Minecraft XP Farms: Which Design to Build First

The best Minecraft farm XP setup depends on how far into your world you are: a dungeon spawner farm is the easiest early build, while enderman, guardian and gold farms give the most experience later on. All of them work the same way underneath. They gather many mobs in one place and let you land the final hit so the experience orbs drop for you.

Here is a quick comparison of the main options before getting into how each one works.

Farm type	Where you build it	When it fits	Main trade-off
Spawner farm	Around a zombie, skeleton or spider spawner in a dungeon	Early game	Output is limited to one mob type and one location
General mob farm	A dark tower or platform build, often over the ocean or high in the sky	Early to mid game	Large build, and caves nearby steal spawns
Enderman farm	The End, away from the main island	After beating the Ender Dragon	You must reach the outer End islands first
Guardian farm	An ocean monument	Mid to late game	Draining and clearing a monument takes a lot of time
Gold farm	The Nether	Mid to late game	Big material cost, and designs vary a lot by edition
No-farm methods	Anywhere: furnaces, animal pens, villager halls, fishing spots	Any time	Much slower, but almost no setup

How does Minecraft farm XP actually work?

Experience in Minecraft comes as small green orbs. You collect them by walking near them, and they fill the bar above your hotbar. When the bar fills, you gain a level. Levels pay for enchanting at an enchanting table and for repairs and combining at an anvil. If you have gear with the Mending enchantment, orbs you collect while holding or wearing that gear repair it instead of going to your bar first.

Two rules shape every Minecraft farm XP design:

• Who kills the mob matters. Most mobs only drop experience when a player, or a tamed wolf, deals the killing blow. A farm that kills mobs with a long fall, lava or suffocation gives you items but no orbs. That is why XP farms leave mobs on very low health and let you finish them with a single swing. Players call this a “one-hit” farm.
• Higher levels cost more. Each new level needs more experience than the one before it. Going from zero to a handful of levels is quick; climbing from the high twenties into the thirties takes noticeably longer. A farm feels fast at low levels and slower as you push toward the top of the enchanting table.

Every farm in this guide follows the same pattern. Mobs spawn in a controlled space, something moves them to a single point (usually water streams or a drop shaft), the farm weakens them, and you stand in a safe room to land the last hit. Once you see that pattern, any tutorial video or blueprint becomes much easier to follow. You can find more designs on our farms topic page.

What is the easiest XP farm to build early?

For most survival worlds, the easiest Minecraft farm XP build is a spawner farm. A spawner is the cage-like block you find in dungeons, small cobblestone and mossy rooms underground that often hold a chest. Zombie and skeleton spawners are the most common choices because those mobs are simple to move with water and to kill by hand.

Why spawner farms are beginner-friendly

• You do not need rare blocks. Cobblestone, a few water buckets, torches or other light sources, and some slabs or signs cover most designs.
• There is little or no redstone. Many spawner farms run on water flow and gravity alone.
• The spawner keeps producing mobs as long as you stay nearby, so the farm runs whenever you visit.

The catch

You can only build where a spawner happens to be, which might be deep in a cave system far from your base. The output is also tied to one mob type. That is fine for experience, but it means the item drops (rotten flesh, bones, arrows) are what they are. Skeleton spawners have a small bonus here: bones turn into bone meal and arrows are always handy.

Building an XP farm without a spawner

If you have not found a dungeon, a general mob farm is the next step. These rely on natural spawning: hostile mobs appear in dark spaces, so you build dark platforms, usually high above the ground or over the ocean, where there are no caves to compete for spawns. Water pushes the mobs to a shaft, and you finish them at the bottom. These farms are larger and take more materials, but you can place them wherever you like, including right next to your base.

Which Minecraft farm XP design gives the most experience?

Once you have explored more of your world, three farm types dominate for raw experience. None of them is strictly “the best”; each fits a different stage of the game and a different set of materials.

