Emerald

"Ah, to be minted with the green stuff. To swan about the villages of the Overworld with pockets bursting with emeralds. “Ho there, villager!” you would bellow, tossing a few emeralds for a handful of carrots. You’d never need farm again!"

- Alex Wiltshire

Emeralds are an uncommon mineral, and are used in trading or to power beacons.

Trading
Emeralds can be obtained by trading with villagers. Villagers can be found in villages and will either buy or sell specific goods for emeralds.

Mining
Emerald ore is mined using an iron or diamond pickaxe and will drop one emerald. If the pickaxe is enchanted with fortune, it may drop an extra emerald per level of Fortune, up to a maximum of 4 with Fortune III. If the ore is mined using a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch, it will drop itself instead of emeralds.

Drops
Vindicators and evokers will drop 0–1 emeralds upon death.

Foxes also have a chance to drop an emerald if they spawn holding an emerald.

Trading
Emeralds are primarily used as currency for trading with villagers. Trading is a much easier and less time consuming way to obtain emeralds than mining is.

Beacons
Emeralds can be used to select powers from a beacon. The player must select one of the available powers and then insert an emerald into the item slot.

An emerald can be substituted for an iron ingot, a gold ingot, or a diamond.