Emerald Ore

Emerald Ore

Renewable	No
Stackable	Yes (64)
Tool
Blast resistance	3
Hardness	Emerald Ore: 3 Deepslate Emerald Ore: 4.5
Luminous	No
Transparent	No
Flammable	No
Catches fire from lava	No
Map color	11 STONE  59 DEEPSLATE
Note block instrument	Bass Drum
Sulfur cube archetype	Slow Bouncy

Emerald ore is a rare mineral block that generates only in mountains and windswept hills biomes. It drops emeralds when mined, or itself if mined with a pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchantment.

Deepslate emerald ore is a rare variant of emerald ore that can generate in deepslate and tuff blobs.

Obtaining

Breaking

Emerald ore can be mined with an iron pickaxe or better, otherwise it drops nothing. If mined without Silk Touch, the block drops 1 emerald (or up to 4 with Fortune). If mined with a pickaxe with Silk Touch, the block drops itself. It also drops 3–7XP when broken.

Block	Emerald Ore	Deepslate Emerald Ore
Hardness	3	4.5
Tool
Breaking time (sec)[A]
Default	115 (JE) 15 (BE)	122.5 (JE) 22.5 (BE)
Wooden	17.5 (JE) 7.5 (BE)	111.25 (JE) 11.25 (BE)
Stone	13.75 (JE) 3.75 (BE)	15.65 (JE) 5.65 (BE)
Copper	13.05 (JE) 3 (BE)	14.5 (JE) 4.5 (BE)
Iron	10.75 (JE) 0.75 (BE)	11.15 (JE) 1.15 (BE)
Diamond	10.6 (JE) 0.6 (BE)	10.85 (JE) 0.85 (BE)
Netherite	10.5 (JE) 0.5 (BE)	10.75 (JE) 0.75 (BE)
Golden	11.3 (JE) 1.25 (BE)	11.9 (JE) 1.9 (BE)
Options
Efficiency	000
Haste	001 1JEBE

Legend

• incorrect tool, drops nothing
• correct tool, drops nothing or something other than the block itself
• correct tool, drops the block itself
• italicized can be instant mined

Natural generation

Emerald ore generates in mountains and windswept hills biomes in the form of ore features, and attempts to generate 100 times per chunk in blobs of 0–3 ores. Emerald ore can be exposed to the sky.^[1]

Specifically, it can be found in the following biomes:

• Meadow
• Cherry Grove
• Grove
• Snowy Slopes
• Jagged Peaks
• Frozen Peaks
• Stony Peaks
• Windswept Hills
• Windswept Gravelly Hills
• Windswept Forest

Emerald ore generates from levels -16 to 320, having the greatest chance at level 232, and becoming less common toward either end of the range. However, because there is little to no terrain in the upper half of that range in regular worlds, the actual emerald ore quantity peaks around level 90 as seen in the empirical distribution graph below.

Emerald ore can replace stone, andesite, diorite, granite, tuff, and deepslate. Emerald ore that replaces tuff below Y=0 or deepslate becomes deepslate emerald ore.

Deepslate emerald ore is an extremely rare naturally-generated block, because emeralds spawn only in mountainous biomes, and spawn less at lower Y-levels. Deepslate emerald ore generates only between the altitudes of -16 and 8 where deepslate naturally occurs, which is also toward the end of emerald ore distribution where it is extremely rare. It is estimated that there are only 34.5 million in the average 346 quadrillion-block world.

Usage

Smelting ingredient

Name	Ingredients	Smelting recipe
Emerald	Emerald Ore or  Deepslate Emerald Ore + Any fuel	1

Sounds

Emerald ore

Java Edition:

stone sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	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
	​Block placed​[until: JE 26.4]	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.stone.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	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
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.stone.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.stone.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

stone sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.stone	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block placed	Blocks	When the block is placed	place.stone	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.stone	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.37	0.5
	​Footsteps	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.4	1.0
	​Footsteps	Players	Walking on the block	step.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.3	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Jumping from the block	jump.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.12	1.0
	​Footsteps	Blocks	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.stone	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.22	1.0

