[PC Game] The Handy Dandy Minecraft Tips Thread.

[Dave]

Some people who had been away from the game didn't know what all to do, so this thread will be for tips & tricks to ease their burden.

Friendly mobs:

Not all friendly mobs are related equal. These guys won't attack you and will run away if you attack them (with two exceptions). Each of these have a preferred food which - when you right click on two of the mobs - will make them breed. Also, when you have their preferred food in your active hand, they will follow you. Handy for mass roundups into a fenced area.

• Pigs - Pigs are food, plain and simple. They drop nothing but food and they produce nothing of use but food. So when you look at a pig, think tasty, tasty bacon. Their favorite food is carrots.
• Cows - Cows are very handy critters and should not be killed unless you have some set up already for breeding. Not only do they drop beef, which can be cooked into steaks, but they also drop leather which is used in early armor and the making of books and you can milk them. And since you need books to make libraries or do enchantments, this makes cows one of the most important mobs in the game. Their favorite food is wheat, which is easy to get. Now all you have to do is find the damned cows.
• Sheep - Sheep drop wool and give no food. So there's no reason to kill sheep, really. Except maybe in the early game when you need 3 wool to make a bed to make it through the night and you have yet to be able to make sheers. Sheers, by the way, make sheep uncomfortably naked, giving you from 1-3 blocks of wool but not killing the sheep. It grows back. There are several colors of sheep, so they are prized for their wool for decorating. Their favorite food is wheat. Good old wheat.
• Chickens - Chickens are awesome, if not a little annoying. They are noisy beasts, but you almost have to have them for later in the game. Chickens drop eggs when alive, which can be used in cooking or making more chickens. When killed, chickens drop meat and feathers, which you use to make arrows. And if you are traveling in the nether or trying to beat the game, you HAVE to have arrows! You can make new chickens by either harvesting eggs (low chance but they drop a LOT of eggs!) or by feeding them their favorite food - seeds.
• Wolves - Wolves are your friend. Well, most cases. If you attack a wild wolf, you'll really piss them off. But when you feed them bones (gotten from killing skeletons), they turn into docile little pets that will protect you. After that, you can feed them any type of meat - including rotten meat from zombies - and that will not only heal them if they are injured, but will make them breed if at full health. And then you'll have puppies! No favorite food for these guys, really. They follow you if healthy and not told to "Sit!"
• Ocelots - Kitty! These things are a lot like wolves with a few exceptions. First, to tame one you had to move slowly and carefully or they will run away. And boy do they ever run away! If you do get close enough, you have to feed them raw fish (which you get by - you guessed it! - fishing!) until they turn into cats. Now, don't do what I did and just feed them a couple and think it's good. Wait for the change or they will despawn or run away. Once you have them tamed, they will not protect you, but creepers HATE them and will run away so no boom boom. If injured, though, you can NOT heal your kitty so be careful! Oh, and cats don't take falling damage and are not afraid to jump from very high places.
• Horses - Horses are a new mob and I love and hate them. To tame a horse takes no food whatsoever and they won't follow you even if tamed. To tame them, right click on them with an empty hand. Do this a few times and they are yours. But wait! You want to ride it? You need a saddle for that! Where do you get a saddle? You have to find one in a dungeon chest or get lucky fishing. Only then can you ride a horse. But damn are they fast! Just don't go into water if you can help it or they will throw you off and you'll have to remount. To breed horses you need golden carrots or golden apples. But you only really need one so this is moot. At least to me.

My next post will probably be about ore nodes, but I'm going to play a little Farcry 3 first. Thanks, @ThatNickGuy!

 

[Dave]

Mining:

So you want to be a miner? Swell! Good thing you're playing a game called Minecraft, then. I'm going to go through some of the types of ore you will find and what level you should be at to find them. Please note that I'm not going to be going into what these items are used for, merely what they are and where your best chances are to find them.

First, let's get the basic ones out of the way.

• Dirt - When you destroy dirt you get...dirt. Simple, early, safe. Used to build a lot early game then later it just becomes a pain. mined with shovel.
• Stone - When you mine stone you get cobblestone, which you can then smelt in a furnace to get...stone. Now, they are basically the same thing, but stone looks cleaner and better than cobblestone. But it's up to you. Early game you won't care. You use a pick on these. If you try and use anything else it takes forever and drops nothing!
• Gravel - I hate gravel, but it's a necessary evil. Mainly because it drops flint, which you need to make arrows. But it's a pain in the ass because when you mine it with your shovel, any gravel above it falls down. And if you are digging straight up (which you should NEVER DO!!) if you come up under gravel it will fall on your head and kill you. Death by gravel. Embarrassing.

