ENCHANTED CROSSBOW

The Fletcher's most expensive offer is also his last one. Enchanted Crossbow sits at the very top of his sheet, 8 to 22 emeralds, and by the time a villager can sell it he has already sold everything else he carries at least once.

What arrives is a finished weapon with an enchantment already rolled on, so it skips the enchanting table and the levels that would normally pay for it. Piercing, Multishot and Quick Charge are all possible outcomes of that roll, and nothing about the trade lets you pick which one you are buying.

Only a Fletcher sells it, and only once he has reached master, the top of his ladder. He asks 8 to 22 emeralds, a band set by the enchantment he rolled rather than by which villager you happen to be standing in front of.

Enchanted Crossbow sells for anywhere between 8 and 22 emeralds, from the Fletcher at the Master tier, and nothing else on that list costs more. That is a rolled price rather than a fixed one, so the Fletcher you happen to find matters more than the tier does.

The Fletcher at its master tier asks 8 emeralds for an enchanted crossbow, on its cheapest roll. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

8 diamonds against 256 sticks for the same 8 emeralds, 32 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 5 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

3 sales and the slot locks, refilling on the same twice-a-day restock every other offer runs on. Reaching master costs 250 trade experience, the most of any tier on his sheet, so this is the last thing a Fletcher ever unlocks rather than an early find.

Buying it still pays him 15 experience, the same as any lower trade, but there is nowhere left on his ladder for that experience to push him toward. It is a pure sale at this point, not a step in levelling him further.

The price rolls between 8 and 22 emeralds, a 14 emerald spread depending on what enchantment landed. Break his fletching table before your first purchase and both the enchantment and the price reroll together; after that first trade, the offer he showed you is the offer that stays. How re-rolling works.

3 crossbows clear the slot, and the Fletcher needs 2 real minutes at his table to refill it. A Minecraft day, 20 real minutes, holds exactly two of those refills and no more.

A full day of standing there earns 6 crossbows, worth 48 to 132 emeralds depending on the rolls. Since this is his top tier, reaching that point in the first place usually costs more real time than clearing the slot ever will.

The Fletcher pays for it in tripwire hook, so a stockpile of string and iron from a redstone build funds the purchase without a separate trip for emeralds.

Since he has to be pushed all the way to his last tier to sell this at all, check the rest of his sheet on the way up: tipped arrow, stick, arrow, flint, gravel and bow. Every one of those trades is worth catching before he restocks past it.

Multishot, Piercing and Quick Charge only appear on crossbows, and they pull in different directions. Multishot fires three arrows for the cost of one but wears the weapon three times as fast; Piercing sends a single arrow through a line of mobs and lets you pick it back up.

Quick Charge is the quiet favourite, because a crossbow's weakness is the reload rather than the damage. Multishot and Piercing never appear together, so a villager offering one has closed the door on the other for that weapon.

A crossbow is the only weapon that fires a firework rocket, and a rocket with a star in it does serious damage in an area. That is what makes a crossbow the raid weapon rather than the bow.

Piercing lets a bolt pass through several mobs in a line, which is the enchantment that suits a corridor, while Multishot suits a crowd. They cannot both sit on the same weapon.

A loaded crossbow stays loaded in the inventory, through a death and through a chest, so it can be stored ready and picked up in the middle of a fight.