Day four of The Merchant of Minecraft!, Michael Deering's February 2015 Minecraft Hardcore Challenge, where the most emeralds at the end of the eighth day wins. Basket starts at sunrise in the home village with seven emeralds and a plan: "Today we're going to work on a bunch of trades, some in this village and then moving on to another village."
One more emerald at home
A skeleton is hiding out nearby and a creeper wanders through, so Basket ducks into the houses to check on the walled-in villagers. "Good. These guys survived." A librarian wants paper Basket doesn't have yet, and a cleric wants rotten flesh or gold. "Enjoy your lives." The butcher turns out to be the better coal customer, and Basket's 19 coal go across the counter for one more emerald. "So far I have eight emeralds," Basket says a little later, "probably not the highest because I wasted a couple days underneath the ground."
Raw goods on the plains
Next stop is a farmer, since Basket now carries wheat, carrots and potatoes. Basket fills a water bucket and sets off across the plains toward a village spotted in another entrant's videos, killing pigs, cows and sheep on the way. "Lots and lots of raw meat." There are zombies and skeletons about, and at one point the village on the horizon turns out to be the one Basket just left. "So I will not run over to that town."
A village full of farmers
The new village shows up in daylight. Basket talks to everyone. One villager wants rotten flesh and gold. "Okay, you're useless." Then a misclick lands a hit on a villager. "Oh, I saw what I did. Wrong button. Hopefully he still trades with me." It does. "Luckily that guy still trades with me after I hit him."
This village has farmers, and they buy crops. "Oh, potatoes, look at that. Carrots. Yes, please." Basket strips the village fields, ripe or not, and keeps feeding wheat, potatoes and carrots across the trade screen. A second farmer will even take pumpkins. "I had no idea." By the time the sky goes dark the trade screen shows 28 emeralds, and a check of the inventory soon after shows 29. There's a shepherd, a leatherworker and a librarian, but no butcher.
Night in the open
Basket grabs pumpkins and decides the farmers are the way forward. "I think really just the farm trade is the best way to go." With full armor, the plan for the night is to stay above ground and hunt. "I have a bunch of armor so I don't really have to worry too much about damage." Basket picks sugar cane for a future paper trade, kills a zombie for its flesh and keeps clear of trouble: "I think I will just avoid the witch. Poison is not really fun to deal with."
Another village at dawn
As the moon goes down, a pig gives Basket a scare. "Oh, that pig almost made me die." Then a village appears on the horizon. "Oh, speaking of a village. What great timing." Zombies are still around as the sun comes up, and then they catch fire. "Oh, now they're burning." That's the end of day four. The episode ends with Basket alive on the plains in sight of the next village, at 29 emeralds "if I remember correctly." The credits follow, with no gameplay after them.