Now for some more specialized stuff. Please note that layer 0 is the absolute lowest you can be, hitting something called bedrock that you can't break or move with any tool. You can find out what level you are at by hitting the F3 key and looking at the Y coordinate. All of the following are mined with pickaxes.

• Coal - Man do you need this early game. You need coal to make torches, which not only makes it so you can see in the dark, but it stops monsters from spawning. Oh, they'll still come IN to the light, but they have to start from farther away. Coal can be found in a lot of places above ground, so you really don't have to go spelunking to find it. However, if you do, it's fairly shallow, with a lot in every level. Your best bet is level 5, but why go so far down and risk getting boiled alive in lava, which seems to start in large quantities at level 12?
• Iron - Iron is a necessity for a lot of things, but until you find diamonds, it is the best thing for armor and tools. Sure, you can use stone and leather, but once you have iron, your world changes from survival to explore and create. Of course, when you mine the ore you still have to smelt it to make it useful, but by now you should have a furnace. You have a furnace, don't you? Iron can be found at practically any level, with the highest concentration at about level 8.
• Redstone - Redstone. I fricking HATE redstone. Why? Because each redstone ore node gives you anywhere from 4-5 redstone dust and the nodes are plentiful. I mean, like you have redstone dust falling out of your ears after a while. Granted, it's useful and if you build a lot of complex stuff it might be nice, but I have like 70 stacks of the stuff and that's not counting what I've destroyed. But if you find you need some, go to level 11 and enjoy. Need iron pickax or better to mine it.
• Gold - Gold has become a lot more useful than it used to be. In the past you could make stuff out of it, but it was inferior in every way to iron, which is easier to find. Now, though, gold is used in brewing potions, making golden carrots and apples, and a few other handy dandy things. Best found on level 8 and this needs iron or better to mine it.
• Diamonds - Easily the best ore in the game, due to diamonds being used in armor and weapons. Diamonds have the best durability and you have to have a few to make an enchanting table. Best found on level 11 and you need iron or better to mine.
• Lapis Lazuli - This node needs a stone pick or better and drops 4-5 lapis per node. But since the lapis are used for nothing but making dies, if you don't color coordinate stuff, these are worthless. But if you want them, head to level 13 and have fun.
• Emeralds - Emeralds are the rarest ore node in the game. First, because they only spawn in the Extreme Hills biome. Second, they aren't distributed very evenly, so no percentiles are available yet. When they find some I'll update, but for right now it's a crap shoot. Emeralds are used for nothing more than trading with villagers, which are rare. Luckily, if it's a big enough village, there will be villagers who will by things from you with emeralds so you can trade for other things. Frankly, the economy for villagers is pretty whacked out anyway, but if it floats your boat...Oh, and have an iron or better or be prepared to cry yourself to sleep when nothing drops.
• Obsidian - Although naturally occurring, most obsidian is found by making it. Hey look, a bunch of lava! Let's pour water on it! Instant obsidian. Now, you have to have a diamond pickax to mine it, but obsidian blocks are needed for enchanting and making a portal to the Nether, so it's kind of important late game.

Spoiler

Note I didn't go into the types of ore you find in the Nether. That's because I'm concentrating on Otherworld stuff right now. @Shakey and @Eriol are probably better at those than me, anyway.

Another final note. If you go to level 11 there are many benefits. Diamonds are the most plentiful, lava usually starts at 12 so you won't get rained on (that often), and almost all ores have a good concentration there. It's really the best level for mining.

 

[Dave]

Next up by popular demand - okay, a couple people asked for it - is Enchanting!

Enchanting basically takes the items that you have and makes them awesome. Armor can protect better or do damage to attackers, weapons can set things on fire (which is fun because when the fire kills something the meat is cooked!) and you can get better or greater drops. You can enchant almost anything in the game, although there are things that I don't know why you'd do it. Why? Because enchanting almost always costs experience levels.

