How To Make A Water Elevator In Minecraft
A water elevator might not be one of the first base upgrades you make in Minecraft, but it's incredibly useful once you understand how to design one. What it does is allow you to vertically travel quickly over vast distances. The primary use for a water elevator is to get up and down a mine shaft from your base or go somewhere else underground. However, the elevators can also be used to ascend to high locations above ground.
Whatever your use case for a water elevator, you can see a step-by-step guide for how to make one in Minecraft below.
Gathering the right resources
Before you start construction on your water elevator, you need to gather all the necessary materials to build it. You can find a list of everything you need for the water elevator below:
- Glass blocks (the number depends on how high you want the elevator)
- Any kind of sign (you need at least two, more if you want both an up and down elevator)
- Bucket of water (two for both elevators)
- Kelp (bring the same number of Kelp as the height of your elevator in blocks)
- Gravel (two for both elevators)
- Soul Sand (for an up elevator)
- Magma Block (for a down elevator)
The two most difficult resources you'll need are Soul Sand and a Magma Block. Both can be found in the Nether but the Magma Block can also be mined in the overworld as well. Aside from those blocks, gathering the Kelp for a high elevator can be challenging. If you want a particularly high elevator or both and up and down elevator, you'll need quite a lot of it.
Building the foundation
Once you have the resources required to build a water elevator, it's time to get started building one. For demonstration purposes, we've made our water elevator out in the open, but the steps can be applied for a mine shift or anywhere else as well.
If you're planning to make both an up and down water elevator, then follow the steps below to set it up:
- Place Glass blocks down as high as you want the elevator.
- From where your Glass blocks are, skip a block and put the same number down to the right or left. Repeat this step again, giving you three columns of Glass blocks.
- Put the same number of Glass blocks down behind each of the three columns.
- Now, place Glass blocks down behind the further back columns. However, you don't want to put them directly behind the columns. Instead, place them behind the columns to the right or left, making a shaft for the water to go down.
- You should now have the basic structure of an elevator.
- With all that done, head to the top of the elevator. Place Glass blocks all the way down the empty columns in the middle but stop placing them two blocks away from the ground. This prevents the water from escaping the sides of the elevator.
- Finally, use four signs and place them on the inner side of the Glass blocks in the columns. This fully prevents water from leaking out.
If you only want to build one water elevator, which can only go up or down, then simply ignore one of the outer columns.
Running the water down the elevator
With your water elevator now looking like ours in the screenshot above, it's time to run the water down. Using your water bucket(s), empty the water down the shaft(s). The water will run free until all the way to the bottom, being fully stopped by the signs and Glass blocks.
If your water is leaking out, you either didn't place the Glass blocks correctly or your signs aren't in the right spots. The water should be flowing freely from the top to the bottom.
Placing Kelp in the elevator
If your water is running down the elevator, it's time to get out your Kelp and Gravel. To start, replace the bottom block of either water elevator column with Gravel. Once that's done, place Kelp down on it and flow up the elevator, continually putting Kelp down on top of the last one. Repeat this process until you're all the way at the top of the elevator. Repeat this process again for the other elevator if needed.
Swim through the water in your elevator to ensure all the Kelp is placed and accounted for before moving on to the next step.
Adding Magma and Soul Sand
With the Kelp placed in the elevator, head back to the Gravel and get rid of it. This will cause the Kelp to disappear as well. In the Gravel's place, put a Magma Block and/or Soul Sand. A Magma Block creates a down elevator while Soul Sand creates an up elevator.
Once the Gravel has been replaced with either of those blocks, you should start to see bubbles form in each elevator. This means the process worked and the elevator has been completed. If you enter the elevator, you should be able to go up if you use Soul Sand. By going to the top of the Magma Block elevator and jumping down, you'll swiftly head down to the bottom of the elevator.
Congratulations, you've successfully installed a water elevator in Minecraft, which is one of the most efficient ways to get around.
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