Earning Minecraft Experience Points - For Dummies

In Minecraft, experience points, XP for short, are collected from glowing experience orbs. As a player collects enough orbs and increases their experience levels, they will be able to use the enchanting table and anvils to increase the abilities of many items such as weapons, armor, and tools.

So how can you quickly get these beautiful orbs? Some of the ways described here will provide you with XP points 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 points 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.

• Killing hostile mobs will drop orbs. Many players create hostile mob farms which spawn 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 XP 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 points. Cooking food (especially meat) will not only give a player better hunger and saturation points but XP points as well. Unlike the other ways of gaining XP points, smelting does not drop orbs which 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 points).

• Animals provide XP points 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 points are a pleasant bonus. Many players trap animals the first day and begin breeding on the second or third day. Fighting skeletons (which also provide XP points) 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, the XP points 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.

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