There are four ways to enchant stuff:

1. Enchanting table - This is the way most of us will do all of our enchanting. Pretty much every other way of doing it is horribly difficult to do. But there are good and bad points about this, which I'll go into in a bit.
2. Priest Villager - If you are lucky enough to find a village and said village is large enough to have a priest, and you are lucky enough to have the emeralds or goods needed to trade for emeralds, you can get a priest to enchant an item for you. Sound complicated and overly complex? It is. It's almost impossible unless you are very lucky.
3. Anvils - This one annoys me. You take two items which already have enchantments and combine them into one item that has enchantments. Now, this costs experience and you don't always know what you are going to get. Plus, you already have to have two enchanted items, so what the hell, man?
4. Enchanted books - Enchanted books are super rare and can be found in dungeon chests, strongholds, etc. Oh, and they can be fished, although this is very, very rare. (First time on this server I fished I got an enchanted book. Protection from fire saved my ass in the Nether!) You use them on the anvil with a non-magic item and BAM! Enchanted item.

As I said, there are pros & cons of each.

• Enchantment table - con - To get to the max level of enchanting (level 30), you have to surround the enchantment table with bookshelves (15 total), which means that before you can max enchantment you need a shitload of sugarcane and leather. Remember when I said you needed cows? Well, to make a bookshelf you need 3 leather. So you need 45 leather to make enough bookshelves to max out. That's a lot of dead cows. Get to breeding!
• Enchantment table - con - You don't know what enchantment you're going to get until you push the button to get it. You want to get Fortune III so you can better mine diamonds? Good luck! I've enchanted 7 diamond pickaxes on this server and never gotten even Fortune I! The runes you see when you enchant mean nothing so don't try and decipher them.
• Enchantment table - pro - You can determine what level of enchantment you want on your item simply by putting torches on the bookshelves. The more torches the lower the level you can enchant. Why is this important? Well, if you wanted to try and enchant a pickaxe and you only have 26 levels of exp, you can set it so that 26 is the highest you can do. Takes a bit of playing around but there it is.
• Enchantment table - pro - Once your enchantment table is built, it's there forever. No need to find more emeralds or any crap like that to use it. Just get some exp mining or killing monsters and you're good to go. This is why you set your table up as soon as you can. As you mine you'll get exp - use it when it hits whatever level you want. The higher the level you have, the harder the next level is to get. Example, doing 2 level 15 enchantments takes 255 exp each while 1 level 30 enchant takes 825. And when you consider killing monsters gives 5 exp each and mining gives from 1-5 exp on average, it takes a while to get to 30.
• Priest Villager - con - Did you even READ my description?!?
• Priest Villager - pro - This is hearsay. I've never actually done it. But I understand when you trade with a villager for an enchantment you can choose the enchantment. Or at least he tells you which one he's offering, take it or leave it. Not much of a pro, but it's a pro.
• Enchanted books - con - Hard to get.
• Enchanted books - pro - You WILL know what enchantment you are putting on your item, no ifs ands or buts about it. And you can use multiple books on the same item so cook that bad boy up! Just note that the more powerful an item the less chance you'll be able to repair said item. It'll cost more and more until you can't even generate that much exp so the system just won't let you do it at all.
• Enchanted books - pro - You can actually make enchanted books yourself using the enchanting table, but again you don't know what you are getting. Still, a random enchantment on a book is better than one on an item that you suddenly can't change.

So here are a couple cool links that will help with your enchanting.

First, a list of the enchantments and on what items you can get them on.

Next, a handy dandy calculator. You want to know what the odds are of getting an enchantment with 25 levels on your diamond sword? This is where you find out!

And one last thing. In the next version - 1.8 - you will be able to add items to the enchantment table and choose your enchantment, so the con will go right out the window. But that's for then, this is now. But I really can't wait for that to happen!

 

[drifter]

Anvils should show exactly what enchantments you are getting when combining two enchanted items. You also don't necessarily need two enchanted items, unless you're trying to combine enchantments. You can also use anvils to repair enchanted items with base materials ( or non-enchanted item of same material).

Keep in mind order of items matter; the left item is the target, the right is the sacrifice. More in-depth stuff about anvil mechanics here

You can also use the anvil to rename items, in case you want to name your diamond sword with Bane of Arthropods "Sting." It does cost XP though.

 

[PatrThom]

A couple other notes:
-Cats don't take fall damage (unless this has changed, they "land on their feet")
-Cobblestone is a smidge more resistant to damage than stone.

--Patrick

 

[Dave]

A couple other notes:
-Cats don't take fall damage (unless this has changed, they "land on their feet")
-Cobblestone is a smidge more resistant to damage than stone.

