REDSTONE DUST

A Cleric at novice hands over 2 redstone dust for 1 emerald, more per trade than most of what a villager sells, since the game prices this one by the pair rather than one at a time.

No crafting grid makes redstone dust; it only comes out of the ground, from witches, or off this shelf. For anyone who has not found a redstone vein yet, or is out of range of the nether entirely, the Cleric is the most dependable of the three.

One seller, one price: a Cleric at novice asks 1 emerald for 2 redstone dust. It is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Cleric quotes exactly the same.

Redstone Dust sells for as little as 1 emerald for 2 at a time, from the Cleric at the Novice tier, and 1 of the other 4 costs less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Cleric will quote you exactly the same.

The Cleric at its novice tier asks 1 emerald for 2 redstone dust. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

a compass against 26 flint for the same 1 emerald, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Butcher at 37.5 real seconds of shelf, gathering not counted.

The offer locks after 12 uses, and a villager restocks at most twice a Minecraft day, so 24 of these trades caps one Cleric before the day resets him.

It sits at the very first tier. A villager who claimed a brewing stand minutes ago is already selling redstone dust, no trade experience needed and no earlier offer to unlock first.

24 redstone dust drain one slot, and the Cleric needs 2 real minutes back at his brewing stand before he sells another. A Minecraft day, 20 real minutes, holds two of those refills.

A full day camped nets 48 redstone dust for 24 emeralds, a pair roughly every 50 real seconds, 1.2 emeralds a real minute.

Clearing the shelf: the same Cleric hands over 2 redstone dust a trade for 12 trades before restocking. Where the emeralds come from: he also pays an emerald per 32 rotten flesh, which any zombie fight leaves you holding for free.

The rest of his sheet, worth a look on the same trip: gold ingot, lapis lazuli, rabbit foot, glowstone, scute and glass bottle.

Redstone dust carries a signal fifteen blocks before it fades, and a repeater pushes it further. That one number is the whole reason redstone builds look the way they do: long runs are broken into hops rather than laid in a single line.

It also brews. Redstone extends the duration of almost any potion, which is why a Cleric selling it is selling to two completely different customers, the engineer and the brewer, from the same slot.

Half the redstone in a world ends up in components rather than in lines: a repeater is three stone, two torches and a dust, a comparator wants three nether quartz, and a piston takes a dust of its own.

In a brewing stand the same dust lengthens a potion instead of strengthening it, which is the choice every brewer makes against glowstone.

A redstone lamp is glowstone wrapped in four dust, and a block of redstone is nine, which is both storage and a permanent power source that never switches off.

Witches drop Redstone Dust along with glowstone, sugar and glass bottles, so a witch farm turns out the same dust the Cleric sells at 2 for 1 emerald. How to Build a Witch Farm in Minecraft is built on a witch hut in a swamp.