Vanilla Realms runs on an emerald economy, with no server money

Is there money on Vanilla Realms?

No. There is no server money. The /balance, /pay and /sell commands exist but always move zero. All trade is item for item with vanilla rares: emeralds, diamonds, netherite, enchanted golden apples, nether stars and creeper heads.

How do you earn emeralds?

• Villager trading is the main source. You can earn up to 50 emeralds in any rolling 4 hours. The cap counts emeralds earned, not trades, and an emerald-block trade counts as 9.
• Each trade that pays emeralds can be used once per player per villager, and restocks 4 hours after you use it. Shift-click bulk trades are cancelled on emerald results.
• /tradecount shows how much of the cap you have used.
• Vote ranks hand out emerald blocks as you climb, from 1 at Newbie+ to 32 at Cartographer. See the free ranks guide.
• Mining and crates are the other sources of emerald blocks, and the Smith Legion world has an emerald mine that resets every 45 minutes.

Can you raise the emerald cap?

Yes. /tradelimit opens a menu where you buy a higher cap with emerald blocks. Each upgrade is permanent, announced to the server, and needs the one before it.

Elite Rank 5 raises the cap to 70 emeralds.

How do player shops work?

• Players build personal chest shops in their claimed land with /shop. Buying needs no command: click the shop.
• A shop's price is an item. Players price in emeralds or any other item, including the server's crate currencies such as Exotic Gold and Crate Crystals.
• /shop find <item> searches every shop, /shop selling <item> and /shop buying <item> find shops selling or taking an item, and /shop price <item> shows how many shops list it and the average price.
• Most shops are advertised with player warps: /setwarp <name> makes one and /warps lists them. Shop and warp slots grow with your vote rank.
• /shoptutorial walks you through it in game.

What do the NPC traders take?

There is no coin-based admin shop. /traders (or /shops) opens the index of server NPC traders, and each one swaps items for items.

The Emerald Trader also sells the Enchant Extractor for 7 emerald blocks. It pulls one random custom enchant off a piece of gear as a book, so past-season crate enchants can move to new gear.

What are emeralds for?

• Elite ranks: five ranks bought entirely with vanilla blocks, starting with emerald, diamond and netherite blocks. See Elite ranks.
• Trade cap upgrades in /tradelimit.
• Player shops and the Emerald Trader.

Is Vanilla Realms pay to win?

It is free to play with 20 ranks earned by voting. The store sells four paid ranks, crate keys and claim blocks; the Parrot rank and above include keep inventory. No gear and no currency are sold.

Downside, stated plainly: emerald income is capped at 50 per four hours, so getting rich is slow by design, and the paid ranks include keep inventory.

More about Vanilla Realms

• Vanilla Realms home: the server at a glance.
• How to join on Java, Bedrock and console.
• Free ranks: the 20 vote ranks, Elite ranks and paid ranks.
• Land claims and PvP: claim blocks, trust and opting in to PvP.
• About Vanilla Realms and Thunder Studios.