same trade pool appears no matter which biome the village generates in.
For players farming currency, the Cartographer's quickest route to an emerald is handing over 1 compass at the Journeyman tier, which is worth keeping in mind when you decide whether to build a trading hall around this profession.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP |  Java 26.2 |  Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | 12 | 2same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 1same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
The game draws 2 of the 2 offers this tier holds, which is all of them, so every novice cartographer shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. On this tier that is 6 off every trade, so the paper goes from 24 to 18. No cost ever drops below one.
The paper offer pays the villager 2 XP a use and the empty map offer pays 1, so the 10 XP from Novice to Apprentice is 5 trades one way and 10 the other. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 2 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Points to the nearest village. Five variants exist (plains, desert, savanna, snowy, taiga) | ||
| | 12 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Points to the nearest swamp hut | ||
| | 12 | 5same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Points to the nearest jungle temple |
The game draws 2 of the 8 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 25% of apprentice cartographers, and a specific one takes about 4 rolls to turn up. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 6 on the glass pane (11 to 5) up to 7 on the jungle explorer map (8 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
The glass pane offer pays the villager 10 XP a use and the jungle explorer map offer pays 5, so the 60 XP from Apprentice to Journeyman is 6 trades one way and 12 the other. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
The swamp explorer map is a jungle, snowy or taiga one and the jungle explorer map a desert, savanna or swamp one. No other cartographer offers them, whatever its tier.
The cartographer has not one village explorer map trade but 5, each tied to its own villager types: desert village map from a jungle or savanna one, plains village map from a desert, savanna, snowy or taiga one, savanna village map from a desert, jungle or plains one, snowy village map from a swamp or taiga one, taiga village map from a plains, snowy or swamp one.
A villager's type is the biome it spawned in, so this is settled before you ever meet it. Read out of merchant_predicate in each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 4 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 20same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Points to nearest ocean monument | ||
| | 12 | 10same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Points to nearest trial chambers (1.21+) |
The game draws 2 of the 3 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 67% of journeyman cartographers, and a specific one takes about 1.5 rolls to turn up. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 11 on the trial chambers map (12 to 1) up to 12 on the ocean explorer map (13 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
The compass offer pays the villager 20 XP a use and the trial chambers map offer pays 10, so the 80 XP from Journeyman to Expert is 4 trades one way and 8 the other. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 3 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 15same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 15same in Bedrock | verified | verified |
The game draws 2 of the 16 offers this tier can hold, so any one of them is on 13% of expert cartographers, and a specific one takes about 8 rolls to turn up. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 1 on the banner (2 to 1) up to 6 on the item frame (7 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
Every offer here pays the villager 15 XP a use, so the 100 XP from Expert to Master is 7 trades whichever one you use. That fits inside the 12 uses the offer holds, so one stock run covers it. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
The cartographer has not one banner trade but 15, each tied to its own villager types: black banner from a swamp one, blue banner from a snowy or taiga one, brown banner from a jungle or plains one, cyan banner from a desert or snowy one, gray banner from a desert one, green banner from a desert, jungle or savanna one, light blue banner from a snowy or swamp one, lime banner from a desert or taiga one, magenta banner from a savanna one, orange banner from a desert or savanna one, pink banner from a plains or taiga one, purple banner from a swamp or taiga one, red banner from a savanna or snowy one, white banner from a plains or snowy one, yellow banner from a jungle or plains one.
A villager's type is the biome it spawned in, so this is settled before you ever meet it. Read out of merchant_predicate in each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 2 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
| Input | Output | Emeralds | Uses | Villager XP | Java 26.2 | Bedrock 1.26.30.5 | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | verified | |||
| | 12 | 30same in Bedrock | verified | price computed in game | Points to nearest woodland mansion |
The game draws 2 of the 2 offers this tier holds, which is all of them, so every master cartographer shows this whole table. Nothing to roll for at this tier. Bedrock lands on the same chance from its own table. Counted from the game's own draw sizes. How that check works.
Curing a zombie villager is worth 125 reputation, taken off the first thing you hand over. The discount is capped by the price, so here it runs from 6 on the banner pattern (globe) (8 to 2) up to 13 on the woodland explorer map (14 to 1). No cost ever drops below one.
Master is the top tier. Its offers still pay 30 XP a use, but there is no tier above for that XP to open. Read out of each trade's own file. How that check works.
All 2 trades on this page were read out of the trade files Minecraft Java 26.2 ships in its own data, checked on against the item, both amounts and the use limit. Bedrock 1.26.30.5 is read as well, and where it disagrees the row says how. Which files, and what is not checked.
