Why is XP important in Minecraft?

While playing through Minecraft, players are more than likely to collect green and yellow experience orbs sooner rather than later - thanks to the multiple sources they're rewarded from. But what good is experience to players?

Experience can be earned by Minecraft players in several ways. Crafting, breeding, defeating mobs, and even completing advancements in Java Edition. However, earning and using the experience are two entirely different things.

Although the points don't outwardly affect the player, they are used for three primary reasons: as a resource to pay the cost of enchantments, to repair/rename gear and other items at the anvil, and to restore durability to gear enchanted with the Mending enchantment.

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Minecraft: Sources of experience

Kelp XP farms are efficient and easy sources of experience (Image via Mojang)

Earning experience in Minecraft is something that can often be done quite casually just while playing, but it can also be obtained with purpose if players know what sources they can earn it from. Certain sources of XP yield better returns than others, as not all XP gains are the same. This has often led to players focusing on certain methods in order to maximize their experience gains.

Below, players can find the major sources of gaining experience in Minecraft 1.18.

• Killing mobs, both hostile and passive.
• Destroying a spawner block.
• Mining any block that drops a resource as opposed to raw metals or the block itself.
• Smelting/cooking various items.
• Breeding animal mobs.
• Trading with villagers.
• Breaking a Bottle o' Enchanting.
• Disenchanting items via grindstone.
• Completing challenge advancements in Java Edition.
• Using the /experience or /xp command to manually give players experience.

Experience comes in different forms when released as orbs. The larger the orbs, the more experience rewarded, to a maximum of 32,767 points from one orb.

These sources of experience have led players to create experience farms utilizing mobs or the constant smelting of items. When used correctly, these farms are the most efficient form of obtaining experience over time, compared to routinely enacting the tasks manually.

Since experience is such a crucial resource for advancing in Minecraft survival, creating a farm for XP is a great investment early on. With enough experience stocked up, players can focus on other activities and utilize enchantments and repairs without worrying about using up too much of their experience reserves.