BANNER

Two different professions sell a banner, and neither one crafts it back for you afterward. The Cartographer hands one over for 2 emerald once he reaches expert, and a Shepherd asks 3 emeralds for the same item at the same tier, working from wool and a loom instead of a map table.

It never shows up as something a villager buys off you, only something a villager sells, so trading is one of the few ways to add one to a survival inventory without weaving it from scratch. It changes how a build looks and nothing else, no armor value and no crafting shortcut hidden inside it.

Two sellers, two fixed prices: a Cartographer at expert asks 2 emerald, and a Shepherd at expert asks 3 emeralds for the same finished item. Both numbers sit flat in their trade files rather than rolling within a range, so a second villager of either profession at the same tier quotes the exact same amount.

The colour is not something you choose either way. The Cartographer's fifteen separate banner lines are each tied to the biome he spawned in, and the Shepherd's single line hands back a random colour regardless of where he stands. Both offers cap at 12 uses per slot before a restock is needed.

Banner sells for as little as 2 emeralds, from the Cartographer at the Expert tier, and nothing else on the list costs less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Cartographer will quote you exactly the same.

The Cartographer at its expert tier asks 2 emeralds for a banner. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

2 diamonds against 48 flint for the same 2 emeralds, 24 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 1.3 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

Every banner offer here locks after 12 uses, and with two restocks allowed per Minecraft day, one villager is good for 24 of these trades in a day and no more, whichever profession is selling it.

The Cartographer's line is the later of the two to unlock, sitting at expert, level 4 of five, which a villager reaches at 150 trade experience. A freshly employed one has a real climb ahead before banner shows up on his shelf at all.

Trading with him along the way pays toward that climb, this offer itself worth 15 experience a use, so 7 of them alone would clear the next threshold if he already had it unlocked.

12 banners empty one slot at the Cartographer, and the game will not let him refill it until 2 real minutes have passed, a wait that fits twice into a Minecraft day of 20 real minutes.

That puts one Cartographer at 24 banners against 48 emeralds spent across a 20-minute day, then quiet until the next one starts. A second seller of either profession clears that ceiling faster than waiting it out.

Clearing the shelf costs 24 emeralds: 12 banners at 2 emerald each before the Cartographer needs to walk home and restock.

Where the emeralds come from: the same Cartographer pays an emerald for a single compass, which is the cheapest thing he sells back at you as well.

Also on the Cartographer's list: banner pattern (globe), woodland explorer map, paper, empty map, glass pane, and village explorer map.

A banner starts as six wool and a stick, and everything after that happens at a loom. Each pass adds one layer of a pattern in one dye, and a banner holds several layers at once, which is why a guild emblem or a shop sign can be built up rather than bought whole.

The part that saves the most work is copying. Put a finished banner and a blank one of the same base colour in a crafting grid and the design transfers, so a base with twenty walls costs one design and nineteen plain banners. A banner also fits on a shield, which carries the same emblem into a fight.

On a shield a banner becomes a crest, and that is the only way to decorate one. The banner is spent doing it, so a design worth wearing is worth copying onto a spare first.

The ominous banner a raid captain carries is the other special case. Kill the captain and you take on bad omen, which is what starts a raid the next time you walk into a village, so that particular banner is a trophy with a fuse on it.

Banners also work as map markers: place one, then use a map while standing there, and the banner shows on the map in its own colour with its own name.