This brief guide covers 13 useful things you may not know about banners in Minecraft.
Where can you find custom uncraftable banners?
#1
There are 16 colors you can use to create banners and 38 different patterns, all of which can be colored. This results in over 809 quadrillion possible banner designs. You can apply patterns using either a crafting table or a loom, and you can add up to six layers per banner. If you make a mistake, right-clicking the banner on a full cauldron will remove the last applied layer.
#2
In addition to crafting banners, you can find them in End Cities, Woodland Mansions, and Savanna villages. Ominous banners can also be found at pillager outposts or dropped by certain enemies.
#3
Ominous banners contain eight pattern layers, which means they cannot be crafted normally. However, if you obtain one, you can use a cauldron to remove layers and study how it was made.
#4
While banners cannot normally be worn in Survival mode, you can equip one using commands. For example, to wear a black banner on your head, use: /replaceitem entity @p armor.head minecraft:black_banner. Custom designs can also be applied.
#5
You can apply your custom banner designs to shields by crafting a banner together with a shield.
#6
Banners can be used as furnace fuel, but they only smelt 1.5 items. It is usually more efficient to use the wooden planks instead.
#7
If you name a banner using an anvil and then right-click it with a map, the banner and its name will appear on the map. This is useful for marking locations.
#8
Looms allow you to add standard patterns to banners, as well as special patterns using banner pattern items. These can be crafted, traded with villagers, or found in Nether Bastions.
#9
Some banner patterns are expensive, requiring rare items such as enchanted golden apples, wither skeleton skulls, or creeper heads.
#10
Some villagers sell the globe banner pattern for eight emeralds. Bastions containing banner patterns were added in version 1.16.
#11
You can also obtain the Piglin banner pattern.
#12
Using the enchanted golden apple banner pattern lets you add the Mojang logo to a banner.
Interestingly, this pattern is called “Thing” due to translation differences. In Swedish, it appears as “mo jang”.
#13
When placed in any dimension, banners gently sway as if affected by wind. This animation even works in the End, despite the lack of wind.