Tired of hunting down mobs or mining for hours just to repair your diamond pickaxe? You can solve your leveling problems forever by setting up a system for automatic kelp farm XP. This clever method uses a simple plant to store massive amounts of experience inside your smokers while you work on other projects. Whether you are playing on version 1.21 or an older world, this is a reliable way to get a bank of levels that you can withdraw whenever you need a boost.
The secret lies in the smelting process, where every piece of dried kelp adds a little more energy to your furnace. By using a lever to lock your hoppers, you can pull out a single item and instantly soak up all the stored points from thousands of previous smelts. This setup provides you with an endless supply of fuel and enough experience to enchant your gear to the max without ever leaving your base.
Key Takeaways
- Smokers act as experience ‘banks’ that store points from every smelted item until a player manually intervenes to withdraw them.
- Locking the output hopper with a redstone lever allows you to manually pull a single item and instantly claim the cumulative XP from thousands of previous smelts.
- Automating the harvest with observers and pistons creates a self-sustaining loop where dried kelp is crafted into fuel blocks to power the continued operation of the farm.
- This system provides a reliable, high-speed method for repairing Mending gear and reaching level 30 without the need for mob hunting or resource grinding.
Smelting Kelp For Hidden Experience Storage
The smoker block is much more than just a fast way to cook food. It acts like a savings account for your character levels. Every single piece of kelp that slides through the smoker generates a small amount of experience that stays trapped inside the block instead of floating toward you. Over time, as your automatic kelp farm processes thousands of items, the smoker stores a massive mountain of XP that never disappears. You can go about your business building or exploring while the machine silently collects levels for you in the background. This makes kelp farms a popular choice for players who want to repair their enchanted tools without hunting mobs.
To withdraw your stored experience, you simply need to flip a lever to lock your hoppers underneath your smoker. This stops the dried kelp from being pulled out automatically, allowing you to manually take a single item from the output slot. When you grab that one piece of dried kelp, the game rewards you with the entire sum of experience that has been building up for hours or even days. It is not uncommon to jump from level zero to thirty in just a few seconds using this method. This trick is a great survival strategy because it gives you a reliable way to power up your gear whenever you need it.
Once you have collected your payout, you can craft the dried kelp into blocks to use as a permanent fuel source for the farm itself. This creates a perfect loop where the farm fuels its own operation while constantly banking more experience for your next enchanting session. Unlike sugarcane or iron farms which are great for trading or building, kelp provides consistent XP gains for modern versions of the game. It is a smart way to bridge the gap between basic redstone automation and high level survival gameplay. You will never have to worry about losing your hard earned levels again once you have this system running.
Redstone Mechanics For Automatic Kelp Harvesting

Building your automatic kelp farm starts with a simple row of pistons positioned one block above the sand where your kelp is planted. You place an observer directly above each piston, making sure the face of the observer is looking out toward the water. When a kelp stalk grows tall enough to reach the observer’s line of sight, it sends a redstone signal down to the piston below it. This creates a loop where the piston fires instantly, breaking the kelp and allowing it to float to the surface. You do not have to lift a finger because the redstone handles every single harvest for you.
To make this system truly efficient for gaining experience points, you should connect your harvest line to a water stream that carries the kelp into a hopper. This hopper feeds directly into a smoker, which is the fastest way to cook kelp in the game. By using a lever to lock the hopper underneath your smoker, you can stop the finished dried kelp from leaving the machine. This allows the smoker to hold onto all the experience points from every item it has cooked. When you finally pull a piece of dried kelp out by hand, you receive a massive burst of levels all at once.
This setup is effective because kelp grows incredibly fast and provides a steady stream of fuel. You can actually build an automatic armadillo farm to collect scutes, but for pure fuel efficiency, kelp blocks are the way to go to power the very smokers that give you your experience. It creates a self-sustaining cycle where you never run out of fuel or levels for your enchantments. Whether you are playing on a long-term survival world or a quick challenge map, this redstone mechanic is a great way to keep your gear at peak performance.
Locking Hoppers To Claim Your Stored XP
To get your experience out of the smoker, you need to stop the output hopper from pulling items away. By placing a lever on the block directly next to or behind the bottom hopper, you can flip it to the on position to lock the hopper in place. This simple redstone trick forces the dried kelp to stay inside the smoker’s output slot instead of disappearing into a storage chest. Once the hopper is locked, the smoker begins to act like a safe that holds all your hard-earned experience points. This is an important step because it allows the machine to stop its automated cycle so you can step in.