Enderman farms in the End

Endermen spawn in large numbers on the outer End islands, the land you reach through an End gateway after defeating the Ender Dragon. A typical enderman farm is a platform built in the void with a central drop. Endermen spawn on the platforms, get lured or pushed toward the middle, fall, and land where you can finish them. Players love these farms because endermen give a good amount of experience each and spawn steadily. The cost is reaching the End in the first place and then hauling materials out to the void.

Guardian farms at ocean monuments

Guardians spawn around ocean monuments, the large prismarine buildings under deep ocean. A guardian farm usually means draining part of the monument, clearing it out, then building platforms and water channels that send guardians to a kill spot. Guardian farms are known as one of the strongest experience sources, and they also produce prismarine and fish. The trade-off is the work: draining a monument is one of the longest projects in survival Minecraft.

Gold farms in the Nether

Gold farms target zombified piglins, the gold-armored mobs that spawn in the Nether. Many designs use a lure such as turtle eggs to draw them toward a trap, then drop them to a kill room. They give experience plus gold nuggets and ingots, which you can trade with piglins or turn into blocks. These farms are often large and material-heavy, and they are among the designs that differ most between editions, so pick a tutorial carefully.

Is a Minecraft farm XP build different on Java and Bedrock?

Yes, and this trips up a lot of players. Java Edition and Bedrock Edition share the same core idea of a Minecraft farm XP build, but they run on different code. Mob spawning rules, how mobs walk and pathfind, and some redstone behavior differ between them. A farm that runs smoothly in Java can spawn very little in Bedrock, or the other way around.

Practical rules for choosing a design:

• Match the edition. Only follow a tutorial or blueprint that names your edition. “Works on both” is fine if the creator says so clearly.
• Match the version. Updates change mob behavior, spawning and blocks. A design labeled for an older version may need tweaks. Our updates page tracks changes that affect builds like these.
• Watch the comments, not just the video. Other players often report whether a farm still works in the current version, which tells you more than the title does.

Multiplayer servers add another layer. Servers can change spawning settings or limit how many mobs can exist at once, so a farm that works in single-player may run slower on a server. Ask your server admins before starting a large project.

Worked example: planning your first spawner XP farm

Here is how a typical zombie or skeleton spawner farm comes together. Exact block counts depend on the dungeon and the design you follow, so treat this as the order of work rather than a blueprint.

1. Secure the dungeon. Light up the room and kill the mobs already there. Placing light around the spawner stops it from producing mobs while you work.
2. Clear and shape the spawning room. Dig out the space around the spawner to the size your design calls for, and seal any cave openings so mobs cannot wander off.
3. Add water streams. Place water at the back of the room so the flow pushes mobs toward one corner or edge. Signs or slabs stop the water from spreading where you do not want it.
4. Dig the drop shaft. From the collection point, dig a shaft downward. The design’s height is what decides whether mobs land on low health or die from the fall, so follow the tutorial’s number rather than guessing.
5. Build the kill room. At the bottom, make a small enclosed space with a gap you can swing through. Put a hopper and chest under the mobs if you want to collect drops automatically.
6. Remove the lights. Take out the torches inside the spawning room so the spawner starts working again. Keep your kill room well lit.
7. Test and adjust. If mobs die before reaching you, the drop is too long. If they arrive healthy, it is too short. Small changes make a big difference.

A sword with a damage enchantment helps you finish mobs reliably, and a Looting enchantment raises item drops, though it does not change experience. Bring armor anyway; a skeleton that survives the fall will shoot back.

How to farm XP without building a farm

Not every player wants a big build, and some of the best Minecraft farm XP results come from things you are already doing. These options are slower, but they need almost no planning:

• Smelting. Collecting items from a furnace gives experience. Smelting ore, cooking food and baking clay all count. Some players stockpile items in furnaces and collect them all at once when they need a few levels.
• Mining. Breaking certain ores, such as coal, diamond, emerald, lapis and redstone ore, drops experience directly.
• Breeding animals. Each successful breed gives a small amount. If you already run an animal farm, the experience is a nice side effect.
• Villager trading. Every trade gives you some experience, and a hall of villagers gets used constantly anyway.
• Fishing. Each catch gives a bit of experience. It is not the fastest method, but plenty of players enjoy it, and a fishing rod can also pull up enchanted books and other treasure.

