NETHER QUARTZ

Nether Quartz never crosses the counter as a finished build, a Mason only wants the raw crystal. At expert he pays 1 emerald for 12 of it, treating your nether haul the same way he treats stone and clay, as raw stock rather than as something rare.

The same Mason then sells back the processed side of that stock, the pillars and blocks quartz turns into once it is cut, so a heavy nether trip can fund its own building materials on the walk home from the counter.

One buyer, one rate. The Mason pays 1 emerald for 12 nether quartz once he reaches expert, and the figure holds steady between one Mason and the next since it is fixed in the trade file rather than rolled.

No villager sells nether quartz back to a player at this counter. The row only runs one direction, nether quartz out of your inventory and emeralds into it.

The best rate any villager offers is an emerald per 12 nether quartz, from the Mason, and 1 of the other 5 pays out faster. No villager sells nether quartz back, so it is emeralds out and nothing in.

One slot at the Mason takes 12 nether quartz a trade, 12 trades, 12 emeralds. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

12 acacia boats against 384 rotten flesh for the same 12 emeralds, 32 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 7.5 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted. Nether Quartz itself pays 12 an emerald, so 37 of the 72 ask less and 31 ask more.

A stonecutter claims any unemployed villager as a Mason right away, but nether quartz sits well above his opening shelf. He has to climb to expert first, most of the way up his five tiers, before the offer even has a chance to show up.

Once open, the slot takes 12 nether quartz per trade for 12 uses before locking, and a restock brings back the identical rate rather than swapping in something new.

12 trades close the slot, and the Mason needs 2 real minutes back at his stonecutter before it reopens. A Minecraft day runs 20 real minutes, room for exactly two of those refills.

Camp a full day and one Mason takes 288 nether quartz off your hands for 24 emeralds total, the hard ceiling regardless of how deep the nether trip that stocked it was.

Sell the crystal, buy it back finished. The same Mason turns quartz into pillars and blocks, so a large nether quartz haul can pay for its own decorative trim rather than sitting in a chest as raw crystal.

Where they go back: that same Mason also sells bricks, his cheapest offer.

Also on the Mason's list: colored terracotta, glazed terracotta, quartz pillar, quartz block, clay ball, and stone.

Quartz ore is common in the Nether and gives one quartz per block, more with Fortune, so a short trip brings back a lot. It is also the only white building block that is not wool or snow, which is why modern builds lean on it heavily.

Beyond building it is redstone: comparators and daylight detectors need it, and nothing else substitutes. A Mason buying raw quartz is buying the Nether trip, and one selling quartz pillars is selling two crafting steps on top of it.

A comparator takes three nether quartz, an observer takes two, and a daylight sensor takes three. That makes quartz a redstone component as much as a building block, and it is the reason a technical player runs out of it long before a builder does.

Quartz ore is the only ore in the nether that gives a gem rather than a metal, and Fortune multiplies it the same way it does diamonds.

Four quartz make a block, and the block cuts into pillars, bricks and the chiselled version at a stonecutter with no waste, so one trip covers a whole palette.