Complete Guide to Banner Patterns in Minecraft 1.21.6 (2025 Updated)

Banners in Minecraft are super customizable decorations. You can slap on tons of patterns and colors to make them your own. The 1.21.6 "Chase the Skies" update, which dropped on June 17, 2025, added some fresh patterns and tweaked a few things. This guide breaks down how to get banners, patterns, and use them in Minecraft 1.21.6.

Banners are tall, decorative blocks you can deck out with up to 6 patterns (or 16 with commands in Java Edition) in any of the 16 colors. The 1.21.6 update, part of Mojang’s move to smaller, more frequent patches, brings new patterns and smoother mechanics for messing around with designs.

1. How to Obtain Banners in Minecraft 1.21.6

You can whip up a banner using six wool blocks (all the same color) and one stick in a crafting grid, set up like a sign. The wool’s color sets the banner’s base shade.

• Example: Want a white banner? Grab six white wool blocks and a stick.
• Trading: Expert-level cartographer or shepherd villagers will sell you 1 or 2 blank banners in random colors for 3 emeralds. Master-level cartographers also trade the Globe banner pattern for 8 emeralds.
• Loot: Illagers with an ominous banner (aka illager banner) drop it when you take them out. These can be used as is or customized further.

2. How to Get Banner Patterns in Minecraft 1.21.6

Banner patterns are items you use to add specific designs to banners with a loom. In 1.21.6, Java Edition has 10 patterns, while Bedrock Edition has 12, including two new ones from the 1.21 Tricky Trials update: Flow and Guster. Here’s how to get them.

Banner Pattern List and How to Obtain

Notes on New Patterns (1.21 and 1.21.6)

• Flow Pattern: Shows a spiral design. You can only grab it in trial chambers by starting ominous trials, beating ominous trial spawners, and using an ominous trial key to open ominous vaults (15% drop chance).
• Guster Pattern: Has a Breeze mob silhouette with a tornado and angry eyebrows. Found in trial chambers’ vaults or reward chests using a trial key (from defeating trial spawner mobs, 50% chance). Drops at 4.2%.
• Parity Update: In Java Edition before 1.21, Field Masoned and Bordure Indented didn’t need pattern items in the loom. Now, you have to craft them, matching Bedrock Edition.

Crafting Dyes

You need dyes to color your banners, and there are 16 options. Here’s how to make them:

Copying Banners

You can duplicate a banner by combining a patterned one with a blank banner of the same base color in a crafting grid. The blank one can’t have any patterns already. Made a mistake? Toss the banner in a cauldron with water to wash off the topmost pattern.

3. How to Apply Banner Patterns

Using a Loom (Java and Bedrock Editions)

The loom is your go-to for adding patterns in both editions. Craft one with 2 wooden planks (any type) and 2 strings. Pop it down, open it up, and you’ll see three slots:

• Banner: Your base banner.
• Dye: Picks the pattern’s color.
• Banner Pattern (optional): Sets the design (e.g., Flow, Guster, Creeper).

Choose a pattern in the GUI, and the finished banner shows up in the output slot. The pattern item stays in your inventory for reuse.

Using a Crafting Table (Bedrock Edition Only)

In Bedrock, you can skip the loom and use a crafting table, but it burns through more dyes and isn’t as slick. Toss in a banner, dye, and maybe a pattern item to make designs like gradients, borders, or stripes.

Custom Patterns (1.21.6 and Beyond)

Since 1.20.5, you can add custom patterns, and 1.21.6 keeps that going. Datapacks like “Many More Banners” throw in designs like chequered or mob-themed patterns (e.g., Pillager, Ghast). These show up in the loom and might need specific pattern items. Some resource packs, updated for 1.21.2 and beyond, make patterns look sharper.

Gradients & Borders Banner

Shapes Banner

Halves Banner

Stripes Banner

4. What Are the Uses of Banners?

Map Markers (Java Edition Only)

In Java, right-click a standing banner while holding a map to mark its spot with the banner’s base color. Click again to remove it. Wall banners don’t work for this, and the marker vanishes if the banner’s destroyed (unless the map’s locked with a cartography table). Renamed banners show their name under the marker.

Shield Customization

Combine a shield and a patterned banner in a crafting grid to transfer the design to the shield. The pattern looks a bit blockier on shields, and some designs might shift. The banner gets used up, and you can’t repaint or wash shields. Banners with over six patterns (via commands) get cut down to six on shields.

Decoration and Utility

Banners are non-solid, swaying blocks perfect for sprucing up bases, villages, or castles. You can place them on the ground or walls, and other blocks can overlap them for cool setups (like half-buried banners). With roughly 809 quadrillion combos in Java and 1 quintillion in Bedrock, you’ve got endless options.

Additional Notes for 1.21.6

• Texture Updates: Snapshot 24w33a tweaked banner pattern textures to show designs better on the items themselves. Resource packs like “Update Banner Pattern” work from 1.14 to 1.21.6.
• Trial Chambers: The Flow and Guster patterns from 1.21 are still only in trial chambers. Hunt down spawners and unlock vaults to snag them.

This guide’s got everything you need for banners in Minecraft 1.21.6. Check the Minecraft Wiki or sites like PlanetMinecraft for custom pattern packs if you want to go wild.

>>> Read more: How To Breed Or Duplicate An Allay In Minecraft 1.19