XP Farm Basics for Any World
A simple mob or furnace XP farm keeps your tools and armor enchanted without hours of grinding.
Updated 2026-07-28
XP is the currency of durability and power. This guide covers the two simplest reliable sources: mob farms and furnace smelting arrays.
Mob farms
A dark-room mob farm spawns zombies, skeletons, creepers, and spiders on spawn platforms, then funnels them to a killing zone.
- Build at least 128 blocks above the ocean or void for best rates.
- Use water streams or trapdoors to push mobs to a central drop.
- Kill manually for maximum XP, or use a fall-damage kill for AFK drops.
Furnace XP banks
Smelting items stores XP in furnaces. You can pull it out instantly by switching an item in and out.
- Cactus, kelp, and bamboo are renewable fuel-and-smelt combos.
- Pipe items with hoppers so the furnace runs continuously.
- Right-click the furnace with a non-smeltable item to collect stored XP.
On Anarchy servers, mob farms are grief magnets. Hide them far from spawn and use chunk loaders sparingly.