--Patrick

Added the bit about the cats, but I can't see where cobblestone is more resistant. Everything I see says they are equal.

 

[PatrThom]

Cobblestone takes slightly longer to mine than smooth stone. Both have the same blast resistance, but it takes slightly longer to cut through a cobblestone block with a pick than it does through smooth stone.
I suppose that I should have said more resistant to mining, not damage.

Also, don't forget that pigs are more than just food, they can also be ridden with a saddle.

--Patrick

 

[figmentPez]

Things I didn't know, having not played since beta:

- Coal, redstone, lapis lazuli, hay, etc. can all be formed into blocks for more compact storage. Fill the 3x3 crafting grid to make them.
- Coal blocks burn for longer than the 9 coal that make them up would, but they'll fuel more than a stack of material, so they need more tending.
- Charcoal can't be formed into blocks.

- Jungle saplings can be planted in a 2x2 grid to grow a giant tree covered in vines. In my experience this is the only way to get a positive return on jungle sapling drops.
- Dark Oak saplings must be planted in a 2x2 grid to grow.

- The Ctrl key runs. I like this better than double tapping forward.

 

[Dave]

I had no idea about the Ctrl key.

 

[PatrThom]

I had no idea about the coal blocks. I knew they were talking about doing something that would make them more "valuable" than charcoal, but didn't know that's what happened.
Using them sounds ideal for the new hopper mechanic.

--Patrick

 

[Dave]

Yeah, they do 100 items per block. So if you put in a block of coal and a full stack, you are wasting 36 items worth of fire. The only way to really take advantage of these are to use hoppers, which auto-load the furnace. Maybe I should do that next.

 

[PatrThom]

I know it is possible to sideload the fuel into a furnace as well as the input, so you can do totally automated smelting.

--Patrick

 

[figmentPez]

You don't earn any experience from automated smelting, right?[DOUBLEPOST=1388107789,1388107684][/DOUBLEPOST]

The only way to really take advantage of these are to use hoppers, which auto-load the furnace. Maybe I should do that next.

Well, you could just babysit the furnaces; pulling out finished product and feeding in fresh, but that would be really time consuming. Right now I just use plain coal, since I want the experience but I don't want to sit around watching my fires.

 

[PatrThom]

No, you forgo any XP from any automated process, since YOU don't remove the finished product.
Looks like a good way to mass produce smooth stone, though.

--Patrick

 

[Dave]

The only things really worth babysitting for the exp are iron and gold. The rest is so negligible it doesn't really matter.

 

[drifter]

So I just learned something interesting. You can smelt redstone and lapis lazuli (among others) to get ore blocks. You also get pretty good XP depending on the item. Redstone gives 0.7 XP (same as smelting iron). Might be useful for people with no use for redstone.

 

[drifter]

Disregard that, I suck cocks. They were talking about smelting ore blocks. I completely misunderstood the article. I thought this was something new I missed in one of the updates.

 

[figmentPez]

Disregard that, I suck cocks. They were talking about smelting ore blocks. I completely misunderstood the article. I thought this was something new I missed in one of the updates.

Yeah, if you use a silk touch pick to mine redstone, lapis, diamond, etc. You can then smelt those blocks to get the ore inside, and you'll get experience for that. Kind of a waste of silk touch, though.[DOUBLEPOST=1388119391,1388119284][/DOUBLEPOST]Oh, I don't know who made started using this method on the server, but someone's animal pens have a really useful design for getting in and out, and I've copied it on mine now.

For those that don't know, gates suck for keeping animals in when you're moving about yourself. To avoid having to open and close gates all the time, place a block on top of a fence post and then put ladders on the side of the block. You'll be able to jump up, grab the ladder and then travel across the fence that way.

 

[PatrThom]

Trapdoors make a handy villager block, also.
Place a trapdoor across the block over a pressure plate. The trapdoor will keep two-high mobs (like villagers) from triggering the pressure plate, but you will still be able to pop the trapdoor open to stand on it. Then once the pressure plate activates the door beyond, you can go through and both doors will reset once you step off the plate.

--Patrick

 

[Shakey]

For those that don't know, gates suck for keeping animals in when you're moving about yourself. To avoid having to open and close gates all the time, place a block on top of a fence post and then put ladders on the side of the block. You'll be able to jump up, grab the ladder and then travel across the fence that way.

That's what I do. Someone on another server showed me that. It's incredibly nice.

