Tutorial:Skyblock
Reason: Update to 1.19-1.21

Skyblock is one of the most popular survival gamemodes. The idea is that you can create and expand your very own world infinitely with only minimal materials. It was originally created by Noobcrew, a veteran Minecraft player.
You start on a small island floating in the middle of void with a few items and a single tree and you must learn to use and preserve your materials wisely as each one has a strategic use, (for example lava buckets), and to know the basics of Minecraft in order to complete challenges and to expand. It is normal to make beginner mistakes, sometimes requiring many restarts.
There are countless Skyblock maps that can be found over various Minecraft community websites. You can also play online by choosing a Skyblock multiplayer server. Skyblock is widely known as being the most popular map and gamemode ever created on Minecraft while being highly popular for almost a decade, with gameplay and tutorials from just about every Youtuber including MrBeast, PewDiePie, CaptainSparklez and others.
Ways to play
As stated above, Skyblock has many different community worlds, datapacks and mods that can differ greatly in player experience.
Community maps
Below are listed community maps for Skyblock
Official Skyblock
The original, classic Skyblock. Version 2.1 is the most used one, and the one most people first think of when they think of Skyblock. This is the map that this wiki page will apply most to, so it is the best in terms of documentation.
"Downloads | Skyblock Official Site" – skyblock.net.
Mods and datapacks
Below are listed mods and datapacks for Skyblock. Keep in mind this article will not apply to the some of the gameplay of these mods.
Skyblock Standard
Skyblock Standard is a mod that delivers a traditional skyblock experience without the benefit (or detriment) of the vanilla seed generating past 10,000 blocks. Comes also in datapack form.
"Skyblock Standard modrinth page" .
Sand Island
This is an optional dependency for Skyblock Standard that adds the traditional sand island found in most skyblock maps. It is not required but is highly recommended for obvious reasons. Comes also in datapack form.
"Skyblock Sand Island modrinth page." .
Sky Void Additions
This is an optional dependency for Skyblock Standard (with untested compatibility with other skyblock maps and mods) that alongside Sand Island allows for every item, mob and block that would be obtained in vanilla survival to be obtained without cheats in Skyblock. This is generally recommended but if you want a true traditional skyblock experience, it is not required. Comes also in datapack form
"Sky Void Additions modrinth page." .
Skyblock Advancements
This is a mod for all skyblock maps that add relevant advancements to your skyblock playthrough. It is highly recommended, and there is no reason not to grab it, as it also comes in datapack form.
"Skyblock Advancements modrinth page." .
ProtoSky
A unique spin on Skyblock. Only comes in mod form
"This mod is intended to provide you a world in which you can play "vanilla" skyblock in the style of the ProtoTech server. It deletes (almost) all blocks and entities in the world after they generated. This is done so that the world keeps all structure bounding boxes in their original position.
Keep in mind that this mod itself doesn't generate any starting blocks! You need to place those yourself. It also doesn't set your world spawn in your nether, you can set your spawn point in the nether yourself, but this will have to be redone whenever you use a bed or respawn anchor."
More information can be found on their webpage.
Global Progression
Since there is no normal terrain to explore, setting up farms for resources is vital to game progression.
Your first day
The player's strategy on the first day depends mainly on the Skyblock map. If there is any short grass or flowers, mine them; you may obtain seeds from the grass. Break the dirt on your island, leaving some grass blocks. Place the dirt around the tree so that it catches the dropped saplings. Chop down the tree and make a crafting table and wooden pickaxe. Catch the saplings and replant them. If you have a chest, open it and check the items. You usually start out with ice, a bucket of lava, a few crops like sugar cane, melons, and pumpkins, and some obsidian for a portal. Some maps also provide two turtle eggs, although turtles can spawn in a beach biome if the map has different biomes. To make a cobblestone generator, dig a one block deep T-shaped hole. Put a block in the center, water and lava on two others slots. Break the center block, get in the last slot, and break the cobblestone that forms. Make sure that the blocks that surround the lava are not flammable, or they will burn. Mine as much cobblestone as you can and make a full set of stone tools. Make a small shelter out of wood or cobblestone to prevent phantoms and other monsters.
