What was ruby in Minecraft?

In Minecraft, players can earn emeralds by selling items and then use emeralds to buy more valuable loot from villagers. It was the only currency system they had in the game that could be given to another entity for a specific item. However, emeralds were not the original currency type Mojang planned for the sandbox.

Before releasing emeralds, they were planning to release rubies as the main currency in the game. Here is everything to know about rubies in Minecraft.

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Everything to know about ruby in Minecraft

History of ruby as a currency in Minecraft

Ruby's first screenshot by Jeb (Image via Minecraft Wiki || Mojang Studios)

After Minecraft's official release in 2011, Mojang continued to add lots of new features. In 2012, they were planning to add a new currency to the game that could be used to buy items from villagers.

Jens Bergensten, one of Mojang's senior developers, shared a screenshot of a trading GUI in the game. This GUI showed that the developers were working on rubies as in-game currency. This was the first visual representation of rubies and currency in Minecraft.

However, ruby was not part of the game for too long as Mojang decided to change the in-game currency to green emeralds.

While working on the next update, they added emeralds as currency in Java Edition 12w21a. In this snapshot, the ruby's texture was also present in game files under 'items.png.'

With emeralds, emerald ore was also released in 12w21a, but it had a ruby ore texture by accident. In subsequent snapshots, Mojang fixed the emerald ore texture and further refined the emerald's texture as well.

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Reason why emerald was chosen over ruby

Emerald was preferred over ruby because ruby's color resembled redstone (Image via Minecraft Wiki || Mojang Studios)

There was a clear reason as to why emerald was chosen over ruby for Minecraft. During its development, Mojang's employee, Dinnerbone, stated that he had red-green color blindness and was having difficulty distinguishing ruby and redstone ore.

Mojang acknowledged this issue and felt that it could affect many members of the game's fanbase. Hence, they decided to replace the red ruby with a green emerald.

To this day, no two ores or earth minerals have the same color, making it easier for fans to distinguish between the two, even for those who have color blindness.

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