A lava farm in Minecraft works thanks to Pointed Dripstone, which drips lava into a cauldron placed beneath it. According to the Minecraft Wiki, each drip has a 15/256 chance (about 5.9%), and a single successful drip immediately fills the entire cauldron. Only one Lava Bucket per module is needed to build it, since the source block above the dripstone never runs out.

  • Module: a block with lava on top, Pointed Dripstone underneath, and a cauldron up to 10 blocks below.
  • Filling a cauldron takes on average almost one game day, which is over 19 minutes.
  • The farm only works within simulation distance, so build it close to your base.
  • A Lava Bucket in a furnace will smelt 100 items and come back as an empty Bucket.

How the lava farm works

Pointed Dripstone hanging from the ceiling is a stalactite. As the Pointed Dripstone page on the Minecraft Wiki describes, when its topmost block gets a random tick, the game checks whether a liquid source block sits two blocks up, on the block the dripstone hangs from. It also checks whether a cauldron stands up to 10 blocks below the tip.

If there's water above the dripstone, the cauldron fills by one level with a 45/256 chance. With lava the chance is 15/256, but a successful drip immediately fills an empty cauldron all the way. The Wiki states that filling takes on average almost one game day, over 19 minutes, though individual times vary a lot.

The lava above the dripstone stays in place, so one Bucket gives you an infinite source. Dripstone in the Nether also drips lava on its own, but that's just particles, which won't fill a cauldron without a lava source above it.

How to build a lava farm step by step

  1. Place a block about 3 blocks above the floor, for example made of Stone.
  2. Pour a Lava Bucket on top of that block and wall it in so it doesn't spread.
  3. Hang a Pointed Dripstone underneath the block, tip pointing down.
  4. Place an empty cauldron under the tip, no more than 10 blocks below.
  5. Repeat the module next to it if you want to collect more lava at once.

You craft a cauldron from 7 Iron Ingots, and the recipe is shown on the Cauldron in Minecraft page. In Bedrock Edition, only Air can be between the tip and the cauldron, while in Java Edition open trapdoors, Ladders, and blocks without a hitbox are also fine.

You'll find Pointed Dripstone in Dripstone Caves and in Trial Chambers, and the Wandering Trader sometimes sells 2 pieces for an Emerald. How to look for Dripstone Caves is explained in the Dripstone Caves guide. You can read more about the block itself on the Pointed Dripstone page.

You can also grow dripstone. It has to hang directly beneath a Dripstone Block with a water source above it. It grows downward up to 8 blocks long, averaging one block every 5 game days (100 minutes), so you'll get it faster by finding it in a cave.

Efficiency and simulation distance

Since one cauldron fills on average in over 19 minutes, a module gives you around 3 Buckets of lava per hour of playing. Ten modules in a row already give around 30 Buckets per hour, enough for furnaces across your whole base. You can place modules right next to each other, since each dripstone only checks its own lava block and its own cauldron.

Random ticks only happen in chunks within simulation distance, so a farm far from the player simply sits idle. We explain how chunk loading works in the article chunk in Minecraft. You can recognize a full cauldron by its light, since according to the cauldron page, a Lava Cauldron emits light level 15, and a Redstone Comparator next to it gives a signal strength of 3.

You collect lava from the cauldron with an empty Bucket, and you craft a Bucket from 3 Iron Ingots according to the recipe on the Bucket page. A Lava Cauldron burns entities that walk into it, but it doesn't set the surroundings on fire like spilled lava does. It's different with the lava source above the dripstone, so use non-flammable blocks around it, like Stone or Glass.

What to use lava from the farm for

The most important use is fuel. According to the Lava Bucket page, it burns for 1000 seconds and smelts 100 items, more than a Block of Coal, which smelts 80. After burning in the furnace, you're left with an empty Bucket, which goes back to the farm. We show how to build a furnace on the Furnace in Minecraft page.

Lava from the farm is also useful for making Obsidian: just pour water on a lava source block. We've gathered ways to get this block in the guide how to get Obsidian. Other uses, from destroying unwanted items to decoration, are described on the Lava in Minecraft page, and you'll find more automation projects in the farms section.

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