 

[figmentPez]

Hit the sneak button (default is Left-Shift) to hold your place on a ladder or vines. This will keep you from slowly descending, and allow you to mine while holding onto the ladder.

 

[LordRendar]

That will also stop you from falling off ledges.

 

[GasBandit]

That ladderblock livestock access trick is a new one on me. Very useful. Especially as I usually have livestock pits instead of fences.

 

[Shakey]

The idea of livestock pits brings to mind the image of sticky pistons being used for livestock mashing. I really want to do that with chickens now...

 

[PatrThom]

Hmm...big field-like area with water at one end, cows fall into the water and get funneled towards the CHOMPING PISTONS RAARRR.

--Patrick

 

[figmentPez]

In your inventory, hovering your mouse over an item and hitting a number key will put that item in your hotbar.

When fishing, aim almost straight up when casting, angle just a little towards the water and your cast will fall close to you, making it easier to see the ripples approaching your bobber.

 

[figmentPez]

Hmm...big field-like area with water at one end, cows fall into the water and get funneled towards the CHOMPING PISTONS RAARRR.

I think I'd rather make a water elevator to raise the cows up to a slightly less than lethal drop, so that I could one punch kill them at the end. But that's because I'd want to get the experience drop from them so that I can enchant stuff.... Wait, I just may have to build such a system at one point.

 

[PatrThom]

Cows go in one end, leather and XP come out the other.

--Patrick

 

[figmentPez]

Cows go in one end, leather and XP come out the other.

Really? I thought XP only dropped if the player hit the mob within a certain number of seconds of their death.

 

[PatrThom]

Also, if you are chopping down trees, always start by chopping them at the highest point where you can jump on top of the stump (usually one block above the bottom, unless you have elevated ground nearby or something where you can jump higher). This will (usually) allow you to chop the entire tree (not counting jungle/sequoia) from within reach, rather than having to dirtevate yourself up to get the last bits.
[DOUBLEPOST=1388607280,1388607222][/DOUBLEPOST]

Really? I thought XP only dropped if the player hit the mob within a certain number of seconds of their death.

You are correct. I meant with you standing at the exit to administer the coups de grâce.

--Patrick

 

[figmentPez]

Also, if you are chopping down trees, always start by chopping them at the highest point where you can jump on top of the stump (usually one block above the bottom, unless you have elevated ground nearby or something where you can jump higher). This will (usually) allow you to chop the entire tree (not counting jungle/sequoia) from within reach, rather than having to dirtevate yourself up to get the last bits.

This is one of the reasons I like farming jungle trees and dark oak. Their 2x2 trunks allow you to spiral upwards, meaning you never have to place a block in order to read the highest point of the tree. Jungle trees have the added benefit of vines on the side (only in the 2x2 planing) that allow for climbing higher before the first chop.

When farming trees with higher sapling drop rates, like regular oak, I plant them in dense clusters, so that I can chop staircases into their trunks up to the highest levels.

 

[Eriol]

If anybody has ANY redstone questions or wants to ask if a mechanism is possible (or more likely, PRACTICAL), let me know.

 

[figmentPez]

Pez's Guide to trading:

Part 1: Why trade with villagers?

Well, I find it enjoyable to do so, but on a more practical note, some stuff is easier to get from villagers than elsewhere. Here are some of the things that villagers deal in that may be limited or difficult to obtain otherwise:

• Bottles O' Enchanting - these can't be obtained any other way, though experience can be obtained many ways, so they're not essential.
• Glowstone - for those who don't like going into the open areas of the nether, or who don't have a silk touch pick
• Eyes of Ender - You can make these yourself, but it requies both an Ender Pearl and Blaze Powder. Once you have one, you can make an Ender Chest, which can be very useful to have around.
• Diamond tools and armor - while it's not hard to mine diamond, this ensures that diamond gear is renewable (though, even with our server population, it's unlikely we'd ever dig up all the diamond in our explored world)
• Chain mail armor - cannot be crafted. It's not as good as even iron armor, but it's rare and I think the pants look cool.
• Books of Enchantment for a specific enchant. - Dave hit the motherload with Fortune 3 books.
• Enchanted gear. - This isn't as awesome, since they don't do level 30 enchants, but some of what they offer is good for the price. Being able to trade a worn diamond axe (with or without enchantments) for a fresh axe with Efficiency 2 and Unbreaking 2 means I'm lumberjacking with really good gear at very low cost.
• Emeralds - SWAG! While emeralds are currency, emerald blocks may be just the accent a builder is looking for.

