Gathering XP in Minecraft helps you create powerful enchantments for weapons and armor, but the best farms for experience will also reward valuable materials for your other projects. While mining resources or defeating dangerous mobs earns experience, a proper farm makes the process harmless. Those looking to always be at a high level should consider building multiple XP collection sites based on what items they need.

You will want to have a ton of XP to give items special properties through an enchantment table and repair tools at an anvil. Both tasks demand plenty of experience in return for the added convenience given to your day-to-day routine. The 1.20 update has included new biomes and mobs to generate, but most experience farms can be made in any world without using a specific seed.

Related: 10 Best Seeds For Minecraft 1.20

10 Basic Mob Spawner Farm

Minecraft Steve knocking a skeleton into a ravine with a diamond sword, while a pig watches from the opposite cliff

One of the easiest ways to farm XP is to set up a kill room for mobs in Minecraft out of a discovered spawner found deep in different cave systems. Building a room filled with water that drags enemy skeletons, zombies, or spiders directly into a pool of lava will eliminate them immediately, granting you experience. Given the frequent appearance of mobs from spawner blocks, this farm is tricky to set up but provides decent XP gain when finished.

9 Double Furnace Cooking Farm

Minecraft Double Furnace Auto Smelter for XP Farming

Another simple way to farm experience is to set up an auto smelter, using two or more furnaces that constantly collect cooked foods into double chests. A steady supply of coal is really all you need to make this station work, producing an average amount of XP over time in Minecraft. However, you will have to hunt down or breed enough pigs, cows, or other animals to maintain a healthy flow of raw food to prepare.

Many XP farms rely on Hoppers to harvest the materials made from whatever process is done to generate experience. Hoppers can be made by placing five iron ingots in a "V" pattern on a crafting bench.

8 Enderman Farm

Minecraft Enderman Farm for XP

Harvesting XP from Endermen can be far more difficult than a basic mob farm in Minecraft, requiring you to have reached The End to even begin making it. Yet, the contraption itself is basic, according to content creator Rediscover Redstone, using only some leaf blocks and stone slabs. Since the attention of an Enderman comes from looking at them, these mobs can be lured to a kill zone for some easy Ender Pearls and experience.

7 Guardian Farm

Minecraft Guardian Farm for XP

Guardians are rare ocean mobs that gift tons of XP when killed, making a farm for them incredibly rewarding if you build it right. As seen by content creator silentwisperer, all you have to do is create a series of waterways above an underwater temple in Minecraft with Redstone and pistons to eliminate the creatures as they spawn. Pillars of Sea lanterns or Prismarine blocks are also needed to ensure the mobs appear in the right spots.

6 Creeper Farm

Three creepers from Minecraft grouped together

Normally, harvesting Creepers for gunpowder and XP is incredibly dangerous since these enemy mobs explode whenever you get close to them. The trick to harvesting massive amounts of experience here is to have glass built around a nest of Creepers so that you can still see them, but they cannot see you. From a video by content creator wattles, you can get only Creepers to spawn by placing Snow Golems within the farm.

5 Automatic Dried Kelp Farm

Minecraft Dried Kelp Farm for XP

Like food, kelp can be dried in a furnace to earn you XP as it finishes, but the system used for this plant makes it a far more efficient way farm to make in Minecraft. Placing two or more sand blocks near rushing water allows the plant to grow continuously before being broken by pistons. A small system of Hoppers funnels the broken plant into chests as it grows again almost instantly, leading to constant orbs of XP being collected as well.

4 Pillager Farm

Minecraft Pillager Outpost Grinder to Farm XP

Human-like mobs called Pillagers are tough opponents to defeat in Minecraft, so it only makes sense that taking them down builds a good amount of experience. Creating a kill zone near an Outpost bypasses the normal enemy mob limit in some areas, as said by content creator Nico is LOST. Wide platforms and mob elevators are all you need here to grind XP insanely quickly, even at the early stages of your playthrough.

3 Automatic Cactus Farm

Minecraft Automatic Cactus Farm for XP

Functioning almost in the same way as the Kelp farm, a Cactus farm works better simply because cactus plants are easier to grow and find. Even with new biomes in 1.20, such as Cherry Blossoms in Minecraft, deserts will always be abundant. If you're playing on Survival, it remains far better to mine the right materials on land with Cactus as opposed to diving into the ocean for kelp, which can be a bit tedious to gather.

The video created by content creator Regund shows a simple concept behind using elevated sand and iron blocks to grow cacti together in large groups to facilitate XP gain the fastest.

2 Gold Piglin Farm

Minecraft Gold Piglin Farm for XP

Enemies in the Nether give massive XP, but the right contraption using the max portal size limit prevents you from ever having to travel to the infamous lava-dominated realm. As seen by content creator by James, a periodic flint and stone lighter system causes the portal to flicker, spawning Zombie Piglins in Minecraft at a controlled rate. Another automatic mob destroyer funnels gold ingots, nuggets, swords, of course, experience straight to you.

1 AFK Fish Farm

Minecraft AFK Fish Farm for XP

The most effective way to farm XP without even touching your character comes from fishing, of all things. Setting up a chest surrounded by signs and then dumping a bucket of water creates a small zone to fish in, where the right enchantment can get you catching mobs over and over to gain experience. Rediscover Redstone has even discovered an unlimited XP glitch using a music note block and trapdoor that can be operated without you even being there.

The best XP farms in Minecraft are where your experience skyrockets with the smallest input or effort once the right mechanisms have been made.

Sources: YouTube/Rediscover Redstone, YouTube/by James, YouTube/Nico is LOST, YouTube/wattles, YouTube/silentwisperer, YouTube/Regund

  • Minecraft Official Poster
    Minecraft
    Franchise:
    Minecraft
    Platform:
    Android, iOS, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS
    Released:
    2011-11-18
    Developer:
    Mojang
    Publisher:
    Mojang, Xbox Game Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment
    Genre:
    Sandbox, Adventure, Open-World
    Multiplayer:
    Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
    Platforms:
    Xbox One
    Publishers:
    Mojang Studios
    Release Date :
    October 7, 2019
    Rating:
    7+