Emeralds are rare minerals that are used primarily as the currency for trading with villagers and wandering traders. Naturally-occurring emeralds are rarer than diamonds.
Obtaining[]
Trading (how emerald is renewable)[]
Emeralds can be obtained by trading with villagers, since they are the currency that villagers use for trading. Villagers either buy or sell specific goods for emeralds. Some villagers trade stuff that is renewable with emerald.
Mining[]
Emerald ore drops one emerald when mined using an iron or better pickaxe. If the pickaxe is enchanted with Fortune, it may drop an extra emerald per level of Fortune, up to a maximum of 4 emeralds with Fortune III. If the ore is mined using a pickaxe enchanted with Silk Touch, it drops itself in ore form instead of an emerald.
Crafting[]
| Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|
| Block of Emerald |
Smelting[]
| Ingredients | Smelting recipe |
|---|---|
| Emerald Ore or Deepslate Emerald Ore + Any fuel |
Natural generation[]
Emeralds can generate in chests in some village houses or other generated structures.
| Item | Structure | Container | Quantity | Chance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java Edition | ||||
| Emerald | Buried treasure | Chest | 4–8 | 59.9% |
| Desert temple | Chest | 1–3 | 18% | |
| Suspicious sand | 1 | 12.5% | ||
| Desert well | Suspicious sand | 1 | 12.5% | |
| End city | Chest | 2–6 | 9% | |
| Igloo | Chest | 1 | 7.6% | |
| Jungle temple | Chest | 1–3 | 8.7% | |
| Warm Ocean ruins | Warm ruins suspicious sand | 1 | 13.3% | |
| Cold ruins suspicious gravel | 1 | 13.3% | ||
| Shipwreck | Treasure chest | 1–5 | 73.7% | |
| Trail ruins | Suspicious gravel | 1 | 4.4% | |
| Underwater ruins | Big ruins chest | 1 | 14.9% | |
| Small ruins chest | 1 | 16.4% | ||
| Village | Shepherd's chest | 1 | 12.3% | |
| Tanner's chest | 1–4 | 17.3% | ||
| Armorer's chest | 1 | 31.8% | ||
| Fisherman's chest | 1 | 24.2% | ||
| Desert house chest | 1–3 | 14.3% | ||
| Fletcher's chest | 1 | 12.3% | ||
| Plains house chest | 1–4 | 22.8% | ||
| Savanna house chest | 1–4 | 21.5% | ||
| Butcher's chest | 1 | 10.2% | ||
| Taiga house chest | 1–4 | 18.6% | ||
| Temple chest | 1–4 | 25.4% | ||
| Snowy house chest | 1–4 | 9.9% | ||
| Mason's chest | 1 | 20.8% | ||
| Bedrock Edition | ||||
| Emerald | Desert temple | Suspicious sand | 1 | 12.5% |
| Chest | 1–3 | 18% | ||
| Desert well | Suspicious sand | 1 | 12.5% | |
| End city | Chest | 2–6 | 9% | |
| Igloo | Chest | 1 | 7.6% | |
| Jungle temple | Chest | 1–3 | 8.7% | |
| Cold Ocean ruins | Cold ruins suspicious gravel | 1 | 13.3% | |
| Warm ruins suspicious sand | 1 | 13.3% | ||
| Shipwreck | Treasure chest | 1–5 | 73.7% | |
| Stronghold | Altar chest | 1–3 | 7.1% | |
| Trail ruins | Suspicious gravel | 1 | 4.3% | |
| Underwater ruins | Big ruins chest | 1 | 14.9% | |
| Small ruins chest | 1 | 16.4% | ||
| Village | Snowy house chest | 1–4 | 9.9% | |
| Temple chest | 1–4 | 25.4% | ||
| Plains house chest | 1–4 | 22.8% | ||
| Taiga house chest | 1–4 | 20.3% | ||
| Savanna house chest | 1–4 | 21.5% | ||
| Mason's chest | 1 | 20.8% | ||
| Armorer's chest | 1 | 31.8% | ||
| Butcher's chest | 1 | 10.2% | ||
| Shepherd's chest | 1 | 12.3% | ||
| Fletcher's chest | 1 | 12.3% | ||
| Desert house chest | 1–3 | 14.3% | ||
| Tanner's chest | 1–4 | 17.3% | ||
Drops[]
Vindicators and evokers drop 0–1 emeralds upon death. Looting increases the maximum emerald drop by one per level, for a maximum of 4 emeralds with Looting III.