Part 2: What do I need to trade?

1. First thing you'll need is villagers. While you can start a village from scratch (and I may cover that later) there are already two villages where you're welcome to trade, and Dave may open his to the public once he's unlocked everything. Both the naturally occurring village that Dave secured, and the from-scratch village that I started are open for trade.
2. You'll need goods to trade with. There are many options, but here is a list of what villagers will give you emeralds for:
   • Raw meat: Beef, Pork or Chicken
   • Coal
   • Wheat
   • Cooked fish (either regular fish or salmon works)
   • Wool (any color works, but you can't use multiple colors in a single trade)
   • Paper
   • Books
   • Written Books
   • Lesser options include Iron, Gold and Diamond. Since these are less abundant, avoid trading in these.
3. Patience - Villagers are annoying little snots who run around like crazy, shove each other out of the way, open and close doors with lightning speed and generally make things difficult for you. (They're a little calmer at night, though they tend to pack even closer during the nighttime hours.

Part 3: Are there any dangers?
Mostly just one. When you right-click a villager to trade with them, that villager will stop moving. The rest of the brain-dead crowd will keep running about at top speed, though. If another villager should knock the one you're trading with out of range, you'll get unceremoniously dropped out of the trade. If you're mid-click when this happens, you could end up punching a villager, or worse. Never trade with a tool out. Should you injure a villager, there is a chance any iron golem present will attack you. I don't know the rules as to why this happens sometimes and not others, but an iron golem can kill you fast. They will calm down after a while, but I don't know if it's possible to make them permanently hostile.

To be continued...

 

[GasBandit]

I noticed in the village most of the "for emeralds" trades were X'd out. Do they grow back over time?

 

[figmentPez]

I noticed in the village most of the "for emeralds" trades were X'd out. Do they grow back over time?

Not over time. Trades are refreshed by trading for the last trade in their menu. Let me see if I can explain:

Part 4: The Mechanics of Trading

Each villager has a job. Farmer, Butcher, Blacksmith, Librarian or Priest. They start with one trade. Make that trade and, since it is the last trade on their list, when you exit the menu the villager will sparkle green, and then have purple swirls surrounding them for a while. I think this happens every time you make the last trade on their list, but it doesn't always mean they've unlocked a new trade. Sometimes all it takes is one trade to open up the next one, sometimes that trade has to be made multiple times.

Each trade has a limit on how many times the villager will trade it. Somewhere between 3 and 13 according to the wiki. Once you reach this random limit, the villager will just grunt and the trade won't go through. If you exit the trade interface and return, that entry will be X-ed out.

Every time you make the final trade on a villager's list, it will open back up old trades. This is why a lot of villagers have X-ed out offers, because it's generally most efficient to make as many of the lower trades as possible before making the final trade on the list, especially if that last trade is buying something otherwise unwanted.

Here's where it gets complicated. According to the wiki, there is no limit to the number of new trades a villager will offer, but they can only have one offer of each kind. So when a new trade is unlocked, it has a chance to overwrite an old trade. So a priest who trades 1 Emerald -> 4 Bottles O' Experience might unlock the new trade of 1 Emerald -> 2 Bottles O' Experience, and the original offer will no longer be available. However... I don't know how accurate this is, or what the rules are. A villager can offer one trade for iron boots, and another trade for diamond boots, but I don't know if they'll offer two different trades involving enchanting books. I don't even know if old trades getting overwritten happens at all, since I haven't been keeping close enough track of villagers to be sure. I do know I can't seem to find the villager who was trading for Respiration 3 books, but maybe I was just having bad luck. It's hard to track these guys down.

The way I trade in short:
1. Look through list of trades, and figure out which ones I want to make.
2. If any trades earning emerald are not the last trade on the list, make those until they are exhausted.
3. Once all profitable trades are exhausted, then make the final trade on the list, to refresh previous trades and in hopes of unlocking the next level.

Generally I will make all profitable trades, regardless of if there is a better trade somewhere. I generally don't worry about the difference between getting an emerald for 14 coal or for 20 coal. If trades could be made an unlimited number of times, I'd be making a list of the absolute best trades for any item, but since it's hard to predict what trade will be necessary to refresh a villager's offers (and it's a pain to hunt down specific villagers), I just make whatever trades I can.