OCEAN EXPLORER MAP

An ocean monument gives almost nothing away from the surface. The water above it looks like every other stretch of sea, and the structure sits deep enough that a boat passing overhead never sees the prismarine underneath. Sailing a search grid until the water finally goes dark in the right spot is a real strategy, and a slow one. The Cartographer sells the shortcut past it: 13 emerald at journeyman for a map that already knows where the nearest one sits.

The map is not pulled off a shelf of premade answers. It is rolled fresh against your own save file the moment the trade completes, so the marker belongs to your world alone. Two players buying the same offer from two different Cartographers walk away toward two different monuments, and neither villager could have told you that in advance.

Getting a marker on the map does not make the building itself any easier. Guardians patrol the outer halls, an elder guardian somewhere inside slows anyone nearby with mining fatigue, and the whole structure is still submerged once you arrive. The trade only solves the finding.

One seller, one biome, one price. The Cartographer asks 13 emerald once he reaches journeyman, and what comes back is 1 map aimed at the nearest ocean monument. No other profession in the game sells this item at all, and this Cartographer does not carry a cheaper version of it at any earlier tier.

The price does not move between villagers. A second Cartographer at the same tier quotes the same number, since it sits flat in the trade file rather than being rolled inside a range, and the only thing that differs from one to the next is how many of his 12 uses are still left before he has to restock.

Ocean Explorer Map sells for as little as 13 emeralds, from the Cartographer at the Journeyman tier, and . The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Cartographer will quote you exactly the same.

The Cartographer at its journeyman tier asks 13 emeralds for an ocean explorer map. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

13 oak boats against 312 flint for the same 13 emeralds, 24 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 8.1 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

A cartography table turns any unemployed villager into a Cartographer on the spot, but this particular map is not on his shelf yet. He opens for business at novice and only reaches this offer once he has climbed to journeyman, a tier the game unlocks at 70 trade experience.

Every sale he completes along the way pays experience toward the next tier, whatever the item happened to be.

Once open, the offer locks after 12 uses, and a villager restocks at most twice a Minecraft day, so 24 ocean maps is the hard ceiling one Cartographer produces in a single day, however many emeralds you bring.

Clicking through 12 uses is the fast part. Refilling the slot is the part with a clock on it: the villager walks back to his cartography table and the game holds the offer for 2 real minutes before he can restock, and a full Minecraft day of 20 real minutes only fits two of those refills.

So one Cartographer hands over 24 ocean maps for 312 emeralds across a 20-minute day, and then the slot is done until tomorrow. Wanting more than that means a second Cartographer, since waiting out the same one buys nothing extra.

A full slot runs 12 maps for 156 emeralds, and that is the entire shelf: there is nothing left to buy from this offer until it restocks.

Where the emeralds come from: the same Cartographer pays an emerald for a single compass, which is a cheap enough rate that funding an ocean map run does not need a second job.

156 emeralds for one full slot is enough that curing a zombie Cartographer first, which drops his prices for good, earns back the golden apple many times over. How curing works.

Also on the Cartographer's list: trial chambers map, item frame, banner, banner pattern (globe), woodland explorer map, and paper.

An ocean monument sits on the sea floor and is invisible from the surface, which is what makes the map worth buying: without it you are swimming a grid and hoping. The arrow leads to the nearest one, and those can be a long way out.

Guardians defend it and the elder guardian hands out mining fatigue, which slows your pickaxe to a crawl until the effect wears off or the elder dies. The prize inside is sponge and gold blocks, and the building itself is the only source of prismarine.

A monument holds eight blocks of gold in its centre and a room of wet sponges in one of its wings, and the sponge is the part people actually want: it soaks up water in a cube and dries out again in a furnace.

The elder guardians give you mining fatigue on sight, which is the game telling you to bring milk. A bucket of it clears the effect instantly and can be drunk as often as you like.

Prismarine and sea lanterns come from the building itself, and both are materials that exist nowhere else, so a cleared monument is a whole palette as well as a trophy.

The Ocean Explorer Map points at an ocean monument, the one place guardians spawn in numbers. Clear it first with How to Raid an Ocean Monument, then make it a guardian farm with How to Build a Guardian Farm in Minecraft, which pays in prismarine and fish. The Cartographer asks 13 emeralds and a compass for the map.