Foxes that are holding emeralds also have a chance of 100% to drop the emerald they are holding upon death. Alternatively, the player can drop a food item to entice the fox to drop the emerald without killing it.
In Bedrock Edition, vindicators and pillagers spawned from raids can drop 0–1 emeralds. Depending on difficulty, vindicators and pillagers spawned from raids also have a chance of dropping additional emeralds. There is a 65% chance of dropping on easy and normal, and an 80% chance of dropping on hard. If this additional drop condition is met, different emerald counts can drop with different chances. There is a 10⁄39 chance to drop an additional 0–1 emeralds, a 5⁄39 chance to drop an additional 2–3, and a 2⁄39 chance to drop an additional 4–5.
In Bedrock Edition, with Looting III, it is possible for a vindicator in a raid to drop up to 16 emeralds upon death (vindicator drops + raid drops + an additional drop).
Usage[]
Trading[]
Emeralds are primarily used as currency for trading with villagers and wandering traders. Trading is typically a faster way to obtain emeralds than by mining, as an emerald ore is rarer than a diamond ore.
Crafting ingredient[]
| Name | Ingredients | Crafting recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Block of Emerald | Emerald |
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, a diamond or a netherite ingot in a beacon.
Smithing ingredient[]
| Ingredients | Smithing recipe | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Any Armor Trim + Any Armor Piece + Emerald | All armor types can be used in this recipe, a netherite chestplate is shown as an example. |
- Trim color palette
The following color palette is shown on the designs on trimmed armor:
Achievements[]
| Icon | Achievement | In-game description | Actual requirements (if different) | Gamerscore earned | Trophy type (PS4) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS4 | Other | |||||
| The Haggler | Acquire or spend 30 Emeralds by trading with villagers or with wandering trader. [sic] | — | 30G | Silver | ||
| Buy Low, Sell High | Trade for the best possible price. | Buy something for 1 emerald, or when the Hero of the Village effect is applied. | 50G | Gold | ||
| Master Trader | Trade for 1,000 emeralds. | Obtain 1,000 emeralds from trading with villagers. | 30G | Silver | ||
Advancements[]
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | What a Deal! | Successfully trade with a Villager | Adventure | Take an item from a villager or wandering trader's trading output slot, and put it in your inventory. | adventure/trade
|
Data values[]
ID[]
| Name | Identifier | Form | Item tags | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald | emerald | Item | beacon_payment_items | item.minecraft.emerald |
| Name | Identifier | Numeric ID | Form | Translation key |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emerald | emerald | 512 | Item | item.emerald.name |
History[]
| Java Edition Indev | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.31 | 20100129 | Added diamonds, referred to as emeralds in the code. | |||
| Java Edition | |||||
| May 21, 2012 |  Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system. At this time, what would become emeralds were rubies.[1] | ||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w21a |  Added emeralds and emerald ore.
| |||
| Emeralds can be traded with villagers in exchange for different items. | |||||
| Added desert temples, with a hidden chest room and loot containing emeralds. | |||||
 The texture of rubies can be found in the (at this time unused) file items.png.[2] | |||||
| 12w22a | Block of emerald has now been added, which is crafted from nine emeralds and can be placed as a decorative block. | ||||
| Added jungle temples, which contain loot chests with emeralds. | |||||
| 1.4.2 | 12w32a | As zombie villagers can now spawn and be cured, emeralds can now still be obtained in trades even if generated structures are disabled. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w31a | Emeralds now generate in end city ship chests. | |||
| 15w43a | Emeralds now generate in igloo basement chests. | ||||
| 15w44a | The average yield of emeralds in desert temple chests has now been increased. | ||||
| 1.11 | 16w39a | Added vindicators and evokers, which drop emeralds if killed by a player. | |||
| 1.13 | 17w47a | Prior to The Flattening, this item's numeral ID was 388. | |||
| 18w09a | Emeralds can now generate in the loot chests of underwater ruins. | ||||
| 18w10a | Emeralds can now generate in buried treasure chests. | ||||
| 18w11a | Emeralds can now generate in the chests of shipwrecks. | ||||
| 1.14 | 18w43a |  The texture of emeralds has now been changed.