Crops and Trees
If you start with crops, plant them around the water at your cobblestone generator. For your second and third day, you want to gather as much wood and cobblestone as you can. If you have an oak tree, you can get apples for your food. If you started with a melon, make melon seeds and plant them. If you get a melon block, you can break it for melons, which you can also eat.
Mob Farm
Hostile mob farms are very important because they are a source of bones, strings, redstone dust, iron ingots, potatoes, carrots, and many other drops. A mob farm is mandatory in order to obtain crops (other than wheat and initially provided items) for farming. It is also an abundant source of rotten flesh, which you can now eat instead of apples. Multiple mob farm designs are explained in the page Tutorials/Mob farm. Most efficient designs need water or redstone circuits.
If a spider spawns, killing it for string will allow you to craft a fishing rod, which can be used in the water from your cobblestone generator to obtain early-game fish as food.
This hostile mob farm design shown by ilmango uses the mob pathfinding mechanics to lure them into a drop shaft, without the need of water or redstone circuits (note that spiders can't spawn in this farm) :
| Simple Pathfinding Mob Farm (view on YouTube) |
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You should also make a temporary passive mob farm to get animals: to do that, use cobblestone to bridge away from your island, and hope a passive mob spawns.
Crop Farm
You can get wheat from the seeds at the start of your island. Along with melon and pumpkin seeds. Killing skeletons will yield bones which can be converted to bonemeal, in order to quickly grow crops in the beginning. If you still have short grass leftover and didn't start with seeds, you could use the bonemeal to create tall grass and flowers which yield seeds. On higher versions of Minecraft, killing zombies will also drop carrots and potatoes, which you can farm as well as lure and breed pigs.
Obtaining a Second Water Source
Water is extremely useful in a Skyblock world for many uses, and allows you to pillar down easily for building or to save you from death. It is also used to irrigate farmland.
In most versions of Skyblock, the player starts with only one water source in the starting chest. As a player progresses through Skyblock, a second water source starts to become desirable to make an infinite water source. There are several methods to get this second water source, which are listed below:
- The easiest way is to use Bone Meal in a two high area of flowing water. This will generate Seagrass and several water source blocks, if playing in versions on or above 1.13.
- If a player builds a mob farm and obtains at least seven iron, the player can craft a cauldron. The player can collect water from their first water source in glass bottles, and fill the cauldron three times so that it can be emptied with a bucket. Glass bottles can be obtained from witches in a mob grinder.
- Alternatively, a player can obtain a cauldron and place it in an area with sky access so that it can fill with rain.

Creating an Infinite Water Source
Before an infinite water source can be created, the player has to have at least two water source blocks. See "Obtaining a Second Water Source."
An ice block can be broken by hand to create a water source if there is a block below it.
By using two sources of water, a player can create an infinite water source. Dig a 2×2 hole 1 block deep, place two water sources in opposite corners, and the merging flows will create new water source blocks. Use a bucket on any of the now-four water blocks, and the removed water will be replaced by a new water source block when the flows merge. If the source blocks are too far apart, the merging flows will be too weak to create a source block, and so cannot become infinite.
Getting Villagers
Getting villagers is crucial for your progression, because it is one of the only ways to obtain emeralds and the only reliable way to get diamond tools, diamond armor, and enchanted books. To get villagers, you will need to cure the rare zombie villagers, which sometimes spawn in mob farms or such.
To cure zombie villagers, you need to give them the Weakness status effect, and then use a golden apple on them. There are several ways of doing this: To give a zombie villager the Weakness status effect, you can use a witch (which is more tedious) or make a splash potion of Weakness (which requires going to the Nether).
To make a witch give Weakness to your zombie villager, you need to get near the witch with it and have less than 8HP health points. There will be then a 25% chance that the witch will throw a splash potion of Weakness. To make your own potion, you need to get a brewing stand, a fermented spider eye and some gunpowder. Note that you will need a brown mushroom to do that, which requires trading with a wandering trader, which itself requires an emerald. In turn, this method is highly impractical for the first villager conversion.