After you flip the lever, wait for at least one piece of raw kelp to finish smelting into a dried piece. You can then open the smoker’s interface and manually click the dried kelp to move it into your own inventory. The moment you pull that single item out, the game recognizes you as the player who finished the smelting process and releases every bit of banked XP at once. You will see those green experience orbs fly into your character, often jumping your level from zero to thirty in a matter of seconds. It is a satisfying way to repair your Mending gear or prepare for a big round of cheap enchantments at the table.
This method is especially powerful for players using high-speed kelp designs because the XP builds up faster than you can spend it. You do not need to leave the lever on all the time, so remember to flip it back off once you have collected your levels. Turning the lever off allows the hopper to start moving items again, which clears space for the smoker to keep working and storing more XP for your next visit. Keeping a small stack of fuel nearby ensures this cycle never stops, giving you a permanent station for instant leveling whenever you need it.
Converting Dried Kelp Into Infinite Smoker Fuel

The real magic of a kelp farm happens when you turn your harvest into a self-sustaining power source. Once your smoker produces enough dried kelp, you can craft nine pieces together to create dried kelp blocks. These blocks are incredibly efficient because a single one can smelt twenty additional items in your smoker. This creates a perfect loop where your farm generates the fuel it needs to keep running. You will no longer need to go on long mining trips for coal just to keep your XP bank growing.
Setting up this cycle is easy and ensures your XP farm never stops working while you are away. You simply take the dried kelp from your storage chests and quickly craft it into blocks at a nearby crafting table. Toss those blocks back into the fuel slot of your smokers to keep the smelting process alive. This method is much faster than using wooden planks or sticks, which burn out quickly and require constant restocking. By using the kelp to cook itself, you save precious time and resources for your other survival projects.
This loop is the secret to hitting high levels quickly because it allows the smoker to store XP continuously. Every time a piece of kelp finishes cooking, the experience points stay locked inside the smoker until you are ready to claim them. Since the fuel is essentially free and infinite, you can let the farm run for hours to build up a massive reward. When you finally flip the lever to lock the hopper and pull out a single item, you will see your level bar skyrocket. It is one of the most reliable ways to repair your Mending gear or get those perfect enchantments.
Unlock Infinite XP and Fuel with Kelp
Building an automated kelp farm is a smart move to simplify your Minecraft survival journey. By setting up a redstone harvester, you create a self-sustaining loop that provides endless fuel and massive amounts of experience points. You will no longer need to spend hours mining coal or hunting mobs just to fix your gear. Once your smokers are filled with kelp, they act like a battery that stores XP for you to collect whenever you need a boost. This system is perfect for players who want to focus on building and exploring rather than grinding for levels.
Setting up your smelting bank is easy and only requires a few basic materials like hoppers, chests, and levers. When you lock the hopper underneath your smoker, you can pull out a single piece of dried kelp to instantly claim all the stored experience from every item previously smelted. This trick allows you to repair your Mending tools or enchant a full set of netherite armor in just a few seconds. It helps your survival gameplay by making resources work for you. If you are worried about losing your progress during these dangerous builds, you can always use the keep inventory cheat to protect your items. Start building your automated kelp system today to ensure you never run out of fuel or experience points for your Minecraft enchantments.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I actually get the experience out of the smoker?
You need to place a lever on the block next to the hopper underneath your smoker and flip it to the on position. This locks the hopper so the dried kelp stays in the smoker, allowing you to manually pull one item out and collect all the stored XP at once.
2. Does the experience disappear if I leave my base?
No, your experience stays safely stored inside the smoker until you decide to collect it. You can go on long adventures or work on other building projects while the farm continues to process kelp and grow your XP bank.
3. Why is kelp better than using a regular furnace for XP?
Kelp grows incredibly fast and can be turned into dried kelp blocks to fuel the machine that cooks it. Using a smoker specifically makes the process twice as fast as a regular furnace, which helps you build up your experience bank much quicker.
4. Can I use this method to repair my Mending tools?
Yes, this is one of the best ways to fix your diamond or netherite gear. Just hold the damaged tool in your hand or wear the armor while you pull the dried kelp out of the locked smoker to instantly restore its durability.
5. What happens if the chest at the bottom gets full?
If your storage chests fill up, the hopper will stop pulling items and the smoker will stop running. Make sure to occasionally empty out your dried kelp or craft it into blocks so the system can keep running and collecting experience for you.
6. Do I need to stay near the farm for it to work?
You must stay within a certain distance of the farm so the chunks remain loaded and the kelp can grow. If you move too far away, the plants will stop growing and the smoker will stop processing until you return to the area.

