Emerald Ore

This article is about the ore. For the item, see Emerald. For the mineral block, see Block of Emerald.

Emerald Ore

Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	3
Hardness	3
Luminant	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No

Emerald ore is the rarest mineral block in the game. It drops emeralds when mined, or itself if mined with a pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment.

Obtaining

Breaking

See also: Fortune § Ore

Emerald ore can be mined with an iron pickaxe or higher. Otherwise it drops nothing. If mined without Silk Touch, the block drops 1 emerald (or more with Fortune).

Block	Emerald Ore
Hardness	3
Tool
Breaking time
Default	15
Wooden	7.5
Stone	3.75
Iron	0.75
Diamond	0.6
Netherite	0.5
Golden	1.25

Natural generation

Emerald ore can generate in Overworld in the form of mineral veins. Emerald ore attempts to generate 11 times per chunk in veins of size 1, from altitudes (y levels) 0 to 32, within any type of mountains, or within a chunk that is at least partially occupied by such a biome. As of Java Edition 1.16.4, on average they generate 1.2 ores per chunk.‌^{[until JE 1.17]}

‌In Java Edition 1.17‌^[upcoming], emerald ore attempts to generate 50 times per chunk in veins of 1, from levels 32 to 320, being most common at level 256, and becoming less common towards either end of the range. Emerald ore can only replace stone.

In Bedrock Edition 1.16.220‌^[upcoming], emerald ore can be commonly found exposed in all types of mountains biomes, in veins of size 4-9.

Usage

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Emerald	Emerald Ore + Any fuel	1

Note Blocks

Emerald ore can be placed under note blocks to produce "bass drum" sound.

Sounds

Java Edition:

Sound	Subtitle	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.stone.break	subtitles.block.generic.break	1.0	0.8	16
	None	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	None	0.5	0.75	16
	Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.stone.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit	0.25	0.5	16
	Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place	1.0	0.8	16
	Footsteps	Blocks	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

Sound	Source	Description	Namespaced ID	Volume	Pitch
	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	1.0	0.8
	Blocks	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	0.4	1.0
	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	0.37	0.5
?	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	0.12	1.0
?	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	0.22	1.0
	Blocks	Walking on the block	step.stone	0.3	1.0
	Blocks	When the block is placed	use.stone	1.0	0.8

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Form	Translation key
Emerald Ore	emerald_ore	Block & Item	block.minecraft.emerald_ore

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Namespaced ID	Numeric ID	Form	Translation key
Emerald Ore	emerald_ore	129	Block & Item	tile.emerald_ore.name

Video

Note: The extreme hills biome has since been renamed to mountains

History

Java Edition
May 21, 2012					The week before the release of 12w21a, Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system. At this time, what would become emerald ore was ruby ore.
1.3.1		12w21a			Added ruby ore.
					The announced ore has been changed to an emerald ore. The texture for emerald ore has remained unchanged, as Jeb forgot to commit the new texture in the snapshot. As this item was not announced before the snapshot was released, most translations call emerald "diamond".
					Emerald ore generates in veins of up to 10 blocks.
		12w21b			The texture of emerald ore has been corrected. The previous ruby texture remains as "ruby.png". Translations of emerald as diamond have also corrected.
					An analysis of a 500×500 extreme hills biome with MCEdit gives the following ore distributions: Overall ore distribution in the bottom most 32 layers. A detailed zoom to the rare ores. The graphs show that the distribution of all ores except for lapis lazuli is even in a certain range and falls off sharply at the borders. While the total amount of emerald is with 3386, even higher than the amount of diamonds (2997), the ore is spread out over double the height range, meaning that at a certain level the chance for finding an ore was just about half of the chance of finding a diamond ore, effectively making it twice as rare when tunnel mining.
		12w22a			Vein size was reduced to 1 block.
1.13		17w47a			Prior to The Flattening, this block's numeral ID was 129.
1.14		18w43a			The texture of emerald ore texture has been changed.
Upcoming Java Edition
1.17		21w07a			Ore generation has been changed, emerald now generates on higher altitudes in mountains rather than lower.[more information needed]
February 18, 2021					JAPPA shows new textures of emerald ore.
1.17		21w08a			The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
		21w10a			Added deepslate variant of emerald ore.
Pocket Edition Alpha
v0.9.0		build 1			Added emerald ore.
					Emerald ore can be mined with a stone pickaxe instead of an iron one.
v0.12.1		build 1			Mining emerald ore now drops experience orbs.
					Emerald ore can now be collected with Silk Touch, dropping the block itself.
					Emerald ore now drops extra emeralds with the Fortune enchantment.
Bedrock Edition
1.2.0		beta 1.2.0.2			Mining emerald ore now requires an iron pickaxe.
1.10.0		beta 1.10.0.3			The texture of emerald ore texture has been changed.
Upcoming Bedrock Edition
1.16.220		beta 1.16.220.50			The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
					Emerald ore can now be found exposed and in veins of size 4-9 on the surface of the new mountain biome variants.
Legacy Console Edition
TU14	CU1	1.04	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added emerald ore.
		1.90			The texture of emerald ore texture has been changed.
New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0					Added emerald ore.

Issues

Issues relating to "Emerald Ore" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.

Trivia

• Even though emerald ore is rarer than diamond ore, emerald ore is generally found more often in mountains biomes than diamond ore, as the emerald ore blocks are generated in a more scattered fashion.
• Emerald ores are one of two overworld ores with a unique texture, along with lapis lazuli ore ‌^{[until JE 1.17]}.

Gallery

• 

  An naturally occurring vein of emerald ore.

• 

  A naturally occurring vein of emerald ore.

• 

  A vein of emerald ore found at layer 18 in a mountains biome.

• 

  A room with placed emerald ores, including emerald blocks and thrown emeralds.

• 

  A comparison of the occurrence of emerald ore to the occurrence of diamond ore.

• 

  Two veins of emerald ores that generated nearly together.

• 

  A block of emerald ore found in a mountain cave opening.

• 

  A vein of emerald ore found in a new mountain biome variant. ‌^{[upcoming: BE 1.16.220]}

Ruby

• 

  The first image of the trading system released by Jeb. The emerald ore can be seen in the top right-hand corner with the original texture.

• 

  An enhanced version of Jeb's screenshot showing the original ore texture more clearly.

• 

  The old "ruby" texture of emerald ore.

References

Blocks

View at: Template:Blocks/content [edit]