Novice to Master: what the climb costs
A Cartographer does not level up on time served, it levels up on trading XP, and each of its offers pays a fixed amount of it. That makes the climb a countable thing rather than a chore: 22 trades take one from Novice to Master if you use the offer that pays most at every tier, and the tiers below say which offer that is.
| Climb | XP | Offer that pays most | Trades | You hand over | You get back |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novice to Apprentice | 10 | The paper offer, 2 XP a use | 5 | 120 paper | 5 emeralds |
| Apprentice to Journeyman | 60 | The glass pane offer, 10 XP a use | 6 | 66 glass panes | 6 emeralds |
| Journeyman to Expert | 80 | The compass offer, 20 XP a useon 67% of cartographers at this tier | 4 | 4 compasses | 4 emeralds |
| Expert to Master | 100 | The item frame offer, 15 XP a useor the other offer here, which pays 15 too | 7 | 49 emeralds | 7 item frames |
| Novice to Master | 250 | no restock needed | 22 | 120 paper, 66 glass panes, 4 compasses and 49 emeralds | 15 emeralds and 7 item frames |
The bill for the whole climb is 120 paper, 66 glass panes, 4 compasses and 49 emeralds. It does not pay for itself: the offers that pay the villager most are the ones you buy from, so it ends 34 emeralds down, with 7 item frames to show for it. No offer in the route runs past what its slot holds, so a Cartographer with full stock can be walked all the way up in one sitting.
Counted, not timed. The XP each offer pays is the xp field of its own trade file, the 10, 60, 80, 100 XP between the tiers is VillagerData.NEXT_LEVEL_XP_THRESHOLDS, and the prices and use counts are the table above. Where a tier has more than one offer paying the top rate, the route takes the one any villager can hold, then the one that pays rather than costs, then the cheapest. XP over the line is not lost, it counts toward the next tier, so no trade in the route is wasted. How that check works.
Explorer Maps
The Cartographer sells seven different explorer maps, each pointing at the nearest structure of its kind. Apprentice covers the three cheap ones at 8 emeralds and a compass: a village, a swamp hut and a jungle temple, with the village map coming in five biome variants. Journeyman adds the ocean monument at 13 and the trial chambers at 12, and Master sells the woodland mansion map at 14. Explore all Minecraft biomes and their structures at biomes.astroworldmc.com.
Cartographer trades by tier (Novice to Master)
A Cartographer climbs five career ranks, and each rank it reaches adds a fresh batch of offers on top of the ones below it. The experience gates are fixed: the Novice tier opens immediately with 2 offers, 10 more trade-XP points unlock Apprentice (4 offers), 60 more trade-XP points unlock Journeyman (3 offers), 80 more trade-XP points unlock Expert (2 offers), and 100 more trade-XP points unlock Master (2 offers). The full price list for every rank is laid out below; emerald costs marked as a range roll randomly within that band each time the trade is generated or restocked.
Tier 1 · Novice
2 trades · available from the startSell to villager: 24 papers for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: empty map for 7 emeralds.
Tier 2 · Apprentice
4 trades · 10 cumulative XPSell to villager: 11 glass panes for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: village explorer map for 8 emeralds plus 1 compass, swamp explorer map for 8 emeralds plus 1 compass, and jungle explorer map for 8 emeralds plus 1 compass.
Tier 3 · Journeyman
3 trades · 70 cumulative XPSell to villager: 1 compass for 1 emerald.
Buy from villager: ocean explorer map for 13 emeralds plus 1 compass and trial chambers map for 12 emeralds plus 1 compass.
Tier 4 · Expert
2 trades · 150 cumulative XPBuy from villager: item frame for 7 emeralds and banner for 2 emeralds.
Tier 5 · Master
2 trades · 250 cumulative XPBuy from villager: banner pattern (globe) for 8 emeralds and woodland explorer map for 14 emeralds plus 1 compass.
Cartographer trading tips
- Fastest emerald income: stockpile compass and sell it in stacks of 1. This Cartographer buy slot can be used 12 times before it locks, so a single villager returns up to 12 emeralds per cycle before you must wait for it to work its cartography table and restock (which it does up to 2 times a day).
- Best-value purchase: the cheapest thing this villager sells is banner for 2 emeralds at the Expert tier, a reliable sink for spare emeralds.
- Save the emeralds for Master: the priciest thing this villager sells is woodland explorer map for 14 emeralds, at Master, so it pays to level it all the way to Master before spending big.
- Cure for permanent discounts: let a zombie infect this Cartographer on Hard difficulty (guaranteed), trap it safely, hit it with a Splash Potion of Weakness, then feed it a Golden Apple. After the 3-5 minute cure every price drops sharply, often to a single emerald even for its priciest goods. See the full method in our zombie-villager discount guide.
- Leveling up: trading is the only way a Cartographer earns career XP. It needs 10 XP to leave Novice, 70 to reach Journeyman, 150 for Expert, and 250 for Master; a green badge becomes a gold one as it ranks up. The villager must be able to reach its cartography table to restock and gain XP. Bedrock asks for the same four numbers: they are written into its own trade table, tier by tier.
- Locking and resetting: the very first completed trade locks this villager's offers for good. If you want to reset them, do it while it is still Novice and untraded, remove the cartography table so it forgets the job, then give it back to generate a new Novice list. Our villager rolling guide walks through it.