What is an Emerald in Minecraft and How to Use It?

At this point, it’s no surprise that Minecraft is all about exploration, mob hunting, and resource gathering while trying to survive in this blocky world. But a less common but much more useful way to play Minecraft is trade. You can trade with villagers and wandering merchants for a variety of unique and rare in-game items. However, in order to do all of this, you need to know Minecraft’s trading currency – Emeralds. Now, before starting the trading process, you must first understand what an emerald is in Minecraft and how to use it in the game. But it’s a long way, so let’s not waste time and learn everything you need to know about emeralds in Minecraft.

Minecraft Emeralds: Everything You Need to Know (2022)

In this in-depth Emerald guide for Minecraft players, we’ll cover all the different mechanics, from finding this mineral to using it for trading. Let’s dive in.

What is an emerald in minecraft

Emerald is a mineral ore in Minecraft known as trading currency in the game. You can use emeralds to buy items from villagers and itinerant merchants (more on that later). In appearance, the emerald is similar to the diamond in Minecraft, but has one green Colour. It generates like other ores in Minecraft, but differs in functionality and purpose.

How to find emeralds in Minecraft

As you will learn in our Minecraft Ore Distribution guide, Emerald Ore Blocks are one of the rarest ores in the game. If this is your first time looking for emerald ore, you should know that finding it in Minecraft is even more difficult than diamond ore. Due to this rarity, many players try to search for chest loots to get Emeralds. However, if you want to try to mine this mineral, The emerald ore blocks are most commonly generated at a world elevation of Y=256.

You can use our dedicated guide on how to find emeralds in Minecraft to facilitate your search. It goes over all of the Emerald spawning mechanics, along with alternate ways to obtain them.

How to smelt emerald ore

The Emerald Ore drops Emeralds as an item when mined. If you don’t mine the ore block with the Silk Touch enchantment, you won’t be able to pick it up. But that only applies to regular (regular) Minecraft. If you’re playing on any 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 must 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 use them in Minecraft for the purposes listed below. We’ll discuss each of these activities in detail, so read on.

trading currency

The most common use of emeralds is as tradable currency. You can give Emeralds to Villagers and Wandering Merchants to obtain a variety of items from them. It’s a similar concept to bartering with Piglins. But instead of throwing items, you can buy items from villagers with different jobs at different prices.

You can use the table linked above to get an idea of ​​what deals you can expect to get from the villagers in exchange for Emeralds. However, keep in mind that their offerings may change if you try to harm them (you’ll get fewer items) or help them by defeating Raids (they’ll be happy and exchange your Emeralds for a higher value). Other factors such as trading levels may also affect it.

crafting ingredient

The emeralds can only be used in a craft recipe at Minecraft. When you fill a craft table with nine emeralds, a block of emeralds is formed. This block behaves like any other solid building block and can be used in a variety of constructions. Putting the block back on the crafting table turns it into 9 Emeralds.

So you can either use it as a block in your minecraft house ideas or save space by storing your emeralds as a block.

Enable 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 series of emerald blocks to activate a beacon. Since you already know how to make an emerald block (see the section above), all you have to do is figure out the mechanics of a beacon.

Fortunately, we already have a guide to help you figure out how to create and use a beacon in Minecraft. This article will walk you through the steps to create a beacon using emerald blocks and make the most of its powers.

Mining and using 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 get naturally, or gain superpowers by using it to activate beacons. But if that doesn’t feel satisfying enough. You can try to find Netherite in Minecraft. It’s the strongest mineral in Minecraft, and you can use Netherite to craft tools and weapons. However, do you think Minecraft should add more uses to Emeralds? Tell us in the comments below!