To get the golden apples, you will need gold ingots and apples. Getting the apples is easy, but getting the gold is harder. You can either go to the Nether and kill zombified piglins, smelt golden armor dropped by monsters, or kill drowned, which sometimes drop gold ingots (Note how this will not work in the 1.17 update as a drowned will now drop copper ingots instead of gold ingots). If the drowned drop copper, you could craft a lightning rod and place it in a pig pen. Then, wait for a storm and breed as many pigs as possible with the crops you have. When lightning strikes during a storm, it should be redirected to your pig pen, turning them all to zombified piglins. This is helpful in a no starting chest run were the nether is inaccessible due to a lack of lava.
It is strongly advised to build a villager breeder as soon as possible, in order to avoid doing this tedious process multiple times.
Iron Farm
Iron farms are very useful in a Skyblock world, because they allow way easier access to iron ingots. To make the smallest possible iron farm, you will need 3 villagers, 3 beds, and a zombie holding an item or sitting in a boat (to prevent despawning). (In bedrock, you'll need a bell in order for it to recognize it as a village and spawn golems)
This video by Ray features at the beginning a simple iron farm design, which uses lava in the killing zone but could use another killing system that doesn't need some. The rates are about 320 iron ingots/hour.
| YouTube Video (view on YouTube) |
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When your needs for iron get larger, you can just make multiples copies of the farm or build a larger design.
Nether Skyblock
Some Skyblock maps either start the player in The Nether, or give the player access to the Nether through some alternative method.
If you don't start out with access to the nether, you could still create a portal if you have at least 1 lava source block. First, you will need to get 1 pointed dripstone from a wandering trader and obtain a cauldron. Place a solid block 2 blocks above the cauldron. Place lava on top after making a small chamber so it doesn't flow out. And finally, place a pointed dripstone under the solid block. Slowly the cauldron will fill up with lava and you can obtain another source block.
There are 5 biomes in the Nether, and each of them has unique properties that are interesting in a skyblock context:
- Zombified Piglin farms in the Nether Wastes biome provide gold nuggets.
- You can make Hoglin farms in the Crimson Forest biome, which gives the player an alternative way to get raw porkchops.
- You can make mildly efficient Enderman farms in the Warped Forest biome, which provide ender pearls.
- Magma Cube in the Basalt Deltas biome provide magma cream.
- You can make Ghast farms in the Soul Sand Valley biome, which provides ghast tears and and an alternative way to get gunpowder.
Gold Farm
To make a gold farm, make a platform up to 23 blocks away (ensuring the platform is within the Nether Wastes biome) and make a roof out of slabs and wait. A little while later, you should see some zombified piglins spawning. Killing them can give the player gold nuggets, which then gives access to Bartering.
Bartering will yield many useful resources (such as iron, Ender Pearls, leather, string, obsidian).
- Blackstone is an alternative to Cobblestone used to create Brewing Stands, Furnaces, and stone tools. While it isn't usually useful, it is extremely important if the player doesn't have a cobblestone generator.
- Crying Obsidian is used to create Respawn Anchors.
- Gravel can be used to create Coarse Dirt, which can be tilled into dirt allowing it to be duplicated, or to obtain Flint used to create Arrows, Flint and Steel and Fletching Tables.
- Nether Quartz is used to create Daylight Detectors, Observers and Redstone Comparators—useful for automation.
- Soul Sand is used to summon the Wither or to create Soul Torches and Soul Campfires, used to repel piglins and hoglins.
Fortress Farm
If structures are not disabled upon World Generation, Nether Fortresses can still spawn in the void, extending up from the Void. This gives access to a variety of items, such as Coal, Bones, Blaze Rods, Soul Sand, and (most importantly) Wither skeleton skulls. This allows the player to kill the Wither.
Obtainable Items
Overworld
The most efficient way to get an item is written in bold.
Ways of getting items requiring lava are written in italic.
With access to the Nether
With access to the End
| Other | |||
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| From From |