Deepslate emerald ore

Java Edition:

deepslate sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch	Attenuation distance
	​Block broken	Blocks	Once the block has broken	block.deepslate.break	subtitles.block.generic.break​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block placed​[until: JE 26.4]	Blocks	When the block is placed	block.deepslate.place	subtitles.block.generic.place​	1.0	0.8	16
	​Block breaking	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	block.deepslate.hit	subtitles.block.generic.hit​	0.25	0.5	16
	​Something falls on a block	Entity-Dependent	Falling on the block with fall damage	block.deepslate.fall	subtitles.block.generic.fall​	0.5	0.75	16
	​Footsteps	Entity-Dependent	Walking on the block	block.deepslate.step	subtitles.block.generic.footsteps​	0.15	1.0	16

Bedrock Edition:

deepslate sound type
Sound	Closed captions	Source	Description	Identifier	Translation key	Volume	Pitch
	​ ?	Blocks	Once the block has broken	dig.deepslate	​ ?	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	When the block is placed	place.deepslate	​ ?	1.0	0.8–1.0
	​ ?	Blocks	While the block is in the process of being broken	hit.deepslate	​ ?	0.3	0.5
	​ ?	Players	Falling on the block with fall damage	fall.deepslate	​ ?	0.4	1.0
	​ ?	Players	Walking on the block	step.deepslate	​ ?	0.3	1.0
	​ ?	Players	Jumping from the block	jump.deepslate	​ ?	0.12	1.0
	​ ?	Players	Falling on the block without fall damage	land.deepslate	​ ?	0.22	1.0

Data values

ID

Java Edition:

Name	Identifier	Form	Block tags	Translation key
Emerald Ore	emerald_ore	Block & Item	emerald_ores mineable/pickaxe needs_iron_tool	block.minecraft.emerald_ore
Deepslate Emerald Ore	deepslate_emerald_ore	Block & Item	emerald_ores mineable/pickaxe needs_iron_tool	block.minecraft.deepslate_emerald_ore

Bedrock Edition:

Name	Identifier	Numeric ID	Form	Item ID[i 1]	Translation key
Emerald Ore	emerald_ore	129	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3]	tile.emerald_ore.name
Deepslate Emerald Ore	deepslate_emerald_ore	662	Block & Giveable Item[i 2]	Identical[i 3] (Numeric: -407)	tile.deepslate_emerald_ore.name

Videos

History

When diamond ore was added in Java Edition Indev 0.31 20100128-2200, it was known until 20100129-2332 as "emerald ore".

Development

May 21, 2012							The week before the release of 12w21a, Jeb released a screenshot of himself testing the trading system.[2] At this time, what would become emerald ore was ruby ore.[3]

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.3.1			12w21a				Added emerald 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.[4] As this item was not announced before the snapshot was released, most translations call emerald "diamond" (due to "item.emerald" being the previous translation key for diamonds).
							Emerald ore generates in blobs of up to 10 blocks.
			12w21b				The texture of emerald ore has been corrected. Translations of emerald as diamond have also been 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				Blob size was reduced to 1 block.
Texture Update			January 4, 2018				A new texture for emerald ore has been proposed.
1.14			18w43a				The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
1.17			21w06a				The height limit was expanded down to Y=-64. Emerald ores are temporary generating from Y=-64 instead of Y=0.
			21w07a				Emerald ore now generates as a triangle spread, generating between Y=32 and Y=320 and peaking at Y=256.
			February 18, 2021				JAPPA shows new textures of emerald ore.
			21w08a				The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
			21w10a				Added deepslate variant of emerald ore, which does not generate naturally.
							The amount of emerald ore that generates has been increased.
			21w15a				Most ore generation has been reverted back to the pre-21w06a generation and requires the Caves & Cliffs Prototype Data Pack to be seen. However, emerald ore generation was not properly reverted due to a bug.[5]
			21w16a				Emerald ore now generates at the correct Y-levels, but it still generates more frequently than it did in 1.16.[6]
							Deepslate emerald ore variant now generates naturally.
							In the Caves & Cliffs Prototype Data Pack, emerald ores now generate in the form of ore blobs instead of single blocks.
			21w17a				Emerald ore can now replace granite, andesite, diorite, tuff, and deepslate upon generating.
1.17.1			pre2				The frequency of emerald ore generation has been reverted to pre-1.17 levels.
1.18			Experimental Snapshot 1				All previous changes to ore distribution from the prototype data pack have been implemented into the base game.
							Deepslate emerald ore no longer generates naturally.
			experimental snapshot 2				Emerald ore now generates in meadows, groves, snowy slopes, lofty peaks, and snowcapped peaks.
			21w40a				Emerald ore generates more frequently and is now able to generate down to Y=-16.
							Deepslate emerald ore now generates naturally again.
26.2			snap1				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb both emerald ore and deepslate emerald ore, providing the football/regular effect to the mob.
			snap6				Changed effect from football/regular to slow bouncy.

