ARROW

Nothing else on the Fletcher's shelf costs less: 16 arrows for 1 emerald. Nobody grinds a villager up to this tier for the reward itself, because it is the tier every fletcher opens with. You buy this row when a quiver you already own is empty and the trip to a flint deposit is longer than the walk to whatever villager is nearest.

The same three ingredients, 1 flint, 1 stick, 1 feather, craft into 4 at a table, which happens to be the exact set of raw goods the Fletcher buys back off you at other tiers. Keep a stack around regardless of how you got it: his own top tier spends plain arrows as part of the cost on tipped arrow, so what you stock here does not sit idle once you reach Master.

One seller, one tier, one price: the Fletcher at novice hands over 16 arrows for 1 emerald, and the figure sits fixed in the trade file rather than rolled, so a second Fletcher at the same tier never asks for more.

Arrow shows up a second time on this profession's own sheet, and not on the side that pays you. The Master-tier tipped arrow offer spends plain arrows as part of its cost alongside emeralds, so the row you are reading is also a supply line for a trade further up his ladder.

Arrow sells for as little as 1 emerald for 16 at a time, from the Fletcher at the Novice tier, and nothing else on the list costs less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Fletcher will quote you exactly the same.

The Fletcher at its novice tier asks 1 emerald for 16 arrows. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

a diamond against 32 rotten flesh for the same 1 emerald, 32 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Fisherman at 37.5 real seconds of shelf, gathering not counted.

The offer locks after 12 uses, and a villager restocks at most twice a Minecraft day, so 24 of these trades is the hard ceiling one Fletcher can run through before the clock, not you, decides you are done.

It is also the earliest thing on his list. Novice is the tier every claimed fletching table opens at, so a villager who took the job an hour ago is already selling arrows, no experience banked and no prior sale required.

192 arrows empty one slot, and the Fletcher needs 2 real minutes back at his table before it opens again. A Minecraft day runs 20 real minutes, room enough for exactly two of those refills.

Camp the full day and one Fletcher moves 384 arrows for 24 emeralds. A stack of 64 fits inside a single fill of the slot, so it comes home well before the first restock forces a wait.

Where the emeralds come from: the same Fletcher pays an emerald per 32 sticks, which a night of tree-chopping covers without a separate errand for arrows specifically.

The rest of his sheet is worth a look on the same trip: flint, gravel, bow, string, crossbow and feather. Buying the weapon and the ammunition from the same villager saves a second trip.

One flint, one stick and one feather make four arrows, and all three come from things a player already collects. Skeletons drop them ready made, so a mob farm supplies a bow indefinitely without a crafting table.

The Fletcher matters because of the special kinds. Tipped arrows carry a potion effect and cost far more to brew than to buy, and a spectral arrow marks whatever it hits. An arrow shot from a crossbow with Piercing goes through several mobs and can be picked back up.

A spectral arrow makes whatever it hits glow through walls for a few seconds, which is the only way to track something you cannot see. It takes four glowstone dust around an ordinary arrow.

Arrows fired by a dispenser do the same damage as ones from a bow at half draw, so an arrow trap is about volume rather than power.

Arrows stuck in a block can be picked back up, and any arrow fired by a skeleton lands as an item you can collect, which is why a skeleton farm is also an arrow farm.

A skeleton drops up to 2 Arrows without Looting, so the Fletcher's 16 Arrows per emerald are at least 8 skeletons' worth. A skeleton farm pays in bones and the odd bow as well: How to Build a Skeleton Farm in Minecraft.