Minecraft: Here’s the Best Way To Get Emeralds

Emeralds in Minecraft are like money in real life; they’re the easiest but likely the most expensive way to get valuable items. Their main use is to let you trade with villagers or wandering traders who often have some great and not-so-great things to offer you. It’s worth having a couple on you if you ever need a quick trade that’ll usually take you hours to acquire. Whether it’s enchantments or already enchanted weapons or something else entirely. So, to make yourself rich amongst rags, what is the best way to get Emeralds in Minecraft?

Three ways of acquiring emeralds

Evokers and Vindicators

Evokers and Vindicators are a type of illager in Minecraft. An illager is an antagonistic type of villager who spawns in woodland mansions, raids, patrols, and pillager outposts. Upon killing an Evoker or Vindicator, there’s a chance they’ll drop an emerald. Evokers are spell-casting illagers that spawn in woodland mansions and raids and are the only way you can get the totem of the undying.

Vindicators also spawn in woodland mansions and raids, but unlike Evokers, they carry an axe with them. They’re the strongest type of illager out there. Evokers have 24 health with two armor points in Bedrock Edition, while Vindicators also have 24 health but no armor points in Bedrock Edition. They do, however, have high attack damage. On normal difficulty, Vindicators deal 13 damage.

With Looting III, you’ll get a chance of receiving 0-4 Emeralds per Evoker or Vindicator killed. If you’re up for the challenge, I suggest you start by killing Evokers since Vindicators are more difficult to encounter, especially if you don’t have experience dealing with them. It’s the worst choice you have for collecting Emeralds.

Mining

I don’t know about you, but I love mining for diamonds, and the same goes for Emeralds, but it’s even better because I find them harder to mine. That pleasing feeling of mining through a block of emerald ore will likely never go away. Emeralds only generate in mountains, frozen peaks, and windswept hills biomes.

There are two types of emerald ores, deepslate emerald ore, and regular emerald ore. Deepslate emerald ores can generate in deeepslate or tough blobs, but you have the best chance of finding them in the previously mentioned biomes. To conclude, they only generate in high mountains above the surface.

Here’s a little fun fact: if you find a deepslate emerald ore, you’ve just acquired the rarest ore out there—rarer even than ancient debris and, of course, regular emerald. If you find it, my suggestion is to mine with a silk touch pickaxe because it’ll drop as an ore that you can put in your hall of rare items you’ve found.

Looting Chests

There are 21 chests in Minecraft where you can mine Emeralds and eight structures where they can be found. The best chance of finding them in chests is from buried treasure chests, where they have a 59.9% chance of spawning, and in Shipwrecks, where there’s a 73.7% they’ll spawn only in Bedrock Edition.

On the other hand, in Java Edition, the least chance they have of spawning is in Igloo chest with only a 7.6% chance, while in Bedrock Edition, the least chance they have of spawning is in Stronghold altar chests with only a 7.1% chance that it’ll happen.

Which is best?

We’ve already established that the best chance you have of acquiring emeralds is through trading with villagers, but out of the three remaining methods, I’d say your best bet is trying to mine for them or find them by looting chests. This will, of course, depend on your preferences and how you are as a player.

How does trading Emeralds work?

Armorer – Novice will trade coal for Emeralds, Apprentices will trade iron ingots for emeralds, and journeymen will trade lava buckets and diamonds for emeralds.
Butcher – Novice will trade raw chicken, raw Porkchop, or rabbit for emeralds, an apprentice will trade coal, a journeyman will trade raw mutton and beef, an expert will trade dried kelp block, and the master will trade sweet berries.
Cartographer – Novice trades paper, apprentice trades glass pane, journeyman trades compass.
Cleric – novice trades rotten flesh, apprentice trades gold ingots, journeyman trades rabbit’s foot, expert trades glass bottles and scute, and master trades nether warts.
Farmer – novice trades wheat, potato, carrot, and beetroot; apprentice trades pumpkin; journeyman trades melon.
Fisherman – Novice trades string and coal, apprentice trades raw cod, journeyman trades raw salmon, expert trades tropical fish, master trades pufferfish.
Fletcher – Novice trades stick, apprentice trades flint, journeyman trades string, expert trades feather, master trades tripwire hook

Leatherworker – Novice trades leather, apprentice trades flint, journeyman trades rabbit hide, expert trades scute.
Librarian – Novice trades paper, apprentice trades book, journeyman trades ink sac, expert trades book, and quill.
Mason – Novice trades clay ball, apprentice trades stone, journeyman trades granite, andesite, and diorite, expert trades nether quartz.
Shepherd – Novice trades white, brown, black, and gray wool; apprentice trades black, gray, lime, white, and light blue dye; journeyman trades red, light gray, pink, yellow, and orange dye, expert trades green, brown, blue, purple, cyan, and magenta dye.
Toolsmith – Novice trades coal, apprentice trades iron ingot, journeyman trades flint, expert trades diamond.
Weaponsmith – Novice trades coal, apprentice trades iron ingot, journeyman trades flint, expert trades diamond.

Bartering with piglings vs. trading with villagers

Trading and bartering are not the same. With bartering, you’re relying on luck to get certain items. The upside is that you only have to use gold to barter with piglins whereas, with villagers, you trade with pretty much any item, depending on the villager. Piglins only trade a total of 18 items, some of which are more valuable than others,

Other uses for Emeralds

The only other use for Emeralds is in Beacons. The emeralds will serve as a base for the beacon the same way an iron, diamond, gold, or netherite will be. You’ll have to craft an emerald block for it to work, which will take nine emeralds.

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