GLOWSTONE

Two different sellers carry glowstone, and they do not agree on a price. The Cleric asks a fixed 4 emeralds at journeyman, every time, while the Wandering Trader, when he happens to have it, asks 2 emeralds each, the cheaper of the two by a clear margin.

A crafting grid builds one from 4 glowstone dust, gathered underground or dropped by the glowstone that a Nether ceiling already grows in clusters. Breaking a placed block needs Silk Touch, an ordinary tool knocks it back down to loose dust instead of the block itself.

The Wandering Trader sells glowstone for 2 emeralds each when his stock happens to include it. He does not buy it back, the offer runs one way.

To buy it on demand instead of hoping for a passing trader, visit a Cleric at Journeyman, who charges 4 emeralds for a guaranteed sale.

Glowstone sells for as little as 4 emeralds, from the Cleric at the Journeyman tier, and 3 of the other 4 cost less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Cleric will quote you exactly the same.

The Cleric at its journeyman tier asks 4 emeralds for glowstone. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

4 compasses against 96 flint for the same 4 emeralds, 24 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 2.5 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

A freshly employed Cleric does not open with this row. He needs 70 trade experience banked before journeyman unlocks, level 3 of five, several rounds of earlier sales first. Once open, the slot sells 1 at a time, 12 times before it locks, and he restocks at most twice a Minecraft day.

The Wandering Trader plays by different rules entirely. He is not part of any village, has no workstation, and never restocks: his stock for the visit, up to 5 glowstone if the roll included it, is everything that offer will ever give before he moves on for good.

At the Cleric, 12 sales close the slot, and the wait after that runs 2 real minutes flat. Two of those refills fit inside one Minecraft day, itself 20 real minutes long, so 24 glowstone for 96 emeralds is the most one villager produces between sunrises.

The trader has no such clock. He eventually wanders off on his own schedule, and whatever glowstone was left in his stock when he vanishes is gone with him, restock or not.

Clearing the Cleric's shelf costs 48 emeralds for 12 glowstone before the slot locks, a guaranteed price for a guaranteed supply.

Where the emeralds come from: the same Cleric buys rabbit feet, his cheapest raw material.

Also on the Cleric's list: scute, glass bottle, ender pearl, nether wart, bottle o' enchanting and rotten flesh.

Glowstone is mined off the ceiling of the Nether, and breaking it gives dust rather than the block: four dust make one block again, so a careless swing can cost you part of what was up there unless the pickaxe carries Silk Touch.

As a light it sits at the top of the range with a lantern and a sea lantern, bright enough to stop mobs spawning across a wide floor. Unlike a torch it works under water and, unlike ice or snow nearby, it does not melt anything, which is why polar builds tend to run on glowstone rather than fire.

Glowstone dust is not only the block. In a brewing stand it strengthens a potion, taking a healing or a strength potion up a tier, which is the opposite of what redstone does when it lengthens one instead.

Every potion has to choose between the two: stronger or longer, never both. That single rule is why glowstone dust is worth as much to a brewer as the block is to a builder.

A redstone lamp is glowstone with redstone dust around it, which turns the brightest ordinary light in the game into one you can switch. Silk Touch is the only way to take the block itself home whole.

A block of Glowstone is 4 glowstone dust, and witches drop the dust. The Cleric charges 4 emeralds per block and the wandering trader 2 emeralds, prices a witch farm undercuts once it runs: How to Build a Witch Farm in Minecraft.