TIPPED ARROW

A dip in the brewing stand is the only way anyone makes tipped arrow, so a Master-tier Fletcher selling 5 for 2 emeralds is the sole shortcut around it. There is no bottle to fill, no ingredient to gather, no brewer standing between you and a quiver of them.

The catch is control. A brewing stand lets you pick the potion; the trade does not. Which effect leaves with your emeralds is whatever the game rolled for that villager, and it stays fixed for as long as that trade slot lasts, so the shortcut only pays off if you are not fussy about what lands.

One row, one seller: a Fletcher at master asks 2 emeralds for 5 tipped arrows, potion type unpicked. There is no discount route and no second tier to check, because master is the last rung the profession has.

Tipped Arrow sells for as little as 2 emeralds for 5 at a time, from the Fletcher at the Master tier, and . The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Fletcher will quote you exactly the same.

The Fletcher at its master tier asks 2 emeralds for 5 tipped arrows. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

2 dark oak boats against 52 flint for the same 2 emeralds, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Shepherd at 1.3 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

The offer locks after 12 uses, and a villager restocks at most twice a Minecraft day, capping one Fletcher at 24 of these trades before the day, not your patience, cuts it off.

Reaching it takes the whole ladder: level 5 of 5, unlocked only once the villager has banked 250 trade experience. A villager fresh off claiming a fletching table is 4 tiers short of ever offering it.

60 tipped arrows drain one slot, and the Fletcher needs 2 real minutes back at his table to reopen it. A Minecraft day, 20 real minutes long, has room for exactly two of those refills.

Stand there a full day and one master Fletcher moves 120 tipped arrows for 48 emeralds. A stack of 64 fits inside 2 fills of the slot, most of that time spent watching him walk back to the fletching table rather than waiting on the timer itself.

Where the emeralds come from: the same Fletcher pays an emerald per 8 tripwire hooks, the best sell rate anywhere on his sheet, so funding a run of tipped arrows costs less gathering than most of what he offers.

The rest of the same villager's stock covers ammunition and materials in one stop: stick, arrow, flint, gravel, bow and string.

A tipped arrow is an arrow dipped in a lingering potion, and the effect lands on whatever it hits. It is the only way to apply a potion at range without throwing a splash bottle at your own feet.

Brewing one is expensive: a lingering potion costs dragon's breath, which means a trip to the End. The Fletcher selling them at his top rank is therefore selling something most players never make themselves, which is why the price sits where it does.

A tipped arrow needs a lingering potion, and a lingering potion needs dragon's breath, which is collected in a bottle from the ender dragon's attack. That chain is why tipped arrows are bought far more often than they are made.

One lingering potion tips eight arrows, so the cost per arrow is not as bad as it sounds once the trip to the end is behind you.

A crossbow fires them too, and with Piercing one arrow can apply its effect to several mobs in a line, which is the closest thing the game has to a splash potion you can aim.