How to Build an XP Farm

Why You Need an XP Farm

Experience points drive some of the most important mechanics in Minecraft. Enchanting, repairing tools on an anvil and renaming items all cost levels. Without a reliable source of XP you will spend hours grinding mobs by hand. A well-designed XP farm lets you reach level 30 in minutes instead of hours, which means better gear faster and less downtime between adventures.

There are three main categories of XP farm: spawner-based farms that use a dungeon spawner, mob-specific farms that exploit a creature's AI, and sculk-based farms introduced in 1.19. Each type has trade-offs in speed, complexity and required resources.

Zombie or Skeleton Spawner Farm

Spawner farms are the easiest entry-level XP source. When you find a dungeon with a zombie or skeleton spawner, you can convert it into a farm with minimal materials.

• Clear the room around the spawner and extend it to roughly 9x9x4 blocks.
• Place water source blocks along the back wall so that the current pushes mobs toward one corner.
• Dig a channel from that corner leading to a vertical drop. The drop should be 22 blocks for zombies or 23 blocks for skeletons, this leaves them at one-hit-kill health.
• At the bottom, create a 1x1 collection point where mobs stack up.
• Stand at the collection point and hit each mob once with a sword or your fist to claim the XP.

Keep the area around the spawner lit with torches while you build. Remove the torches only when you are ready to activate the farm. Spawners work when a player is within 16 blocks, so your AFK spot should be close but safe.

Enderman XP Farm (The End)

Enderman farms are the fastest XP source in vanilla Minecraft. They work because endermen spawn in huge numbers on the outer End islands and can be lured with height manipulation.

The classic design uses an endermite to attract endermen into a kill zone:

• Build a platform at least 43 blocks away from the main End island to prevent other mob spawns from interfering.
• Create a 2-block-tall tunnel leading to a central drop shaft.
• Throw ender pearls until an endermite spawns, then trap it in a minecart on the platform. Endermen aggro on endermites and walk toward them.
• Endermen path toward the endermite, fall through trap doors (which they see as full blocks), and drop into a kill chamber below.
• Set the fall height to 43 blocks so each enderman dies in one punch.

This farm can push you from level 0 to level 30 in under two minutes. It also generates large quantities of ender pearls, which are useful for fast travel.

Sculk XP Farm (1.19+)

Sculk catalysts introduced a new way to bank XP. When a mob dies near a sculk catalyst, the catalyst absorbs the XP and converts nearby blocks into sculk. Mining sculk blocks with a hoe returns some of that stored XP.

To build a sculk XP farm:

• Place sculk catalysts around a mob killing area. Any mob farm design works, a simple dark room spawner is fine.
• Kill mobs within 8 blocks of the catalyst so it absorbs the XP orbs.
• Sculk veins and sculk blocks spread across the floor and walls.
• Mine the generated sculk blocks with a silk-touch hoe to collect them, then break them again without silk touch to release the XP.

This method is slower than an enderman farm but lets you stockpile XP in block form and cash it in whenever you need it. It is especially useful on multiplayer servers where you want to store XP without risking death.

Tips for All XP Farms

• Always use a Looting III sword when manually killing mobs, it increases XP drops from most creatures.
• Avoid using tridents with Channeling or other automated kills if you want XP, since mobs must die from a player hit or a player-activated mechanism to drop experience.
• Light up caves within 128 blocks of your farm to maximize spawn rates inside the farm itself.
• On multiplayer servers, ask about mob caps. Shared mob caps can reduce your farm's output if other players have entities loaded nearby.

Which Farm Should You Build?

If you are early game and found a dungeon spawner, convert it immediately. It takes fewer than 30 minutes and pays for itself the first time you enchant. If you have reached The End and want top-tier XP rates, build the enderman farm. For a more relaxed approach or a creative storage system, the sculk farm is a solid choice in 1.19 and later versions.