Minecraft Modding For Kids For Dummies
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In Minecraft, experience points, XP for short, are collected from glowing experience orbs. When a player collects enough orbs, they “level up,” making their character more powerful and able to access new talents and equipment. Gaining experience and leveling up is important because you can spend experience points to enchant and repair items, which allows you to improve your weapons and advance in the game.

Enjoy our how to level up in Minecraft video guide and list of tips below to help you grow your experience bar quickly and easily as you work toward higher levels of playing!

Best ways to earn XP / level up in Minecraft

There are various different tactics a player can use to level up. Some methods will provide you with XP early in the game, and others will provide you with a significant number of points but cannot be accomplished in early gameplay. Gathering points “quickly” can be interpreted either way.

Since XP are usually only helpful in later gameplay when an enchanting table and anvil become available, many players prefer to use methods that yield a higher number of points rather than repeating easy, early game actions over and over again.

Here are the fastest ways to gain XP and level up in Minecraft:

  • Killing hostile mobs will drop orbs. Many players create hostile mob farms that spawn Minecraft mobs and then weaken them allowing a player to quickly kill the mob without much risk. Some players will use TNT (be sure to activate yourself and not use redstone) to accomplish this. Also, destroying a spawner block when mining or defeating the head mob, the Enderdragon, provides an extensive number of points.

  • Mining is a player's fastest way to gain XP early in the game. It's recommended you mine through the first night within the safety of your shelter rather than sleep in a bed in part to gain mining points.

  • Smelting means cooking certain ores or food in the furnace. Some players will create a furnace on their first day, while others will achieve that on their second day. In general, smelting iron and gold yield better XP. Cooking food (especially meat) will not only give a player better hunger and saturation points but XP as well. Unlike the other ways of gaining XP, smelting does not drop orbs that must be picked up. The points are simply automatically given to a player when the product is removed from the furnace (removing items automatically using redstone such as a hopper yields no XP).

  • Animals provide XP in two major ways. The first is through breeding, where an orb is dropped when a baby animal is produced. Breeding passive mobs is a significant part of Minecraft farming for a variety of reasons; XP are a pleasant bonus. Many players trap animals on the first day and begin breeding on the second or third day. Fighting skeletons (which also provide XP) help farming because the skeletons will drop bones (used as fertilizer on crops). The crops in turn can be used to breed animals. The second way is through fishing. Interestingly, XP are gained when the fish is reeled in, even if a player chooses not to pick up the fish. Fishing usually takes a few days, as a player will need to assemble a fishing rod, find a suitable place to fish, and not have other tasks that are more pressing.

  • Bottle o' Enchanting is similar to a potion bottle but is obtained only by trading with villagers. When broken, it releases orbs.

It’s important to note that not all methods generate the same amount of XP or grant any experience at all. For example, mining gold will not grant you any experience even though mining diamond ore grants XP. Check out the Minecraft Wiki for a more in-depth breakdown of the number of experience points granted by each source. Enjoy the journey to max level in Minecraft!

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Sarah Guthals, Ph.D. is the CTO of ThoughtSTEM and has dedicated her life to coding education.

Stephen Foster, Ph.D. is the CEO of ThoughtSTEM, a company that teaches computer science to kids across America.

Lindsey Handley, Ph.D. is the COO of ThoughtSTEM and has hundreds of hours of experience as a classroom instructor for Minecraft based science and computer science classes.

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