Bedrock Edition

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 has been changed.
1.16.220 Experiment Caves and Cliffs			beta 1.16.220.50				The texture of emerald ore has been changed.
							In the Caves & Cliffs Experimental Gameplay, emerald ore can now be found exposed and in blobs of size 0-10 on the surface of the new mountain biome variants.
1.17.0 Experiment Caves and Cliffs			beta 1.16.230.52				Added deepslate variant of emerald ore behind the Caves & Cliffs Experimental Gameplay.
			beta 1.16.230.56				In the Caves & Cliffs Experimental Gameplay, emerald ore generation has been changed. Emerald now generates on higher altitudes in extreme hills rather than lower.
			beta 1.17.0.52				Unintentionally readded the single-block emerald ore generation in the Caves & Cliffs Experimental Gameplay, which was removed in beta 1.16.230.56.
1.18.0			beta 1.18.0.20				Removed the "Caves & Cliffs" experimental toggle. New emerald ore generation are now available through normal gameplay.
							Decreased the generation size of emerald ore blobs.
							Unintentionally increased the amount of emerald ore blob generation attempts a lot.
			beta 1.18.0.21				In extreme hills, emerald ore generates more frequently and is now able to generate down to Y=-16.
			beta 1.18.0.22				Emerald ore generation height has been tweaked.
			beta 1.18.0.24				Emerald ore blob now generates correctly.
							Emerald ore generation height has been tweaked to be in parity with Java Edition.
26.20 Experiment Drop 2 of 2026			Preview 26.20.23				Added sulfur cubes, which have the ability to absorb both emerald ore and deepslate emerald ore, providing the football/regular effect to the mob.
26.30			Preview 26.30.20				Implemented all features from the "Drop 2 of 2026" experiment in vanilla gameplay.
			Preview 26.30.27				Emerald ore and deepslate emerald ore's sulfur cube archetype has been changed from regular to slow bouncy.

Legacy Console Edition

Legacy Console Edition
Xbox 360	Xbox One	PS3	PS4	PS Vita	Wii U	Switch
TU14	CU1	1.04	1.00	1.00	Patch 1	1.0.1	Added emerald ore.
			1.90				The texture of emerald ore has been changed.

New Nintendo 3DS Edition

New Nintendo 3DS Edition
0.1.0							Added emerald ore.

Data history

Issues

Issues relating to "Emerald Ore" or "Deepslate Emerald Ore" are maintained on the bug tracker. Issues should be reported and viewed 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.

Gallery

Screenshots

• 
  A naturally occurring blob of emerald ore
• 
  A naturally occurring blob of emerald ore
• 
  Emerald ore found in the jagged peaks biome
• 
  A room with placed emerald ores, including blocks of emerald and thrown emerald items
• 
  Two blobs of emerald ores that generated nearly together
• 
  A block of emerald ore found in a plains biome
• 
  A blob of emerald ore found in a mountain biome
• 
  A ravine with multiple ores, water and lava falls, and a stronghold bridge over it
• 
  Multiple emerald ores close together
• 
  Two deepslate emerald ore blocks generated next to each other, one exposed. Glass marks where deepslate was removed to reveal the hidden one.

Development images

• 
  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