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How to find Emerald in Minecraft?

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Admin and Main Editor at Kavo Gaming. Bachelor of Business in Marketing. When I'm not gaming you can find me teaching digital marketing at elliotkavanagh.comView Author posts

You have probably been wondering how to find Emeralds in Minecraft. This guide will show you the three ways you can obtain Emerald in Minecraft. 

Emerald is the rarest material in Minecraft. There are three ways you can obtain Emeralds. The first way is to mine for Emerald veins. Each Emerald vein will drop one Emerald stone. The second is to loot chests. The third way is to find villager NPCs and trade with them to obtain Emeralds.

Mining for Emerald Ore in Minecraft

When mining for Emerald veins the first thing you need to remember is an iron pickaxe. You cannot extract Emerald with anything less than an iron pickaxe. Attempting to do so will only destroy the Emerald vein.

If mining with a pickaxe with the Fortune enchantment. The Emerald ore has a better chance of dropping more Emerald. 

The second thing you should know is that Emerald Ore only spawns between layers 4 and 32. Therefore, mining within those layers gives you the best chance of finding an Emerald vein. About level 15 to 20 seems to be the sweet spot for finding Emerald veins. 

Thirdly, Emerald veins can only be found in Mountain Biomes. Essentially, any biome with “mountain” in its name will spawn Emerald. Note: Mountain Biomes used to be called Extreme Hills Biomes in previous Minecraft editions. Now they are referred to as Mountain Biomes.

Basically, if you’re on a really high mountain you’re in the Extreme Hills/ Mountain Biomes. No need to complicate things is there?

Mountain Biome Minecraft

The final thing to note about Emerald is it only spawns in veins of 1. This means when you finally find Emerald, it will only be one block. Unlike diamond or other material that can be found in small clusters.

Looting Chests

The second way to find Emeralds in Minecraft is to loot from chests. However, not all chests contain Emeralds. You can find Emeralds in Desert Temples or Jungle Temples by finding the chests inside the temple. 

Desert Temple Minecraft

When you find the chests simply open them. There should be lots of different types of materials as well as Emerald. The chest can even contain diamonds and gold nuggets. 

Jungle Temple Minecraft

Please note: TNT can spawn underneath the chest in the Desert Temples. Be very careful not to set one-off. 

Trading with NPC/Villagers

The third way to find Emerald in Minecraft is to trade with a villager in or around a town or village. They are normally standing around. Approach them and try to trade with them.

NPC Villager Minecraft

The villagers have different deals depending on who you trade with. Some typical examples of trade include. 22 pieces of cole for 1 Emerald or 14 chickens for 1 Emerald etc. 

If you’re playing Survival Mode make sure you come prepared and well-stocked up before you approach the villagers to trade. Coal is quite easy to find and can be stacked highly so we suggest trading loads of coal for some Emeralds.

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