At this point, it’s no surprise that Minecraft is about exploration, mob hunting, and resource collection while trying to survive in this blocky world. But, a lesser common but much more useful way to play Minecraft is trading. You can trade with villagers and wandering traders to get a number of unique and rare items in the game. However, to do all that, you must know about Minecraft’s trading currency — emeralds. Now, before you get started with the trading process, you will first need to understand what is an emerald in Minecraft and how to use it in the game. But it’s a long road ahead, so let’s not waste time and learn everything you need to know about emeralds in Minecraft.
Minecraft Emeralds: All You Need to Know (2022)
In this in-depth emeralds guide for Minecraft players, we are covering all the different mechanics, ranging from how to find this mineral to how to use it for trading. That said, let’s dive in.
What is an Emerald in Minecraft
Emerald is a mineral ore in Minecraft that acts as a trading currency in the game. You can use emeralds to purchase items from villagers and wandering traders (more on this later). In appearance, the emerald looks similar to the diamond in Minecraft but has a green color. It generates like other ores in Minecraft but differs in functionality and purpose.
How to Find Emerald in Minecraft
As you will discover in our Minecraft ore distribution guide, emerald ore blocks are one of the rarest ores in the game. If it’s your first time looking for emerald ore, you should know that it is even harder to find than diamond ore in Minecraft. Due to this rarity, many players try searching for chest loot to obtain emeralds. Though, if you want to try mining this mineral, the emerald ore blocks most commonly generate at Y=256 world height.
You can use our dedicated guide on how to find emeralds in Minecraft to make your quest easier. It goes over all the spawning mechanics of emeralds along with alternate ways to obtain them.
How to Smelt Emerald Ore
The emerald ore, when mined, drops emeralds as an item. Unless you mine the ore block with the silk-touch enchantment, you can’t pick it up. But that’s only true for the vanilla (regular) Minecraft. If you are playing on one of the best Minecraft maps or using Minecraft mods on your server, you might have to smelt the emerald ore to crack it.
To smelt an emerald ore, you have to first place the ore block in a furnace and then use an in-game fuel to smelt it. Charcoal in Minecraft is one of the fastest fuels you can use to smelt emerald ore.
How to Use Emerald in Minecraft
Once you have collected enough emeralds, you can them in Minecraft for the following purposes listed below. We will go over each of these activities in detail, so keep reading.
- Trading
- Crafting
- Beacons
Trading Currency
The most common use of emeralds is as a tradable currency. You can give emeralds to villagers and wandering traders to get a number of items from them. It is a similar concept to bartering with Piglins. But instead of throwing items, you can properly buy items from villagers with different jobs at various rates.
You can use the above-linked chart to get an idea of what trades to expect from villagers in exchange for emeralds. Though, do keep in mind that their offers might change if you try to harm them (you get fewer items) or help them by defeating raids (they are happy and trade your emeralds for higher value). Other factors such as trading levels can also affect the same.
Crafting Ingredient
The emeralds can be used only in one crafting recipe in Minecraft. If you fill up a crafting table with nine emeralds, it creates a block of emeralds. This block acts like any other solid building block and can be used in a variety of constructions. If you place the block back on the crafting table, it will turn into 9 emeralds.
So you can either use it as a block in your Minecraft house ideas or save space by saving your emeralds as a block.
Activate Beacons
Beacons are powerful utility blocks in Minecraft that give superpower-like effects to the players around them. But they require a large number of mineral blocks to activate. You can use a set of emerald blocks to activate a beacon. Since you already know how to craft a block of emerald (see above section), you just need to figure out the mechanics of a beacon.
Luckily, we already have a guide to help you figure out how to make and use a beacon in Minecraft. This article will guide you through the steps to create a beacon with blocks of emerald and make the most out of its powers.
Mine and Use Emeralds in Minecraft
With that, you now have access to one of the most unique minerals in Minecraft. You can use it to trade for items that can take you days to obtain naturally or get superpowers by activating beacons with it. But, if that does not feel satisfying enough. You can try finding Netherite in Minecraft. It is the most powerful mineral in Minecraft, and you can use Netherite to create tools and weapons. Having said that, do you think Minecraft should add more uses to emeralds? Tell us in the comments below!