| |||
| Added pillagers, which can drop emeralds. | |||||
| 18w46a | Pillagers no longer drop emeralds. | ||||
| 18w48a | Emeralds now generate in chests in village tanneries, fisher cottages and plains village houses. | ||||
| 18w49a | Emeralds now generate in chests in village shepherd houses, mason houses, butcher shops, and savanna and snowy village houses. | ||||
| 18w50a | Emeralds now generate in chests in village fletcher houses, temples, and desert and taiga village houses. | ||||
| 19w07a | Added foxes, which sometimes spawn with emeralds in their mouths. | ||||
| 19w08a |  The texture of emeralds has now been changed, once again and it looks smaller. | ||||
| 1.17 | 21w13a | The unused rubies texture was removed. | |||
| 1.20 (Experimental) | 23w04a | Emeralds can now be used as an armor trim material. | |||
| 23w07a | Emeralds now drop when brushing suspicious sand in desert pyramids or desert wells. | ||||
| 1.20 | 23w12a | The probability for the emerald to generate in the suspicious sand in desert temple and in desert well has been changed from 1/7 to 1/8. | |||
| Emerald can now be found in suspicious gravel and suspicious sand in cold and warm ocean ruins and in trail ruins. | |||||
| 23w16a | Emerald no longer generates in suspicious sand in trail ruins. | ||||
| Due to the split of the archaeological loot tables for the suspicious gravel within the trail ruins; emerald now is in the common loot. | |||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| v0.9.0 | build 1 | Added emeralds. | |||
| build 5 | Emeralds can now be used to craft blocks of emerald. | ||||
| v0.13.0 | build 1 | Emeralds can now be found inside desert temple chests. | |||
| v0.15.0 | build 1 | Added jungle temples, which contain loot chests with emeralds. | |||
| v0.16.0 | build 1 | Emeralds can now be used to power beacons. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | alpha 0.17.0.1 | Emeralds can now be found in end city ship chests. | |||
| Emeralds can now be found in igloo basement chests. | |||||
| 1.0.4 | alpha 1.0.4.0 | Emeralds are now used as "currency" for villager trading. | |||
| 1.1.0 | alpha 1.1.0.0 | Added evokers and vindicators, which drop emeralds when killed. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.4.0 | beta 1.2.14.2 | Emeralds can now be found in some shipwreck chests. | |||
| beta 1.2.20.1 | Emeralds can now be found inside underwater ruins chests. | ||||
| 1.10.0 | beta 1.10.0.3 | Emeralds can now be used to buy items from wandering traders. | |||
| Emeralds can now be found in plains village house and tannery chests. | |||||
| The texture of emeralds has now been changed. | |||||
| 1.11.0 | beta 1.11.0.1 | Emeralds can now be found in village chests other than plains. | |||
| beta 1.11.0.4 | Vindicators and pillagers that spawn from raids can now drop bonus emeralds. | ||||
| beta 1.11.0.5 | The texture of emeralds has now been changed, once again. | ||||
| 1.13.0 | beta 1.13.0.1 | Added foxes, which can drop emeralds. | |||
| Next Major Update (Experimental) | beta 1.19.70.23 | Emeralds now drop when brushing suspicious sand in desert pyramids or desert wells. | |||
| beta 1.19.80.21 | Emeralds can now be used as an armor trim material. | ||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU14 | CU1 | 1.04 | Patch 1 | 1.0.1 | Added emeralds. |
| PlayStation 4 Edition | |||||
| 1.90 | The texture of emeralds has now been changed. | ||||
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added emeralds. | ||||
Issues[]
Issues relating to "Emerald" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Gallery[]
A wall of emerald ore utilizing a previous texture in snapshot 12w21a.
Trivia[]
- The ruby was going to be the villager currency but was changed to emeralds before the update's release.
References[]
- ↑ http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1621716-15-new-blocksitems/#entry19977082
- ↑ Snapshot 12w21a/b lang/en_US.lang: item.ruby.name=Ruby