Creative mode and worlds with cheats turned on can skip all of this with an experience command. Command wording differs between editions, so look up the syntax for your version in our how-to and commands section rather than copying a command written for the other edition.

Common mistakes that waste Minecraft farm XP

Most broken farms fail for a handful of familiar reasons. Check these before you tear anything down:

• Letting the farm do the killing. If fall damage or lava finishes the mob, there is no experience. Your Minecraft farm XP output depends on you, or a tamed wolf, landing the last hit.
• Building near caves. For natural-spawning farms, dark caves around the build steal spawns. Building high in the air or over the ocean avoids this.
• Using the wrong edition’s design. A Java design in a Bedrock world, or the reverse, is the single most common reason a farm “does nothing”.
• Standing in the wrong spot. Spawners and natural spawning both depend on where the player is. Stand where the design says to stand, and do not wander off while you wait.
• Spending levels one at a time. Because higher levels cost more, many players run the farm until they reach the level they need for the best enchanting table options, then spend it all at once.
• Forgetting Mending. If you hold or wear Mending gear while collecting orbs, your experience bar fills slowly because the orbs are fixing your tools first. Swap to unenchanted gear when you want levels, or keep Mending gear on when you want repairs.

Picking the right Minecraft farm XP build for your world

Choosing a Minecraft farm XP design comes down to three questions. What have you found so far? What edition do you play? How much time do you want to spend building?

• Just started and found a dungeon: build a spawner farm. It is the best return for the effort at that stage.
• No dungeon yet: build a general mob farm away from caves, or lean on smelting, trading and breeding while you explore.
• Beaten the Ender Dragon: an enderman farm in the outer End is a natural next project.
• Found an ocean monument and have patience: a guardian farm pays back the work.
• Lots of time in the Nether: a gold farm gives experience plus a steady supply of gold.

If you have not found good locations yet, a seed with a dungeon or ocean monument close to spawn can save hours. Our seeds page collects worlds worth starting in, and the builds section has ideas for making your farm’s kill room look like part of your base instead of a cobblestone box. For more about how this journal works, see the about page, or head back to the Craft Almanac home page for the latest guides.

Frequently asked questions

What is the fastest way to gain XP in Minecraft?

In survival, the fastest steady source is a purpose-built farm that brings many mobs to one spot where you finish them with a single hit. End enderman farms, guardian farms at ocean monuments and Nether gold farms are the usual late-game picks. Early on, a dungeon spawner farm is far faster than mining or smelting, and it only needs basic blocks.

What is the easiest XP farm to make in Minecraft?

A farm built around a zombie or skeleton spawner from a dungeon is the easiest for most players. You do not need rare materials or complex redstone. You light the room so nothing spawns where you stand, channel the mobs into a drop shaft with water, and finish them by hand. It works in the early game, well before you reach the End or the Nether.

How do you farm XP quickly without a spawner?

Without a spawner you have two main routes. You can build a general mob farm that relies on natural spawning in dark spaces, ideally far from caves so mobs spawn on your platforms. You can also skip mob farms and gain XP from breeding animals, trading with villagers, smelting ore or fishing. These are slower but need almost no setup.

How do you get 9999 XP in Minecraft?

In a survival world you get there through time: a high-output farm such as an enderman or gold farm, run over many sessions. In creative mode, or any world with cheats turned on, an experience command can set or add levels directly. The exact command wording differs between editions, so check the command guide for your version before typing it.

Does a Minecraft XP farm work the same on Java and Bedrock?

Not always. Mob spawning rules, mob pathing and some redstone behavior differ between Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, so a design that runs well on one can perform poorly or fail on the other. Always follow a tutorial that names your edition and a recent game version, and expect to adjust older designs after major updates.

Why am I not getting XP from my mob farm?

Most mobs only drop experience when a player or a tamed wolf deals the killing blow. If your farm kills mobs with fall damage, lava or suffocation alone, you get items but no orbs. Design the farm to leave mobs on low health so a single hit from you finishes them, and stand close enough to collect the orbs.