You’re standing there. Clicking. It’s midnight, your eyes are burning, and that level 30 enchantment feels a thousand miles away. We've all been there, stuck in the loop of hunting endermen or praying for a stray skeleton to wander into our line of sight. Honestly, it’s a waste of time. Learning how to make a xp farm isn't just about efficiency—it's about reclaiming your life so you can actually build that mega-base you’ve been dreaming about for three months.
Experience points are the literal lifeblood of late-game Minecraft. Without them, your Mending books are useless paperweights. Your Netherite pickaxe is one "Clink!" away from shattering. But most people build these massive, lagging monstrosities they saw on YouTube back in 2014, and then they wonder why the rates are so bad.
Minecraft's spawning mechanics have changed. A lot. If you’re still using a cobblestone box in the sky with water streams, you’re basically using a flip phone in the age of 5G. It works, sure, but it’s painfully slow.
The Spawning Mechanics Nobody Mentions
Everything in a farm starts with the "Mob Cap." In Java Edition, that’s usually 70 hostile mobs. If those 70 spots are filled by zombies hiding in a cave 100 blocks below your feet, your farm is dead on arrival. This is the biggest mistake. People build a farm and forget to light up the surrounding caves.
You’ve gotta think like the game engine. The game checks for a valid spawning spot, fails because the cap is full, and moves on. If you want a high-yield xp farm, you have to force the game’s hand. You do this by either "spawn-proofing" everything within a 128-block radius or by building so high in the sky that the ground simply doesn't exist to the game's logic.
Distance matters. If you are closer than 24 blocks, nothing spawns. Further than 32 blocks, and they stop moving. Further than 128 blocks? Despawned. Instantly. It's a delicate dance of geometry and code.
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The Dungeon Spawner: The Old Reliable
If you’re lucky enough to stumble upon a mossy cobblestone room while mining, don't break that cage. That's your ticket to an easy, early-game xp farm. Skeleton spawners are the gold standard here because of the bone meal and arrows, but zombies work too if you're desperate for rotten flesh or the rare iron ingot drop.
Building the Drop
First, clear out a 9x9 room, with the spawner exactly in the center. You need four blocks of air above the spawner and at least three below. Why? Because mobs spawn in a 8x8x3 area around the cage, and if they don't move out of that zone quickly, the spawner pauses. It’s a "check" the game performs. If it senses too many of its own kind nearby, it takes a break.
Water is your best friend. Create a flow that pushes the mobs into a single hole. From there, you use a soul sand bubble elevator to shoot them up 22 or 23 blocks.
Dropping them back down is the clever part. A 21.5-block drop leaves a skeleton with half a heart. You just tap them with your hand. Boom. Experience. It's simple, it's low-tech, and it doesn't require a degree in Redstone engineering. However, the rates are capped by the spawner’s internal timer. It’s a slow burn.
Why Enderman Farms Rule the End-Game
Once you’ve beaten the Ender Dragon, the game changes. The End is a void. There are no caves to light up. There’s nowhere for mobs to hide. This makes an Enderman-based xp farm the fastest way to hit level 30 in under a minute.
You need to head out to the edge of the main island and build a long bridge—at least 128 blocks away—out into the nothingness. This ensures that the only place an Enderman can possibly spawn is on your tiny platform.
The secret ingredient? An Endermite.
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Endermen hate them. They will sprint toward an Endermite with a burning passion. If you trap an Endermite in a minecart over a hole, every Enderman that spawns will blindly charge off the ledge to get to it. You don't even need water or pistons. Just a bug in a boat and a long drop.
- Materials needed: Leaf blocks (mobs can't spawn on them, so use them for your bridge), Ender pearls (to spawn the mite), a name tag (so the mite doesn't despawn), and a lot of iron bars or carpets.
- The Trap: Make sure the Enderman can't actually reach the mite, or they'll kill it and your farm becomes a fancy diving board.
- Safety: Always wear a pumpkin or have a 2-block high ceiling where you stand, otherwise, things get messy fast.
The Gold and XP Combo: The Nether Portal Method
If you’re on Bedrock Edition, the "NavyNexus" style gold farm is the undisputed king. It uses a mechanic where lighting and relighting a massive Nether portal has a chance to spawn a Zombified Piglin.
In Java, it’s a bit different. You usually build on top of the Nether roof. By standing at the very top of the world (Y=256), you force spawns on a platform below you. Since you're in a Wastes biome, only Piglins spawn. You shoot one, and the "aggro" mechanic causes every Piglin in the area to rush toward you.
It’s loud. It’s chaotic. It’s incredibly effective. You get gold nuggets, gold ingots, and a literal fountain of XP. Honestly, it's probably the most satisfying farm to use because of the constant "ding" of the experience orbs.
The Misconception of "AFK"
People love the term AFK (Away From Keyboard). But "how to make a xp farm" that is truly AFK is actually quite difficult in modern Minecraft. Most farms require you to physically kill the mob to get the experience orbs. If a mob dies to fall damage, fire, or magma, it drops items, but usually no XP.
To get around this, players use "auto-clickers" or specific setups with wolves. If a tamed wolf kills a mob, the game counts it as a player kill, and the XP drops. This is how you build a truly automated system. Without the wolf or your own sword, you’re just a glorified item collector.
Technical Nuances and "TPS"
If you build a farm that's too big, your game will lag. This is "Ticks Per Second" (TPS). A healthy game runs at 20 TPS. When you have 300 entities crammed into a 1x1 hole, the physics engine starts to scream.
Use "Entity Cramming" to your advantage or disadvantage. In Java, if more than 24 entities occupy the same block, they start suffocating. This can kill your mobs before you get the chance to hit them. To fix this, place a vine or a ladder in the kill chamber. It breaks the "collision" box and allows you to stack hundreds of mobs in one spot without them dying.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Farm
Don't just jump in. Plan.
- Check your version. Bedrock and Java have different spawning rules. A "zero-tick" farm might work on one and break your game on the other.
- Pick your location. For early game, find a spawner. For mid-game, build a "General Mob Farm" in the ocean. For late-game, go to the End or the Nether roof.
- Gather the right blocks. Deepslate tiles look cool, but leaves and glass are "transparent" and prevent unwanted spawns.
- Manage your drops. XP is great, but the items will clog your system. Build a simple "item burner" with a dropper and a lava bucket to get rid of the junk like bows or rotten flesh.
- Use a Sweeping Edge III sword. If you're on Java, this enchantment is mandatory for XP farming. It lets you hit the whole crowd at once.
The best xp farm is the one you actually finish building. Don't get bogged down in trying to build a world-record-breaking 100,000-item-per-hour machine if you only need enough levels to fix your boots. Start small, understand the light levels (mobs now only spawn at light level 0 in most versions!), and expand as your needs grow.
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Once you have a steady stream of experience, the game opens up. You stop fearing death because your gear is easily replaced. You stop mining for hours because you can just trade with villagers and enchant their gear. It’s the ultimate turning point in any survival world.
Get your materials ready. Clear your 128-block radius. Start building.